At the dawn of an increasingly uncertain end to the season, F1 world championship leader Max Verstappen arrives in the United States with a mission: to contain his rival Lando Norris.
After a break of almost a month, F1 resumes its rights for a final marathon of six Grands Prix in eight weeks which begins on the Circuit of the Americas, scene of the 19th round of the season.
If Norris (McLaren) wants to take advantage of the sequence to take the advantage over Verstappen in the quest for the Grail – which would be his first title in F1 -, the fiery Dutchman has not said his last word, despite the recent lack performance of his Red Bull.
‘We have made some modifications to the car to make it better suited to the circuit (of the Americas), we will see if that will make us more competitive,’ explained Verstappen, who won almost everything last year in Texas but who hasn’t won a GP since the end of June – an eternity for him.
The red bull team took advantage of the break to rebuild its health and should arrive in Texas with an improved car. If the developments have not yet been revealed, the objective will above all be to reduce the gap with McLaren, which took the lead in the constructors’ world championship in mid-September.
McLaren, the ‘two titles’ in the viewfinder
Verstappen is currently 52 points ahead of his first pursuer Norris (331 points against 279 points), while up to 34 points (compared to 26 usually) are to be gleaned this weekend, thanks to the third sprint (out of six) of the year, run on Saturday.
If ‘Mad Max’ still maintains a comfortable lead, it gradually sees the McLaren driver, winner of the last GP, return to Singapore. Enough to dislodge King Verstappen from his throne? At the end of the last four GPs, the Englishman systematically finished ahead of his rival, but he never let himself be outrageously far behind.
With a maximum of 180 points still to be distributed, Norris must score on average nine points more per weekend than the reigning champion until the last GP, in Abu Dhabi in early December, to be titled.
‘Many teams will be bringing updates to their cars during the last races, so we expect a close competition’, however anticipates Andrea Stella, the manager of McLaren, which has become the leading force on the field thanks to the consistency of its pilots Norris and Oscar Piastri.
‘But as always (…), we will focus on ourselves and strive to score points in our quest for both titles’ – drivers and constructors -, he also said.
/ATS
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