McLaren disclose surprising stance on Max Verstappen F1 title threat

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes it will be "very difficult" for Max Verstappen to keep up his current level of performance across the rest of the F1 season, unless Red Bull can turn the RB21 around.

The Italian feels that unless the Dutchman has the best car, it will be challenging for him to stay within touching distance of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri across the full 24-round slate.

In Stella's view, it is imperative that when McLaren cannot win, it races in a "robust" way to maximise the points on offer, something he feels the Woking team achieved at the Japanese Grand Prix.

Verstappen put together a superb weekend at Suzuka to take his four-consecutive victory there, and Stella believes the Dutchman is currently "making the difference" between the MCL39 and the RB21 with his form.

"Definitely the most important condition to pursue both championships is having the best car," he told media including RacingNews365. "It's important that when we are not in condition to win, we keep racing in a robust way.

"Like, if you can't win, finish on the podium. And in the long term, if you keep performing like this, I think this will be rewarding.

"I think Max, at the moment, is somehow making the difference himself, but it's very difficult to keep up for 24 events in a season if you don't have the best car."

Stella not ruling out other championship rivals

However, Stella does not want to count out other teams and drivers from the championship conversations, given how early in the campaign it is.

The 54-year-old wants to see how things shake out before making more concrete claims over who his team and drivers will likely be fighting with towards the end of the year.

"We treat Max and Red Bull like wires," he said. "[George] Russell, how can you discount [Charles] Leclerc [and Lewis] Hamilton?

"Like obviously, Ferrari is struggling a little bit now, but we treat all these [drivers]... certainly within the spectrum of the full season, at least until we have stabilised a little bit.

"Because I think at the moment, we are still falling within the variability of the circuits. And obviously we have Hamilton winning the sprint in China, Russell being competitive in the race in China.

"[At Suzuka], we have Red Bull and Max. I think we're still in a transient phase. We'll have to see how things settle down."