Despite only sitting fourth in the drivers’ standings and being 83 points behind champion leader Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris has shifted the course of the season over the last two rounds. Back to back victories in Hungary and the Netherlands has raised a possibility that seemed off the cards at the start of the season.
Successful upgrades and a confident reigning World Champion looks to be the perfect recipe to potentially take the fight to an incredibly fast and consistent Antonelli.
But can he really do it?
A Dominant Display in Hungary
Before the summer break, McLaren introduced significant upgrades to their MCL40 for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Norris showcased the Woking team’s hard work on the Saturday by putting his car on pole position ahead of both Ferraris.
Lewis Hamilton would later be penalised for impeding Norris’ team mate Oscar Piastri, who only managed P5 in Qualifying as a consequence. Antonelli was also penalised for impeding which promoted Piastri to third on the grid.
Piastri took the lead from Norris into Turn 4 on the opening lap but couldn’t shake his team mate from his rear wing. McLaren pitted Piastri first in compliance with their ‘Papaya Rules’ but this didn’t benefit the Aussie the way he would’ve hoped.
Now in clean air, Norris’ pace was clear. He extended his first stint by an extra 6 laps compared to Piastri and pulled out a decent gap. Meanwhile Piastri faced a handful of traffic and made contact with former McLaren driver Carlos Sainz under blue flags.
Sainz was battling Fernando Alonso whilst repeatedly ignoring blue flags in the process. This already cost the Aussie driver a huge chunk of time before Sainz came across Piastri, damaging his car slightly and putting him off the track.
One lap after this, McLaren decided to pit Norris and he came out comfortably ahead into the net-race lead after the incident between Piastri and his former team mate. Once he pitted, his race was fairly plain sailing. He overtook Antonelli for the lead on Lap 46 and took the chequered flag 15 seconds ahead of his former rival, Verstappen.
Although this race showed McLaren and Norris’ newfound performance was undeniable, it still seemed almost inevitable that Antonelli would take the crown this season… until Zandvoort.
Tables Turn in Zandvoort?
A consecutive Grand Prix masterclass proved that these new upgrades could be season defining for Norris and McLaren.
Victory in Zandvoort was a lot more complicated than in Hungary for the reigning champion. A red flag and a charging Antonelli had the potential to throw some spanners in the works for Norris’ pole to win hopes. After losing the lead to Antonelli into Turn 1 on the restart, Norris had it all to do with his team mate now behind him.
Interestingly, Will Joseph came on the radio to Norris to inform him that Piastri was behind but insinuated there would be no pressure from him. Is this the start of team orders from McLaren?
A slow stop and some questionable strategy calls left Piastri P6 at the end of the race.
A Virtual Safety Car halted the battle for third and saved George Russell from the threat of both Hamilton and Leclerc. An interesting call from Mercedes to swap the cars in the closing stages of the race left him vulnerable to the Scuderia and allowed his team mate to start his hunt on Norris out in front.
Antonelli led the middle chunk of the race ahead of Norris after committing to a longer second stint. Norris hunted him down and passed him and Hamilton on Lap 53, being on 7 lap fresher tyres.
Is it Really Possible?
In short, yes.
Antonelli looked undefeatable in the first half of the season but Norris’ newfound confidence as a Formula 1 World Champion is clear.
Norris was asked about his chances during last weekend’s press conference. He made a very good point that in short, anything can happen and it did last year to put Verstappen in contention for the 2025 crown.
For instance, in Vegas a double disqualification for McLaren and victory for Verstappen put him only a handful of points behind champion leader Norris going into the final two rounds of the season.
Despite three wins in a row for the Dutchman, Norris still had the measure of the 4 time world champion over the 2025 season and held off his incredible charge. But not by much.
In the end, only 2 points separated the rivals and the possibility of Verstappen getting his fifth title was definitely real.
Last year with 11 rounds remaining, Verstappen was a whopping 81 points adrift to Piastri at the top… this year, as pointed out at the beginning of the article, Norris is 83 points back.
So, if McLaren can continue to outdevelop the Silver Arrows, a second championship is hard to rule out for Lando Norris this year.
Photo Credit: Formula 1 via X