Max Verstappen insists he will not "cry about" losing the F1 drivers' championship if he fails in his quest to clinch the crown for the five consecutive season.
The Dutchman faces an uphill battle to retain his title, despite winning the Las Vegas Grand Prix to close his deficit to Lando Norris to 24 points after the McLaren driver was disqualified along with team-mate Oscar Piastri.
With just two rounds — including a sprint weekend in Qatar — to go, the Red Bull driver would still need a multitude of factors to fall in his favour, such as the Briton being struck down by misfortune whilst simultaneously outscoring Piastri, who is level on points with him but ahead on grand prix-victory countback, seven to six.
The four-time F1 drivers' champion has long been the dark horse in the title fight, but a confluence of events has already transpired to his advantage this campaign, like the Australian driver's loss of form over the past seven rounds, which has seen Verstappen outperform him to the tune of 104 points over that span.
It is something that has also precipitated a 58-point swing between the papaya pair, and has allowed Verstappen to reduce his deficit to the championship leader by 80 points since Piastri triumphed at Zandvoort.
"I think closing the gap that quickly has happened partly because all circumstances came together,” Verstappen told Dutch media, including RacingNews365, before the Las Vegas Grand Prix — and the two McLarens were excluded from the subsequent result.
"They [Norris and Piastri] made a few mistakes after the summer break or had a crash, while we had some good races in which everything came together. And yeah, then you can gain very quickly."
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'I'm not going to cry about it'
Now is the low-water mark during the run-in, following the drama on Saturday night in Sin City.
Previously, it had been after the Mexico City Grand Prix, when Verstappen trailed Norris by 36 points.
The McLaren driver dominated the weekend at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, growing his own advantage over the now-69-time grand prix winner by 10 points as he moved to the top of the standings.
That was before another victory in Brazil pushed the gap to 49 points.
Verstappen has reached the podium in each of the past eight rounds, with four wins during that spell, but knew he could not continue eroding the deficit indefinitely across that period.
"At some point, you come back to reality and know that it won’t go like that everywhere," he explained, before underlining the progress made at Red Bull following a floor upgrade at Monza and new ways of working under Laurent Mekies.
"But at least we’ve been on the podium... and that’s already a lot more consistent than what it was from mid-2024 to mid-2025," he said. "So, in the end, it's still positive."
Nonetheless, the 28-year-old will not mourn an agonising defeat in the championship battle, claiming he will move on from any such heartbreak swiftly.
"No, I’ll still go on holiday," Verstappen stated. "I’m pretty good at putting things into perspective and letting things go. I’m not going to cry about it."
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