A gross misjudgment deprives McLaren of victory in Qatar – and Max Verstappen is back in the middle of the World Cup fight: The most exciting season finale in 15 years is coming up this weekend.
After the second weekend of complete frustration in a row, the fight for the drivers’ world championship is on McLaren suddenly everything is at stake. The team boss struggled for explanations, but Lando Norris just wanted to go to bed and Oscar Piastri was completely at a loss for words.
No title for Norris in Qatar, no victory for Piastri – instead, for the first time since 2010, three drivers with a chance of winning the title will compete in the final. After an almost hopeless situation, the third person next to the two McLaren drivers is now actually defending champion Max Verstappen.
Scorn and ridicule for McLaren
Instead of celebrating his first title, Norris had to explain the almost unbelievable thing. “We just shouldn’t have done what we did”he argued. Because McLaren at an early stage Safety car-Phase did not allow the tires to be changed on both cars, the prospects of a double success were gone. In the end, Norris even missed the podium in fourth place when Verstappen won ahead of Piastri and Carlos Sainz in the Williams.
“Give McLaren a gun and they would shoot themselves in the feet”mocked the British tabloid “Daily Mail”. And that “Guardians” wrote: “A tactical faux pas paves the way for Verstappen. McLaren somehow managed to make Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri vulnerable. Verstappen had already dropped out of the title race. It was a monstrous mistake.”
Red Bull is doing everything right
At Red Bull Strategist Hannah Schmitz once again made the right decision, and as a reward the Briton was allowed to go on the winner’s podium and celebrate with Verstappen. Piastri, who from the Poles had started and had had an almost perfect weekend until the tactical disaster, struggled to maintain composure.
The 24-year-old Australian, who led the World Cup for a long time, will go into the final next Sunday in Abu Dhabi in third place. He is 16 points behind Norris, Verstappen is 12 points behind the Brit. For Qatar, despite the disqualification of both McLarens a week earlier in Las Vegas, there was a simple calculation: If Norris wins, he is the new champion.
Second match point for Norris, but his nerves are fluttering
For the race in front of the spectacular “1000 and One Nights” backdrop Yas Island The following now applies: If Norris gets on the podium, no matter where exactly, the title belongs to him. After that it gets more complicated and a case for the slide rule. 15 years ago it was Piastri’s current manager Mark Webber who was second before the last race in Abu Dhabi. Fernando Alonso, then in a Ferrari, was the leader. He was eight points ahead of his Piastri compatriot.
When Vettel outplayed Webber and Alonso
However, there was also a Sebastian Vettel who was third and had a whopping 15 points less than Alonso. The rest were tears of joy for Vettel after the victory drive to the title because the other two were fundamentally weak. “Nothing is impossible”Formula 1 itself now posted a photo with Verstappen in the spotlight. Is Red Bull history repeating itself?
What will become of the “Papaya Rules”?
The Hollywood showdown was made possible primarily by McLaren, which is now facing a major dilemma. Abandon the “Papaya Rules”, according to which neither driver is favored and there is no number one? Or demote Piastri to helper in the last of the 24 races?
In any case, the stress factor will reach its peak at the finale in Abu Dhabi. The Verstappen era began there in 2021. It was unthinkable in the summer that he would now be in the middle of the World Cup fight again. But as McLaren boss Zak Brown recently said: “He’s like that guy from a horror movie who shows up just when you think he’s gone.”