Las Vegas Grand Prix Takeaways: McLaren's blunder, Verstappen's lifeline
Honestly, who needs a dancing Mickey Mouse or a ridiculous pink Lego Cadillac when Las Vegas delivers a Formula 1 show like the one we were treated to last weekend?
Max Verstappen did what he had to do in the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix, and that is win. This is the only thing he can actually do, as he sees his chances of winning a fifth consecutive F1 Drivers’ Championship diminishing as we edge towards the end of the season.
Now we know the Dutchman never gives up no matter what, and even if he cannot win the Title, he will make sure he wins as many races as possible and maybe wait for a miracle to intervene, and ironically, his rivals, McLaren, delivered the mini miracle last Saturday night in Vegas.
It has to be said that F1’s latest weekend on The Strip was far from usual, as the weather was playing games with the proceedings, not to mention the wretched manhole covers coming back to haunt the venue.
As such, practice sessions did not allow the teams to collect any data, as the drivers were chasing the elusive grip from the first day of running, a mission that seemed impossible with the low temperatures and the rain that washed away any rubber the car put on the track.
The result was a great show for the fans, with the hectic qualifying the rain produced, while the race was no less dramatic with its outcome despite being a dry event.
So let’s get going with some Takeaways from the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
McLaren uphold their Papaya Rules
Say what you want about McLaren, but when it came down to disqualification, they made sure both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were excluded from the race results of the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Joking aside, what the hell were McLaren thinking? Granted, they did not have enough data from long runs on high fuel loads, but with the advantage they had in the Drivers’ Championship, why take risks? Also, all the teams had the same issue, and it was they who messed up.
But it seems they panicked, knowing that they were never good in Las Vegas, and with Verstappen expected to be a contender, they overcompensated when they simply needed to manage the gap to the Red Bull ace with just three races remaining and with Qatar being a venue where they should be competitive.
In retrospect, it was no surprise that McLaren’s planks were excessively worn, as they showed speed both in qualifying and the race, which no one, not even they, expected. They set both their cars up with a low ride height, and that delivers more performance, naturally.
However, McLaren ended up paying a hefty price with their fumble, with Verstappen now 24 points behind Norris and level with Piastri. He was trailing the Briton by 49 points ahead of the race in Vegas.
Now, McLaren and Norris—Piastri is out of the game, to be honest—will have to tackle the final two races in the season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi under extreme pressure while looking over their shoulders for the pouncing Verstappen.
One thing though, full respect to McLaren for owning up to their mistake, a clear sign that Zak Brown had nothing to do with their post-race press release that had the rational touched of Andrea Stella all over it.
Norris’ Lap 1 move
Just when Norris was on a roll, winning races, keeping a level head, and marching steadily towards a maiden F1 Title, and after a brilliant performance in qualifying in Las Vegas, he went on and pulled off that ridiculous defensive move on Verstappen just 24 hours later at the start of the race.
It was another proof that Lando is haunted by Max, who is deeply entrenched in his head.
Did anyone notice that in Mexico and Sao Paulo, two weekends in which Norris dominated, Verstappen was out of the picture and not directly challenging the McLaren Championship leader for the same piece of tarmac?
In Mexico Verstappen started from fifth, while in Sao Paulo, he started the Grand Prix from the pitlane. He was sixth on the starting grid of the Sprint Race.
So Norris basically had his head clear of Max and went on winning with ease, able to fend off other rivals.
But as soon as his nemesis was back in the picture, he went for that panicky maneuver at the start of the race, missing his braking point, running wide, and handing the lead and consequent race win to Verstappen on a silver platter. From there on, McLaren volunteered and did the rest.
I have to admit that we have been tough on Norris when we believed that he should do better with the car he has driven so far in 2025, but when he started delivering and beating Piastri, we acknowledged that… But then we get his Las Vegas antics.
I know many will not like what I will say next, and I may be lambasted for it, but right now, if Norris wins the Championship, and he still has a high chance of doing that, he won’t be fully deserving of it.
He is not the best driver in 2025; that is Max, who, in a car like the McLaren MCL39, would’ve wrapped up the Title with many races to spare.
Lando is unlucky for having Verstappen as a benchmark, but even so, he should’ve done much more with the MCL39 at his disposal, as it took him more than half the season to start beating Piastri, who, on the other hand, was blatantly made to realize that he doesn’t have the team’s backing in his Title aspirations.
Verstappen makes his own luck in Vegas?
Verstappen wrapped up his fourth F1 Drivers’ Crown in Las Vegas in 2024 despite not winning that race, but he delivered the perfect driver in 2025, with McLaren presenting his Title defense a lifeline.
From the moment he passed Norris on Lap 1, the #1 RB21 raced into the distance, and once he shook off the brief challenge of Mercedes’ George Russell, it was clear he was going to win barring some freak incident or unlucky encounter.
The manner in which he denied Russell (on Hard tyres up to temperature) even an attempt at a pass after rejoining the track 1.2s ahead of him on cold Hards showed further how in control he was while Red Bull’s pitwall also deserved credit for remaining calm against undercut attempts from Mercedes.
Even when Norris was asked to go after Verstappen later in the race, the latter had enough pace in hand to keep his McLaren rival at arm’s length—that is, before Lando was instructed to lift and coast towards the end. Silly us, we thought that was to save fuel.
On a side note, how funny was Gianpiero Lambiase’s tone when he informed Verstappen that McLaren instructed Norris to come for him?
Make no mistake, Verstappen winning the Championship this year is still a tall order, but what is guaranteed is that he will be fighting with all his being—more than he usually does—in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
He will give neither McLaren nor Norris a breathing space, and it will be interesting to see how they respond after their Las Vegas disaster.
To put it simply, Max still has nothing to lose. Lando and McLaren have everything to lose.
Las Vegas Grand Prix Quick Hits
- While the racing and off-track McLaren drama were as good as F1 could get in terms of delivering a great show, it was inevitable, being in the Liberty Media era of F1, that we got served with some cringe-worthy off-track attractions in the form of Mickey Mouse dancing during post-race celebrations, not to mention the Cadillac made out of Lego as well as the Lego sunglasses given to the top three finishers.
Why accuse Mohammed Ben Sulayem of putting a muzzle on drivers and instructing them not to swear?? That is only normal when the sport is transformed into a cartoonish event… - A great qualifying by Carlos Sainz in the Williams. Too bad his race wasn’t as good.
- A disastrous weekend for Ferrari, and while many have told John Elkann to zip it after he told his drivers to shut up and drive, we have to stress yet again that it is he who should keep quiet and not talk about things he doesn’t understand.
I refuse to accept that Lewis Hamilton suddenly forgot how to drive an F1 car in the wet. He may have lost pace with age, which is resulting in Leclerc outqualifying him all the time, but his ability should shine in the treacherous conditions in which qualifying in Vegas took place.
The fact that Leclerc ran wide over three times at Turn 14 in Q1 before he could get a lap in simply proves the car is a sh!tbox. - A great drive by Kimi Antonelli, which made up for his poor performance in qualifying.
- Gabriel Bortoleto’s first-lap incident!!! What was that, Gaby???