Why is everybody pretending not to care about Norris v Verstappen title fight?

Laurent Mekies and Zak Brown sat together in Abu Dhabi for a pre-title showdown press conference that distinctly lacked an undercurrent of needle.

The frisson of tension and nerves that is usually palpable between two opposing team bosses in a championship season finale was noticeably absent during a press conference of bonhomie and cheer at Yas Marina on Friday.

Mekies v Brown a polite drama vacuum

The Thursday press conference involving the three title contenders Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, and Max Verstappen was packed to the rafters as the finalists spoke to the media at Yas Marina ahead of the title showdown.

But, 24 hours later, the same press conference room was no more packed than, say, a normal Friday afternoon session mid-season in the middle of a triple-header.

It was slightly bizarre to have two ‘rival’ figureheads from the two opposing teams, Red Bull and McLaren, sitting down together ahead of a title showdown and, yet, not even a veiled barb could be detected between the two.

Instead, the press conference did little to hype up the possibility of fireworks this weekend, with Brown and Mekies instead choosing to highlight the positive aspects of their respective squad’s achievements in getting to this point and still being in contention.

It’s all in stark contrast to what we’ve seen in recent years, title fights involving characters who you sensed would run over their grandmothers for victory, and back up again if it came with the bonus of annoying their main rival.

Maybe it’s because the main rivalry of recent years, Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, has spoiled the F1 fandom so generously with helpings of drama and needless provocation that this weekend’s showdown feels to lack the same importance as previous.

In both mens’ cases, you knew victory meant everything. You knew they wanted to come out on top, that defeat hurt, and… it was box office. Horner vs. Brown and Stella, in 2024, didn’t quite match that intensity, but there was still sufficient mud-slinging between the two teams, as well as occasional tension between the drivers, that it gave the championship fight some added gravitas.

But the relationship between Mekies and Brown is markedly different, largely due to Red Bull’s mid-season revolution that saw the Austrian parent company take control and turn away from being the disruptors that, for so long, had been the attitude instilled under Horner.

With no history of bad blood, and antagonism seemingly not being a weapon in Mekies’ repertoire, the press conference between the pair was mutually affable, back-slapping in nature rather than either using any obvious psychological warfare against each other.

F1 2025 head-to-head standings

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

“I think it’s even quite refreshing to see that we’re not even discussing whether we are going to race cleanly or not,” Mekies said in response to a question regarding the use of possible team tactics. “It’s a given that the guys out there will race cleanly.”

Has that assurance of everything being squeaky clean made it less exciting going into the finale? Undoubtedly so. Heading into a close championship finale, where is the undisguised desperation, the attempts to get under the skin of a rival by any means necessary?

Where are the subtle digs at Red Bull for having a less consistent car, poking at the possibility of the Milton Keynes-based squad going the wrong way on setup like it has on several occasions this year? Where are the jibes at McLaren for appearing rattled under pressure, the pointing out of the huge strategic fumble from Qatar that, if repeated this week, could secure another title for Verstappen?

It may not appear like much but, in a sport where the tiniest details can make all the difference, the fact the two team leaders opted against such tactics appeared a very considered decision. Sportsmanlike it may be, but polite bonhomie doesn’t add much by way of drama.

Even for the drivers, it feels markedly different to other three-driver showdowns such as Fernando Alonso vs. Mark Webber vs. Sebastian Vettel in 2010, or the infamous 2007 title fight.

So clinically managed has the intra-McLaren fight been that its two drivers’ battle feels stifled and constrained, with a sense that the loser will shuffle off in passive disappointment after the chequered flag. Defeated, but at least consoled by knowing the team was never put out, or that harmony was ever significantly threatened.

Max Verstappen’s championship challenge, unencumbered by such concerns, has been so unexpected that he’s brought an air of nonchalance to the entire thing – his father Jos is off rallying, his mother is watching from at home, and winning the trophy would simply be a bonus for him as he “has four at home”.

“I’m very relaxed. Nothing to lose, you know?” he said on Thursday.

“So, I’m just enjoying being here. But for me, it’s not even about being here. I’ve been enjoying the second half of the season, working with the team, how we’ve been able to turn it around from difficult times and really having a debrief after the race, being very disappointed and frustrated with the performances to just enjoying, smiling. Having these wins again is fantastic.

“So, I just take it – everything here is just a bonus, sitting here fighting for the title. So that’s also what makes it very straightforward for me. We will just try to have a good weekend. But then even then, it’s not really in my control, you know? So we just, yeah, like I said, try to enjoy it.”

Norris and Piastri put forward an air of being similarly disaffected by the enormity of the achievement that could await either of them in less than two days time.

“If it doesn’t go my way, then I try again next year,” Norris said.

“It’ll hurt probably for a little while, but then, yeah, that’s life. I’ll crack on and try and do better next season. So, I also feel like I have the mentality of “I have nothing to lose,” because it’s just a race for a championship.

“But in 30 years’ time, I probably won’t think of it that much either way. So, I’m not too bothered. I’ll do the best I can. If it happens, great. If it doesn’t, then I’ll try again next year.”

Both McLaren drivers have brought family and friends along to Abu Dhabi, with Norris’ parents close by to watch the race he’s apparently not hugely bothered about the outcome of, while Verstappen’s family have grown so accustomed to him being in title fights that he is unaccompanied by them.

At surface level, everyone appears completely unbothered by the outcome of how this championship actually plays out – perhaps not quite the right message to be sending out while trying to achieve the highest possible goal of their chosen profession, but the path that’s been chosen by all.

But what if the nonchalance is, in itself, the mind game, and all three drivers, as well as their bosses, are playing it?

Fernando Alonso, a master politician and no stranger to title showdowns involving him, said mind games are continuous throughout a weekend like this one, including how the media are led.

“There’s always a little bit of games,” he said.

“When you see your opponents on track in FP1, FP2, media comments from [Thursday].

“You try to put the pressure on the other side. You meet in the Driver’s Briefing and there is a different body language, for sure, for all the three of them.”

While some of Verstappen’s relaxed demeanour could be genuinely down to having mentally written off this year months ago, is there a more powerful weapon than signalling to your rivals that the achievement that keeps them awake at night, the one they dreamt about as kids and are now on the cusp of achieving, is no more important to him than a Tuesday work lunch meeting, one he’s been to four times before?

Likewise, McLaren’s firm and measured handling of its two compliant drivers has attempted to sculpt a picture of quiet dignity en route to a double title victory, regardless of the driver, and the team appears to be doing everything it can to show that the presence of a four-time F1 World Champion in the title fight, a driver who really shouldn’t ever have been in this position at the final race, isn’t irking and rattling its own drivers.

It’s all very composed and controlled from everyone, and one would hope that the nonchalance is simply an affectation from all involved, a means of controlling their hunger and desire for glory by trying to convince their own minds that defeat won’t hurt, because they were never really all that bothered about the title in the first place.

Held up against the tension of pretty much every other title showdown in recent history, the narrative put out by both sides has led to a feeling that this title is almost of little consequence. It’s a disappointing feeling, given the rarity of a three-driver showdown.

Is it down to the unique dynamics of the McLaren control vs. a Verstappen who had given up hope by mid-summer? Is it down to the growing prevalence of analytical engineers, such as Mekies, Alan Permane, Ayao Komatsu etc, who shy away from the drama and the exuberance, with more old-school hungry businessmen like Wolff and Horner not in the title picture?

Or is it simply down to F1 believing that, despite the unforgettable events of Abu Dhabi 2021, such title fights are undesirable in a world of constant social media scrutiny and vitriol? That poisonous and ugly atmospheres aren’t compatible with the clean entertainment style of Netflix’s Drive to Survive and the desire of huge corporations to be associated with teams of impeccable sporting values and clinically achieved success?

Whatever it is, one would hope the passion, the insatiable lust of a competitor for success and the willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve it, returns, and quickly. Because, if the title rivals themselves don’t care about winning the title, why should anyone else?

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