Autobayng News Team
Max Verstappen said he wasn’t too disappointed by his narrow championship defeat in the final race of 2025.
The Red Bull driver scored his eighth victory of the season in Abu Dhabi, the most of any driver. However he lost the world championship to Lando Norris, who finished third, by just two points.
Verstappen has held the championship since 2021 and could have equalled Michael Schumacher’s record for most consecutive title wins by extending his run. However having fallen as far as 104 points off the championship lead earlier in the season, he said he was “very proud” of how the team had recovered.
“We could very easily have given up at that point when you’re that far behind,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “But I don’t think that’s how this team works.
“We always try to look for improvements and understand our issues and that’s definitely what we did. That turnaround has been fun and today has been fun.”
He said he doesn’t feel too disappointed at failing to win the world championship. “That happens, that’s life,” he said. “It’s not something that I’ll be too sad about. Life goes on.
“I’m just very proud with the people that I work with. They are my second family. And we will enjoy this moment, we will enjoy the second half of the season and be proud of that.”
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Verstappen said he “needed a bit of luck” to win the title but was pleased with his controlling drive to victory in the race.
“At least we optimised the weekend perfectly,” he said. “We put it on pole, we won the race in, I think, dominant fashion. So there’s nothing really that you can say about that.
“That you, at the end, lose the championship by two points, it of course looks painful. But on the other hand if you look from where we were in Zandvoort, more than 100 behind, then I think it’s not too bad.”
Verstappen’s radio to his team at the end of the race
Verstappen’s race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase appeared to be particularly emotional at the end of the race and said very little after the chequered flag.
| Lambiase | Max, you have given it everything. You can be proud of that, mate. Hold your head up high. |
| Verstappen | We showed them one final time who’s boss. Congrats guys, what a comeback in the second half of this season, we can be really proud of that. So don’t be too disappointed. I’m definitely not disappointed. I’m really proud of everyone. We never give up. Keep pushing, we’ve never given up believing in making it a success again, even when it was really difficult. So thank you very much everyone. And also thank you to Honda for all these years together and all these amazing successes that we have had. We definitely also closed it in style, so thank you very much for that. |
| Mekies | Well done Max, you dominated that one, once again. It’s been, from beginning to the end, dominated that one, finished in style. Took us through an incredible ride for this second part of the year. Very, very thankful and we’ll try even harder next. Thanks Max. |
| Verstappen | Yeah, exactly that Laurent. Don’t worry. I’m happy. I’m happy with what we have achieved so far. So let’s keep going. |
| Verstappen | Into the pit lane? Into the pit lane or what? |
| Unidentified voice | Stay out. |
| Lambiase | Stay out, Max. |
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2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
- Norris proud he has ‘won the title my way, trying to be a good person’
- Verstappen explains why he didn’t try to back up Norris into other cars
- Tsunoda complains stewards gave him a ‘strange penalty – as usual for them’
- Verstappen hits out at suggestion his collision with Russell cost him the title
- Verstappen says losing title by two points “looks painful” but he’s “not too sad”
