{"id":260469,"date":"2025-11-04T06:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T06:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/260469\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T06:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T06:28:10","slug":"four-lessons-from-three-way-f1-title-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/260469\/","title":{"rendered":"Four lessons from three-way F1 title fights"},"content":{"rendered":"

With four rounds to go, Formula 1 2025 is going to produce the first three-way title fight of the hybrid era.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s thanks to Red Bull and Max Verstappen unexpectedly joining McLaren\u2019s intra-team title fight, as he\u2019s cut his points deficit from 104 after Zandvoort five rounds ago to just 36 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No two title fights are ever the same, but lessons from the past can always be learned, so here\u2019s what 2025\u2019s title contenders could take away from previous three-way fights\u2026<\/p>\n

One stumble can kill an underdog’s bid\"\"<\/p>\n

Momentum can be a powerful thing in sport, so too can carrying underdog status. You\u2019re chasing down and taking big chunks out of a points lead week-in, week-out, with seemingly nothing to lose.<\/p>\n

Plus, you\u2019re the plucky underdog who is very easy for neutral fans to get behind. That\u2019s pretty much the role Verstappen\u2019s been cast in for 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s a little strange to call a four-time world champion an underdog, but given the scale of the title comeback Verstappen is trying to mount, he\u00a0has\u00a0to be classed as such.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s an important lesson to be learned from another underdog – perhaps\u00a0the\u00a0greatest underdog title bid of all time: Heinz-Harald Frentzen\u2019s 1999 effort in a Jordan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While McLaren’s reigning champion Mika Hakkinen was battling Ferrari\u2019s stand-in number one driver Eddie Irvine (once Michael Schumacher\u2019s Silverstone shunt had sidelined him and Ferrari decided it had to back Irvine), Frentzen emerged as a surprise contender too.<\/p>\n

Consistent podiums plus a well-judged victory in changeable weather at Magny-Cours kept him within range, and then things got serious when he won at Monza after Hakkinen spun out of the lead when he inadvertently selected second gear, rather than first.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That put Frentzen just 10 points shy of joint leaders Hakkinen and Irvine and allowed Frentzen to dream the impossible, especially when he claimed pole for the next race at the Nurburgring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But then infamously, Frentzen\u2019s Jordan ground to a halt in the race with what the team initially said was \u201can electrical issue\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It later transpired that Jordan was protecting both Frentzen and his race engineer Sam Michael. Frenzten had actually forgotten to turn off an anti-stall system on his car after his first pitstop – something Michael would usually remind him to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in the form of his life, which is what made what happened on one hand devastating and on the other hand forgivable because we knew this was a driver who was giving it his all,\u201d Jordan\u2019s then-head of marketing Mark Gallagher told F1\u2019s website two decades later.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t need any of us to say to him this was a mistake you shouldn\u2019t have made. He knew himself this was a devastating blow to his championship chances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallagher said Frentzen was \u201cdriving the wheels off the car\u201d and in the form of his life before that devastating blow that prevented him from heading to the final two rounds level on points with Hakkinen and Irvine.<\/p>\n

Jordan simply not being quick enough at Sepang and Suzuka means he might have fallen short anyway, but there was also a feeling at the time that Frentzen and the team\u2019s performances sagged a touch because the championship bid had so abruptly become so remote. The Nurburgring DNF was a killer blow to his hopes that nobody could have seen coming.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s the sort of blow that Verstappen, most of the trio, couldn\u2019t afford to have over the next couple of races, or his underdog title dream will die.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Intra-team fights can be a hindrance\u2026\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

If you think three-way title fight, chances are that you\u2019ll think of either 1986 or 2007.<\/p>\n

In both seasons, one driver with the full weight of their team behind them (McLaren\u2019s Alain Prost in \u201886, Ferrari\u2019s Kimi Raikkonen in \u201807) was able to defeat a pair of warring team-mates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris are hardly warring team-mates. Relations remain about as good as can be expected, considering they\u2019re both fighting for a title and have had collisions and team orders controversies.<\/p>\n

But McLaren\u2019s management of its drivers and the eagerness to make things fair between its drivers has left it vulnerable to Verstappen – who has no such threat from Yuki Tsunoda, indeed as it showed in Mexico, Red Bull has no qualms about compromising Tsunoda\u2019s strategy if that can help Verstappen.<\/p>\n

Neither Norris nor Piastri have that luxury of using the other as a wingman at McLaren, and while they can theoretically take points off Verstappen, they haven\u2019t\u00a0both\u00a0finished ahead of Verstappen in a race since before the summer break.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve primarily been taking points off each other all season. Had one of them established a more dominant position – even finishing ahead two-thirds of the time – then Verstappen would be out of reach. That\u2019s exactly the same scenario that played out for Williams with Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet in 1986 as Prost lurked with them and for McLaren with Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton in 2007 with Raikkonen on their tails.<\/p>\n

If anything the 2025 McLaren team-mates are the closest-matched pairing in this scenario so far, with their metrics so evenly split (a median average qualifying gap of just 0.014 seconds in Piastri\u2019s favour), and Piastri having seven race wins to Norris\u2019s six.<\/p>\n

\u2026but team-mate support can be critical\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/p>\n

Tsunoda\u2019s strongest weekend in a while was well timed for him finally being fast enough to race the McLarens on track in Mexico, even if it was because he hadn\u2019t pitted yet.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not yet in the ideal sweet spot of being quick enough to closely support Verstappen on track while having no title ambitions of his own. Raikkonen having Felipe Massa in that position in 2007 made all the difference, with Massa dutifully slotting in behind his Ferrari team-mate for a 1-2 in the deciding Brazilian GP, making sure Alonso could do no better than third and ensuring Raikkonen popped ahead of the McLaren pair by the single point that made him world champion. There was no way Hamilton or Alonso would\u2019ve given up a home win for the other in 2007.<\/p>\n

And in 2003, Rubens Barrichello (partly inadvertently) saw off both Ferrari team-mate Michael Schumacher\u2019s title threats in the decisive stages of that three-way title fight. Barrichello denying Raikkonen victory in the Suzuka finale meant that however much of a mess Schumacher made of that afternoon (one of his clumsier F1 performances as he had brushes with both Takuma Sato and brother Ralf on a day when he only needed one point), Raikkonen wasn\u2019t going to get the win that was essential for him to overhaul Schumacher. One round before that, it was a penalty for punting Barrichello that ended Juan Pablo Montoya\u2019s best shot at being F1 champion – and the particular urgency of getting the second\u00a0Ferrari\u00a0out of his way surely played a part in Montoya going for a sketchy move. Barrichello was close enough (unlike Raikkonen\u2019s struggling McLaren team-mate David Coulthard) and compliant enough (unlike Montoya\u2019s Williams team-mate Ralf Schumacher) to make a key difference.<\/p>\n

Right now, the only 2025 title contender who\u2019d be able to benefit from such team-mate help is Verstappen.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s imagine one of Norris or Piastri has a disaster or two and suddenly at the finale it\u2019s one McLaren versus Verstappen for a title. Given McLaren\u2019s philosophy and atmosphere, there\u2019s no doubt the driver out of the title hunt would be deployed to help the other. Piastri or Norris could \u2018be the Barrichello\u2019 in a way Tsunoda definitely can\u2019t unless he makes a gigantic performance leap over the next month.<\/p>\n

It’s never over until it’s over\"\"<\/p>\n

Having three (or more) drivers in the mix seems to increase the chances of a last-gasp shock turnaround. Maybe the extra paranoia created by having to look over both shoulders at once spooks drivers and teams into stumbles they otherwise wouldn\u2019t have in a more controllable situation.<\/p>\n

The classic last-minute swings of 1986 and 2007 prove it. With three-quarters of the 1986 Adelaide finale gone, a Williams title looks guaranteed with Mansell in a third place that would be sufficient and Piquet leading the race. Then in the space of two laps Mansell\u2019s dramatic puncture and Williams\u2019s reactive pitstop for Piquet hands it all to Prost.<\/p>\n

Raikkonen was on the brink of elimination from the title fight with two rounds of 2007 left, only for Hamilton\u2019s infamous pit entry retirement with shredded, over-used tyres in China and strange temporary gearbox glitch on lap one in Brazil to take him from having one hand on the crown as a rookie to one of F1\u2019s most notorious last-gasp defeats.<\/p>\n

Even though 2010 was technically a four-way fight to the end (with Hamilton still in very long shot contention), it was essentially Mark Webber vs Alonso vs Sebastian Vettel in real terms. And this time it wasn’t the team-mates who got each other into trouble but the two championship leaders, as Alonso and Webber’s over-cautious strategies based around reacting to each other opened the door for Vettel to vault both and become champion despite having never led the points until that moment. Which would also be the case in 2025 if Verstappen vaulted the McLaren drivers in Abu Dhabi…<\/p>\n

This is what has to give Verstappen the most hope right now. If he can just stay in contention to the end, keep McLaren guessing, keep giving the team and its drivers chances to overthink their situation, then history shows there\u2019s a chance for him to snatch it all away at the very end even when it looks like a lost cause.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With four rounds to go, Formula 1 2025 is going to produce the first three-way title fight of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-260469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}