At the mid-point of this season it might have been considered that the title fight between McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri would simply be decided by which driver had the edge to take the flag at each remaining meeting. Going into this weekend’s US Grand Prix, however, the contest has become far more complicated and far more interesting.
While only 22 points separate the pair neither has now won for three races, the team’s longest drought of the season. Moreover, they have been beaten on merit across a variety of tracks. At the fast, low downforce challenge of Monza and Baku, where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took the flag, and the slow, high downforce of Singapore, where Mercedes’ George Russell more than had their measure.
McLaren’s total dominance has gone. They have long since ceased development of their car but Red Bull, under their new team principal, Laurent Mekies, have continued to bring in new parts in an attempt to better understand where their ride has got away from them. The intent is they will feed into next year’s car but are also paying off now. The Red Bull is already a far better and more manageable beast than it was early in the year as Verstappen has demonstrated emphatically at the past three races.
As a result the straightforward head-to-head between Norris and Piastri is no longer such a binary affair. Verstappen is still 63 points off the lead, so the title remains all but a pipe dream, but he is now very much in the mix on track. So, too, is Russell, as he and Mercedes proved that when their car hits its window a further variable will be in play.
For the championship there will be more risk of wheel bashing and strategic interplay with rivals than either Norris or Piastri would like. The simple equation of each having to beat the other remains but now, as Norris found in Singapore when he clipped Verstappen and then slewed into his teammate which might have caused either or both of them to not finish the race, there are more pieces on the chess board. Over which neither they, nor McLaren, exercise control.
McLaren did not intervene during the race in Singapore despite Piastri’s protestations but had an extensive debrief after that incident and this week Norris acknowledged the team had held him accountable and that there would be “repercussions” until the end of the season. Piastri, in turn, said pointedly: “We know how we’re expected to go racing and if we don’t, there’s consequences for that.”
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The pair understand the rules between them on track then but neither can afford not to finish the race which, with only six meetings remaining, could decide the title. McLaren, who have tried to be scrupulously fair in managing how they race and their rules of engagement, will continue to do so but now without the safety net of the pair largely enjoying a free rein at the front of the grid and then in clean air at the front of the race.
Neither has won the US GP before and neither will expect an easy ride this weekend but what may decide the championship is which of them best manages the newly competitive risk and reward of this title run-in.
