A blockbuster double disqualification for McLaren means the 2025 Formula 1 drivers’ title battle has suddenly closed up again coming out of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Here’s what our journalists make of what transpired in Vegas, and how it will influence the season’s outcome.
A spectacular blunder
Scott Mitchell-Malm
The inevitable attempt to argue mitigating circumstances inevitably failed – teams always have to try to get out of a technical infringement, but there’s never a reason good enough in such a black-and-white situation.
What I am most curious to understand relates to how McLaren got it so wrong – both in how it ended up vulnerable to this when nobody else in the top 10 did, and in how it managed both cars.
Presumably the lift and coast instructions at the end of the race were all about saving the plank – unless there was an astonishing coincidence and Norris was genuinely at risk of running out of fuel, too. Either way, something’s gone badly wrong.
If McLaren had no idea it was vulnerable on both cars, why was it so caught out here? It’s a bumpy street track – but the others managed it.
If McLaren did have reason to be strongly suspicious, why did it only act at the very, very end with Norris – and seemingly not at all with Piastri?
Some element of confidence or comprehension of the situation was clearly misplaced. There are a lot of questions to answer.
Norris still has enough in hand
Ben Anderson
The title battle, such as it was, looked basically over after this race – and it still might be given both McLarens were excluded. Had Piastri survived it would have made the championship picture more compelling, closing the gap down to nine points with Verstappen still floating in the background.
As it is, Piastri is still only an outside shot to beat Norris, it’s just that Verstappen is a big chunk closer to both of them.
Even so, it’s going to take another major setback like this one to hand Verstappen the championship. As good as he is, and has been all season, I don’t see him overturning a 24-point deficit with only two grands prix and a sprint race to play for.
Especially so seeing how abject Ferrari is right now, and how Piastri is still seemingly stuck in such a funk. Norris can quite likely count on finishing in the top two or three quite comfortably in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, which should be more than enough – if McLaren can stay on the right side of plank legality, of course!
A title decider will wreck McLaren’s nerves
Val Khorounzhiy
Privately, McLaren would have probably been OK with the idea of the title wrapping up in Qatar – not because Norris is favoured over Piastri or anything like that, but because it would spare the whole team some brutal final-race stress.
A title decider is such a particular beast, and even if the gap is 23-24-25 points heading into Abu Dhabi that’s still enough for one puncture, one bit of contact, one wheelgun failure, one power unit issue, one…uhhh…technical infringement – to potentially swing it.
Now the final-race title decider has become exponentially more likely – not to mention the possibility of McLaren letting the title slip through is grasp entirely.
Norris should still have more than enough of a buffer. The car is good enough, and he has been good enough. But the nerves will jangle now, and the routine – for him, for his side of the garage, for the team as a whole – will be messed with.
And weird things happen when you fail to escape the margin of error.
It might be time to favour Norris
Sam Smith
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, F1
With “no provision in the regulations or in precedent” for any penalty other than disqualification, it’s a slam-dunk penalty and the emphasis is now on McLaren to ensure its doesn’t get sucked in to an Adelaide 1986 void of uncertainty that allows Verstappen (Prost) to truly come up on the rails and snatch the title from Norris (Mansell) and/or Piastri (Piquet).
That is a delicious prospect for the neutrals because clearly Verstappen has been mesmerising this season, perhaps more so than in his 2023 dominance, but just in a very different way.
Qatar will be crucial for McLaren because if it can’t go into the Abu Dhabi finale with anything other than a double digit buffer over Verstappen then its properly game on.
That’s when the title ‘yips’ might come quickly and strongly, something which Piastri has shown more than a trait of in the last five races or so.
Should McLaren completely disregard ‘Papaya rules’ now and back Norris completely? We don’t want to see it, but it feels like the time to back him now and assure a clean sweep of the 2025 titles.
Far from over
Gary Anderson
The fact it was both cars shows that the team which has won the constructors’ for the second time is capable of errors – and this disqualification has definitely thrown a googly into the drivers’ championship equation.
With a maximum of 58 points left up for grabs from the last two races, it is by no means a done deal.
Verstappen and Red Bull’s performance at the moment actually means the momentum is with him, and with Piastri’s current performance it doesn’t look like he will be of any help to Norris. Even if Piastri wants to be, he probably still remembers when Norris barged his way through on the first lap in Singapore.
McLaren might just need all the ‘Papaya rules’ they can muster up over these last couple of race weekends.
If the points end up equal, the drivers’ championship could go down to best positions – as Norris has seven wins, Piastri seven and Verstappen six. Wouldn’t that be a turn-up for the books after McLaren’s early-season dominance?
