The increasingly dramatic title fight in Formula 1 reaches its climax on Sunday in Abu Dhabi. After a series of mistakes at McLaren, Max Verstappen could become world champion after all.
01.12.2025, 09:22
01.12.2025, 09:23
SDA
Now Lando Norris has to really tremble. After the Englishman had one and a half hands on the world championship trophy, he suffered a moral setback last weekend in Qatar. Although he can still clinch his first world title on his own in the final Grand Prix of the season, the championship leader feels Max Verstappen and team-mate Oscar Piastri breathing down his neck ahead of the showdown in the Middle East.
Psychological warfare
The Dutchman in the Red Bull once again successfully defended himself against being dethroned as world champion, as he had done a week earlier in Las Vegas. After his unexpected victory on Sunday in the Qatar Grand Prix, he is now only 12 points behind Norris in the championship standings - an astonishing performance with a visibly slower car.
Verstappen himself also emphasized this by declaring that he would have decided the championship "a long time ago" if he had started the season with the same material superiority as McLaren. Norris dismissed his championship rival's verbal poison arrow as "nonsense" - but Verstappen countered dryly: "I'm just putting all the facts on the table."
In fact, McLaren had the fastest car in the field on most tracks, which was also evident at the recent sprint weekend in Qatar. The fact that the constructors' championship title has long since been decided is also a strong indication of the dominance of the orange cars.
In fact, the British team's first drivers' title in twelve years should have been secured long ago, were it not for their own inability. Recently, McLaren slowed itself down twice. First by disqualifying both drivers in Las Vegas, then by making a strategic error during the pit stops in Qatar.
The crux of the matter with the "papaya rules"
Both cost McLaren not only valuable points in the title race, but also nerves. This also applies to the much-discussed "papaya rules", with which the team also got in its own way. The fact that the two drivers are allowed to race freely against each other in the spirit of sporting fairness may be a blessing for neutral fans, but for the team it is a risk that could actually be avoided.
Will this philosophy be dropped for the final act in Abu Dhabi? One thing is clear: it will not be easy to persuade Piastri to support Norris. After a week-long slump in form, the Australian was the strongest rider in the field from A to Z in Qatar and would have deserved to win the Grand Prix after his start-finish victory in the sprint - had it not been for the wrong decisions at the command center.
However, Piastri, who led the World Championship standings uninterruptedly from the end of April to the beginning of November, cannot be held responsible for these. And so it is unlikely that he will deviate from his line. He will want to maintain his own chances of winning his first world championship title. However, the 16-point gap to his team-mate can only be closed under two conditions: either he wins and Norris finishes sixth at most, or he finishes second and Norris tenth at most. In the second case, Verstappen could finish fourth at most. Norris, for his part, would only need a podium finish to win the championship.
The horror movie that won't end
The beneficiary of this tangled situation at McLaren is of course Verstappen, who has already written himself off in the title fight several times. McLaren's managing director Zak Brown described how difficult it is to get the defending champion down with an apt comparison: "He's like that guy in the horror movie where you think he's not coming back - and then he's back." A compliment, as Brown emphasizes: "He never makes mistakes. He takes every opportunity." Even when Verstappen was 104 points behind in the championship standings, nobody at McLaren felt safe. "We never thought he was out," says Brown.
And so Verstappen becomes an uninvited guest, a potential villain who could crash the long-planned end-of-season papaya party. Perhaps it will even be as dramatic as four years ago, when the epic duel between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in Abu Dhabi was only decided on the very last lap.
The script is set for a thrilling finale. Who will play the leading role will be decided on Sunday.
