Who slept worst last night: Zak Brown

Both cars disqualified, the championship needlessly blown wide open, and a snarling Max Verstappen right on its tail: McLaren has been in much more comfortable situations than this

First of all, I would like to apologize. I really didn’t want to make McLaren the protagonist of this column, because that has happened often enough in recent weeks.

But after the events of yesterday’s race in Las Vegas – both McLarens were disqualified due to skid blocks that were too worn out – Zak Brown is practically the only possible choice as the face and head of the team.

In the newsroom, other options were discussed, including (brace yourselves) Max Verstappen. Because the Dutchman can now be even more annoyed about races like Spielberg, when he was wiped out by Kimi Antonelli in the first lap, or Budapest, when he finished behind Gabriel Bortoleto in the Sauber.

Only a few days ago, Verstappen admitted that his behavior in Spain was a mistake. Back then, he deliberately drove into George Russell’s Mercedes and received a 10-second penalty, which dropped him from fifth to tenth.

Those lost points hurt even more now. But when you make up a whopping 25 points on both title rivals, you simply don’t sleep badly.

But do you know what hurts a lot more? When both cars are thrown out of the classification in the midst of a title fight. And who knows whether in two weeks it might be exactly those points that McLaren is missing for the title.

Then Verstappen would have completed the ultimate comeback – or should we rather say that McLaren would have completely bottled a title that already looked safe?

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

Lest we forget, Verstappen was already more than 100 points behind Oscar Piastri after the race in Zandvoort. After Las Vegas, they are level.

It could have been a relaxed Saturday night for McLaren. Despite a bad start, Lando Norris was still able to finish second and maintain a 42-point advantage over Verstappen. That would have given them a joker for one mistake in the final two races.

But that joker is now gone. Verstappen is only 24 points behind – and therefore less than a race win away from his fifth world title. The Dutchman has smelled blood. And McLaren is very much on thin ice.

Just how serious it is can be seen by how desperately they tried to get the stewards to change their minds. The hearing is reported to have lasted more than an hour, for an infringement that is pretty much black and white, with no room for interpretation.

McLaren tried it anyway, hoping, like Ferrari in 1999, to still force a change. Back then, Eddie Irvine and Michael Schumacher were disqualified from a 1-2 finish the penultimate race in Malaysia because their bargeboards were not legal.

Eddie Irvine, Ferrari F399 with the illegal bargeboard

Photo by: Sutton Images

That would have decided the world championship early in Mika Hakkinen’s favor. But because Ferrari managed to get the disqualification overturned in court, they were suddenly right back in the title fight.

In Las Vegas, McLaren argued there were mitigating circumstances: there was said to have been unexpected bouncing, limited testing opportunities due to the weather, and the infringement was said to be smaller than in earlier cases this season.

Let’s put it this way: in a situation like this, you have to try everything that is within your power. And we have seen even stranger arguments, like a Sky analysis by Karun Chandhok that Ferrari once used in 2019 to fight a penalty for Sebastian Vettel, or Alexander Albon being sent out by Red Bull to recreate racing lines in Silverstone.

We are talking about 0.07mm by with Norris’ MCL39 was over the limit. And yet, every other car that was checked managed to stay within the rules.

In the end, this 0.07mm could decide the title. And that shouldn’t happen to McLaren, a team that strives for perfection and has wanted to project exactly that image this season.

I want to exclude the drivers themselves from this question of sleeplessness. Norris still has a 24-point cushion and can become world champion in Qatar. Piastri at least reduced the gap to Norris when both cars were disqualified.

But Verstappen is now level with him. Piastri has shown quite a bit of weakness in recent weeks, and the four-time world champion is ruthlessly sensing that.

Brown knows this as well, and will probably fly to Qatar far more nervously than he did a few days ago when he travelled to Las Vegas.

Zak Brown, Chief Executive Officer of McLaren

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

For him, the championship is now truly on the line. And McLaren knows better than most how to throw away a supposedly safe title.

In 2007, with two races to go, McLaren had a 42.5-point lead over its closest challenger – converted to today’s points system. In the end, neither Lewis Hamilton nor Fernando Alonso lifted the trophy. Kimi Raikkonen had the last laugh.

Eighteen years later, that could be Verstappen. He has only a 24-point deficit, with an extra sprint race as an opportunity, and the self-confidence of a four-time champion.

I don’t know if Verstappen likes eating papaya, but when it comes to weakened opponents, he devours them for breakfast. And at McLaren, everyone is aware of that – more than ever before.