That was an honor once seemingly guaranteed to Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, but the four-time Dutch champion is being realistic when he admits that the papaya team is “quite far ahead.”
The pecking order at the start of the F1 2025 season looks quite a bit different than it has these past few years.
In Australia, McLaren were far and away the team of the field, replacing Red Bull Racing at the top of the timing sheets.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified 1-2 on the grid, then went on to dominate the race until a trip into the gravel knocked the latter out of contention for a win.
Verstappen brought his Red Bull home in second, albeit with the knowledge that he didn’t have the equipment to compete.
Naturally, the biggest talking point among media in the build-up to the Chinese Grand Prix had to do with Red Bull Racing’s performance respective to that of McLaren.
In fact, Mercedes’ George Russell even went so far as to say that McLaren’s current advantage is bigger than Red Bull’s ever was in recent memory — though, when asked to comment, Verstappen wouldn’t go so far as to agree.
“I always struggle to really answer that correctly because it’s impossible to say, right? Unless you have driven that car,” he said.
McLaren, Verstappen added are “super strong. I have a lot of respect for what they’ve done, already last year, and now they’re very fast. All-around good everywhere.
“I think that is just a fact. Now, how big the gap is or whatever — it’s difficult to say.”
When it comes to evaluating his closest competition, Verstappen pointed out that Red Bull looks most able to fight the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari, though the advantage among those three will “differ a bit track to track.”
“I think the clear picture that you was was that McLaren was quite far ahead,” the reigning champion said, “because I don’t think I’m an idiot in the wet, but in the first stint, I didn’t really have a lot of chance.”
Verstappen acknowledged that both he and his Red Bull team were as near to perfect as possible in Australia, unable to do more to improve their position, but that “We, again, I think finished one place ahead of where we should have finished” because of Oscar Piastri’s lengthy trip into the grass.
“I guess from that side, it was very positive,” Verstappen continued. “There were no regrets, or something that was badly judged, y’know. We did a good race, but we were not quick enough to win.”
Will Red Bull be able to find that pace later in the season? It’s still too early to make any strong conclusions, particularly when taking into account the fact that mid-season updates could help transform the direction of the team.
But for the time being, it’s safe to say Red Bull aren’t expecting any performance miracles.
