Monza changed the order in F1: Goodbye Verstappen, hello McLaren!

Finally, the statement of the weekend came from the mouth of Max Verstappen. After another poorly run race weekend - his last victory dates back to Spain in June (!) this year - the Red Bull Racing driver said, "At the moment, both championships are not realistic," only to go on to point out that his RB20 is totally uncompetitive in almost every area. "Well, the car is undriveable. It's a massive balance problem that we have. And that, of course, is not only over one lap, but also over the rest."

As resigned as Verstappen seemed after qualifying a day earlier, he was frustrated after the Grand Prix in which - a stroke of luck - rival Norris scored an anything but optimal with a third-place finish. Nevertheless, the overall feeling at McLaren was that not only is the constructors' world title up for grabs, certainly the drivers' title too. Indeed, the title that for a long time seemed so certain to go to Max Verstappen.

McLaren voice ambition

For the first time this season, Andrea Stella, McLaren's team principal, dared to say it out loud that nothing is impossible now that Red Bull have really completely lost their way. Although he keeps in mind one unpredictable factor in all of this: Max Verstappen. "We are fighting Max Verstappen, so I think if we want to give support to one driver, we definitely have to pick the one that is in the best position," the Italian stated. So that is Lando Norris, creating a new dynamic in that team.

When asked by GPblog whether this meant that there was an outspoken number one and two in the team, Stella dodged the answer a little. He realised that a statement on this would "give a nice headline", but then it was nevertheless made clear that Lando Norris has an edge within McLaren from now on. So why the British had not made the swap immediately in the Italian Grand Prix and let Norris finish second? It is a mystery.

Verstappen sees no more excuses

Max Verstappen is unlikely to care what McLaren think; the Red Bull driver has plenty of other things on his mind. The main one? Making the RB20 driveable and fast. The question now is how long that will take: "It doesn't matter how many weeks," Verstappen said. "We have to just keep pushing and work flat out. There's no excuse."

And so the world suddenly looked completely different after Monza. McLaren are going for the title, Verstappen is no longer counting on it. Who could have guessed that in March?

This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton