The Championship That Should Have Been Over: How Max Verstappen’s Colossal Lead Vanished in the Reversed F1 Season

The fight for the Drivers’ Championship, in reality, culminated with McLaren’s Lando Norris taking his long-awaited maiden title, a victory that felt like a slow-burn conquest over a dominant Max Verstappen. But what if the season’s narrative was played out in reverse, starting from the final race in Abu Dhabi and concluding with the season opener in Australia? This reframing, this chronological inversion, transforms a strong season into a legendary, gut-wrenching epic—a demonstration of how the most formidable lead can crumble under pressure and how internal team rivalry can simultaneously create and destroy a title bid.

In this parallel universe, the championship becomes less a story of a sustained charge and more a saga of a meteoric rise against an epic collapse, culminating in a three-way, winner-take-all showdown for the ages. It is a story where the tortoise, having fallen at the final hurdle in reality, nearly became champion and where Verstappen’s apparent psychological invincibility proved to be his greatest weakness.

Part I: The Illusion of Invincibility and the Horner Shockwave

The reversed season begins not with the anticipation of a new year, but with the immediate, crushing dominance of Max Verstappen. Across the initial “rounds” (equivalent to Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Las Vegas), the Dutchman looks unassailable. He secures three consecutive Grand Prix victories, soaring to an early, massive lead. It is a period defined by Red Bull’s immediate competitive edge and, crucially, McLaren’s profound inconsistencies.

The papaya squad, despite having the fastest car, seems determined to trip over its own potential. In the Qatar race, a botched safety car strategy hands Verstappen the win. In Las Vegas, where Norris takes a commanding pole, both McLarens are shockingly disqualified for excess plank wear, turning potential podiums into a devastating double-DNF. This hands the race win to Verstappen and, even more sensationally, vaults rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli—the ‘little brother’ at Mercedes—to a shocking third-place finish and the record books as the youngest-ever podium finisher. Verstappen’s lead swells to an imperious figure, and he single-handedly drags Red Bull ahead in the Constructors’ standings.

This phase of the season is marked by Red Bull’s ruthless pursuit of competitive perfection. After a brief dip in form, which threatens Verstappen’s title chances, the team’s ownership makes a drastic change at the reversed-mid-point. In one of the most sensational managerial moves in F1 history, former Team Principal Christian Horner is convinced to return, replacing Lhon Mekies. The narrative shift is jarring: a team that was already dominating resorts to shock tactics, with Horner’s reappearance at the factory being described in famously hostile terms, creating a pressure-cooker environment.

This hostile new chapter at Red Bull appears to work immediately, as Verstappen takes a shock pole in the pouring rain at Silverstone, but the damage is already done. By the time the circus moves to Monza, Verstappen holds a seemingly insurmountable lead, which soon hits a massive margin after a faultless win in Singapore. The title looks like a foregone conclusion. The dramatic internal changes at Red Bull, meant to prevent a collapse, were arguably a response to an incoming, inevitable implosion—an implosion that the world was about to witness.

Part II: The Papaya Awakening and the Three-Horse Race

The turning point in the reversed season comes not through Red Bull failure, but through McLaren’s relentless, sustained success—and a little help from the unexpected. In the reversed chronological order, the title fight truly ignites around the Hungarian Grand Prix (the actual mid-point of the season).

It is a period of dramatic momentum swings. First, Piastri finds his feet, taking his first pole and first win of the year in Zandvoort, capitalizing on a late mechanical failure for Norris. Then, McLaren puts the internal squabbling aside for a moment to deliver a statement: a stunning 1-2 finish in Hungary, followed by another in Spa, with Piastri taking the win. The momentum is shifting, but it is Verstappen’s uncharacteristic mistakes that truly bring the field back into play.

The Austrian Grand Prix, a crucial home race for Red Bull, proves disastrous. Verstappen, who qualified seventh, is taken out by Antonelli at turn three. McLaren capitalizes fully, delivering another 1-2, reducing Verstappen’s lead to a vulnerable margin. This single race highlights the fragility of the Dutchman’s position, as his seemingly untouchable lead is suddenly within striking distance.

The true breaking point for Verstappen, however, arrives at the Spanish Grand Prix. In a race where Piastri clinches his third win of the season, Verstappen makes a critical, error-riddled exit from the track, resulting in a ten-second penalty and a drop to tenth place. This single, desperate error slashes his lead significantly, elevating Oscar Piastri from a distant challenger to a serious contender, within striking range of the Dutchman. The title is officially wide open, becoming a volatile three-way contest between the two McLaren drivers and the shaken, defending champion.

The rivalry at McLaren is now in full bloom. The team’s policy, the infamous “papaya rules,” forces Piastri to hand second place back to Norris in Monza for the sake of fairness. Yet, it is the intense, wheel-banging duals, such as the one in Austria (actual Canadian GP) where Norris hits Piastri on the pit straight and crashes, that show the championship fight is as much against each other as it is against Verstappen.

Part III: The Crushing Climax in the Rain

The final races are defined by chaos, controversy, and a sensational comeback. In Bahrain, Piastri secures his third consecutive victory, and the season narrative is violently reversed: Verstappen loses the championship lead after many rounds, dropping to third place. Norris takes the lead on countback, setting up a monumental three-way title decider.

The penultimate round in China is a defining moment of volatility. The race is marred by a triple disqualification (including both Ferraris and Gasly), resulting in Piastri inheriting the Grand Prix win. In one of the most astonishing comebacks in F1 history, Piastri, who was far adrift earlier in the reversed season, takes the lead in the Drivers’ Championship by a slender margin. The pressure on the young Australian is now immense: he heads to his home race in Australia with the chance to become the first Australian world champion in decades.

The season finale in Australia is not the “dud” of the real-life season, but a race elevated to the status of a classic, a contest for the history books. The three title contenders—Piastri, Norris, and Verstappen—line up on the front three spots of the grid. Heavy rain transforms the Albert Park Circuit into a psychological minefield.

Verstappen takes a critical second place from Piastri at the start. The fight is immediate, desperate, and personal. The defining moment of the reversed championship comes on Lap 44. As the rain returns, both McLarens, pushing at the limit, run wide at Turn 12. While Norris is able to recover, Piastri, the championship leader, cannot. His car spins, burying itself in the grass at Turn 13, his title dream shattered in a cruel instant.

The subsequent safety car resets the race for a final, two-horse, winner-take-all sprint between Norris and Verstappen. The final laps are a grueling reenactment of a classic season finale, but with the roles reversed. Verstappen is relentless, fighting for a fifth consecutive title that had looked like a certainty many races prior. But Norris, having survived his own spin and his teammate’s heartbreaking moment, holds the line. He does not let Verstappen out of his sight, resisting every desperate lunge.

Lando Norris crosses the finish line in first place, taking the race win and the World Drivers’ Championship. The finality is brutal and exhilarating. The reversed season, ending in the rain-soaked drama of Australia, proves that the title was not won by the fastest car, which McLaren arguably had, but by the driver who ultimately held his nerve under the most crushing emotional weight.

This hypothetical reversal is more than a thought experiment; it’s a high-octane commentary on momentum, leadership, and mental fortitude. It shows that Verstappen’s ‘unassailable’ lead was built on McLaren’s early missteps, and once those errors were corrected, the Dutchman was the one who cracked under the pressure of the pursuit. The true champion, Lando Norris, was the one who survived the most spectacular emotional rollercoaster.