"Fifty-fifty," says Max Verstappen of his 2025 title chances. "You either win it or you don't."

63 points down on Oscar Piastri, and with 174 available over the remaining six race weekends, it is understandable that the Dutchman remains a threat to the McLaren drivers, especially at a time one of them is facing "repercussions" for the Singapore clash.

Two-time world champion, Fernando Alonso finished runner-up on three occasions and knows what it takes, when asked how he sees the 2025 title fight working out the Spaniard admitted: "Difficult to guess. I mean, that will be the question that we all want to know in advance.

"I would say that the two McLarens have a little bit of an advantage, just because of the points advantage, " he added. So, I would say it's between the two of them. But Max is an incredible driver, and if there is anyone that can overcome the deficit of the car, it's him. So, yeah, let's see.

"He's a four-time world champion," he continued. "That's not a casual thing. He's one of the best drivers in the history of the sport. I think he's able to extract the maximum from the car. When the car is a dominant car, he can win the championship and break some records along the season. And when the car is not that good or not the fastest, he still provides the good lap in qualifying, or the good race, the good fight.

"He's at a very good level, very high level. And, yeah, this year he's obviously fighting against a superior car, which is the McLaren. But, yeah, if it comes to the last race or whatever and they are tight on points, maybe in that moment he becomes the man to follow.

"As I said before, I think the two McLarens have enough advantage on the car to fight between them. But, yeah, with Max, that can happen, as we saw in 2021 when the car was a little bit less performing than the Mercedes. He still won the championship in Abu Dhabi."

Asked if he prefers being the hunter to being the hunted, the Spaniard was in no doubt: "I prefer to be leading the championship," he said. "If I'm leading the championship with the best car, I will not lose it."

When Verstappen was asked to give a percentage in terms of claiming the title, he replied: "Fifty-fifty... you either win it or you don't."

"I don't really think about it too much," he added, "simple as that.

"I come to the race weekend, try to do everything I can in the car. It doesn't matter if I'm behind or in front. Naturally, of course, it's nicer to be in front because it means you're leading the championship. But I see every race weekend as an opportunity to try and win. If we don't, we don't.

"Life goes on - it's not dramatic. It doesn't put any pressure. I guess it helps that I've already won. As a team, we're still trying to understand the car a bit more, learn more for next year as well. It's not like you completely start over next year."

Asked about claims that McLaren is favouring Lando Norris over his teammate, the Dutchman smiled.

"I don't know, I heard something. Does it help me? I don't know. I mean, I honestly don't know. I don't care also, because it has nothing to do with me - what they decide, of course, within the team - how they operate as a team. I mean, they do whatever they think is right, and they're doing a very good job at it - being this quick and what they've done over the last few years.

"For me, what's important is that when we get to the racetrack, we just maximise our potential. And as long as we can do that, then it's in our control. Of course, if you look at the whole season, we didn't have a great start to it. But I just approach every race weekend trying to maximize everything we can, try to win races, and that's the only thing we can do until the end."

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