The McLaren team has left everyone in awe with their strength and speed in the first half of the F1 2025 season, and Max Verstappen is no different.
In a message to Red Bull, the Dutch driver has declared that he must aim to imitate McLaren's "incredible" performance.
The four-time world champion is currently 97 points behind leading racer Oscar Piastri, and with 10 rounds of the season remaining, Max would have a hard time securing his fifth consecutive F1 Driver's Championship.
Max's falling behind has been reportedly due to the struggles of Red Bull's RB21, while the MCL39 by McLaren has proven to be one of the most dominant cars in the sport's history.
The British motor racing team have won 11 out of 14 Grands Prix and have shown potential to cross 1,000 points this season, with current points being 559, almost double of the second-standing team, Ferrari, which has acquired 260 points.
A key strength of McLaren has been its medium-speed cornering performance, along with remarkable tyre management in both dry and wet conditions.
Talking to RacingNews365 in Hungary, Max shared, "[The McLaren] is definitely better on its tyres, to keep the tyres alive a lot nicer."
The 27-year-old added, "You can clearly see that in the wet on the intermediates, where if you have good tyre management, [tyre preservation] even comes out more on that tyre, because the tyre is more fragile."
"It overheats even faster, and they definitely have that very well under control. At the same time, I think their medium speed performance is incredible compared to, I would say, everyone else on the grid," he noted.
With the F1 currently on summer break, the teams and drivers are set to return to the grid for the Dutch Grand Prix weekend on August 29.
