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An average race but universal excitement in the Austin paddock after Max Verstappen’s dominant win in the United States Grand Prix. Two had turned into three.
Not since 2010 has the title fight been a three-way contest. In fact, that was four-way. Sebastian Vettel prevailed in Abu Dhabi to claim the first of his quadruple world championships ahead of Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton.
It should have been Alonso’s title; he led going into that final race. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo sashayed into the garage for the anticipated crowning, but a strategy call wrecked their dreams. Heads rolled. And the trophy cabinet in Maranello has been as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard ever since.
But this year’s contest is more gripping than in 2010. For, Max Verstappen has come from outer space to push himself into the fight – 40 points behind leader Oscar Piastri with 141 to play for across five rounds. And what McLaren had contentedly thought was a private duel between Piastri and Lando Norris, 14 points off the top, is now a livewire they are struggling to handle.
Red Bull’s major upgrade – a new floor, which provided significantly more downforce and gave engineers fresh options for car setup – introduced at Monza at the start of September, has greatly increased Red Bull’s potency. It was not the easiest car to drive for most of the year and only Verstappen’s brilliance carried it to victory in Japan back in April despite ‘not trusting’ it – the sort of performance that may be crucial in the final reckoning.
It is palpable that Verstappen in a fully equipped car is playing tricks in Piastri and Norris’s minds: can they run fast enough to escape the mugger?
Max Verstappen has now won three of the last four races and is rapidly closing in on his title rivals Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Victory in Austin on Sunday pushed Verstappen to just 40 points behind championship leader Piastri, with five races remaining
Little wonder because since the summer break, the scoring reads: Verstappen 111 points, George Russell 80, Piastri 62 and Norris 57.
A cliché a couple of weeks ago was that Piastri only needed to finish third to beat Verstappen. Only! He crashed out of the sprint and finished fifth in the main race in Austin (with Norris runner-up). Before that fourth, retired and third.
Another platitude in common use is that Piastri is mentally strong whereas Norris is vulnerable. Well, it is too early to say, but are we seeing Piastri choke? He was leading Verstappen by 104 points early last month.
He was certainly exasperated as we have never seen him before in Singapore a fortnight earlier, demanding he and Norris swap places after the Englishman bumped into him on the opening lap. His race engineer Tom Stallard told him to clear his head and concentrate on racing.
It is Verstappen alone who has experienced the white heat of a championship decider. And what was ever hotter than that controversial Abu Dhabi denouement in 2021 against Hamilton? Whatever the damn safety car did, and whatever tyres he was on, Verstappen pounced clinically on the final lap.
He admitted after victory on Sunday that ‘the chance is there’ to win the title. He increasingly believed it possible, I suspect, as soon as Red Bull’s improvements gathered pace. He played his hopes down. The mugger waited in the trees.
Laurent Mekies, who took over from Christian Horner as Red Bull team principal in July in what may or may not have been impetus-shifting switch, was purring after Verstappen’s perfect weekend, not only the grand prix win from pole but the same double in the sprint – taking 23 points out of Piastri.
‘He surprises us every time he goes out on track,’ said Mekies. ‘He surprises us how much he pushes us between one session and another, how much sensitivity he has in stuff that sometimes we can see and stuff that sometimes we cannot see.’
Laurent Mekies (right) has enjoyed significant success in his early days, coinciding with the new floor that has turned the Red Bull into a rocket ship again
McLaren team-mates Piastri and Norris' crash during the Austin sprint race will bring the controversial Papaya Rules back into discussion
The post-race call from McLaren team principal Andrea Stella was for composure. There was little of that evident over the last few days. They arrived in Austin disclosing Norris would face ‘repercussions’ for that clip with Piastri in Singapore. This started a distracting guessing game as to what his sanction would be.
He had been deemed guilty of transgressing the infamous ‘Papaya Rules’, which bar contact between the McLaren drivers. There comes yet another ‘review’ under Stella’s arbitration with his sprint crash not only taking himself out but Norris, too. Does the Australian face ‘repercussions'? What a rod-for-your-own-back tangle this fair-minded intention has resulted in.
Ironically, the pair are colliding more than any other team-mates. The Papaya Rules are clearly not working in their essential mission. There are no Red Bull Rules, of course. Verstappen just goes out there and beats the hell out of everyone.
A final thought. There is one downside to Verstappen’s fire. It revealed itself when he accelerated into Russell in a flash of anger in Spain. Verstappen, who owned up to his irrational move, finished fifth on the road but was demoted to 10th.
That cost him nine points. He didn’t know then he would be in contending for his fifth successive world title. Will it yet cost him one of sport’s greatest comebacks? Momentum says not. My money is on the mugger.
