F1 title pressure ‘taking toll’ on McLaren in brutal warning | F1 | Sport

Jenson Button believes the title fight between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri is “starting to take its toll” on McLaren. They have been dominant all season but struggled in Baku two weeks ago, Piastri crashing out while Norris was well down the order in seventh.

Former McLaren racer Button said on Friday: “When you look back at Baku, the McLarens were still quick but their two drivers fighting for the world championship, it’s starting to take its toll. Then you have Max [Verstappen], who has won four, going out and enjoying himself.”

Piastri has been unflappable for most of the year but wobbled for the first time in Baku, crashing in qualifying before jumping the start of the race and then burying his car in the wall on the first lap. For both Button and Sky Sports colleague Martin Brundle, how the championship leader bounces back in Singapore on Sunday will determine whether or not he will collapse and let Norris in.

The 2009 World champion said: “It’s going to be interesting to see how it affects him. If he can write it off as a tough weekend, which hopefully he can, he’ll be out strong again. But it was unusual – two times the same incident, basically. It’s very unusual for someone of his calibre.”

And Brundle added: “We always think he’s very horizontal, we are about to find out. I think he’ll be fine. It’s a seven-race championship to the end of the year, plus three Sprints. He’s got a race in his pocket over his team-mate and nearly three races in his pocket over Max Verstappen, so he’s still sitting in a very good position.”

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Verstappen is 69 points behind Piastri and sees himself as nothing more than an outsider with “nothing to lose” with seven rounds remaining. Brundle agrees with the Dutchman’s self-assessment but thinks there is still the prospect of Red Bull being let back in if McLaren implode.

The 66-year-old said: “It’s a long shot. Suddenly instead of the two McLaren drivers looking across the garage at their rivals, they have to look in their rear view mirrors. If normal service resumes here in Singapore and next in Austin, Max has got his work cut out.

“You can’t discount Ferrari and Mercedes getting big points too. I think it will need McLaren to step in their own toes though for Max to get back in it. Max has been there before in a championship fight, Oscar and Lando haven’t.”