McLaren title rivals looking warily for Max Verstappen’s late charge
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Red Bull's Max Verstappen racing at the Singapore Grand Prix on Oct 5.
PHOTO: EPA
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AUSTIN – McLaren’s duelling pair of world championship leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be looking warily in their rear-view mirrors this weekend at the United States Grand Prix for Max Verstappen.
With six rounds left, the two McLarens are separated by just 22 points
Red Bull’s Verstappen has turned a seemingly lost cause into a thrilling late charge for a fifth title.
Jacques Villeneuve, who won the title in 1997, believes that the Dutchman can do it and told Italian daily La Gazzetta dello Sport that it would be his “best world championship”.
“The two McLaren drivers are suffering too much from the pressure and they need to wake up,” he said.
The McLaren pair head into this weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas with an unchanged car, up against a newly upgraded and powerful Red Bull.
That there is also a sprint race, the first of three remaining in 2025, only adds to the potential for shredded nerves.
Verstappen has reeled off four consecutive podium finishes and won three of the last four Austin races, only missing out in 2024 when Ferrari claimed a one-two, contenting himself instead with a sprint race win.
McLaren’s imperious early season form has declined, but they still retained the constructors’ crown last time out in Singapore.
Team boss Zak Brown said: “Our strategy isn’t changing because we’ve won the constructors. We are approaching this race in the same way as all the others.
“While we’d like it (the drivers’ championship) to solely come down to our two guys, Max is still very much in the game.”
Norris took pole in 2024 in Austin and finished fourth, and knows he must beat his 24-year-old Australian teammate Piastri and Verstappen if he is to keep alive his title challenge.
Piastri has gone two races without a podium.
His best result in Austin was fifth in 2024 after retiring following a crash in 2023.
The tension at McLaren is likely to be matched at Ferrari after a fraught few days of media reports suggesting the team is in disarray and lining up former Red Bull boss Christian Horner as a possible successor to under-pressure team chief Fred Vasseur.
Without a win in 2025, Ferrari and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in particular badly need a result to banish the blues.
The Briton has gone 18 races without a top-three finish at Ferrari as he returns to a circuit where he has won five times.
“We know we haven’t maximised the potential of our package in the last few races,” said Vasseur, dismissing talk of internal strife.
“But the team is united and fully determined to turn things around.”
Mercedes will also be hunting success after George Russell’s triumph in Singapore and the belated confirmation that they are retaining an unchanged line-up, with Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli alongside the Briton in 2026. AFP, REUTERS
