IndyCar Star Drops Bold Statement On The 2025 F1 Championship Title Fight

The 2025 Formula 1 title fight is set to go down to the wire at the season finale in Abu Dhabi, with Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri all still in contention for the championship.

Norris holds a 12-point lead over Verstappen and a 16-point advantage over teammate Piastri, with both McLaren drivers chasing a first career title while Verstappen hunts a potential fifth.

Only one driver will come out on top to claim the greatest individual prize in global single-seater motorsport, but one IndyCar driver has spoken out, stirring debate by insisting the title should already be settled.

Alex Palou: Max Verstappen wins the title sooner if with McLaren

Both McLaren drivers, Norris and Piastri, have claimed seven race wins in an otherwise dominant season for the Woking-based squad, but Verstappen has matched that tally by winning five of the last nine races heading into the finale.

This leaves four-time IndyCar driver Alex Palou suggesting Verstappen would have dominated to a fifth consecutive title if he had been driving the McLaren MCL39 this season.

Palou even admitted he thinks he could have won the title, but acknowledged that Verstappen would have wrapped it up several races ago.

"Absolutely, yes, yes. He would have won weeks ago, two months ago. Do I think I would have won? I'm telling you, yes, I could have fought, but I wouldn't have won two months earlier. But Max is the only one who would have," said Palou in an interview with Mundo Deportivo.

Alex Palou slams McLaren's 'Papaya Rules'

Lando Norris | Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Part of the reason McLaren hasn’t secured the Drivers’ Championship is its “Papaya Rules,” designed to ensure impartiality between Norris and Piastri.

Although Palou believes there’s no favoritism at McLaren disguised by its “Papaya Rules,” he delivered his verdict on the repercussions that ensuring fairness between both drivers has caused.

"I think it's being blown out of proportion," said Palou. "I think that ultimately they were in a position where they had the best car by far, and they wanted to be the friendly team, the team that does everything perfectly and takes care of its drivers.

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"And in trying to do that, they've done the exact opposite, making everyone see it as if, somehow, they favor one driver over the other, and wonder why this, why not that.

"I don't think there's that much of it, I think there's no favoritism, but it's true that the 'papaya rules' (team orders at McLaren) haven't worked for them."

Norris is the clear favorite to claim his first Formula 1 title and, in doing so, would become McLaren’s first driver champion since Lewis Hamilton, who won his first of seven titles in 2008.

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