Analysis: ‘Perfect McLaren driver’ would have won the world championship in Mexico

Whoever wins the world championship this year, McLaren will know that at least one of their drivers could have done.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have finished ahead of each other at least 10 times apiece since the season began. That means each has taken points off the other.

But if one of them had always scored the best result McLaren achieved each weekend, that driver would have almost 100 points more than either of the pair has today.

After Norris’s victory in the season-opener at Melbourne, Piastri regularly out-scored him over the opening rounds. But Norris’s form improved after McLaren introduced a change to their front suspension in Canada, and last weekend he finally retook the championship lead with 357 points.

However a ‘Perfect McLaren Driver’ who combined the best results of Piastri and Norris over the season would be much further ahead, on 452.

That would be enough to clinch the championship under those circumstances. With 116 points available, Max Verstappen would have dropped out of championship contention last weekend and the other McLaren driver would have already been beaten:

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McLaren’s policy of letting their drivers fight for the championship has produced many of the season’s on-track highlights. It has only occasionally come at a cost to their team’s points haul, such as in Montreal when Norris took himself out of the race while trying to pass Piastri.

But it has cost their drivers much more in terms of the points they have lost to each other. As this analysis shows, either could be almost 100 points better off (though to be fair to Norris there was little he could have done about the 18 points he lost at Zandvoort when his car broke down).

The situation could not be more different for Verstappen at Red Bull. He has only been out-scored once all season by his team mate, his 17th place in the sprint race at Miami where Yuki Tsunoda came sixth (Verstappen finished ahead on the road but had a 10-second time penalty). But even a ‘Perfect Red Bull driver’ with 324 points to Verstappen’s 321 would be out of championship contention against a McLaren driver who had maximised every opportunity all season.

But the real Verstappen still has a realistic chance of winning the title this year. Despite Norris’s victory in Mexico last weekend, Verstappen has cut his deficit to the championship lead at every round since the Italian Grand Prix.

It will help his cause that McLaren’s drivers have converged on points as the season has gone on. Late last year McLaren decided to prioritise Norris’s chance to overturn Verstappen’s points lead and Piastri duly handed him victory in the sprint race at Interlagos. However they cannot justify doing the same with either driver now the points gap between them has become so close.

McLaren’s constructors’ championship victory was so emphatic it was always going to reflect poorly on Norris and Piastri if neither of them clinched the drivers’ title. It’s now indisputable that at least one of them could have won it. But it’s still very possible they might not.

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Which McLaren driver scored the most points at each race

2025 Mexican Grand Prix

• Mexico’s motorsport authority blames Lawson for near-miss with marshals in race
• Analysis: ‘Perfect McLaren driver’ would have won the world championship in Mexico
• Mercedes admit they took too long over team orders decision in Mexico
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• Verstappen’s race ban threat fades after 11 consecutive rounds without penalty points

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