From Marina Bay to Austin: McLaren’s Troubles and Verstappen’s Surge in Performance
By Catherine Wang ‘28
Under the bright lights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Formula One delivered an eventful night race at the Singapore Grand Prix on October 5. Even with a heat hazard issued by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Mercedes driver George Russell claimed pole position, which easily brought him to his 5th career victory over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the McLarens. He managed to briefly disrupt McLaren’s dominant season, but the spotlight ultimately stayed on the papaya team: Team McLaren. With a third and fourth place finish by Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, respectively, McLaren successfully secured the team-based Constructors’ Championship with six races remaining in the season, affirming their dominance so far in 2025.
Despite the victory, internal conflicts arose with the McLaren drivers. On lap one, turn three, McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri made contact in what was initially dismissed as a racing incident. With both drivers fighting for the championship title and the team preaching its “papaya rules,” which are supposed to “remind the drivers that they are free to race, but they must keep the battle fair, clean and avoid colliding,” emerged questions about whether this internal rivalry would derail the McLaren drivers’ successful season so far. This also follows the incident at Monza a few weeks ago, where the team had a very controversial mid-race driver swap, committed after a pit stop mishap that left Norris behind his teammate. The race started plenty of debates online over whether McLaren was right to intervene, raising questions about the team’s strategy and fairness, especially because the point gap between the two McLarens is pretty small.
According to Sky Sports, Lando Norris said that “The team held me accountable for what happened, which I think is fair, then we made progress from there on understanding what the repercussions were for myself to avoid anything worse happening than then what did.” McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella also confirmed the team’s actions, stating that “The repercussions or consequences, are part of our framework. This is something both drivers were keen to have in the racing framework.”
Meanwhile, four-time world champion Max Verstappen continues his so-called “curse” at Marina Bay, still unable to win a race on the technical street circuit. Lewis Hamilton also endured another extremely frustrating weekend with Ferrari, including brake failure issues that forced him to accept a five-second penalty for repeatedly exceeding track limits, trying to hold off Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso. The seven-time world champion dropped from seventh to eighth place after the penalty.
From there, everyone headed west to Austin, Texas, for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas, also known as COTA. Under the Texan sun, a heat hazard was declared by the FIA, but the weather did not stop Verstappen as he took pole position for the Sprint and won it. The same success could not be found for McLaren, however, as Norris and Piastri, who started P2 and P6, collided in turn 1. The crash was because of Kick Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg, who bumped into Piastri, causing him to spin out and take out Norris and Alonso as well. Both drivers retired before completing a single lap, causing a double DNF and therefore zero points for McLaren.
As for Verstappen, he delivered a great race on Sunday after securing another pole, leading every lap to claim his 5th win of the season. Joining him on the podium were Norris and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, while Piastri finished fifth. Norris is now 14 points behind Piastri, closing up the gap for the Drivers’ Championship slowly but surely. As for Verstappen, he leaves Austin with confidence and hope for a monumental comeback to claim the Drivers’ Championship. When asked in an interview about his title chances, he stated that, “Yeah, for sure, the chance is there. We just need to try and deliver these kind of weekends now until the end. So, we’ll just try whatever we can. You know, I think it is exciting, and I’m just very excited to the end.”
With momentum shifting in his favor, Austin proved that Verstappen is far from done. At the end of the U.S. Grand Prix, Verstappen is only 30 points away from Oscar Piastri, showing that the Flying Dutchman is not out of contention just yet. With five races and two sprints still to go, the drivers’ title now looks less certain for the McLarens, who are watching their once comfortable gap being reduced significantly. The Constructors’ trophy may already be McLaren’s, but the fight for the World Drivers’ Championship is certainly far from over.
The Dutch Lion is on the hunt, and the McLarens are his prey.