Jacques Villeneuve highlights one ‘really odd’ McLaren weakness after losing to Max Verstappen at Imola

Max Verstappen won his second race of the 2025 season after making a thrilling overtake on Oscar Piastri at the start of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The Dutchman was initially under pressure from George Russell off the line, but Verstappen used the outside line into the Tamburello to overtake Piastri and effectively control the race.

Piastri would later fall victim to a Virtual Safety Car that came out for Esteban Ocon, who stopped on track just as the first round of pit stops happened.

Verstappen stayed out and pitted during the VSC, enabling him to keep the lead, while Piastri lost out and would later need to pit again after taking too much life out of his tyres having pitted earlier.

McLaren would elect to keep Piastri out when a full Safety Car was deployed at the end of the race, with Norris pitting and spending a few laps behind his teammate at the restart. Having been released to catch Verstappen, the Briton would finish second, 6.1s behind, while Piastri was third.

After watching how McLaren dealt with the various strategic scenarios, Jacques Villeneuve believes McLaren has shown one weakness that Red Bull doesn’t have when speaking on Sky Sports.

Jacques Villeneuve thinks McLaren is too happy with being second and third

Villeneuve believes McLaren are getting too comfortable with finishing second and third, rather than being bold and going for the win.

“They show weakness. They don’t show the strength that Red Bull has always shown year after year. It’s as if they are afraid of being aggressive in trying to win the Drivers’ Championship and afraid to go against Piastri. It’s really, really odd,” said Villeneuve.

“Piastri messed up that first corner, got caught out sleeping, he should’ve never come out of the corner second. Then he didn’t have the pace. At the restart, McLaren knew that it was a matter of laps before Norris would take Piastri. It was obvious, so why make him lose three laps instead of giving him a shot at Verstappen? Because Verstappen is in for the championship, you don’t want to give him more points.

“They shouldn’t be happy with second and third. McLaren has a car where a good weekend is first and second, and anything less would be disappointing. First and third are barely acceptable, but they seem to be happy with second and third.”

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Oscar Piastri was too easy on Max Verstappen

Piastri’s defensive manoeuvre into the first corner was far too simple, with Verstappen effectively driving around the outside and bullying his way past.

Unlike previous moves, which have got Verstappen into trouble with the stewards at the start, Piastri left the door open and was caught napping by the Red Bull driver.

This sealed the win for Verstappen as Norris was losing time behind George Russell at the start and Piastri was unable to close the gap to within a second.

Despite the two Safety Cars, Verstappen remained in control of the pace and showed that he is still in the title hunt by winning Red Bull’s 400th race.