With no little pleasing symmetry, 75 years on from a three-way fight for the inaugural Formula One title, the championship is entering its decisive phase once more with three protagonists in the running and the promise of an enthralling denouement of the kind that has graced some of the sport’s greatest seasons.
Heading into this weekend’s São Paulo Grand Prix, McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen all remain in the hunt. Norris leads Piastri by one point, with the defending champion, Verstappen, 36 points back, after a late-season resurgence.
In 1950 the dominant Alfa Romeo 158 in the hands of Juan Manuel Fangio, Nino Farina and Luigi Fagioli held sway. Fangio entered the final round at Monza two points ahead of Fagioli with Farina four behind. The championship was contested across only six races. Norris, Piastri and Verstappen still have more than half that to go in their four remaining meetings.
The former era is all but unrecognisable now but the competitive edge, increased complexity and intensity of a three-way fight remain the same. At Monza that year, the season turned when Fangio retired his car with a gearbox issue. Fagioli could manage only third and it was Farina, from third in the standings, who took the title.
It was not the last time the championship was decided in a three-way contest over the final stretch and, for the moment at Interlagos, Norris and Piastri are the leading contenders and their lead over Verstappen is still formidable.
Yet their task has been made immeasurably more thorny by Verstappen entering what had been a head-to-head race between the two teammates.
McLaren have tried to play it fair between the two all season, a luxury they could afford while Red Bull floundered, but by laudably letting them fight neither driver has established a dominant lead and Verstappen has managed to just stay in touch. McLaren are more than aware of how this scenario has played out in the past for good and ill.
In 1986 Williams’s Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet and McLaren’s Alain Prost were in a three-way fight going into the finale in Adelaide. Williams had dominated all season but Mansell and Piquet, between whom there was no love lost, had taken points off one another and kept Prost in the game.
When Mansell suffered a tyre failure late in the race and Williams took Piquet into the pits as a precaution it was Prost who took the lead, the win and the title.
Similarly in 2007, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso went at it while Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen had just held on to be in with a shout at the end. Hamilton’s retirement as he slid out on worn tyres in China and then a gearbox issue at the finale in Brazil ended his chances of a title in his debut season. Räikkönen took victory at Interlagos and the title. The first time since Farina that a driver had snuck in from third place at the death.
“We always take a look at history. We always try to understand what happened, all the lessons learned,” said the McLaren team principal, Andrea Stella, in Brazil on Friday. Yet the team are clear they are determined to leave the competition in the hands of their drivers and accept the risk it carries, as the chief executive, Zak Brown, said this week.
“I’d rather go: ‘We did the best we can on our drivers tied in points and the other beat us by one,’ than the alternative,” he said. “Which is telling one of our drivers when they’re one point away from each other: ‘I know you have a dream to win the world championship but we flipped the coin and you don’t get to do it this year.’ Forget it.
“That’s not how we go racing. In the event that 2007 happens again, I’d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. We won’t do it.”
Quick Guide Norris gets better of rivals to land sprint pole in Brazil
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Lando Norris delivered under intense pressure to take pole position for Saturday’s sprint race at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Norris, who reclaimed the world championship lead with a statement win in Mexico a fortnight ago, will have a golden opportunity to further extend his advantage with both of his title rivals behind him on the grid for Saturday’s 24-lap dash to the chequered flag in Interlagos.
Oscar Piastri, just one point adrift of Norris with 114 points still to play for across the remaining four contests, is third on the grid. Max Verstappen, 36 points behind Norris, is only sixth as he complained his Red Bull was “completely broken” and “just undriveable”.
Among the championship contenders, Kimi Antonelli qualified second, with George Russell fourth in the other Mercedes. Fernando Alonso is a place ahead of Verstappen in fifth. PA Sport
Norris and Piastri know what they have to do then – beat one another and finish ahead of Verstappen. However, the latter has no intention of going quietly into the night. Rather, the Dutchman looms as Banquo’s ghost, undoubtedly playing on their minds.
His position is more difficult given that one DNF would see him off but equally he had not expected to be in this position so has nothing to lose. He is making McLaren look in their mirrors and contributing to the pressure that engenders errors – potentially disastrous when there are three variables at play.
As Ferrari discovered when they miscalculated at Abu Dhabi in 2010, pitting Alonso to cover off Mark Webber only to leave the Spaniard bottled up behind Vitaly Petrov, allowing Sebastian Vettel to nip in and take the title. The only time he had led all season.
Such is the nature of a three-way tussle and as Farina, Prost, Räikkönen and Vettel proved, nothing can be ruled out until the points are sealed. Amid all of which fate too will surely play a part. Witness John Surtees taking the title in his three-way fight in 1964 after Jim Clark lost oil late in the finale at Mexico. Or as Jack Brabham ground to a halt out of fuel on the final lap at Sebring in his three-way scrap in 1959 and finished the job only by pushing his car over the line.
Drama tends to follow these enticing battles, as Norris, Piastri and Verstappen are more than aware. There are twists and turns surely yet to come before this deal is done.
