F1
On the Comeback Trail - Our Best Moments of 2025
A season rebuilt, race by race. From Suzuka brilliance to Abu Dhabi drama, these are the moments that defined an unforgettable comeback.
Max might have just missed out on matching Michael Schumacher’s record of five titles in a row, but it does nothing to diminish his and the Team’s achievement in turning a season of frustrating toil into one of F1’s all-time great comebacks. From a scintillating Pole lap at Suzuka to new leaders and summer resets, and from record-breaking pace at Monza to a strategic masterclass in Qatar, here are our favourite Oracle Red Bull Racing moments of 2025.
01
Watch our 2025 Season Review episode of Talking Bull!
27 min
2025 Season Review | Talking Bull
Sit down with Nicola and Tommo to debrief after the epic title-deciding race in Abu Dhabi and celebrate the incredible season!
02
Japanese Grand Prix 2025
That was insane...
After a tricky end to 2024, the early part of the season was always going to be about seeing where our new car stood after the winter compared to our rivals. And initially the signs were good. P2 for Max in Australia gave way to fourth in China. And then came the Japanese Grand Prix. The list of Max’s great Suzuka performances is long – his 2022 title win in the rain 30 seconds ahead of the field springs to mind – but his 2025 victory in Japan ranks right up there with the best. And it was a typically mighty Pole lap that set up the win. “That was insane,” he said over the radio after he recovered from a difficult Friday to beat the dominant McLarens to top spot by just over a hundredth of a second. And on Sunday he delivered a flawless, controlled drive to victory to properly kickstart his Championship charge “That’s just perfection,” GP told his driver after the finish. He wasn’t wrong.
SUZUKA, JAPAN
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SUZUKA, JAPAN
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SUZUKA, JAPAN
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03
Dutch Grand Prix 2025
Japan should have been the springboard for Max and new recruit Yuki Tsunoda to launch a Championship challenge but pretty soon it became clear that all was not all rosy with the RB21. Over the following dozen races the Team took just one win, in Imola. But then came the summer break, and a reset.
I gave it everything at the start to move forward.
There wasn’t a victory to celebrate but the race at Zandvoort was moment things started to turn around for the Team. 104 points behind the Championship leader Oscar Piastri, but Max and the RB21 were on form, and so began the Championship charge. In Hungary, Max had Qualified and finished ninth, over a minute behind race winner Lando Norris. Four weeks later he was on the podium, in second place, just 1.2 seconds behind Oscar. Pace was unlocked and the RB21 went from problem child to stellar achiever.
Max demonstrated just how much better the car was, with a strong home race that featured one the season’s great overtakes. Starting from third on the grid, Max reacted quickest to the lights and went to pass Polesitter Oscar. The Australian slammed the door shut in Turn 1 and that left Max alongside Lando Norris, and he wasn’t going to give this one up. Despite a massive snap in Turn 2 Max saved the slide, hung it out around the outside and took P2. Bravery and control at the very highest level. A power unit failure for Lando meant he was out of the race before the finish, and Max took second at the flag. “I gave it everything at the start to move forward. I had a little moment in Turn 2, but after that, we just had to do our own race,” Max said afterwards. “We got a bit lucky with one [McLaren] retiring, so to be in second, I think is a really good achievement for us.”
ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS
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ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS
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ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS
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04
Italian Grand Prix 2025
Just a week later the Team took its first win since Imola, earning Laurent Mekies his first win since taking over as CEO and Team Principal at the beginning of July. And the scale of the improvement was driven home by a pair of spectacular speed records for Max. On Saturday he took his fifth Pole of the season with a lap of 1m18.792s, a new record for Monza, averaging 164.46mph – the fastest average speed lap in F1 history. And on Sunday he raced to an imperious victory in the fastest ever Grand Prix. Max completed the 53 laps in 1hr 13m 24.325s and at an average speed of 250.706 km/h (155.791 mph) to beat the previous record, set at Monza by Michael Schumacher in 2003 (1hr 14m 19.838s, 247.585 km/h, 153.842 mph).
We were flying. The car was really enjoyable...
Afterwards, the Dutchman paid tribute to the impact his new boss was having.
“Up until now we’ve had a lot of races where we were just shooting left and right a little bit with the set-up of the car,” he said. “Quite extreme changes, which shows that we were not in control. We were not fully understanding what to do. With Laurent having an engineering background, he’s asking the right questions to the engineers – so I think that works really well.”
MONZA, ITALY
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MONZA, ITALY
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MONZA, ITALY
© Getty Images
05
United States Grand Prix 2025
An unbelievable weekend for us...
Another victorious weekend followed in Azerbaijan, but while Baku was brilliant, the US GP weekend in Austin was vintage Verstappen from start to finish, with Sprint Pole, Sprint victory, Pole for the race and on Sunday a dominant fifth win of the season. “An unbelievable weekend for us,” he said. “The pace between myself and Lando was really close. I think just in that first stint, that’s where we made the difference. I could eke out a little bit of a gap, and that’s basically what we kept until the end.” The Dutchman’s 33-point haul took him close enough to top spot to finally make him admit that a title tilt was possible. “For sure, the chance is there,” he said. “We just need to try and deliver this kind of weekend now until the end, so just try whatever we can.”
AUSTIN, TEXAS
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AUSTIN, TEXAS
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AUSTIN, TEXAS
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AUSTIN, TEXAS
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06
Brazilian Grand Prix 2025
Another sublime demonstration of Max’s generational talent. A dismal Qualifying session left him 16th, he and the Team elected to make changes and start from the pit lane. Incidents at the start saw him climb to 13th but on lap six there were more crashes. Max picked up a puncture and dropped to the back of the field again. No problem. He bolted on a set of Mediums, dropped the throttle and scythed through the pack, and by lap 21 he was up to a remarkable P5. He took another set of fresh tyres, briefly took the lead and then went for a lightning-quick final stint on Softs that saw him power past Mercedes’ George Russell in the closing stages to take his 124th career podium. He was now just 49 points off Championship leader Lando Norris.
SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
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SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
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SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
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SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
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07
Qatar Grand Prix
Qatar was a standout weekend on both sides of the garage. In Austin Yuki seized on Turn 1 chaos in the Sprint to climb from P18 to P7 and then also claimed P7 in the race. But even better was to come a few weeks later in Qatar. In Sprint Qualifying, on pace alone, Yuki put his RB21 into fifth on the grid, ahead of Max who would start in P6. And in the Sprint, Yuki was able to hold position and cross the line in P5, his best result in Oracle Red Bull Racing colours. Add that to P10 on Sunday and all in all it was a great weekend for the Japanese racer.
First Turn Thrills At Qatar
© 2025 Getty Images
It was also a great weekend on the pit wall. With drivers restricted to 25 laps on each set of tyres over safety concerns due to the heavy loads at Losail, there would be at least two stops. And when the Safety Car appeared on lap 7 and offered the chance of a time saving first stop, we pounced, pitting both Max and Yuki. McLaren, however, left its drivers on track, trusting to pace and potential flexibility later in the race to get them back to the front. In the end, it didn’t work for them. Max was flawless, his pace was strong, the Team delivered when it needed to, and he won from P3.
08
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2025
In the closing stages of the season Max did everything right. Wins in Las Vegas and in Qatar, put him in P2 in the Championship, 12 points behind Norris and four ahead of Piastri going into the title-deciding final round in Abu Dhabi.
To take a fifth consecutive title, Max would again have to achieve perfection – and he did all that was asked. On Saturday he bagged a stunning Pole position, shrugging off the aid of a well-orchestrated tow from Yuki on his provisional Pole lap to go even faster on his own. His eighth Pole of the season, the most of any driver, put him in the perfect position to fight for the title on Sunday, and once again he did all that was asked.
At lights out he slammed the door shut on any challenge, sailed off into the lead and demolished the opposition to finish 12 seconds clear of Oscar. Lando, though, did what was required of him. With the odds in his favour, the Briton lost P2 on the first lap but then held his nerve to finish P3 on the podium. Max, 104 points down after Round 15 had got to within just two points of an incredible feat. He might have missed out, but the message was clear.
Holding onto the lead through Turn 1
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Rapid stop from the Team
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Congratulations to the new Champion
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One more trophy for the season
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With more wins than any driver in 2025, and three on the bounce to end a season that had started so shakily, he once again proved that he is simply the best.