How the F1 world title can be won and lost in Abu Dhabi

Matt and Tommy from P1 help explain F1's title fight between Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri

Transcript

00:00If this season had been normal, I would say it's going to be the easiest Lando Norris world champion

00:07come the end of Sunday. Yeah, I thought it was over like Lando champion after Brazil, it felt like.

00:30Lando needs to finish on the podium. If he finishes on the podium, it doesn't matter what anyone does.

00:40In the car that has been able to grab podiums every single weekend on pace, a track that he

00:48dominated at last year, all he has to do is finish on that podium. So the points are and everything

00:54is in his favour. He's proven that he is a worthy world champion over most of this season

00:59and he has the car to do it. All he has to do is get it over the line.

01:03If he doesn't do it is because he's either cracked under the pressure and made a mistake,

01:09which I can't see happening, or his team have fumbled for the third race in a row.

01:17If he finishes fourth and Max Verstappen wins, Max Verstappen is world champion.

01:21If he does win the world title is because he has taken advantage of every single moment where

01:27McLaren have slipped up and taken victories and put everything he could out of a car that I don't

01:34and many people believe that shouldn't be challenging for that world championship.

01:3812 points behind, he would have to do something crazy. And Red Bull, they weren't too bad in

01:43Qatar. So if they're able to take another step closer to McLaren, then there's always an opportunity,

01:47especially with a cheeky dive bomb on lap one.

01:49Oscar Piastri needs to win, be ahead of Max Verstappen, doesn't matter if Max finishes second.

01:57Lando needs to finish sixth or worse with Oscar winning the race for Oscar to be world champion.

02:01Very unlikely to happen. Oscar needs some craziness to happen with both of the drivers around him.

02:06I've almost convinced myself now that Oscar has a better chance than Max because he needs,

02:11that the way he can win it is that Lando and Max focus on each other, potentially even have a

02:16collision as they're racing or something. And that will allow Oscar to win the world title.

02:20And we've seen that in the past.

02:26Still, with my logical side of my brain, think that McLaren and Lando will get it over the line.

02:32All they have to do is have Lando on the podium, which with their car should absolutely be possible.

02:38McLaren don't end up winning the driver's title. By far and away, this will easily be the most dominant

02:44car that we've seen in F1 to not win a driver's title.

02:48So that is what I think is going to happen. But stranger things have happened in this season

02:53to suggest that you can't write out or write off Max Verstappen nor Oscar Piastri.