F1: McLaren title rivals looking warily for Max Verstappen’s late charge

Reigning champion Max Verstappen (centre) has surged into contention against the two McLaren drivers, Lando Norris (left) and Oscar Piastri. Photo / Red Bull

McLaren’s duelling pair of world championship leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be looking warily in their rear-view mirrors for Max Verstappen this weekend at the United States Grand Prix.

With six rounds remaining, the two McLarens are separated by just 22 points, with four-time champion Verstappen adrift of Piastri by 63 points but revelling in his recent form after beating both in the past three races.

Red Bull’s Verstappen has turned a seemingly lost cause into a thrilling late, if unexpected, charge for a fifth title.

Jacques Villeneuve, who won the title in 1997, believes the Dutchman can do it and told Italian daily La Gazetta dello Sport that it will be his “best world championship”.

“The two McLaren drivers are suffering too much from the pressure, and they need to wake up,” he said.

This weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, will pit the McLaren men in a car that has not been updated in recent weeks against a much-revised and potent Red Bull.

That there is also a sprint race, the first of three remaining this year, only adds to the potential for shredded nerves.

Verstappen has reeled off four consecutive podium finishes and won three of the past four Austin races, only missing out last year when Ferrari claimed a one-two, contenting himself instead with a sprint race win.

Max Verstappen's Red Bull leads McLaren's Lando Norris at the F1 Grand Prix of the Netherlands in August. Photo / Red Bull

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.”

Norris took pole last year 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 three races without a podium. His best result in Austin was fifth last year after retiring following a crash in 2023.

Oscar Piastri has gone three races without a podium finish. Photo / Photosport

The tension at McLaren is likely to be matched at Ferrari after a fraught few days of media reports suggesting the team are 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 this year, 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 as he returns to a favourite 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 Briton Russell next year.

– AFP