Villeneuve backs title outsider Verstappen for 'best championship yet'

Speaking at a 75th anniversary event for F1 held in Italy, the 1997 world champion claimed Verstappen will overcome a 63 point gap to Oscar Piastri in the remaining six race weekends.

Villeneuve spoke alongside 1998 and 1999 world champion Mika Hakkinen at the Trento Festival of Sport event. They discussed their memories of racing against Michael Schumacher, the Indy 500 and F1's title fight in 2025.

When asked who would win the 2025 Drivers Championship Villeneuve was quick to shout ‘Verstappen!’.

He said: “And so it will be his best World Championship yet. Because the two McLarens are suffering too much under the pressure. They need to wake up.”

With back-to-back wins in Italy and Azerbaijan, four-time world champion Verstappen has cut the gap to championship leader Oscar Piastri down from 97 points to 63 in the space of just four rounds.

Though there are only six events left in the 2025 season, the Dutchman has been steadily encouraging about a three-way fight for the title between himself, Piastri and Lando Norris.

The McLaren drivers have dominated F1 for most of the 2025 season, earning the team a 10th Constructors Championship last time out in Singapore.

But the Woking-based team are winless in the last three race weekends, a period in which tensions have risen between Norris and Piastri after a contentious team orders call at the Italian GP and first-lap contact in Singapore.

Team Principal Andrea Stella has an increasingly challenging task maintaining harmony between his drivers, and will now be paying close attention to Verstappen's surge in form also.

Subscribe to GPblog's YouTube channel and turn on notifications to never miss the latest episodes. GPblog's F1 Paddock Update is the place where you find out about the top stories in the F1 paddock.