'All to play for!' - Why Norris can still retain his F1 title
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- Lando Norris claimed his and McLaren's first victory of 2026 at the Hungarian GP, trimming his deficit to championship leader Kimi Antonelli to 91 points with 12 of the 23 scheduled rounds still to run.
- David Croft said the critical question after the summer break is whether McLaren will keep outperforming Mercedes and commit fully to what he called a "Lando Norris basket" for the title push.
- McLaren's significant Hungaroring upgrade worked as hoped, but Croft flagged that Hungary is one of the calendar's least power-unit-demanding circuits — a genuine open question over whether the form travels to more power-intensive tracks.
- Bernie Collins declared it "all to play for," naming upgrades and extracting maximum engine performance as the season's defining variables, and suggested Mercedes may have been distracted by intra-team battles earlier in the year.
- The piece cites last year's precedent: Max Verstappen trailed Oscar Piastri by 104 points with nine rounds remaining in 2025 and still finished just two points behind eventual champion Norris.
- Uncertainty hangs over the run-in — some doubt all 12 remaining rounds will take place due to ongoing conflict in the Middle East, potentially compressing the points fight further.
- The Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort from August 21-23, a Sprint weekend, restarts the calendar after the three-week summer break.
Why it matters: With nearly half the 2026 season still to run, Norris's Hungarian GP win and McLaren's first successful upgrade of the year reopen a title race that looked settled — but the Hungaroring is the calendar's least power-demanding venue, meaning Mercedes' engine advantage on conventional tracks remains the swing factor. Calendar disruption risk from Middle East conflict could also shrink the 12-round run-in and change the math.
