As Formula One returns from the summer break, the race to be the 2024 drivers’ champion resumes with ten weekends ahead. Lando Norris is the only realistic challenger to the triple world champion Max Verstappen but the McLaren driver lies 78 points behind the championship leader.

At the Hungarian Grand Prix, McLaren gave team orders for their drivers to switch positions while Lando Norris was leading the race. The British driver had benefited from a pitstop advantage which prior to saw Oscar Piastri leading the race. A number of senior F1 commentators questioned the naivety of McLaren’s decision making given Norris was the only realistic challenger to Verstappen and the team claimed the same haul of points whichever order their drivers crossed the line.

Of course had that decision not been made Norris would now be just 71 points behind the championship leader. Lando dropped points at least 18 points in Austria battling for the lead with Verstappen when the pair came together putting Lando out of the race. The question is can Norris overhaul Verstappen’s lead and if so what is the size of his task?

 

 

 

 

Greatest ever F1 title comebacks

There are 284 points on offer between now and the end of the season when including ten fastest lap points, three Sprint races with up to 8 points and ten Grand Prix victories would bring in another 250 points. Yet is there a realistic chance of Norris closing the gap?

During the history of Formula One the points awarded in a season have changed a number of times. Back when the system offered 9-6-4-3-2-1 from first to sixth place John Surtees in 1964 made the greatest comeback during that era of the sport.

Surtees the only ever driver to win world titles on four wheels and two required 20 points from the remaining five races to claim the F1 title outright. At a time when F1 cars were more fragile than today, Surtees had suffered three retirements in the first four Grands Prix of the year, yet with help from a team mate Lorenzo Bandini in Mexico the British driving legend managed to make up the points and finish just one ahead of Graham Hill.

In 1976, James hunt faced similar conundrum but the British champion elect had just three races to overhaul a 17 point deficit. This was the season when runaway championship leader Niki Lauda who was seriously injured in a burning car in Germany. The Austrian missed two races before a remarkable comeback to F1 and the season was decided at the final round in Japan when in a rain soaked Grand Prix, Lauda elected to retire paving the way for Hunt to lift the title having fought for a hard earned podium finish.

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Prost had to win the final two

Alain Prost seemingly also required two race wins at the final two rounds during the 1986 campaign and in remarkable circumstances at the season finale in Adelaide the French man claimed his second title as favourite Nigel Mansell crashed out with a spectacular tyre failure on the main straight.

With the points system now 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 in 2007 Kimi Raikkonen facing a 17 points deficit looked as though he would require two wins also from the reaming two rounds to become champion.

After the the round in Japan, Lewis Hamilton led the way 12 points clear of his McLaren team mate Fernando Alonso and Raikkonen a further five points behind. Yet a dramatic retirement from Hamilton in the penultimate round in China turned the situation on its head as he careered into the pit lane wall.

Still seven points behind, Raikkonen cooly claimed the victory in the Brazil finale with Felipe Massa coming home in second place. Hamilton had to settle for seventh having encountered early get box issues and with Alonso just third, Kimi finished just one point ahead of the McLaren pair.

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Vettel era of dominance? not so!

Sebastian Vettel’s time with Red Bull looks as though he and the team enjoyed a period of dominance winning both drivers’ and constructor championships four years consecutively between 2010-2013. Yet in two of those seasons the German was not favourite as the final rounds approached. 

Vettel overcame a 31 points deficit with six races to go in 2010, although the points system was now 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. In 2012 the challenge was even greater for Vettel 31 points behind Alonso following a DNF in the Italian grand Prix.

Yet when Hamilton suffered a gear box failure in Singapore, Vettel inherited the win. Then in Japan Alonso retired on the first lap and Sebastian took full advantage going on to claim the victory.

A pass on team mate Mark Webber gave the victory to Vettel in Korea and another top step of the podium in India saw Vettel take the lead of the championship by 13 points. He retained this lead during the final two rounds to claim his third consecutive F1 drivers’ championship.

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Norris has the greater task

So how does the task set for Lando Norris compare with these greatest ever F1 comebacks of all time to claim a championship. Firstly the task is greater for Norris given he needs just over three race victories with Verstappen not scoring to take the lead of the title race. We’ll look at the deficit on the same basis for the historic comebacks listed above.

Surtees required two and a bit victories in five rounds to guarantee closing the deficit and James Hunt just under two victories but with three weekends remaining. Prost in 1986 would need a race win and probably a P2 over the final two rounds and Raikkonen required two victories with two to go.

Obviously Lando Norris has a much larger number of races than did our F1 heroes of old, yeti simple terms he needs Verstappen to DNF in three events while he wins to force parity in this seasons championship.

Even though Max has won just three of the past nine races this year, he has scored four second place finishes and a third on the podium in the six races where he failed to collect the win. Even if Red Bull does not regain its dominance, Lando would have to win the most of the remaining Grand Prix this season on Verstappen’s current form to be close to the Dutch driver come the end of the year.

Further, McLaren would need to change their ways and make Norris their number one driver so he doesn’t lose points again to his team mate as was the case following team orders in Hungary this year.

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Ricciardo reacts to no Red Bull promotion

Prior to the Formula One Sumer break the accepted opinion amongst many F1 pundits was that Sergio Perez would be dropped from his seat alongside Max Verstappen. Perez has fallen from 33 points behind Verstappen and second place in the drivers’ championship following the Miami race – to P7 and a deficit to Max now of 146 points in just eight Grand Prix weekends.

The perceived wisdom was that having previously been successful at Red Bull and with little to choose between Yuki Tsunoda and his RB team mate, Ricciardo would get the call to replace Perez for the remaining ten weekends of the year.

A test was organised by RB the week following the Belgium Grand Prix and this saw Ricciardo and Liam Lawson go head to head. Unlike last year no change in the Red Bull driver line up followed the summer break test, whereas last year a similar session at Silverstone resulted in Ricciardo immediately replacing of the hapless Nyck de Vries… READ MORE