Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri will live through one of their most special races of their life on Sunday in Abu Dhabi. Lando Norris knows that he has a very good chance of winning the Formula 1 championship, after a year-long fight with his teammate from McLaren, who was leading the standings for most of the season.
For Oscar Piastri, while his chances are much more slim (and faces competition from Max Verstappen, too), he knows that it is not impossible either, and "obviously it would be a very cool achievement, but I'm not getting my hopes up too high. We'll see what happens. If I can achieve it, then I'd be a pretty happy guy."
He adds that the fact that Kimi Raikkonen in 2007 and Sebastian Vettel in 2010 won their championships standing in third place before the final race gives him "the tiniest amount of comfort that it is possible".
Will McLaren ask Piastri to let Norris pass him to face Verstappen?
In the press conference with the McLaren drivers, they were asked the most difficult question: if they had been asked by the team follow orders to prioritise Norris' fight to stop Verstappen. For example, if Verstappen was leading the race, and Piastri is third and Norris fourth... would Piastri be ordered to give up his place for Norris to finish third and win the championship?
Piastri said that "it's not something we've discussed. Until I know what's kind of expected, I don't really have an answer."
Norris, meanwhile, said that "it's up to Oscar, I don't think it's necessarily down to me". Probably, that's the worst nightmare Andrea Stella, McLaren team principal, has had for the last year, and Norris and especially Piastri will be hoping that, no matter what happens, it doesn't have to come down to that...
<social>https://x.com/F1/status/1996592998138683760</social>
Who do you think will win in Formula 1 on Sunday?