Title race does not feel like a fight - Verstappen

Red Bull's Max Verstappen says his championship battle against the McLaren drivers this year "doesn't really feel like a fight".

The four-time champion is 25 points behind championship leader Oscar Piastri after winning two of the first seven races.

That is the same number of victories as Lando Norris, Piastri's McLaren team-mate, who is three points behind the Australian.

But Verstappen implied that he did not have much hope of adding a fifth title in 2025.

"I just try to do my best, have a bit of fun out there," Verstappen said.

"I'm more excited if I know that we're going to be super quick. That's the most exciting. I always try to do my best, but this year so far it had some real positives, but of course also some negatives. With some races we are really off the pace, which is not enjoyable.

"That also doesn't mean that I'm enjoying it or loving it. I like it. Up until this point it's not going to be remembered forever."

Verstappen's pessimism is based on the fact that while the Red Bull is quick on circuits with medium and high-speed corners - such as the Barcelona track that hosts this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix - it is weak at low-speed and over bumps and kerbs on street circuits.

He added: "It's not that I don't believe. I just rock up to the track and I do the best I can every single weekend. I don't need to believe in it. Fully or not. I know that every time that I go out there, I do the best I can.

"If that's with a car that is capable of P5, I will put it P5. If it's capable of winning, I'll win. Honestly, I just approach it very simple, which also doesn't eat up a lot of energy as well, so I have a lot of free time outside of that."

Piastri, who has four wins, rejected the idea that Verstappen was not a title contender.

"I don't think he can be counted out," Piastri said. "The gap is not very large at the moment, and they've genuinely been competitive at a decent number of circuits now.

"Of course, there's been weekends where we've been stronger, but they've been developing their car, they've been finding more performance, so I think at this point, Max is definitely still in the fight."

Verstappen said he had little hope that a new technical regulation being introduced for this weekend would boost his chances against McLaren.

F1 introduces stiffer tests on front wing flexibility at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix, aimed at preventing teams deliberately exploiting wing flex to enhance aerodynamics.

Flexing front wings, with the use of clever carbon-fibre manufacturing techniques, helps teams balance the cars between high speed and low-speed corners.

They also boost top speed by 'backing off' on straights without compromising cornering performance, because the wing lifts up at lower speeds when the car is cornering.

Red Bull have been hoping the rule change - which means wings are allowed to flex less for a given amount of weight applied to them in a test by governing body the FIA - could hamper McLaren.

But Verstappen: "More has to happen for our side to have proper success. All will be a little impacted, some a little more than others, but it is not going to change the world.

"It will change the balance of the car probably a little bit. For us, not too much. I don't expect massive time gains or losses between the teams."

Norris, who won in Monaco on Sunday, said his team were not worried about them.

"No, not at all," Norris said. There are little tweaks here and there but nothing that will change how we have to do anything."

Piastri added: "I've not run the front wing, but Lando's already run the front wing before this year, so we're confident.

"That's not our magic bullet. We don't have a magic bullet, but that's not our main strength."

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton criticised the decision to impose the stricter tests on the grounds that it would prevent teams from overcoming a fundamental issue with the aerodynamic behaviour of the current generation of cars, which tend to have a lack of front grip in the slow-speed corners, and too much in the high-speed

"The flexi-wing was a band-aid for a poorly designed technical regulation," Hamilton said. "It made this generation of car much nicer to drive. So it's going in the wrong direction, that's for sure."