McLaren’s duelling pair of world championship leader Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will be looking warily in their rear-view mirrors this weekend at the United States Grand Prix for Max Verstappen.<\/p>\n
With six rounds remaining the two McLarens are separated by just 22 points, with four-time champion Verstappen adrift of Piastri by 63 points but revelling in his recent form after beating both in the last three races.<\/p>\n
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Red Bull’s Verstappen has turned a seemingly lost cause into a thrilling late, if unexpected, charge for a fifth title.<\/p>\n
Jacques Villeneuve, who won the title in 1997, believes the Dutchman can do it and told Italian daily La Gazetta dello Sport that it will be his “best world championship”.<\/p>\n
“The two McLaren drivers are suffering too much from the pressure and they need to wake up,” he said.<\/p>\n
This weekend’s race at the Circuit of the Americas will pit the McLaren men in a car that has not been updated in recent weeks against a much-revised and potent Red Bull.<\/p>\n
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That there is also a sprint race, the first of three remaining this year, only adds to the potential for shredded nerves.<\/p>\n
Verstappen has reeled off four consecutive podium finishes and won three of the last four Austin races, only missing out last year when Ferrari claimed a one-two, contenting himself instead with a sprint race win.<\/p>\n
McLaren’s imperious early season form has declined but they still retained the constructors’ crown last time out in Singapore.<\/p>\n
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Team boss Zak Brown said: “Our strategy isn’t changing because we’ve won the constructors. We are approaching this race in the same way as all the others.”<\/p>\n
Norris took pole last year in Austin and finished fourth, and knows he must beat his 24-year-old Australian team-mate Piastri and Verstappen if he is to keep alive his title challenge.<\/p>\n
Piastri has gone three races without a podium.\u00a0His best result in Austin was fifth last year after retiring following a crash in 2023.<\/p>\n
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The tension at McLaren is likely to be matched at Ferrari after a fraught few days of media reports suggesting the team is in disarray and lining up former Red Bull boss Christian Horner as a possible successor to under-pressure team chief Fred Vasseur.<\/p>\n
Without a win this year, Ferrari and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in particular\u00a0badly need a result to banish the blues.<\/p>\n
The Briton has gone 18 races without a top-three finish as he returns to a favourite circuit where he has won five times.<\/p>\n
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“We know we haven’t maximised the potential of our package in the last few races,” said Vasseur, dismissing talk of internal strife.<\/p>\n
“But the team is united and fully determined to turn things around.”<\/p>\n
Mercedes will also be hunting success after George Russell’s triumph in Singapore and the belated confirmation that they are retaining an unchanged line-up, with Italian teenager Kimi Antonelli alongside Briton Russell next year.<\/p>\n
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