The 2024 F1 constructors’ championship seems to have slipped out of Red Bull’s hands as McLaren now leads them by 41 points in the standings. However, the battle for the drivers’ title between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris is far from over. What’s rather interesting is that both Verstappen and Norris have scored exactly the same number of points — 221— since the Briton won his first race in Miami earlier this season.
Even after McLaren heavily upgraded the MCL38 in Miami, Red Bull and Verstappen still had the upper hand for a few races owing to the misfortunes of Norris, who failed to capitalize on many race-winning opportunities in Canada, Spain, and Britain.
[Daniel Valente] Most points scored since Miami: Max Verstappen – 221 Lando Norris – 221 Oscar Piastri – 199 Verstappen had a 52-point lead over Norris entering the Miami Grand Prix. He still has a 52-point lead after Singapore, 13 races later. Still even. That’s quite remarkable.
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This is why, the points difference between the two contenders stood at 84 points after the British Grand Prix. However, since then, Norris has steadily brought the gap down to 52 points after the Singapore GP. Verstappen has also failed to win any races since the Spanish GP with Norris winning two in Zandvoort and Singapore.
This is now Verstappen’s longest winless run in F1 since 2020, which he broke by winning the season finale in Abu Dhabi. However, despite Red Bull’s deteriorating form and McLaren’s constant rise, the Dutchman has managed to extract every last bit of performance from his RB20.
And the 52-point advantage he has over Norris is still a massive gap for the Briton to overcome making the 2024 drivers’ championship Verstappen’s to lose. However, the #4 driver can use the help of his teammate Oscar Piastri — whose performance has been impeccable — at times even better than Norris.
Piastri can still ruin the party for Verstappen
As it stands now, Verstappen only needs to secure a P2 finish in every single race if he is to win the championship regardless of how many points Norris can score each weekend. This is thanks to the Dutchman’s old teammate, Daniel Ricciardo taking away the point for the fastest lap from Norris in Singapore in the final stages of the race.
However, one thing that can upset Verstappen is the second McLaren of Piastri. The Aussie driver has shown that not only is he capable of winning a race on merit, but even on an off day he can still take away points from Verstappen by securing P2 behind his teammate.
McLaren only needs a couple of 1-2 finishes to get Norris back into contention, especially considering that Piastri has now agreed to help his teammate win the championship. With six races still to go (including three sprint race weekends) the 2024 season is gearing up for one of the most thrilling finishes to a championship since 2021.
