McLaren vs Verstappen: How do you react to the F1 title threat?

Verstappen Ousts McLaren as Favorite in the Formula 1 Championship

For the first time this season, a McLaren driver is no longer the favorite to win the Formula 1 world championship. Sports betting now places Max Verstappen as the main candidate, surpassing the McLaren drivers. Just three races ago, Verstappen’s odds were much higher, which underlines the speed with which he has reduced Oscar Piastri’s lead in the drivers’ standings. The change in direction of Red Bull and Verstappen has been such that McLaren could have panicked after another disappointing weekend at the United States Grand Prix. However, McLaren has been fully aware of the threat for several races.

“The danger for me is the same as it was in Baku,” said Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, in Austin on Sunday night. “I said very clearly in Baku that Max was in contention for the drivers’ championship. And when I say something, I mean it.”

Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal

Identifying the threat is one thing, but combating it is another.

Since last month’s Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen has outperformed the two McLaren drivers combined and has reduced his gap to Piastri by 64 points. Applying the same trend in results to the last five races of the season, Verstappen would surpass Piastri and Norris to win this year’s title.

By exploring fruitful configurations and adding a significant improvement to the RB21 at the Italian Grand Prix, the Red Bull in Verstappen’s hands has become the fastest car on the grid in recent races. Combined with the difficulties of the McLaren drivers in maximizing their car’s performance, and with significant errors such as Piastri’s accidents in qualifying and the race in Baku, the difference in the standings has been reduced at a dramatic pace.

As impressive as Verstappen’s quest for a fifth title has been, the outcome of the drivers’ championship should still be in McLaren’s hands. If both McLaren drivers outperform the defending champion in just one of the remaining five races, the task facing Verstappen becomes immensely tougher. Moreover, McLaren believes that three of the remaining circuits – Brazil, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – will play much more to the strengths of their car than the recent tracks.

The fact that there are five races and two sprints means we can also increase the distance with Max. That’s how I see things,” said Stella. “I think we have good tracks ahead for our car and I think we have more that we could have exploited from our car.

Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal

In the five races since the series returned from its summer break at Zandvoort, Piastri’s average finishing position is 6.6 and Norris’s is 6.4. Verstappen’s is 1.4.

Lando Norris finished second in the United States Grand Prix, but both he and McLaren have seen their championship advantages over Max Verstappen vanish. After Sunday’s race in Austin, Stella was convinced that Norris would have had the pace to match Verstappen if he hadn’t lost a position to Charles Leclerc at the start and spent the rest of the race battling with the Ferrari.

I think in terms of the performance trend in relation to Verstappen, today is a relatively reassuring race because I think without having to fight with Charles, which was certainly an entertaining fight in itself, I think Lando had the pace to win the race today,” said Stella.

Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal

Piastri’s lack of performance in Austin was more difficult to explain, but Stella said that important lessons were learned on Sunday that would be applied to the next rounds.

This is undoubtedly one of the most important points we need to review, which is the fact that Oscar, both in qualifying and in the race, seemed to have a couple of tenths of a second that he couldn’t fully realize, and that were possibly available in the car,” said Stella.

Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal

Stella also wanted to highlight that McLaren’s disastrous sprint race, in which Piastri and Norris collided and retired, had significant repercussions for the rest of the weekend. Aside from the points lost, McLaren also missed crucial race data with the shortened race format that would have unlocked more performance in qualifying and the race.

One way to increase the chances of a McLaren driver winning the title would be for the team to put all its weight behind a single driver. Piastri would be the obvious choice based on his 14-point lead in the championship, although Norris’s better form in recent races is one of the many reasons why such a decision is not clear.

After multiple questions about such a strategy over the weekend, McLaren stood firm in their belief that both drivers deserve the same opportunities. The only thing that would change that would be a driver being mathematically excluded from the fight for the title.

“When it comes to having to make a decision about a driver, this will only be driven by mathematics,” Stella said. “I can remember at least 2007, 2010, where you get to the last race and it’s actually the third-placed driver who wins the championship, but we are not going to close the door unless this is closed by mathematics.

Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal

So, what’s McLaren’s plan to fight Verstappen? According to Stella, the answer is remarkably simple: stay calm and carry on.

Well, first of all, I need to stay calm, and by putting things in a good perspective, I hope I can do that,” he explained. “We are still talking about the fact that what we are facing at the moment, which is tough competition to win races, tough competition in the pursuit of the drivers’ championship, is what Formula 1 is all about. If anything, it was anomalous when we were easily doing P1, P2, like in Barcelona, in Bahrain, in some other places. That’s not what Formula 1 is about.

Andrea Stella, McLaren Team Principal

It’s about getting used to this kind of pressure, with which we want to live with maximum intensity and minimum stress. We don’t want to lose the joy of doing what we do. We just want to make sure we put ourselves in the state where we perform at our best, which also includes having fun and recognizing that, ultimately, it is a great privilege to be in this situation, and it is a privilege that came thanks to the good work that McLaren, the team, the two drivers have been able to do. So what we do in the future is very easy. We keep doing the good work and the results will take care of themselves.