In 2013, Sebastian Vettel was tailing in second place in the Championship ranking while Fernando Alonso asserted his power and brought in last year’s excellent form. However, what carried forward to the new year was Fernando being the runner-up and Vettel winning the Championship! How did Vettel do it? He came back after the summer break and won ALL 9 RACES. He became the first driver to win 9 consecutively, a record only broken 10 years later. Why am I telling you this story?

Because Lando Norris might have to pull off ‘a Vettel’ on Max Verstappen, who sits 70 points ahead of him in the Championship. His teammate Oscar Piastri might have to play the ultimate team game in the days to come.

Will Piastri be forced to play second fiddle to Norris? Andrea Stella answers what is McLaren’s strategy to beat Max Verstappen

The reason why McLaren is bulldozing its way to beat Red Bull is because both its drivers are equally talented at bringing points home as opposed to Red Bull’s condition where the team is limping forward without Sergio Perez’s support. That being said, Perez played the ultimate wingman to Verstappen when it came to winning the 2021 driver’s Championship. And that is probably what might be expected from Oscar. But is it not breaking the sportsmanship code to ask an equally talented driver to take a back seat?

Team Principle Andrea Stell answers all these doubts.

“I think when it comes to these conversations about being the No. 1, I don’t think that’s a good way of approaching racing,” said Andrea Stella before the race in Zandvoort. “For us, we’d rather approach racing from fairness and integrity, and then see what comes, what sheds from this kind of approach. It’s (9) races to go. I think for Lando to realistically be in condition to chase the World Championship, he needs to keep performing at a very high level.”

“He needs to keep being fast. And then you gain your ranks on track. And if you gain your ranks, if you gain your merits on track by being fast, by being competitive, then we will evaluate, always led by integrity and fairness. Whether on some occasions we need the team to take a certain direction in a 50-50 decision, or if we want to have a conversation with Oscar and say, like, ‘Oscar, would you be available to do this to support Lando chasing the World Championship?’, but it will always have to be a conversation before the race,” Stella explained. But despite all of this and being 70 points behind, can Lando still win the Championship?

What are the odds of Lando Norris winning the championship?

Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has refused to rule out McLaren winning both Formula 1 titles after Max Verstappen’s 23-second defeat to Lando Norris at the Dutch Grand Prix. Red Bull entered the Dutch GP with a 42-point lead over McLaren, a difference which has now come down to 30!

Oscar and Lando’s teamwork has put McLaren on its way to win their first constructors’ title of the millennium. But interestingly, Lando has also brought down the point margin from 78 to 70 that Max held over him. This makes one wonder if the team can win both titles.

In my humble opinion, Lando Norris should be thanking himself that he decided to give up his place for Oscar to win the Hungarian GP because now Norris indeed needs Piastri to assist him with any hopes of a 2024 title victory.

McLaren needs Piastri to start acting as a ‘Verstappen-focused disruptor’ in the upcoming races. If Lando can continue his winning spree and Oscar can shave off points from Max, the game will be McLaren’s. Norris needs to pull a Seb Vettel and win all the 9 races that are left. It doesn’t seem like a mammoth task considering the 22.9-second margin that he pulled on Red Bull and Max at the latter’s home GP.

The permutations are as follows; Norris could win all 9 races and the 3 remaining sprints, but he may still not have enough points if Max Verstappen finishes second in all of them. According to the maths, if neither driver achieves the fastest lap, Norris would end up with 474 points as his final tally, 4 short of Verstappen.

With 5 fastest laps, Lando can close the gap to take the lead, but this supposition stands on shaky ground. Red Bull, on the other hand, can still snatch those fastest laps by throwing in their second driver to shave off points.

But if Oscar Piastri sits between the off-track besties, then it will be a different ball game. Only time will tell what is to come.

Your thoughts? Drop ’em in the comments below.