By Michael Pedro
Max Verstappen almost did the unthinkable. But what’s most shocking is that it wasn’t too far out of the realm of possibility. What once seemed to be a near-impossible feat became possible, with one of the most dominant drivers in Formula 1’s 75-year history coming alive in the title fight when it mattered most. He threw a curveball in what seemed to be a guaranteed McLaren championship victory, with their star drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battling for the lead all season long. As the series roared into its homestretch, the top three stood within striking distance of each other, and one wrong move on the track would spell the end of this brilliant battle.
This charge began in the Netherlands, Verstappen’s home country, at the Formula 1 Heineken Dutch Grand Prix. At the end of the race, Piastri had the championship lead by 34 points over teammate Norris and held an impressive 104-point lead over Verstappen. After this race, the Formula 1 fanbase had assumed Verstappen was down and out, and that the chances of his fifth-straight World Championship had fallen. But this is Max Verstappen we’re talking about. Despite the fact that Red Bull Racing’s RB21 car wasn’t dominating like past iterations, Verstappen proved he could still take a somewhat midfield car to the top step of the podium. He took the win in Monza the following week after a dominant showing, then won at Azerbaijan’s Baku street circuit later in the month. Then, he finished runner-up in Singapore to Mercedes’ George Russell, a driver who had all but been mathematically eliminated from the championship. Verstappen responded to this runner-up with a win in the following race at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, then finished third in the race in Mexico.
Verstappen’s run in this stretch seemed almost improbable to fans. If this were any other driver, they would have likely fallen behind and out of the fight already. Though even after this amazing, semi-miraculous stretch, Verstappen stood just 36 points behind Norris, who led the championship by one point over Piastri. While Verstappen was getting victories and runner-ups, Norris and Piastri had been mildly inconsistent, with Norris and Piastri missing out on podium spots entirely at Baku, and Piastri not scoring a podium since Monza. However, this season was far from over, as Verstappen’s best tracks had yet to be run.
This brings us to the Brazilian Grand Prix, where everything came to a head. Held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, this track had been very kind to Verstappen in the past, but less so to the McLaren drivers. In the 2023 and 2024 races held here, Norris finished second and sixth, while Piastri finished a staggering fourteenth and eighth. As for Verstappen? He won both, including the 2024 race in the rain that proved his prowess as one of the best drivers on the Formula 1 grid, coming from seventeenth on the grid to take the gold when the track was soaked.
This year saw a big shakeup in many ways, with the race’s qualifying session seeing Verstappen get eliminated in the first round off of pure pace, the first time this had ever happened. The previous times he’d been eliminated were largely out of his control, be it mechanical failure or an on-track incident. Then, he would be relegated to a pit lane start due to an engine change, virtually putting him in last. As for his McLaren rivals, they would roll off first and fourth. As the race drew on, Verstappen picked off drivers one by one. Through some clever pit strategy, he would find himself in the top five. With twenty laps to go, he would be in the lead. However, this would be short-lived, as he would dive into the pits sometime later to put on fresher tires, which would force him to relinquish the lead to Norris. When the checkered flag flew, Norris would win, Verstappen would take third, and Piastri would wind up fifth after a penalty. As for the standings, Verstappen’s title hopes became slimmer, as Norris extended his lead to 24 points over Piastri and 49 over Verstappen.
Verstappen needed to play it perfectly. He needed to win every remaining race and sprint race while Norris and Piastri ran inconsistently, which is a tall task in and of itself. However, Verstappen ruled himself out of the fight following the Brazilian Grand Prix. And, sadly, fans hoping to witness dominance once more were left wondering what could’ve been. In the final three races, Verstappen won each one, playing it as flawlessly as he could have. At the end of the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Norris barely squeaked out a championship victory over Verstappen, who had whittled down his deficit to Norris to only two points, which equated to basically one position on track with how Norris and the other strong contenders were running. As Norris took the title, he also assumed the number one for his car, while Verstappen adopted the number three for the 2026 season. Since the new season kicked off, both McLaren and Red Bull have taken a while to get off to a solid start, with the Mercedes team dominating the serason thus far. However, if Verstappen’s last-ditch surge is any indication, anything is possible in Formula One.
