Austin didn’t just hand Max Verstappen another winner’s hat. It handed Red Bull momentum, and it shoved McLaren into a decision it’s been dodging for months.
Verstappen controlled Sunday at COTA and slashed Oscar Piastri’s lead to 40 points with five race weekends left, having arrived in Texas 63 adrift. That’s not proximity yet, but it is pressure. And it’s building fast. Remember Hungary? Verstappen left Budapest 97 points behind, downbeat after a lonely ninth. Since then he and Red Bull have chipped away, circuit by circuit, problem by problem, until the RB21 now looks like a car he can lean on again in every phase of a race.
McLaren, meanwhile, has been trying to balance the scales between its two chargers. That was easy when the MCL39 was a step clear and the season still felt long. It’s much harder now that Red Bull, Ferrari and even Mercedes are elbowing into the picture on Saturdays, where McLaren’s margin has thinned to almost nothing. If a papaya car doesn’t lead into Turn 1, it’s no longer a given it will lead by the flag.
Austin underlined that shift. The weekend started badly with the Sprint opening-corner tangle that left Piastri exposed and short of usable long-run data. From there, rivals who’d learned more on Saturday — chiefly Red Bull and Ferrari — rolled into Sunday with better read-outs. Verstappen didn’t need an ounce of luck: he had pace, tyre life, and a car that stopped nibbling at its rear tyres after 20 laps. That last bit is crucial; early-season Red Bull would’ve faded. This Red Bull didn’t.
How did we get here? While McLaren enjoyed the first half of the year and seemed to believe the field couldn’t catch up in time, Red Bull never truly switched off. Yes, correlation gremlins lingered into mid-season, and the RB21 was often fast but fussy. But the upgrades kept coming — not headline-grabbers, just steady refinements that calmed the platform and restored a proper operating window. Wins at low-drag venues like Monza and Baku could be waved away as outliers. Singapore shouldn’t have been a Red Bull track at all; Verstappen still finished second. Austin? No excuses. On a ‘normal’ circuit, the RB21 looked complete again.
That’s where McLaren’s self-imposed parity becomes a dilemma. With both titles in reach and both drivers in form for most of the year, Woking’s been keen to play it straight. No hard team orders, just clean execution. Admirable, and great for morale. But the championship is no longer an internal arm wrestle. Verstappen is now close enough to make their neutrality a luxury they might not be able to afford.
And there’s another uncomfortable truth: the driver who had the cleaner first half is the one looking tightest now. Piastri’s lead over Lando Norris is down to 14 points, less than Norris lost in that cruel Zandvoort DNF. This is the Australian’s first real title push, the kind where every small mistake multiplies. The early-season ice-cool precision hasn’t been as obvious since Europe ended. Norris, by contrast, has sharpened up with the pressure, racing with a bit more spark and fewer half-steps. He learned a hard lesson in last year’s psychological bout with Verstappen. He looks better for it.
So what does McLaren do? Back Piastri, the points leader, and hope he rediscovers that mid-year serenity? Or ride the form book and put chips behind Norris, accepting the optics that come with flipping the script this late? There isn’t a clean answer, and neither driver is likely to volunteer for wingman duty when a world title is still very much alive in late October. Add the looming 2026 rules reset, and the stakes feel even higher. You don’t pass on a live shot now because you assume another one’s coming.
Verstappen, as ever, smells the weak spot. He’s chasing a fifth straight championship and he’s been here before — picking off rivals not with theatrics but with relentless, minimal-drama execution. The quiet is unnerving. While McLaren debates principles versus pragmatism, he’s just reducing the math.
None of this is terminal for McLaren. A dominant win for Piastri would plug the leak immediately; a tidy Norris weekend would do the same. The car’s still right there, one of the best in the field. But the edge they once had in qualifying pace and Sunday tyre offset isn’t obvious anymore, and that changes how you manage a two-car fight. If the next stop in Mexico swings Verstappen’s way again, McLaren might have to pick a lane — and fast.
It’s the oldest story in a tight title run: momentum beats margins. Woking can keep both drivers in the hunt, or it can try to make one champion. Right now, it looks increasingly like it can’t do both.
