Max Verstappen has warned his F1 title rivals Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris they must be mentally "iron-strong" if they are to defeat him for the 2025 title.
With five rounds remaining, Verstappen is just 40 points behind Piastri and 26 behind Lando Norris, having taken 64 points of the Australian in the last four races.
There are 141 points left up for grabs in the season, with Verstappen having won multiple times on every track remaining, as the pressure is set to increase on the McLaren duo.
Neither have challenged for a world title before, whilst Verstappen has experience of the greatest title fight of all-time, when he pipped Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
It is that experience Verstappen believes could be his killer-edge.
"I find that hard to say, back (in 2021), it was a bit of a game I was playing. Now I don't need that," Verstappen told de Telegraaf.
"Back then, I had never won a title, and now I have a few behind my name, and they don't. You get more nervous at this stage of the season by default if you haven't won titles yet.
"You're always trying to maximise, don't make big mistakes and always look at what can be done better, and you have to be mentally iron strong.
"It's too easy to say 'he's an aggressive driver'. Because I think a lot of drivers can be aggressive. But you also have to have certain cleverness and be able to read races and moments."
One of the standout moments of Verstappen's season, which moved him to within one point of a race ban, was the collision with George Russell in Spain.
Verstappen was aggravated after he felt Russell had force him off the track at Turn 1 after a safety car restart, and was told to give the place up into Turn 5.
He barged into Russell, and earned himself three penalty points for a total of 11 and a 10-second time penalty, dropping him from fifth on the road to 10th in the results, losing nine points.
With those nine points added back, Verstappen would be just 31 behind Piastri instead of the 40.
However, the champion has not changed his view of the incident.
"That's life. You learn from everything, whether it's good or bad. If you ask me now if I would have done anything differently throughout my career, the answer is 'no'," he said.
"That moment in Barcelona was definitely not good, but there's nothing I can do about that now."
"Maybe it's good that it happened. You shouldn't forget why it happened."
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