‘Let them race’: Verstappen backs McLaren’s no-team-orders title call — with a trademark sting
Max Verstappen isn’t buying the idea that McLaren should pick a favorite with two races to go. In fact, ask him to play second fiddle and he says he’d tell the team to “eff off.”
As the championship fight barrels into Qatar, Lando Norris leads Oscar Piastri by 24 points, with Verstappen locked level with the Australian in a three-way scrap that’s felt increasingly inevitable since the summer swing. McLaren has stuck to its policy: no designation of a No.1, no sacrifice calls. And Verstappen, who knows a thing or two about knife-edge title chases, is all for it.
“It’s perfect. I think you can’t do a better job than allowing them to race,” he said in the Lusail paddock. “Why would you suddenly now say that Oscar wouldn’t be allowed to fight for the title anymore? If that was said to me, I would have not rocked up. I would have told them to eff off.”
It’s a blunt endorsement, but it makes sense. With Norris and Piastri both in the hunt, neither is getting the full weight of Woking behind them — which, incidentally, suits the Red Bull driver just fine.
“If you are a real winner and a racer as a driver, then you go for it,” Verstappen added. “Even if you are behind, what’s the point otherwise to turning up? Otherwise, you can easily just label yourself as a number two driver, which I think [Piastri] doesn’t want to be.”
McLaren’s stance hasn’t wavered all year: team orders are for fairness, not favoritism. That’s led to some awkward radio moments, sure, but it’s also kept the intra-team fight honest. When Norris looked adrift earlier in the autumn, the team could have thrown a lifeline to Piastri and shut the door. They didn’t. Instead, Norris dug himself out of a hole, picked up momentum, and retook the points lead as Piastri’s form bobbled.
The twist? Verstappen’s the one now looming in the mirrors. After leaving Zandvoort 104 points off the pace, the reigning multiple world champion admitted he thought the title was gone. “Probably after that race [Dutch GP], when I got home, I was like, ‘That’s it. We’re checked out of the championship.’ But after that, we had a really good turnaround.”
A floor update for Monza didn’t hurt, but this has been equal parts development and execution. Verstappen hasn’t missed a podium since Zandvoort, with four wins sprinkled into that run, and he’s trimmed the deficit to 24 points — the same margin by which Norris leads Piastri. Suddenly, it’s a straight sprint to Abu Dhabi with three drivers in it, two of them driving the same orange car and refusing to play wingman.
“We definitely understood the car a bit better, put upgrades on the car,” he said. “All in all better together, with probably some mistakes as well on the other side and us maximising quite a few results meant that we are in title contention.”
McLaren won’t love the arithmetic here. Two drivers free to race is laudable — and fan-approved — but it leaves them vulnerable to a lone assassin with a clear strategy box and a ruthless Sunday streak. That’s Verstappen’s playground. Ask Mercedes in 2021, or Ferrari last year. If he smells blood, he doesn’t require a second invitation.
“A lot still needs to go right,” Verstappen cautioned about his chances. “But I think it should be like that, that they are free to race, and hopefully we can make it a great battle ’til the end.”
The subtext feels obvious: if McLaren blink and try to pin Piastri to the mat now, they risk fracturing a driver who’s made it abundantly clear he didn’t come here to be anyone’s deputy. If they don’t, Norris has to do this the hard way — beat his teammate and hold off Verstappen. Either route has peril written all over it.
What happens next? Qatar’s quick, abrasive and punishing on tyres — a circuit that tends to reward clean execution and race pace over noise. That should favor the teams that trust their drivers to sort it on track. Which is precisely McLaren’s plan. Verstappen, for his part, is taking the long view: no dramatics, no grandstanding on Saturdays, just relentless points scoring.
“I’m happy with it,” he said of the fightback. “I would have been a bit happier if we would have had a better first half, but that’s how life is. You cannot turn back in time and then change it, but overall now until the end, we’ll just try and do the best we can.”
It’s a rare moment where all sides seem content with the rules of engagement. McLaren lets them race. Piastri keeps swinging. Norris keeps leading. And Verstappen? He keeps closing.
The only certainty is that someone’s going to leave Lusail feeling like they’ve just been through a shredder. The rest of us will be asking McLaren to keep doing exactly what they’re doing.
