Max Verstappen targets 'perfect weekend' as F1 title race heads to Qatar

Red Bull driver must outscore Lando Norris to take championship down to Abu Dhabi decider

Red Bull's Max Verstappen has won the past two races in Qatar. AFP

Max Verstappen said he will take it “one race at a time” as this year's Formula One world championship reaches boiling point in the Arabian Gulf.

The Ducthman is seeking a hat-trick of wins at the Lusail International Circuit this weekend as he looks to close the 24-point gap on championship leader Lando Norris with two races remaining.

But even with luck on his side, the Red Bull driver faces a tall order to rein in Norris. Despite being disqualified along with his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, after finishing second at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last Sunday, Norris arrives in Qatar as favourite to lift his first title and clinch McLaren's first team-and-driver double since Mika Hakkinen's success in 1998.

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“The points in the championship have got closer after Vegas,” Verstappen told his website as he prepares for a decisive sprint weekend at Lusail.

“We will still approach the weekend the same way we always have and just take it one race at a time. We go into each weekend focused on maximising as many points as we can and extracting the best performance out of the car possible.”

Four-time champion Verstappen is level on points with Piastri on 366 points but trails the Australian on countback race wins this season (seven wins for Piastri, six for Verstappen).

With two rounds remaining, Norris holds a 24-point lead over Verstappen and Piastri – a cushion large enough to seal the title under the floodlights on Sunday, but slender enough to disappear in a matter of laps. Verstappen made clear the mission is simple: “We can only afford to have a perfect weekend.”

“It’s a demanding circuit,” he added. “The heat means tyre management is key and we have to execute everything right with the mandatory two-stop. We want to keep the momentum going and the team are pushing as hard as we can.”

With F1 implementing a mandatory two-stop strategy in Qatar, tactics will be vital to Oscar Piastri's chances of victory. EPA

Mathematics v momentum

Verstappen arrives in Qatar chasing a hat-trick of wins at the venue and carrying all the force of a late-season surge that has cut a 104-point deficit to just 24 since September. Four-time defending champion, serial late-fighter, and the most seasoned of the contenders, he embodies the psychological threat to Norris’s youthful charge.

But even Verstappen knows that mathematics, not momentum, may decide his fate. There are 33 points on across the Qatar weekend (eight in the sprint, 25 in the grand prix) and 58 points including the season-ending Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. He must outscore Norris heavily across sprint and race in Qatar, a tall order even for him.

Piastri, meanwhile, remains the wildcard. Disqualified alongside Norris after finishing second in Las Vegas, the Australian’s form has deserted him at precisely the wrong moment. But returning now to fast, flowing circuits that suit his style, and with Pirelli mandating a strict 25-lap limit on each tyre set, he remains a live threat.

To stay in the title fight, both Piastri and Verstappen must be 25 points, or less, behind Norris, who has finished ahead of Piastri in the past seven races.

Tyres, heat and strategy set the stage

Lusail’s abrasive surface and scorching temperatures have forced Formula One into the rare step of enforcing a mandatory two-stop race, a variable that could swing the title race in unexpected directions.

High degradation, short stints and a thirsty track open the door to chaos, and the race flow will likely be far more volatile than Las Vegas. Mercedes and Ferrari, both stronger in changeable races, could yet disrupt the narrative.

In a season already shaped by unpredictability, another twist is entirely possible.

McLaren have told drivers Oscar Piastri, left, and Lando Norris, there will be no team orders during the title run-in. Getty Images

McLaren: No team orders

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has remained steadfast in refusing team orders, insisting both drivers will be allowed to fight until the title is settled.

“We're not going to close the door unless it is closed by mathematics,” Stella has previously said, mindful of the sport’s long history of internal battles derailing bigger ambitions.

His experience is a cautionary tale in itself: he watched Kimi Raikkonen overturn a 17-point deficit in 2007 as McLaren’s Alonso-Hamilton feud imploded, and guided Fernando Alonso in 2010 when a strategy error handed Sebastian Vettel the title from third place.

History warns against assuming the fight is over.

Winner takes all? Abu Dhabi still looms

Should strategy, nerves or misfortune strike Norris, the three-man title tussle could spill into Abu Dhabi for a final-round showdown worthy of the season’s drama, a proposition that would echo the great deciders of 2007, 2010 and 2021.

For now, though, Norris holds the cards, the lead and the momentum.