McLaren find Red Bull 'evidence' that underlines Max Verstappen is in F1 title 'game'

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella believes Max Verstappen's performance in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix is the final piece of "evidence" that proves he is a genuine contender for this season's F1 title.

Following two wins from pole position in Italy and Azerbaijan, from seemingly nowhere, Verstappen was again being talked about as a championship hopeful after going into those races 104 points adrift of Oscar Piastri.

The major question mark hanging over the RB21, however, was after proving prolific around a very low downforce circuit in Monza, and a predominantly low downforce circuit in Baku, could it replicate its performance around the high-downforce Marina Bay Street Circuit where Verstappen has never won in eight attempts.

As Stella and McLaren discovered, the answer to that question was a resounding 'yes', although Verstappen had to defer to George Russell for pole position after the Mercedes driver pulled a performance out of the hat.

Verstappen starts from second on the grid ahead of Piastri in third, with Lando Norris fifth behind the second Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli.

After Verstappen's display in qualifying in Baku, Stella categorically said "yes", that the four-time F1 champion was in contention for a fifth, underlining his point by stating to the assembled media, including RacingNews365, that they could write that "in capital letters".

On this occasion, after witnessing Verstappen overcome Red Bull's aversion to Singapore, Stella was asked whether "yes" should now be underlined or written in bold.

"I'll stay with the capital [letters]. I'll let you add the bold," joked Stella.

Addressing Verstappen's display, he added: "It's interesting for everyone to see what Red Bull has been able to do at a circuit like this for a couple of reasons.

"One, is that they were very competitive in Monza, and then they were competitive in Baku. And we thought, 'Let's see whether this depends on them using a low level of drag, small rear wings, and it can be repeated at a high level of drag [circuit] and [with] big rear wings'.

"The second reason is that here in Singapore, they might have struggled a bit in the past.

"Well, the evidence is that they might have resolved both of these high-drag and Singapore factors, but this is not a surprise.

"It's Red Bull. They are extremely capable, and Max is just Max Verstappen. I don't think we need to make any further comments.

"So it's no surprise that they are in the game. It's tight and it's interesting.

"Obviously, we [McLaren] would like to make Formula 1 boring, and we have done it sometimes at some of the events [this season], but normally, Formula 1 is competitive, it's tight.

"You have to accept the fight, and that's what we are doing."