McLaren should make him look at it. In a week, perhaps the most important of the year, he erased a season-long advantage, putting Lando Norris in the best possible position to win the drivers’ title again after more than 15 years. The previous Sunday, in Las Vegas, the double achieved by the Briton and his partner Oscar Piastri did not result in anything after they were disqualified after the stewards verified that their car did not comply with the regulations at the end of the race. Seven days later, a poor reading by the strategists left the competition leader off the podium (in fourth place) for the second test in a row, something that has not happened so far.
The mistake allowed Max Verstappen, who never fails, to add his seventh victory and return to the title party that will be decided next Sunday, in which his options have clearly grown thanks to the work and grace of the front garage. The win puts “Mad Max” in second place in the overall table, where he now appears 12 points behind Norris, the only one counting on himself to win the top prize. Piastri now occupies third place, four points behind the Dutchman and 16 points behind his angriest neighbor ever upon leaving Doha.
“There’s nothing I can do now; I’ve always gone in the wrong direction,” Norris summed up, with a stunned expression, as soon as he got out of the car. “We didn’t do a very good job,” the boy from Somerset said sarcastically, and Zak Brown, the British chassis manager, apologized to him for a failure that could have incalculable consequences, both on a prestige level and on an economic level. “We made a mistake and disappointed our drivers. We conceded victory and a double podium. We have a duty to understand why we read the situation that was presented to us so poorly,” the California executive declared. It is logical for Verstappen to praise his opponents’ mistake, although he still does not want to say what could happen in Abu Dhabi. “We achieved a great result over the weekend, which, a priori, should have been very complicated. We are still in the fight,” celebrated the leading Red Bull team, which came closer than initially expected to winning the game of poker: “Anything is possible, but I’m still not worried about it.”
The calculations are quite clear, especially for Norris. If he gets on the podium at Yas Marina, the final stop on the calendar, he will be a champion no matter what others do. It’s a bit more complicated for Verstappen and Piastri. The most viable option for the first of them would be for him to win and for Norris to not get on the podium, while the Australian’s best chances are for the same, and for his pit neighbor not to cross the finish line in the top five. “I don’t have words, but obviously we didn’t get it right. I drove as fast as I could, I didn’t leave anything on the track; but it wasn’t enough. It’s obviously something we have to discuss as a team,” said the boy from Melbourne, who entered Sunday as the favorite after taking the sprint and pole, and who left with a look on his face like sardines when you take them out of the freezer.