Mexico City.- McLaren are already ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, but are still far from the drivers’ crown, and Lando Norris is looking for a historic feat, as there have been in the past.
After two well-deserved victories in Azerbaijan and Singapore, the British have 516 points to beat the energy drink team by 31 points.
With six races left – the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi – the Woking team must keep up the pace with their fast car and ensure that their drivers are in the Top 5 or on the podium to secure the team title for the first time since 1998. The unknown is at an individual level, because Lando Norris, with his constant errors, has not been up to the task of challenging Max Verstappen.
The Englishman has 279 points, while the Dutchman continues to dominate with 331 points and a 52-point lead, so the pressure is on the papaya-colored car.
Mathematically, there are several combinations that can dethrone the king of the top category. For example, Norris must win the remaining 6 races, plus the 3 remaining Sprint Races, plus the fastest lap point and “Super Max” finishing third or lower in those races. The British-based franchise is in a hurry to regain its lead, as the last time it was crowned in the Drivers’ Championship was in 2008 with a youngster called Lewis Hamilton.
Hunt and the assault on Lauda
In 1976, Niki Lauda was the favourite to win the title with 5 wins, in Brazil, South Africa, Belgium, Monaco and Great Britain; 2 second places, in the USA and Spain, and a third place in Sweden.
Up to Silverstone, the Austrian Ferrari driver had 61 points and was 35 ahead of James Hunt; however, with that very serious accident at the Nurburgring, where he suffered severe burns, Lauda lost ground. The McLaren driver took advantage of Lauda’s absence to win in Germany and the Netherlands and add 47 points, still far from the mission. Lauda returned with four rounds to go, but it was too late and Hunt took the crown by just one point. Hunt won by 69 points in 1976, one point ahead of Lauda, after overcoming a gap of 35 points.
From fifth place to the throne
In 1982, Ferrari led the pack comfortably with Didier Pironi’s 39 points after completing 12 of 16 rounds, but at the German GP his car forced him to retire and leave the way clear for the McLarens of John Watson and Niki Lauda, Alain Prost of Renault and Keke Rosberg of Williams.
Against all odds, Rosberg, who was fifth in the Drivers’ Championship with 23 points, secured victory in Switzerland and a pair of further podiums in Germany (third) and Austria (second) to climb to first place and take his first and only F1 title with 44 points. Despite missing four races, Pironi was second overall with 39 points, tied with Watson. A five-point lead gave Keke Rosberg the crown, overcoming a 16-point deficit.
Raikkonen vs. 2 McLaren
As the two McLaren drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, took their fight to the bitter end, Kimi Raikkonen took the 2007 title from them by just one point.
Despite being a rookie in F1, Hamilton showed his talent by winning in Canada, the United States and Hungary, to take the lead with 84 points, five ahead of the Nano and 15 more than Felipe Massa. Kimi, in fourth place, had only 68 points and, although it seemed that he was far away, in the last five dates he completed the feat by winning in Belgium, China and Brazil, and accumulating 42 more points to his account compared to only 25 for the Englishman.
Raikkonen totalled 110 points to win the 2007 championship after overcoming a deficit of 16 in just 5 races.
The Red Bull Era Begins
With 7 different drivers winning the first 7 races of 2012 (Australia, Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Canada) and a change in the points system, it was unclear who could take the throne.
By the Belgian GP, Fernando Alonso, driving a Ferrari, was already leading the pack with 164 points, while young Sebastian Vettel was second with 140 points, but he had a fast Red Bull that would become the car to beat in the following 3 years. The German’s good run of form made the difference, with 4 consecutive wins, in Singapore, Japan, South Korea and India, to be crowned in Brazil with a just 3-point lead. 281 points gave Vettel the throne in 2012, after finding himself in a gap of 24 units to Alonso.
Hamilton vs. Rosberg
Nico Rosberg managed to take the lead of the Drivers’ Championship in 2014 despite his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton starting the campaign by winning four of the first five Grands Prix.
Rosberg had built up an 11-point lead going into the summer break, but when the season resumed Hamilton made a strong comeback, taking six more wins. Nico stayed in contention but his hopes were dashed at the final Abu Dhabi GP when he finished 14th, 67 points behind Lewis, who claimed his second F1 title. Hamilton won by 50 points in Abu Dhabi and was crowned champion on 384 points; Rosberg (317) finished runner-up.
#Norris #win #title #Verstappens #advantage