McLaren must have already gotten shaky when it sees the arrival of Max Verstappen, who grows bigger in the rearview mirrors of Lando Norris and each grand prix that passes and who, alone, because Yuki Tsunoda, his teammate, is neither there nor expected, has been creating the options of getting fully into the fight for the title. To the lovers who still mourn Ayrton Senna, no one will convince them of the existence of a driver with more magic than him. Whoever did not see Michael Schumacher pass the roller dressed in red at the beginning of the 2000s (five titles in a row) missed one of the most legendary eras of Formula 1. Regardless of how this season ends, Verstappen has earned people to seat him at the same table where the German, the Brazilian and few others coincide.
There are unequivocal messages that the statistics underline a little more. In Austin, the current champion had a feast that, now, labels him as a candidate for a World Cup that less than two months ago seemed to have been completely lost. The turning point came at Monza, where Red Bull introduced a new flat bottom to the Dutchman’s prototype, which spread its wings from then on and began to fly. That change calmed the red buffalo and revitalized its pilot, who activated Mad Max mode and went in pursuit of the two papaya cars.
The season has been definitively opened in Austin, where Verstappen maximized his potential. Since that modification applied in Italy, the Hasselt rider has won three of the four grand prizes contested, always placing his car ahead of his two opponents in the time trial. In Holland, at the end of August, the Red Bull star said goodbye to his fans and almost all his options when he left Zandvoort more than 100 points behind Piastri, the leader of the competition. In the four stops on the calendar held since that moment, he has taken 60 points from the McLarens to put them back within 40 points of the Australian, when there are still five races and two sprints left to compete.
This trend, furthermore, seems to work more and more in his favor if we take into account what happened in Texas, where Verstappen’s superiority meant that he was barely seen on television, due to riding completely alone. On Saturday it was the two McLarens that eliminated themselves at the start. This Sunday it was the Ferraris who interfered between him, Norris and Piastri, with a different tire strategy in the case of Charles Leclerc.
Upon the arrival of the four-time world champion to the party for the crown, guests punctually join who, due to their potential, cannot be measured in short by victories, but who bother, they bother, a lot. Equipped with soft tires instead of hard ones, the Monegasque made himself immense in front of Norris, who managed to overtake him in extremis, with five laps to go and after throwing the car at him during the first stop, to minimize the damage. Leclerc completed a podium from which Piastri (fifth) was far away, with the Australian unable to even get close to Lewis Hamilton (fourth). Fernando Alonso finished the tenth, and Carlos Sainz retired after a contact with Kimi Antonelli.
