Verstappen must once again fight tooth and nail to keep title hopes alive

During the early moments of FP1 Verstappen looked competitive from the start. On the hard tyre the Dutchman appeared to be in the mix as one of the fastest drivers of the field - if not the best. The outlook, though, changed drastically aa the session progressed picture changed completely when they switched to the soft tire at the end of the session.

On Pirelli’s red rubber, nothing went right for Verstappen. In FP he consequently gave up more than half a second to both McLarens. Slotting between the two McLarens and Verstappen were Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, and Isack Hadjar.

Between practice and the sprint qualifying, Red Bull Racing had to go back to the drawing board. Verstappen wanted more front-end grip, Yuki Tsunoda more rear-end grip. The result became apparent in sprint qualifying.

Even on the medium tire, Verstappen was immediately competitive. On the yellow rubber, Verstappen could measure up to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and even topped SQ1. Only on the red tire did it go wrong again, resulting in a loudly cursing Verstappen over the team radio.

“It wasn’t good from the first lap. The car was just bouncing a lot and had very aggressive understeer that suddenly turned into oversteer at high speed,” Verstappen said immediately after sprint qualifying in Qatar.

GPblog spoke to Helmut Marko immediately after sprint qualifying, who labeled the red tire as the cause of the problem. “We were competitive on the medium, just like in FP1 on the hard tire. The changes we made clearly didn’t solve the problem on the soft tire.”

While Verstappen wanted more front-end grip, Tsunoda’s choice to ask for more rear-end grip worked out better. For the first time in 2025, Tsunoda beat his teammate in a qualifying session. Something that has been rare in recent seasons: Verstappen being beaten in qualifying.

Although it’s a good performance by Tsunoda, it also immediately shows what should still be possible for Verstappen. The Dutchman is generally at least two to three tenths faster than Tsunoda. If Verstappen finds the right setup and reduces the bouncing, there may be more to gain in qualifying and the Grand Prix. He may need to look at his teammate’s setup for that, although that turned out disastrously in Brazil for qualifying.

Still, it will demand a lot from Verstappen and Red Bull Racing to execute everything perfectly this weekend. The weekend in Brazil showed how difficult it is to get the RB21 into the perfect window. If they manage it, the RB21 can be the fastest car in the field. If they don’t, the Red Bull car can be almost undriveable even in Verstappen’s hands.

And so Red Bull needs a typically Red Bull weekend again to keep Verstappen’s title fight alive. Verstappen needs to claw back points on Norris to have any chance at the world title in Abu Dhabi. That will be tough in the sprint race, so everything must be done to have the fastest car for qualifying and the Grand Prix. If there’s one team that can develop a car over the course of a weekend, it’s Red Bull, but now the pressure is truly on. It’s all or nothing.