07/09/2025 08:20
After his McLaren failed at the Dutch Grand Prix, Lando Norris
finds himself 34 points behind team-mate and title rival Oscar
Piastri in the race to win the 2025 title. Had Norris finished
second at Zandvoort, he would have dropped 16 points behind the
Australian, but after an engine oil pipe broke, he dropped out to
hand Piastri a commanding lead in the standings. It is such a big
lead that if Norris were to overhaul him, he would vault into the
record books as one of the drivers who had overhauled the biggest
points deficit to win the world championship. As it stands, Max
Verstappen holds this honour by clawing back a 46 point deficit to
Charles Leclerc after round 3 of the 2022 season in Australia,
where Leclerc won his second race of the year, to go with a P2,
whilst Verstappen just had a single win to his name. But if the
current F1 points system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 is used and
the calculations re-done, the largest deficit ever overhauled goes
to James Hunt who clawed back a 98-point lead for Niki Lauda. After
the 1976 Swedish GP, Lauda enjoyed the near three-figure lead over
Hunt after four wins, two seconds and a third from the opening
seven races, compared to one win, a second, a fifth and four DNFs
for Hunt under the 9-6-4-3-2-1 points system. Incidentally, under
the current points system, Lauda would have actually won the 1976
title by two points, including the two races missed whilst
recovering from his fiery Nurburgring accident. Elsewhere, in 2007,
Kimi Raikkonen overcame a 56-point deficit to Lewis Hamilton after
the United States GP at Indianapolis, to snatch the title in the
Brazil finale. If Norris does manage to overhaul Piastri's
34-point lead as it stands, he will slot into fifth place on the
list under the current points system, as the table below shows. The
points system used to calculate is the 2025 grand prix onwards
system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. The fastest lap bonus point, as
in F1 after its removal, is not counted. Biggest points deficits
overhauled to win title - all converted to modern points system
