Verstappen, the spoiler-in-chief in McLaren’s title civil war?
Max Verstappen’s September surge has flipped the tone of this championship. Two wins on the bounce — Monza and Baku — have reintroduced Red Bull to the sharp end on Sundays and, unintentionally or not, handed McLaren a problem only a rival can create: a third car meddling in a two-car title fight.
McLaren still holds the high ground, locking out first and second in the standings heading into the seven‑race run-in, with Oscar Piastri ahead by a healthy margin. It’s not insurmountable — roughly a race win’s worth — but big enough to dictate how Lando Norris has to play the percentages from here. Crucially, though, Verstappen has started nicking the 25-pointers that might otherwise have gone to Woking. That’s where this gets interesting.
Ralf Schumacher sketched the scenario plainly on Sky Deutschland’s Backstage Boxengasse podcast: Max can be the kingmaker. “Lando sees a bit of light at the end of the tunnel again. Max is here, and he can now take points away, which wasn’t the case before. That’s very important in this situation.” The logic is simple: if Norris beats Piastri on the day, and Verstappen parks himself between the two papaya cars, the gap tightens. If Verstappen beats them both, it’s a wash for the leaders and a slow bleed for the chaser.
That’s precisely what happened in Baku, where both McLarens came off second best to the Red Bull. The qualifying compromises were costly. Norris brushed the wall and left himself more work than necessary, then his race got boxed in by a DRS train after a tardy stop. Piastri’s afternoon was even messier, an early error undoing what little track position he had. Max didn’t need to dominate to damage — he just needed to stand in the middle and collect the big points.
Monza told a similar story, only cleaner. Red Bull’s trimmed-out package, boosted by a new floor, looked happier than it had in weeks. That’s not a guarantee of momentum, but it is a reminder that this isn’t a two-horse race on raw pace every weekend. If Verstappen keeps showing up with this level, the arithmetic of the title fight gets… creative.
Schumacher didn’t spare Norris entirely. “In my opinion, that wasn’t enough,” he said of the Briton’s Baku weekend. “He should have been further up in qualifying. That would have made a difference. The race usually builds up quite differently.” Then came the nod to damage limitation: “Unlike his teammate, he drove a flawless race. He tried, but didn’t take any risks. So, hats off to him.” There’s a human beat in there, too — the quiet satisfaction that Piastri, who’s landed his share of verbal jabs this year, made a mistake of his own.
It’s easy to call Verstappen a spoiler. It’s more accurate to call him the pace car for McLaren’s psychology. When the fight is purely Norris vs. Piastri, every micro-decision is about extracting one point here, two points there. Introduce Verstappen, and the strategy flips: a 20-point swing becomes possible in a single afternoon if you misjudge him, or if he snatches a win that should’ve been yours. That forces clarity. It also forces risk.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth for McLaren: they can’t control Max. They can only control execution. And the scatter from the last three rounds — a lost engine for Norris at Zandvoort, untidy Saturdays, unforced errors — has kept Piastri ahead despite a live wire of form from the other side of the garage. If Red Bull’s upswing holds on the variety of circuits to come, the team wearing papaya will need cleaner weekends to prevent the championship from being decided by whoever finishes behind Verstappen, not in front of their teammate.
This isn’t the first time a third party has shaped a title duel without being in it outright. It’s how Nico Rosberg survived Lewis Hamilton in 2016 — capitalize on every external variable — and how Kimi Räikkönen pinched it in 2007 — keep your own slate clean and let rivals fight the ghost in the mirror. Piastri has banked the points cushion. Norris has the speed to chip it down. Verstappen, suddenly, has the sway to decide which of those two truths matters more.
Call it kingmaker, spoiler, or simply Max being Max. If he keeps standing on the top step, he might end up handing the crown to someone in orange — just not necessarily the one you think.
