McLaren World Championship duel: Will Max Verstappen be the deciding factor?

(Motorsport-Total.com) - With eight races remaining in the 2025 Formula 1 season, almost all observers agree that the world champion at the end of the year will be either Oscar Piastri or Lando Norris. Although mathematically, other drivers, such as Max Verstappen, also have a chance of winning the title .

As third in the World Championship, the Dutchman is currently 94 points behind leader Piastri, which in practice is likely to be too big a gap, even if Red Bull manages to initiate another upward trend after Verstappen's recent victory in Monza.

Nevertheless, the reigning world champion could at least play a role as an "outsider" in the 2025 World Championship battle. If he proves to be a real challenger for the two McLaren drivers in the upcoming races, as he did on the Monza weekend, he could deprive them of important points.

Lando Norris, who is currently 31 points behind his teammate in the Drivers' Championship, sees this as a positive. "I wouldn't say so," he replies when asked whether he thinks it makes the title fight more difficult now that Red Bull is regularly at the front again.

"In a way," it's even "a good thing," says Norris, who emphasizes: "I have to try to use it to my advantage." It would be helpful for the Briton in the upcoming races to put as many cars as possible between himself and his teammates.

Why Verstappen helped Piastri in Monza

For example, if Norris wins a Grand Prix in which Piastri finishes second, he "only" gains seven points on the Australian. However, if Verstappen is also between the two McLaren drivers, Norris would gain ten points in one fell swoop.

Of course, the plan only works if Norris himself manages to beat Verstappen, which wasn't the case at Monza recently. Norris knows that the Dutchman "took a lot of points away from him" there, too.

Because he and Piastri finished second and third, he only gained three points on the Australian. A one-two finish in the same order would have added seven points, so Verstappen's strong performance in Italy ultimately proved to be a disadvantage for Norris.

"We couldn't fight for the win. He was way too fast for us. So we still have a lot to improve," explains Norris, stressing: "As much as [the other teams] complain every weekend, we still get beaten quite often."

"In many cases, we're still beatable. And we don't like that," said the Briton. However, this could actually be an advantage for his own World Championship chances. However, only if only the other McLaren is beaten.