Verstappen admits he wasn't predicting title challenge turnaround

Max Verstappen says he'd have called anyone predicting he'd still be in the title fight at this stage of the season “an idiot” just four races ago, after winning the United States Grand Prix.

Leaving the first race after the summer break at Zandvoort, Verstappen was 104 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri, with just two podiums in his previous eight races. The last four rounds have seen Verstappen win three times and finish second to George Russell in Singapore, closing the gap to 40 points and putting him firmly back in the fight.

“No, I would have told him he was an idiot,” Verstappen said of whether he’d have believed anyone predicting such a quick turnaround. “We found a good way with the car. It's as simple as that. Of course, we put some upgrades on the car, but we understood our car a bit better where we wanted to perform better.

“Every weekend, we try to achieve it. Some weekends it's better than others, but in general it's been way more straightforward the last few weekends compared to before those races. That's what we need to try and extract out of it now every single weekend.”

Austin saw Verstappen take 23 points out of Piastri’s lead by winning both the Sprint and grand prix from pole position, but the Dutchman says he will need to be faultless for the remaining five rounds to win the title.

“It was an unbelievable weekend for us," he said. "I knew that the race was, of course, not going to be super straightforward. I think if you look at the whole race, the pace between myself and Lando [Norris] was really close.

“Just in that first stint, that's where we made the difference. I could eke out a little bit of a gap, and that's basically what we what we kept till the end. Wasn't easy to manage [with] the tires on both of the stints, but we kept it in the lead and just incredibly proud of everyone to deliver a weekend like this.

“The chance is there. We just need to try and deliver these kinds of weekends now until the end ... try whatever we can. I'm just very excited to the end.

“We need to be perfect till the end to have a chance. We caught up a lot, but at the same time, the gaps are very small. I think every weekend you need to try and be perfect, and that's what we'll try to do until the end.”