Max Verstappen faces an uphill battle in 2025 (Image: Getty)
technical director Pierre Wache has provided a worrying update, warning that ’s Drivers’ Championship title defence will be anything but straightforward with the team ‘not confident’ about the 2025 season.
The Dutchman won his fourth successive crown in spite of the RB20, not thanks to it – his fifth-place finish in Las Vegas on Sunday means that he travels to Qatar with just one victory in the last 12 Grands Prix.
However – as title rival has pointed out – without a stellar five-race stretch from the season opener in Bahrain to the Chinese Grand Prix, the Drivers’ Championship battle would have been wide open with the Brit, Charles Leclerc and team-mate Oscar Piastri in the mix.
Norris and Leclerc both have serious title aspirations in 2025, as do incumbent duo and . were either the third or fourth fastest team in Las Vegas, depending on who you believe, and they haven’t been outright fastest since round five back in April. Things are trending in the wrong direction in Milton Keynes.
Speaking to about ’s chances, Wache said: “I think we are happy with what we have done quickly. I’m not confident for ’25. I’m not confident because I think the others are very quick or are there. It will be a fight for the full year.”
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Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris will be chasing the title in 2025 (Image: Getty)
He then continued: “If you have confidence in this business, you are dead. You have to work hard, and everybody has to, in the team, work hard. Everybody’s working hard.
“When you see the number of people we have trying to find a very small amount of performance and add and add and add everywhere, it is a very difficult task. I have a lack of confidence, because if I have confidence, you go to sleep, you don’t go to work, and then you don’t find performance.”
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After Hamilton’s storming drive from tenth to second in Las Vegas, the seven-time world champion will be considered a significant threat for an eighth F1 title when he partners up with ’s Charles Leclerc in 2025.
Meanwhile, Norris believes that he has all the tools he needs to fight from round one, should give him the necessary machinery. A worrying lack of pace in Brazil and Las Vegas has sparked some concern about Andrea Stella’s outfit, but their five-win tally in 2024 should give the Woking-based team the confidence they need.