Long championships like those we experienced in 2024 and 2025 teach us that performance levels can shift dramatically over the course of a season. In 2024, Red Bull started the year as the clear favorite, dominating expectations. However, we then witnessed the resurgence of McLaren, which went on to win the Constructors’ Championship, while Max Verstappen fought defensively to claim his fourth World Championship title.
This year, the scenario almost seemed reversed. The 2025 season began with a very strong McLaren and a slower Red Bull, though it still appeared capable of keeping pace. After the first three to four races, the McLaren team surged ahead, while the Austrian team suffered another mid-season slump reminiscent of 2024. Max Verstappen struggled for much of the European season: aside from the eight points earned in Bahrain—which, of course, is not Europe—he scored only one point in Spain, zero in Austria due to a collision with Kimi Antonelli, and just two points in Hungary.
Arriving in the Netherlands, the first signs of recovery appeared with a second-place finish, marking a return to the podium after four races without one. Verstappen reached the maximum championship deficit during that phase, trailing the leader, Oscar Piastri, by 104 points—a gap greater than four races with full points.
The Red Bull showed character, a quality lost in this Ferrari
If Max Verstappen had been driving for the Ferrari team we saw this year, the gap likely would have only widened further. Red Bull did not give up in the face of a championship that, at Zandvoort, seemed already lost. They rolled up their sleeves, and the arrival of the new team principal, Laurent Mekies, gave the squad a much-needed jolt. The team continued bringing targeted updates for each event, even taking risks by fitting a new power unit in Brazil. All this allowed Max Verstappen not only to reduce that 104-point deficit in the Netherlands but also to come incredibly close to winning the championship, finishing just two points short of what would have been his fifth World Championship title.
If there is one characteristic of Red Bull that Ferrari should aim to emulate, it is this: determination, the will to fight back, the courage to take risks, and that never-give-up spirit. The Prancing Horse, by contrast, seemed lost in 2025. Maranello has always demonstrated great strength in the past. Ferrari had all these qualities, and even when the season was not going well, the team was known for fighting alongside its drivers, engineers, and mechanics.
This year, however, the Italian team seemed to lose its way on several occasions, particularly in the final Grand Prix rounds of the season, often appearing to give up and drift aimlessly. We, of course, hope Ferrari regains this fighting spirit soon, and most importantly, in time for the 2026 season.
Red Bull showed what happens when a top team marries talent with unbreakable spirit. Ferrari forgot the second part of the equation. The Tifosi – and everyone who loves this sport – desperately hope Maranello rediscovers that fire before the 2026 regulation reset. Because if the Scuderia can marry Charles Leclerc’s speed and the Lewis Hamilton era with the same relentless hunger Max Verstappen and Red Bull displayed this year, the Prancing Horse could become unstoppable again.
Until then, 2025 will stand as a painful reminder: talent alone is never enough. You also need that cursed, beautiful, infuriating refusal to ever give up.
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