Verstappen Hunts McLarens With 'Nothing To Lose' As Piastri Seeks Redemption

Formula One defending champion Max Verstappen on Thursday said he has ‘nothing to lose’ as he aims to continue his late-season comeback at the Singapore Grand Prix to hunt down McLaren drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

The Red Bull four-time world champion was nearly out of the title race two months ago due to the dominance of the McLarens. However, consecutive wins in Monza and Baku have pushed the Dutchman to third place, trailing Piastri by 69 points and Norris by 44 points. Seven grands prix (and three sprints) remain, starting with the challenging Marina Bay Circuit this weekend, but Verstappen is trying not to get ahead of himself.

“I just see it as a race-by-race thing, 69 points is still a lot, especially if you look at how the season

has gone so far,” he said. “McLaren has been incredibly dominant. That doesn’t suddenly change.”

Red Bull has a poor recent record in tropical Singapore, which demands a high downforce set-up (more corners than usual, fewer straights) and guarantees extreme weather conditions, heat, and humidity. Baku and Monza were in contrast to it and suited the Red Bull well.

“Some tracks naturally will be a bit better for us. Some are probably a bit worse. Maybe this one is a bit worse,” Verstappen admitted, before adding, “If we win, it’s great. If we don’t, we don’t. I’m just not too stressed about anything. There’s nothing to lose. As a team, we just approach it like that.”

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Championship leader Piastri, meanwhile, is aiming for redemption via ‘tough lessons’ following a weekend filled with errors in Azerbaijan. The Australian crashed into the barriers twice at the Baku circuit, first during practice and again on the first lap of the race after a jump start pushed him to the back of the field.

This snapped a streak of 34 consecutive points-scoring finishes for the 24-year-old and could have been more disastrous, but Norris only managed to finish seventh.

“We don’t want to have weekends like Baku and we know we can’t afford to have weekends like Baku,” Piastri said. “Certainly from my perspective, there were some tough lessons to take. But I think as a team we recognised some opportunities from the weekend to try and improve. So that’s always an important thing.”

Piastri, like Norris, is wary of Verstappen.

“Based on the last couple of races, I think Red Bull and Max will be strong again,” said Piastri. “There’s nothing revolutionary that needs to change or that I am going to change. For 16 of the 17 weekends, what I’ve been doing has worked very well. If I make sure I stay focused on the things that have gone well, then it will continue to go that way.”