Max from Las Vegas: 'We can be proud of that'

Published on 20 November 2025 by Misha van der Kroon

The Las Vegas Grand Prix means late nights for European fans. Free Practice 1 and 3 start at 01:30 in the morning, Dutch time, while FP2, qualifying and the race all begin at 05:00 Dutch time.

Max Verstappen was called up by the FIA to appear at the press conference in Las Vegas, where he reflected on the previous race in Brazil, in which he raced from the pit lane to the podium: “Our race pace was pretty good. Of course, I would have liked to start more up front, but at the same time it was fun. I had a good time out there, racing through the pack and fighting basically until the final lap. I hope we can be competitive this weekend.”

You are 49 points behind Lando Norris in the championship. You’re the outsider, but you’re never going to give up. How are you approaching these last three races and the title fight?
Max replies: “The same as always. It doesn’t really change. I mean, it’s a lot of points, so I’m not really thinking about it too much, because there’s also not that much I can do. We need a lot of luck from now until the end to even have an opportunity. So I, personally, don’t think about that.”

You’ve had some fantastic races this year in a car that hasn’t always been easy. In terms of what you’ve done behind the wheel, is this your best Formula 1 season?
Max says: “It’s been good for sure. I think every season you want to try and be better, which is not always easy, but you try to be more consistent and try to really optimise everything that you can with the car. And I think that most of the time, we really did that. So, I’m pleased with that. But yeah, I mean, it’s not where I wanted it to be for most of the season, right? Otherwise, you’re fighting for the title, and we haven’t really.”  

Max continues: “So yes, I’ve definitely enjoyed the highs and the wins that we did score, but at the same time, the lows were also not fantastic. But at one point, after the summer break, we were looking at a points gap of more than a hundred points, and it really looked like it was only going to get bigger. And at one point, we were really overturning that by quite a bit. Sure, there a bit of luck in some places, but yeah, I think that's something we can be proud of, to still score some good results at the end of the season.”

Have the difficult situations you faced this year changed you?
Max: “No, not at all. You just have to deal with it. You try to be better as a team next time, and that’s what we did. I think we really stuck together, tried to make the car faster and learned from the mistakes we made on some weekends. And we’re trying to be more competitive.”

How disappointed would you be if you’re no longer world champion at the end of the season?
Max: “I’m not too disappointed about it. I know my team always gave it 100% from the start of the season until now. What else can you do? I mean, we’ve really tried everything. We’ve had some really great years, and this one is just not as good as the years before. But that happens. Formula 1 is a very competitive world. And in particular, one team this year has done a better job than us.”

Contest Las Vegas GP: win a by Max Verstappen signed Red Bull Racing cap!