Lando Norris is still the favourite to win the 2025 F1 Drivers’ Championship, which is often considered more coveted than the Constructors’ title—at least among fans. Formula One history tends to remember the drivers most. Constructors, apart from iconic teams like Ferrari, come and go, usually becoming little more than footnotes in the statistical archives.

But after the double disqualification debacle in Las Vegas, I really feel that McLaren is in serious trouble. The race revealed that McLaren deliberately ran Norris and Piastri’s cars as low as possible. In the ground-effect era, the lower the ride height, the more performance is generated.

It seems McLaren chose this setup to counter the performance threat from Red Bull and Mercedes. This suggests either that McLaren has stopped developing the MCL39 or that its performance gains have peaked.

Running the MCL39 so low that it caused excessive skid-block wear was a calculated risk—but it backfired, resulting in a double disqualification. All of this points to McLaren quietly panicking.

Norris didn’t help himself either, with his botched defensive manoeuvre at the start leading up to turn one, where Max Verstappen’s presence clearly weighs heavily on his mind.

I believe McLaren will have to raise the MCL39’s ride height for the final two races to avoid another skid-block Nakba.

If my theory is correct, this will likely result in a drop in performance, which McLaren may blame on track-specific issues, giving Verstappen a near-clear path to clinch his fifth Drivers’ Championship.