Can Lando Norris chase down Max Verstappen for the lead in the Drivers Championship?

an absolutely crushing Victory by Lando Norris on Sunday at the Dutch Grand Prix that's got Red Bull Racing worried that not only is their constructor's Championship under threat but also their driver's Championship as well currently Red Bull has a 30o advantage over McLaren in the constructor's championship or the teams championship whichever you want to call it and that's a very small lead and I think that's something that McLaren can probably win and they could probably take the lead of that thing by the time we get to Singapore or the time we leave Singapore but the driver's Championship well that's a different story The Gap that ver stappen has overlando Norris it's about 70 points or is 70 points I should say and I made some notes on this one because helmet Marco who is Red Bull's Motorsports advisor uh he believes at Lando Norris can't be counted out of winning the driver Championship he had said that after the race on Sunday at the Dutch Grand Prix now the thing here is what's got Red Bull so nervous is the lap that Lando Norris produced at the very end of the Grand Prix where he took the fastest lap and he got that one crucial Point that's important in a a driver's Championship battle let's let's face it but that lap in particular on old worn out hard tires uh was something that they would not be able to produce Max for stappen couldn't have matched that uh and that's got the whole team worried and they should be worried because it was a huge lap in you know what Lando drove uh exceptionally all weekend his qualifying lap on Saturday was absolutely incredible um but I want to talk about the upgrades because I find that this is going to be a story uh moving forward and I believe that you know McLaren is going to have uh the most runway in terms of up are updating their car in terms of cost cap and then also in terms of that wind tunnel cfd design time uh every team in Formula 1 is allotted only so much time and I believe that McLaren still has quite a bit left over uh in the bank if you go all the way back to Miami they brought a huge upgrade to their car they never really upgraded it uh since then and then coming out of the summer break McLaren introducing a sizable upgrade for their car coming into coming into the Dutch Grand Prix uh and here are just a few of these upgrades uh the front corner the front suspension the floor Edge the rear corner of the race car uh rear wing beam Wing those were circuit specific however but the the the front and rear suspension being uh redesigned is a massive overhaul for uh this car and the team itself extremely happy with what these updates have produced and that has to have everybody including Red Bull Racing uh a little worried up and down that pit Lane in terms of the amount of performance that they brought and how much Lando absolutely smashed everyone in this race as for Red Bull Racing not a lot of upgrades for them this weekend uh it's a little concerning when you look at it they had broughten a big upgrade to this car a few races ago didn't really turn out all that well and they haven't really done well with updates as of yet uh most of the stuff that they brought uh circuit specific but some of it also performance flow conditioning so there are some performance gains to it but not a lot uh Coke and engine cover uh that circuit specific for cooling and then some parts on top of the Halo extra down down forest and same with the mirror stays as well that's also uh extra down Force so moving forward this this update upgrade battle uh that these teams are going to be having is going to be fascinating to watch and if we look at the driver pairings ver stappen Perez versus Norris piastri kind of favors McLaren in that regard where Perez has been struggling as of late uh didn't have a great end to this race on Sunday either going to need a little more from him moving forward want to talk about Ferrari real quick because again made some notes on them uh P3 for Charlotte clir P5 Carlos sints uh it was interesting because on Saturday Charlotte CLA said that they would need a miracle if they were going to get a Podium on Sunday well apparently that Miracle arrived um great strategy from Ferrari but one of the things real quickly that I looked at with this car their Pace across the weekend uh was the long runs and also the performance runs so the push laps uh in qualifying qualifying runs not the strongest but the race running the long runs the card looked really strong which is quite surprising because they have really been struggling all across the board ever since they brought a big upgrade to to emila which was quite a few races back um but for them you know moving forward having a strong race Pace that's great for them to build off of and again remember Lewis Hamilton going to that team next season and it's going to be crucial that they get this program back on the right track track so the P3 on Sunday at the Dutch Grand Prix also Carlos asss this great drive to P5 you know that's going to help them is going to give the team a little bit more motivation to push more in the upgrade Department as for Mercedes also not a great day by Mercedes uh I heard from Toto wolf following this one uh he did confirm that Kimmy Antonelli will be running free practice one in Lewis Hamilton's car for the Italian Grand Prix so in Monza so next weekend uh he also confirmed that uh Antonelli would not be moving over uh to Williams anytime soon to take over for Logan Sergeant obviously James vals has become extremely frustrated with how things are going uh with the team and Logan at the moment Logan had a big crash on Saturday in free practice 3 didn't get out for qualifying and that car was heavily upgraded as well so brand new parts on that Williams machine so it is rumored that James vals is looking at trying to replace uh Logan within the team as soon as possible uh one thing that's what one thing I think that uh you know Toto didn't rule out was conversations between himself and James vals they have a very close relationship obviously James used to work for Toto uh but on top of all that one of the things that he wouldn't rule out was Mick schacher possibly uh going over to Williams as well um but it was also reported uh that James is also in talks with Red Bull Racing to try and get Liam Lawson into that car to uh replace Logan Sergeant as soon as possible so we'll wait to see what happens on that front as for Alpine so during the summer break there were a lot of rumors that came out that Alpine could be trying to sell their team well I heard from Flavio briori over the weekend um and he addressed these rumors and he had said that Alpine wasn't for sale and they weren't looking at selling the team either for them I think it looks like they just want to become a customer team something to like what McLaren is where they buy everything from let's say Mercedes even though the Alpine Mercedes relationship would be an interesting one Mercedes IES would need to find a replacement for Aston Martin for 2026 so why not Alpine that could easily fill that role uh for both teams getting their power units from Mercedes Mercedes getting the money from Alpine simple done easy that's the Dutch Grand Prix Italian Grand Prix is up next weekend should be a good one this Championship battle is Raging on and it's been fantastic and we'll see you then