Not long ago, Max Verstappen admitted that it was unlikely he would win another race this season, given McLaren’s competitiveness and the dominance of its driver pairing, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Fast forward to today, and the landscape looks very different. The reigning champion heads to Singapore in a week, having secured back-to-back victories, reigniting the title fight and shifting the momentum.

McLaren, meanwhile, left Azerbaijan counting the cost of missed opportunities and costly setbacks. Entering the weekend, the team was widely expected to take a decisive step toward securing the Constructors’ Championship. Instead, the round in Baku exposed vulnerabilities.

Oscar Piastri’s campaign unravelled early, beginning with a crash in qualifying that compromised his grid position. A stall at the start of the race relegated him to the back of the field, and his afternoon ended after just a few corners following another incident. Norris, presented with a prime opportunity to reduce Piastri’s advantage in the Drivers’ standings, could manage no better than eighth after a subdued performance.

Verstappen duly capitalised. The Red Bull driver delivered a faultless performance to claim victory, reducing his deficit to Piastri in the standings to 69 points and narrowing the gap to Norris to just 44. The result has dramatically altered the complexion of the championship battle, with a fifth consecutive title for Verstappen now a realistic prospect.

The question remains, however: how much progress has Red Bull truly made? Has the team managed to close the performance gap to McLaren, or are Piastri and Norris enduring a mid-season slump? The answers may only become clear in the races ahead, but one thing is certain—Verstappen is firmly back in the fight.

Yet Verstappen remains measured in his outlook, acknowledging that the road ahead is far from straightforward. He recognises that McLaren may well rediscover its dominant form on circuits more closely aligned with the strengths of its underlying package. Speaking to the media, Verstappen conceded that “everything needs to be perfect” if he is to mount a genuine challenge for the Drivers’ Championship, with just seven races remaining on the calendar.

“I personally don’t think about it. I just go race by race, what I have been doing basically the whole season – just trying to do the best we can, try to score the most points that we can. And then after Abu Dhabi, we’ll know.”

“Basically everything needs to go perfectly from my side, and then a bit of luck from their side I need as well, so it’s still very tough. But for now we’re just very happy with what we’re doing, and then we’ll just find out [at] the upcoming races how that will go on other kinds of layouts.”