A win for Norris or Piastri, by Simbo Olorunfemi

It has been quite a season. A season seasoned with all sorts – the good, the bad, and the ugly. A long season for many reasons.

A rather forgettable season for Lewis and his fans. Mere thinking about it draws out that long hiss. What a season!

The hopes raised and dashed. The opportunities not taken. The misses. The wins, infinitesimal as they are. It’s been a miserable season. Difficult to find points of redemption from it.

“I don’t know what happened. I have no words and I wouldn’t know how to express what’s going through my head. Definitely a lot of anger. There’s nothing more to add,” Lewis said yesterday, after failing to make it out from Q1 for the 3rd race in a row.

The frustration in those words best captures Lewis’ first season with Ferrari, which had been envisaged with bated breath as one that might just herald a fresh breath for his career. But it has turned out as a disappointing one.

A not-good-enough machine. An often indecisive team. A not-too-composed Driver, struggling with confidence. A disappointing mix that has seen to the team not winning a single race during the season.

While it has been a disappointing one for Lewis and Ferrari, it has been another dominant season for McLaren. The Team Championship had long been won. The 2 Drivers are still in with a chance to win the Championship.

But then, the Drivers Championship ought to have long been won by one of its Drivers, or with a Driver from another team completely shut out. Its insistence on the papaya rule, where that might have been sidestepped, or some unpardonable team errors and mistakes in terms of strategy has led to a situation where Max Verstappen who was once 104 points behind is going into the final race on pole,and with a chance to win the title.

It has indeed been a crazy season. Once, it seemed that the ice-cold Oscar Piastri had the title already wrapped up. His ever-calm demeanour made many conclude that he was beyond the series of mistakes we later saw him make that has now relegated him to the 3rd position on the log, even if he still has a chance to win the title.

So while it is, on the whole, a forgettable season for some, partisanship aside, the season is ending on such a high note that has F1 fans on the high.

There is a confusion about how we got here in the first place. How did we get to this point where Verstappen has a chance of winning the title? How did the iceman Piastri unravel? How did Norris get his mojo back? How did McLaren manage to throw so many points away through those unbelievable errors?

Are we dealing with a conspiracy of coincidences or a conspiracy of indifferent forces?

To have 3 Drivers with a chance to win the Championship in the final race of the season makes it a dream ending. It is a showdown everyone is looking forward to, with hearts in mouth. But the excitement is

Norris comes into the race with 408 points, 12 more than Verstappen, wit Piastri a further four points behind on 392, making it mathematically possible for any of the three to win.

But the advantage is Lando’s. He only needs to keep a cool head, ensures he makes it to the podium, even if there are other permutations that might still make him win. He knows, as we know, that Max won’t leave anything on the table, even if it means going over the edge, to win his 5th championship.

I would have loved for Piastri to win, but the odds now appear to be against him. But who says? If Piastri doesn’t win, then it had better been Norris. We cannot afford a repeat of another Abu Dhabi 2021.

The only consolation available to take from this long season is a win for Norris or Piastri.