McLaren’s total dominance has gone and Norris and Piastri’s title race head-to-head is no longer such a binary affair
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t 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.
