McLaren boss: Verstappen leaves Piastri and Norris no room for error

Following Verstappen's win in Azerbaijan, Stella stated that Red Bull has remained a threat to McLaren throughout the 2025 campaign.

"We don't have to forget that Red Bull won two races at the start of the season," the Italian Team Principal said.

"But they were in contention for victories already at the start of the season," Stella argued.

Throughout the 2025 season, both Lando Norris as well as Oscar Piastri have made errors that have prevented them from cementing a big enough gap to Verstappen in the Drivers' Standings, which has led the McLaren Team Principal to claim that the Dutchman is back in the title race.

It is this aspect, racing error-free, that Stella believes his drivers need to improve on, since a 69 points lead may be cut substantially should a mistake be made.

"For us considering especially the drivers championship certainly the margins to error reduce furthermore," the McLaren boss added before clarifying that: "This is always the ethos when you race in Formula 1.

"Hopefully some of the inaccuracies and issues have accumulated in this weekend," Stella said expecting that McLaren and its drivers can enjoy a cleaner run in the final seven races left in the calendar.

"Therefore, quite a lot to take away for the drivers, but also for the team," the Italian concluded holding McLaren accountable as well.

Columnist and Editoral Advisor to GPblog, Ben Hunt, believes Piastri's lead in the Drivers' Standings is sufficient to claim the title, warning instead that the Aussie's teammate, Lando Norrris is the one under real threat by Verstappen.

Stella, after Red Bull's triumph on the streets of Baku, believed the Austrian racing stable was truly back due to the benefits that their Monza floor upgraded yielded.

Nevertheless, Laurent Mekies, Team Principal and CEO of Red Bull Racing, denied any sort of championship talks were being held within the team, claiming achieving maximum lap time gains were the team's only concern.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko chose to wait until after Singapore to issue any kind of judgement on Verstappen being a realistic contender for the championship. Verstappen himself didn't support or deny his reportedly revived chances at the title.

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