Red Bull’s Max Verstappen believes he can still win the Formula One world championship but feels the McLaren drivers are favourites.

Four-time world champion Verstappen is third in the standings ahead of this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

He is 25 points behind leader Oscar Piastri, though Verstappen is the only non-McLaren driver to win a race this season, securing the top spot on the podium at the Japanese Grand Prix and Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Despite some early success for Verstappen, McLaren’s dominance is clear - they hold a 172-point advantage in the constructors’ championship.

Verstappen has not lost belief in winning a fifth world title, but he acknowledged some races have been less than enjoyable this season.

"It's not that I don't believe," Verstappen said. "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.

From the past to the present  ¡Buenos días Barcelona! 

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"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 simply, which also doesn't eat up a lot of energy as well, so I have a lot of free time outside of that.

"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."

Although Verstappen’s hopes are low, McLaren duo Piastri and Lando Norris are adamant the Dutch driver is still in the race for the title.

"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."

Norris added: "We're racing Max every weekend. He's been on the podium several times. He's won races.

"I mean, he beat us in Imola, fair and square, because he was quicker. So, I don't know what possibly makes you think that it's only out of me and Oscar."