It feels like 1986 all over again. In Baku, Oscar Piastri’s errors handed Lando Norris a golden chance to cut into the championship lead — he didn’t seize it. Max Verstappen did. And now, the Dutchman looks poised to turn McLaren’s missed opportunities into a late-season title surge.
Knowledge is power — and Verstappen has been here before
Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, was unequivocal when asked if Verstappen is still a title factor: a firm YES. After the Dutch Grand Prix, Verstappen trailed Piastri by 104 points. In the next two rounds, he slashed that gap by 35. One third down, two to go.
Norris is closer to Piastri, but the psychological pressure is shifting. Verstappen has the experience of closing down championships; he knows when to maximise points, when to pounce, and how to avoid compounding small losses into big ones.
Baku: McLaren drop the ball, Verstappen scores
Piastri’s weekend unravelled with a trio of mistakes, culminating in a Q3 misfire that left him only ninth on the grid. That made the damage on Sunday more palatable — but only because Norris couldn’t fully capitalise.
Norris and McLaren fumbled qualifying, leaving him out of position. In the race, two moments proved costly: a sluggish safety car restart that ceded track position to Charles Leclerc and a slow stop that blunted a late charge on Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. He started seventh, finished seventh — but fifth was on the table. The 25-point deficit to Piastri might well have been 21.
Be careful what you wish for
At Monza, Norris mused that another driver in the mix might help split the McLarens and take points off Piastri. He has that now — but the interloper is Verstappen, upgraded, energised and increasingly relentless.
Red Bull’s floor update, introduced in Italy under Laurent Mekies’ technical leadership, has widened the RB21’s operating window. Singapore is a key litmus test: a track where Verstappen has never won and Red Bull has historically struggled. Then comes the Austin–Mexico swing with more medium-speed corners, where the updated RB21 looked potent at Monza.
The next three rounds will tell the story
If the RB21 truly has the versatility suggested by recent form, Verstappen’s title bid becomes real. Mekies admitted McLaren ‘killed’ Red Bull at Zandvoort, but Stella noted how strong the RB21 was in those same corner types at Monza post-update. The direction of travel is clear: if McLaren don’t execute flawlessly, Verstappen will.
Echoes of 1986
Back then, Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet’s Williams duel left the back door ajar for Alain Prost to steal the crown. Nearly four decades on, could McLaren’s internal tussle open the path for Verstappen? With the margin to Piastri now down to 69 points, the threat is looming.
If — and it remains a big if — Verstappen overhauls two McLarens in a season where the MCL39 has often been the class of the field, it will be thoroughly earned. Not the hand of God, but the hand of greatness: knowledge, execution and relentless pressure applied at exactly the right moments.
