‘Only worry is’: Villeneuve shares the one thing that may now stop Verstappen winning 2025 F1 title

Jacques Villeneuve now believes Max Verstappen could still win the 2025 F1 drivers’ title after he won the Italian Grand Prix and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix back-to-back.

The Red Bull racer had not won successive Grands Prix since June 2024, and he even went to Monza with a 104-point deficit to Oscar Piastri in the 2025 F1 drivers’ championship. But a positive swing over the Monza and Baku races leaves Verstappen within 69 points of Piastri.

Verstappen is also only 44 points adrift of Lando Norris for the runner-up spot in the drivers’ standings with seven Grands Prix and three Sprints remaining this year. Should the four-time reigning champion claim his fifth crown, it would be the biggest F1 title comeback in history.

But given his 69-point deficit to Piastri with 199 points now left to play for, Verstappen is not thinking about winning the 2025 F1 title and is taking it race-by-race. Also, Villeneuve thinks Verstappen must clear one final hurdle to fully convince him that the 2025 title is still in play.

The Singapore Grand Prix is Jacques Villeneuve’s ‘only worry’ for Max Verstappen’s 2025 F1 title bid

Villeneuve thinks Verstappen’s Italian GP win from pole position at Monza and the 27-year-old’s Azerbaijan GP win from pole in Baku have put him back in contention for the title. But the 1997 champion fears Red Bull could struggle next time out at the Singapore Grand Prix.

READ MORE: The best moments of Max Verstappen’s career in Formula 1

Verstappen won the Italian GP after demanding an extremely low-downforce rear wing for Monza’s long straights, which suited Red Bull’s car. Also, Verstappen demanded to start the Azerbaijan GP on hard C5 tyres to have the best strategy at a track that also suits the RB21.

But the Marina Bay Street Circuit has not always tended to suit Red Bull during the ground-effect regulations era, with Verstappen finishing P7 in 2022 and P5 in 2023 before securing P2 last year. So, Villeneuve sees the Singapore GP as the final test for Verstappen’s title bid.

Villeneuve told GPBlog: “Verstappen can win the championship. He is only three races away, and that’s not as much as people think. My only worry is in Singapore. Even when the Red Bull was an incredible car, for some reason, that’s never been a good track for them.

“That’s the kind of track where they have suffered. On the other hand, they weren’t that bad in Zandvoort. So, who knows? This season has been full of surprises. A team that should be good at a track is useless, and vice versa. We keep being surprised, and it’s amazing.”

The Singapore Grand Prix is the only 2025 F1 race that Max Verstappen has never won

The Singapore GP is the one race on the 24-round-strong 2025 F1 calendar that Verstappen has never won in his career, with P2 in the 2024 edition also only one of his three podiums in eight visits to Marina Bay. Verstappen also secured P2 in the 2018 running and P3 in 2019.

READ MORE: Five unforgettable Singapore GP from Crashgate to Ferrari vs Max Verstappen

Now, Villeneuve views the 2025 Singapore GP as the last litmus test for whether Verstappen can catch and surpass McLaren rival Piastri and win the drivers’ title in 2025. The Dutchman must outscore Piastri by 9.8 points per round over the final seven to overtake the Australian.

Prior to outscoring the championship leader by 10 points at Monza and by 25 in Baku thanks to Piastri’s first lap crash and retirement in the Azerbaijan GP, Verstappen had not outscored him since the Canadian Grand Prix in round 10. Verstappen was P2 in Canada, to Piastri’s P4.