Are the wheels coming off McLaren’s Drivers’ title charge?
23 October 2025After a flying start to the 2025 F1 season, McLaren has looked unstoppable for much of the campaign.
Before the Italian Grand Prix in September, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri had shared 13 of the 16 victories, and at that point, the Australian looked to have one hand on the Drivers’ Championship.
Since the race at Monza, though, that’s all been turned on its head and the papaya team’s momentum has stalled.
Mistakes have crept in, McLaren has stumbled over awkward team orders and a resurgent Max Verstappen has turned up the heat. What was once a sure thing for Oscar and Lando now looks to be a fight for survival.
So, what’s gone wrong at McLaren in recent races, and what can be done to remedy it?
From dominance to disarray
The first half of McLaren’s 2025 campaign was a masterclass. Norris won a tricky opening round on Piastri’s home turf, the Aussie struck back with an ominous race in China, and after a brief interlude where the reigning champion mastered Suzuka, Oscar went on a tear to win three in a row.
The tide turned in Lando’s favour mid-season, as the Brit took headline victories in Monaco, Austria and at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, while Oscar picked up wins in Spain and Belgium.
But the turning point came at Zandvoort, where Norris suffered a rare mechanical retirement. Although Piastri won the race in Verstappen’s back yard and opened a margin of over 100 points to the Red Bull driver, what looked like a one-off setback for Lando’s title hopes became the start of a worrying trend.
At Monza, the team tripped over itself with a slow pit stop for Lando and an awkward position handback between the two drivers. While McLaren faltered, Verstappen delivered a commanding victory, carving the first 10 points out of Piastri’s points lead.
A string of costly weekends
From there, the cracks began to show. In Azerbaijan, McLaren struggled for pace all weekend, with Lando salvaging a meagre points haul and Oscar crashing out on Lap 1 after jumping the start. Once again, Max was there to pick up the pieces and tore another 25-point chunk out of the Aussie’s lead.
The following round in Singapore brought with it tainted celebrations for the Woking-based team, as it wrapped up its first back-to-back Constructors’ titles since the 1990 and 1991 seasons 34 years ago. But the drivers tangled at Turn 1, and while they were focused on one another, Verstappen chipped away a further six points.
The trend continued into Austin, where both McLarens retired at Turn 1 of the Sprint Race, then in the Grand Prix itself, Norris spent the duration squabbling with Charles Leclerc over second – partially down to another slow pit stop – and Piastri finished a distant fifth.
By the time the paddock left Texas, McLaren’s air of invincibility had well and truly faded, and Verstappen had closed a cavernous gap to something far more manageable.
The Verstappen factor
Since Piastri’s win in Zandvoort, Verstappen has slashed the gap from over 100 points to 40 in just four rounds, reigniting a championship fight many thought was already over.
The four-time champion’s relentless pace and cutthroat racecraft has been key to his domination in recent seasons, but this year it’s being deployed in a very different way.
His consistency, especially in the face of McLaren’s miscues, has piled pressure on the papaya team. Every misjudged strategy call and slow pit stop now carries extra weight.
Norris and Piastri know he’s waiting to pounce. He’s there to capitalise each time they falter. And heading into the final five events, the momentum is very much with Verstappen.
Still in control, but for how long?
The good news for McLaren fans is that the fundamentals remain strong. The MCL39 is still one of the most balanced cars on the grid, and Norris has finished on the podium three times in the last four races, but in that time, Piastri has only stood on the rostrum once.
With a 40-point gap back to Max for Oscar and a 26-point gap for Norris, the McLaren drivers are still in the pound seat, but the Dutchman has whittled away a bigger advantage than that in the last four events, and there’s one more round to work with before the end of the season.
Complacency or experimentation?
McLaren’s downturn might be partly self-inflicted. With the Constructors’ title effectively sewn up, the team might have begun experimenting with setups and components in preparation for 2026’s regulations.
There’s also the question of pressure. This is the first time McLaren has been in a fight for the drivers’ title since 2010. Meanwhile, Max has been ticking off championships with ease for the past three seasons, winning them for the past four.
Can McLaren turn it around?
If McLaren is to steady the ship, it’ll need to rediscover the precision and calm that defined its form in the first half of the season. That means tightening up execution on all fronts, from pit stops to set-up and first corner clashes.
It’s no longer a case of just being competitive. It needs to dominate and stamp out the threat posed by Verstappen before it gains any further traction. Lando and Oscar are both able to deliver under pressure, but Max has built his career on applying it.
With the gap shrinking rapidly and McLaren’s confidence wavering, every choice from here on out could shape the outcome of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship. Composure and confident decision-making are the name of the game now.
