S ix meetings remain of the 2024 Formula One season and the race for the world championship will be played out in frenetic fashion with two bouts of triple-headers as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris go head to head for the title. The run-in, however, will not begin for three more weeks, a period that could prove decisive as the protagonists work flat out towards this final stretch. For McLaren this will be a period of fine-tuning but for Red Bull there is the altogether more urgent task of finding solutions.
The next round, the US Grand Prix, takes place in Austin on 20 October after an unusual late-season pause. This autumn break, as it has been dubbed, is however dissimilar from the sport’s traditional summer hiatus, which is genuinely a cessation of work. During the summer shutdown personnel are prohibited from doing their jobs but the next three weeks are simply a long gap between races and the push for an edge in those final rounds will be pursued with intensity.
With the run-in so tightly congested, the six races will play out in only eight weeks, and all a long way from home: Austin in Texas, Mexico, Brazil, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi. Developing on the hoof is going to be a tall order. The title contenders have to hope the car they bring to the US GP hits the ground running.
Norris enters the interlude on a high. He dominated in Singapore , beating Verstappen by 21 seconds and closing the gap to the world champion to 52 points, with a ma.