Charles Leclerc had a hilarious response when the Ferrari man found out he was still mathematically in the race for the Drivers’ Championship. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have led the way for the majority of the campaign, but the duo are now looking over their shoulders at reigning champion Max Verstappen.
Just 59 points separate leader Piastri from Verstappen, who is on the lookout for what would be his fifth – and no doubt most impressive – consecutive title. The championship looks destined to go to one of Piastri, Norris or Verstappen, but with six races of the season left, there are still five drivers in the mix.
Leclerc, who is currently fifth in the standings, is one of them, with Mercedes man George Russell also an unlikely potential victor. The official Formula One account shared a graphic of those still in contention, with Leclerc responding in typically witty fashion.
He said, no doubt ironically: “Let’s go babyyyyyyy.” Of course, the likelihood of Leclerc overturning a 163-point gap should be filed alongside extremely unlikely and impossible, but it still brought a smile to plenty of Formula One fans’ faces.
For him to be crowned the 2025 world champion, he would need to win every remaining race and sprint race while requiring team-mate Lewis Hamilton to come second in them all. He’d need Piastri and Norris not to score another point and Verstappen to suffer three DNFs.
The same can probably be said for Russell, who is only nominally a contender himself. But there is a serious threat to the McLaren pair coming from Verstappen, who has vowed to continue fighting until the very end.
Speaking earlier this month, he explained: “I’m relaxed, just having fun, here and outside of F1. In that sense, [it’s been] a good season… I try to do the best I can, and I know that if the car is capable of winning, we will win the race – it’s as simple as that. At the same time, if we’re not able to win the race then that’s it as well. I’m not too worried or stressed about anything.”
The Dutchman added: “This was already my plan, and [there are] things that I wanted to do outside of F1, but it takes times to prepare these kind of things,” he commented. “Finally, that came together… I’ve done that already for a lot of years on the simulator, driving these kinds of cars. There is also learning the track better in the wet, damp, knowing every kerb, every bump even more from new tyres to old tyres, high fuel, low fuel, dealing with traffic.”
Racing continues this weekend when the Formula One circus rolls into the United States at the Circuit of the Americas.
