Buckle up, folks…
We knew things were tightening up in the race for the Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship going into the United States Grand Prix, but now it’s officially on.
After a weekend sweep in which he took pole and won both the Sprint and the Grand Prix, Red Bull’s reigning four-time champ Max Verstappen trails just 26 points behind McLaren’s Lando Norris for P2 and just 40 points behind leader Oscar Piastri.
After the week in Austin, McLaren — who had a disaster in the Sprint — have revealed that it doesn’t plan to develop its car any further for the rest of the season.
“When it comes to new upgrades, new parts, then this will not happen for the rest of the season,” team principal Andrea Stella said after the Grand Prix, per Motorsport.
So, what this means is that the car that Norris and Piastri have now is the one they’ll have until the checkered flag waves in Abu Dhabi.
The MCL39 has been the best car all season. That’s why the constructors’ title was wrapped up so early. I think if you took the variable of a driver out of it, it probably still is.
It also makes sense to start focusing on next year when the technical regulations get a substantial overhaul.
However, Red Bull has found a lot of pace in the RB21. Verstappen has won three of the last four races and is the highest-scoring driver since the summer break. The Dutchman was getting some decent results out of it when it was still pretty unwieldy, but now that it’s improved, he looks like he could be in contention for poles and wins for the rest of the year.
No more development for McLaren and solid pace for Red Bull should give us one heck of a championship battle. (Photo by Sam Bloxham/LAT Images)
With Red Bull more competitive and McLaren not developing this car any further, the latter really needs to stop shooting itself in the foot if it want one of its drivers to win this championship.
While bulletproof in the first half of the year, it has been anything but since the break.
Norris lost an engine late at Zandvoort. Piastri had a disastrous weekend in Baku. The two collided on the opening lap in Singapore and again on the opening lap of this past weekend’s sprint.
They need to clean it up because those mistakes have made this as much of a battle as Red Bull’s improvements have.
It’s still a McLaren driver’s title to lose, but the door has been opened heading to a circuit in Mexico City, where Red Bull tends to perform well.
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