Can Verstappen do it? F1’s biggest title comebacks

Red Bull’s revival, on two low-downforce tracks at Monza and Baku, has sparked the tantalising thought that Verstappen might still be in contention when all looked previously lost to McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

As the Dutchman knows, the odds are stacked against him. “Basically everything needs to go perfectly from my side, and then a bit of luck from their side I need as well, so it’s still very tough,” he pointed out.

In fact, if he pulled it off it would require the biggest comeback in Formula 1 history. Then again, if anyone could manage it, it’s Max Verstappen — the man who on his off-weekends wins GT3 races on the Nürburgring Nordschleife.

Reality will likely become clearer at the Singapore Grand Prix this coming weekend, on a higher downforce circuit that should suit McLaren’s strengths a little more. Nevertheless, let’s scroll back through history to find Verstappen some inspiration from F1’s previous comeback kings. As these examples show, you just never know…

Sebastian Vettel (2012)

The most recent to claw back a significant deficit was Verstappen’s Red Bull predecessor. After domination in 2011, Sebastian Vettel was made to sweat for the third of his four consecutive crowns. Halfway through the 20-race season he was third in the championship, two points down on team-mate Mark Webber but a hefty 44 behind Fernando Alonso who at this stage looked destined to become a Ferrari champion.

Instead, Alonso’s season stalled and a sensational run of four consecutive wins — in Singapore, Japan, Korea and India — lifted Vettel into the lead. But the Asian swing wasn’t the end of the story. In one of F1’s most dramatic final races, Vettel was forced to return to comeback mode.

Dropping into the midfield in Brazil after a poor start from fourth on the grid, Vettel was forced to pit with damage after a hefty whack with Bruno Senna’s Williams. In tricky mixed conditions, somehow Vettel dug deep and his holed car held together for him to finish sixth, with Alonso an agonising second to Jenson Button’s McLaren. Vettel was champion again — by three points.

Kimi Räikkönen (2007)

The Finn won on his Ferrari debut in Australia, but this season really centred on the intense battle between McLaren team-mates Fernando Alonso and a rookie Lewis Hamilton. After round ten of 17 (the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring), Hamilton and Alonso were separated by just two points, with Felipe Massa third and Räikkönen only fourth, 18 points behind the surprise rookie leader.

That was still the gap after Monza, where Alonso beat Hamilton with Räikkönen nearly half a minute down the road in third. But as McLaren became engulfed in ‘Spygate’ — the scandal over stolen Ferrari design drawings — Räikkönen won at Spa. Hamilton appeared to steady his remarkable run with a stunning wet-weather win at Fuji, but then slithered into a gravel trap as he pitted from the lead in China on dreadfully worn tyres. That was the crucial moment.

Räikkönen won from Alonso that day, and with just Brazil to come the standings were thus: Hamilton 107; Alonso 103; Räikkönen 100. At Interlagos Hamilton again unravelled, racing poorly in the opening exchanges then suffering a gearbox electronics glitch that cost him 30 seconds. Up ahead, Massa moved over to allow Räikkönen to win, lifting him to one of the unlikeliest of World Titles — one point ahead of the tied and hapless McLaren duo.

Nelson Piquet (1981, 83)

Let’s scroll much further back now to the early 1980s. Both of Nelson Piquet’s championships for Brabham followed comebacks from what appeared to be hopeless positions. In 1981, Carlos Reutemann was well on course for glory. Second at the British Grand Prix to John Watson at the ninth of 15 rounds left him a comfortable 17 points clear of Piquet (in the days when a victory was worth nine points).

But the fortunes of the title protagonists yo-yoed over the remaining races. A win and two podiums lifted the Brazilian level with the Argentinian, only for Reutemann to edge ahead with a third place at Monza. The upshot was that after a wet Canadian Grand Prix, Reutemann headed to Caesars Palace just a point clear of Piquet, with Montréal winner Jacques Laffite an outside contender six points off the top.

How Reutemann then ‘went missing’ in Las Vegas, lamely finishing a lap down and mumbling about a gearbox problem, remains among F1 most infamous denouements. Piquet, physically spent from heat exhaustion, scraped to the fifth place he needed to become champion by one point.

Two years later he grabbed a second title at the last once again. This time, Alain Prost appeared destined to become France’s first World Champion for Renault , even when he uncharacteristically clattered into Piquet at the Dutch Grand Prix.

 After that, he led Ferrari’s Zandvoort winner René Arnoux by eight points, with Piquet 14 in arrears in third. But successive victories at Monza and Brands Hatch in the BMW-powered BT52 left the Brazilian just two points down on Prost as they headed for the Kyalami finale. And when Prost’s turbo engine let him down, the path was clear for Piquet to cruise to a safe third place to claim what remains BMW’s only F1 world title.

Favours from others? Sure. But Piquet had a knack of placing himself in the right place when luck fell his way.

Keke Rosberg (1982)

Between Piquet’s Brabham titles, Keke Rosberg sealed perhaps the weirdest World Championship of them all. Eleven drivers from seven teams won races in the tragic 1982 season, in which Gilles Villeneuve and Riccardo Paletti were killed, and Didier Pironi suffered terrible leg injuries in a crash that ended his career.

 Pironi still led the standings after his Hockenheim practice accident — and even after Elio de Angelis beat Rosberg by half a length in Austria. But the Finn’s only win of the season at Dijon finally lifted him past the Frenchman’s tally, and despite a failure to score at Monza, fifth in Caesars Palace secured the Williams driver his title, five points clear of Pironi and McLaren’s John Watson. As we say, weird!

James Hunt (1976)

The most dramatic comeback of them all? It has to be, surely.

Despite his heroics at Brands Hatch, where James Hunt had survived a first-corner collision to defeat Niki Lauda for a jubilant home win, the Ferrari ace still held what appeared to be a title-winning hand until the horror of his Nürburgring crash that left the Austrian with terrible burns.

Hunt won at Zandvoort before Lauda made his defiant return at Monza, just six weeks after the Nürburgring fireball, to score the bravest fourth place in history. Then Hunt’s faint title hopes appeared to be extinguished when news broke that he’d lost the Brands win to a Ferrari protest over a technicality regarding the restart. Rather than five points in arrears, the McLaren driver was now 17 behind with three to play.

How Hunt then rallied with a fired-up win at Mosport, and another at Watkins Glen, thrust him into a Fuji showdown. When Lauda withdrew in protest at the dreadful conditions after the opening lap (an act perhaps even more courageous than his Monza return) the title was in Hunt’s hands… until a puncture ripped it away again.

How he then came back to grab the third place required to become champion by one point is the stuff of legend. The reality was better than the eventual movie.

John Surtees (1964)

Last but absolutely not least, a too often overlooked comeback from the 1960s. Halfway through the 1964 season, even a third place at the British Grand Prix didn’t appear to help John Surtees’ title quest too much. After a Jim Clark ‘grand slam’ at Brands Hatch, the Ferrari driver was out of the championship frame, 20 points down.

But then Lotus let Clark down. Dreadful reliability meant the Scot failed to score across the next four races, with Surtees furiously passing Clark for victory at the Nürburgring, winning again at Monza and finishing second to Graham Hill’s BRM at Watkins Glen.

Ahead of the finale in Mexico City, Hill now topped the standings on 39 points from Surtees on 34 and Clark on 30. What a turnaround.

In Mexico, Surtees’ team-mate Lorenzo Bandini controversially punted into Hill’s BRM. Runaway leader Clark now looked on for a second consecutive crown, only for a split oil line to rob him on the last lap. And Bandini now waved Surtees through to the second place he needed to become champion by a single point.

If that example doesn’t inspire Verstappen, nothing will!

Images courtesy of Getty Images.