F1 title race: Why Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Max Verstappen fight is headed for thrilling conclusion after recent drama | F1 News

Just 36 points separate Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen after a North American double-header in Formula 1 which provided plenty of drama.

Norris took the championship lead away from McLaren team-mate Piastri for the first time since April but only has a slender one-point advantage, with Verstappen another 35 points back with four rounds to go.

The pendulum has swung massively against Piastri over the last five events but these last two weekends in Austin and Mexico have told us a lot about this year’s title protagonists and their championship chances.

Norris showing class under increasing pressure

Twelve months ago, Norris was on a title charge to deny Verstappen a fourth straight championship but it quickly faded away. Nevertheless, McLaren won the Constructors’ Championship and Norris was clearly the stronger of the papaya drivers.

Piastri turned the tables this year, though, with eight consecutive podiums, including five victories, in the opening nine rounds.

The Australian lost the Qualifying head-to-head 20-4 to Norris last year but made a big jump in pace. There has always been a lingering feeling, though, that Norris had slightly more potential but was unable to deliver it.

“Something’s just not clicking with me and the car. I’m not able to do any of the laps like I was doing last season,” said Norris back in April.

“Then, I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car – how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year, I could not have felt more opposite so far.”

McLaren brought a different front suspension to the Canadian Grand Prix in June, not an upgrade they are keen to stress, which only Norris has used.

Since then, the British driver has slowly built his confidence and has drawn level at 10-10 in the intra-team qualifying battle.

It seems like we now might be seeing the finished product of Norris getting on top of the MCL39 as he was around three tenths quicker in Sprint Qualifying and Qualifying in Austin compared to Piastri, then a massive six tenths in Mexico.

“The car is just quick. It has been the whole season, but clearly, it’s still difficult to drive at times,” said Norris.

“But I think when you just find that sweet spot, it can be down the road and make your life a bit easier.

“It’s hard to say, what’s better about mine than the others, but I’ve just had a bit more grip, and that’s normally always the easiest answer.”

Even when Norris dominated races in 2024 such as Zandvoort and Singapore, he still made little mistakes. He lost out at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix and came unnecessarily close to crashing out in the lead at the Singapore Grand Prix. Those minor errors have also been ironed out after his retirement in the Netherlands, due to car fault, this year in August.

His Mexico dominance will provide a massive confidence boost because on the longest run of the season to Turn 1, he nailed the launch and made the right calls before waltzing away.

Sky Sports F1‘s Jamie Chadwick said: “The way Lando hammered it home, he didn’t need to win by 30 seconds but what that does mentally to himself and Oscar makes a huge difference. An incredible job.”

Those little mistakes we saw from Norris earlier this year, in Qualifying especially, in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Spain, for example, have not been seen over the last two weekends.

A small sample size, of course, but the way he’s driving looks smoother and gives the sense of a driver who is oozing confidence.

Norris said: “In Mexico, I just performed the best. I don’t know, dominant or not, but it’s the one where I think I’ve just performed best throughout, from FP2 all the way to the end of the race.

“In a way, I think it’s just my best performance through a whole weekend. All my laps in qualifying, all my practice, all my race.”

Even at the United States Grand Prix, a week earlier, Norris demonstrated great awareness to not do anything silly when staring at the back of Charles Leclerc’s gearbox for lap after lap.

On a few occasions, he could have gone for a big lunge down the inside but why risk getting it wrong or flat-spotting your tyres? He bided his time and, ultimately, got second place, knowing victory was unlikely once Verstappen got away in the opening stint.

With a car underneath him that he’s finally enjoying, Norris is the driver to beat, for now.

When will Piastri’s poor form end?

This is the big question and if the last two races are anything to go by, the answer is not soon. Piastri’s seemingly cool, calm persona is widely known but has he got the fight and mentality to recover from multiple setbacks?

We look back to the two crashes in Baku as a potential major turning point of the title race. That kind of nightmare weekend can happen to any driver, but it is how you bounce back that counts.

Verstappen, in his fourth F1 season in 2018, had a horrid run in the opening phase of the season where he either spun, crashed or collided with someone in the opening six race weekends. He managed to get out of that poor spell and, arguably, has been flying ever since.

Piastri is only in his third season, a point team principal Andrea Stella is keen to stress, but the worry is the Australian does not understand why he’s suddenly showing a similar pace deficit to 2024 against Norris, calling it a “mystery”.

“I’ve just had to drive very differently the last couple of weekends – or I’ve not driven differently when I should have,” he told Sky Sports F1.

“I think that’s been a little bit strange to get my head around because I’ve been driving exactly the same as I have all year.

“It’s just the last couple of weekends the car or the tyres or something required quite a different way of driving. I’ve just not really gone to that.”

He continued: “I’ve tried to change it up in the race in Mexico and once we analyse if it’s effective or not that will hopefully help see some progress.

“The car’s obviously not changed for a while so it’s nothing to do with the car. Given how the pace has differentiated, clearly Lando has found it easier to dial into that and I haven’t.

“It’s important to remember the other 19 races and the way I’ve been driving has been working pretty well. It’s about adding some tools to the toolbox, rather than reinventing myself.”

Stella put Piastri’s recent struggles down to a small weakness on low-grip tracks, particularly on Pirelli’s softer tyre compound – the C4 and C5 tyres.

On paper, out of the remaining tracks, only Las Vegas would come under that category Stella discusses but the McLaren boss expects his drivers to be closely matched.

“I think in the final four races, there’s no reason to think that one may favour one driver or the other,” he said.

“Las Vegas, if anything, has proven to be a challenge for McLaren overall. Last year we were not competitive. We needed to learn something, if anything, during the race, just to try and make some changes to see if we could stop the graining.

“This year the tyres, they do grain much less than last year, so it could be a slightly different Vegas from this point of view. It will be interesting to see. I think for Lando and Oscar, there’s no problem in terms of track layout coming in the next four races.

“If anything, we need to make sure that from a McLaren point of view, we are in condition to extract the full performance that is available in the car, like we have been able to do it in Mexico.”

Verstappen will remain a threat

Sky Sports F1′s Martin Brundle predicted at the start of the year that the McLaren duo would take points away from each other and Verstappen would be nipping at their tails. That’s exactly the scenario which could play out in the last four races.

Red Bull have arguably only had the best outright car a few times this year – in Imola, Monza and Baku – with Verstappen winning those three races plus showing his brilliance with victories in Japan and Austin – the latter proved he really is on a charge.

Verstappen will be hoping Mexico was an outlier compared to the previous four events where he had a car capable of winning.

McLaren boss Stella thinks the high altitude hindered Red Bull, so it is possible Verstappen will be a serious threat again until the end of the season.

“It’s a circuit in which the quality of your cooling system is important, because if you need to compromise aerodynamics to achieve enough cooling, then the loss of aerodynamic efficiency can be quite rapid,” said Stella.

“So Mexico is not a place to judge a car, because there could be a cooling implication that can determine performance significantly.”

Verstappen still cannot afford a slip up though and it’s likely he will need some help from Norris and Piastri to have a genuine chance come the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

The Dutchman was a little erratic in Mexico and arguably fortunate to avoids penalties when racing hard against Hamilton.

Although a late Virtual Safety Car denied him an opportunity to claim second from Charles Leclerc, he limited the damage with a sixth straight podium and still made a gain to the top of the standings.

You just wonder if Verstappen’s experience in a title fight and enduring that epic, controversial 2021 season could play a role if he comes wheel-to-wheel against the McLarens.

And it’s those big moments which will decide this year’s ever-swinging title race. You can make a case for all three drivers but Norris is flying, Piastri needs to punch back immediately and Verstappen is ready to pounce.

Formula 1’s thrilling title race continues in Brazil with a Sprint weekend at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on November 7-9, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime