Max Verstappen told who’d lead standings if he were Lando Norris’ teammate instead of Oscar Piastri

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Lando Norris leads the 2025 F1 drivers’ standings ahead of McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and Red Bull rival Max Verstappen with just four rounds of the season to play.

The top three in the championship are separated by the smallest margin they have faced in five months, with Norris leading Piastri by one single point and Verstappen by 36. They had not been as close in the table since 25 points separated them after the Monaco Grand Prix.

Norris and Verstappen have both outscored Piastri during each of the past five rounds since the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August to reduce the margin at the top of the F1 drivers’ championship. Piastri had left Zandvoort leading Norris by 34 points and Verstappen by 104.

Red Bull’s updated floor at Monza, which they further refined in Mexico City, and their front wing upgrade in Singapore have brought Verstappen back into the title battle. The four-time reigning champion has won three of the five Grands Prix and one Sprint since the Dutch GP.

Anthony Davidson thinks Max Verstappen would lead the 2025 F1 standings driving for McLaren

Norris won the Mexico City Grand Prix last time out to hand McLaren their first victory since he retired at Zandvoort and Piastri won the Dutch GP. It also marked Norris’ sixth win of the 2025 F1 season, with only Piastri (7) winning more. Verstappen has so far secured five wins.

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But while Norris’ win at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez also put him atop the drivers’ standings for the first time since April, Anthony Davidson thinks Verstappen would lead the way after the first 20 rounds of 24 if he had driven for McLaren this term instead of Piastri.

Davidson caveats his claim by noting how Lewis Hamilton has struggled since joining Ferrari from Mercedes, to show the challenges that Verstappen could face if he drove for McLaren. Verstappen has driven for Red Bull since 2016 and has never raced with a Mercedes engine.

“It’s always hard to say when the driver looks so dominant and so well-equipped in one car,” Davidson told Sky Sports. “You only have to look at other drivers switching teams, and what a struggle it can initially be. It’s never as straightforward as it seems on paper…

“Obviously, he’s a really adaptable driver. We’ve seen him race in different categories and be successful. But you just don’t know until you see them in action against another A-grade driver in their team, in their equipment.

“If I base it purely on who’s made the most errors this year, then I would doubt Lando would be ahead in the championship between them. But it might not be by as big a margin as you might think.

“Piastri and Norris are extremely fast drivers, though. They would, without question, be the closest competition that Max has ever faced, and I would relish the opportunity to see it.”

McLaren’s lack of front-end bite that frustrates Lando Norris could cause Max Verstappen issues

Verstappen has built Red Bull around him in recent years and is at the heart of the design of their car, which has proven impossible for any other driver to extract the most performance from since Daniel Ricciardo left the Milton Keynes squad at the end of 2018 to join Renault.

The four-time champion will regularly overcome most of the deficiencies of Red Bull’s car, as well. But whether McLaren’s MCL39 would suit Verstappen’s ideal driving style would be up for debate, as he likes a front end that bites and that has been a key issue for Norris in 2025.

Norris has regularly complained about the McLaren MCL39’s lack of bite from the front axle, but Piastri was at least at first able to adapt to the issue a bit more easily. Verstappen would, no doubt, fancy his chances of being competitive driving any other car on the grid, however.