Bernie Ecclestone: I still think Max will win.

      Bernie Ecclestone, former head of Formula 1 management, believes that Max Verstappen can win his fifth title in a row.

      The 2025 season promises to be exciting; it is expected that the competition will be at the highest possible level, and four teams will compete for the main awards, because in 2024 seven representatives of Red Bull Racing, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes won the races.

      "I'm very happy that the situation in the championship is like this, that anyone can win, because it's not bad,– Ecclestone said in an interview with Reuters, "but I still think Max will win. There is no reason that can prevent it. If Verstappen gets a fast car, then, of course, there can be no doubt about his abilities. If the car allows it, then he will cope with his task, that's for sure."

      The McLaren team won the Constructors' Cup last year, but Verstappen became world champion for the fourth time, and Lando Norris lost quite a lot of points to him at the end of the season. But this time the bookmakers consider the British driver to be the favorite, especially since the Red Bull Racing team drove the fewest laps in the pre-season tests, and it might seem that things were not going very smoothly.

      "Of course, you have to think that McLaren will win, but I would like Ferrari to win the championship," Ecclestone continued, and he rates Charles Leclair's chances higher than his new team–mate, Lewis Hamilton. – Charles has been playing for this team for a long time, so they probably won't want to let him down because of Lewis.

      I don't want to say that Lewis has no chance, I mean that Ferrari will not stop supporting Charles and taking care of him. They hope that Leclair will do everything right."

      Returning to the topic of Verstappen's fifth title, let us recall that in the entire history of Formula 1, only Michael Schumacher managed to win five titles in a row with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. And before that, he became world champion twice, in 1994 and 1995, playing for Benetton.