Meanwhile, Mercedes suddenly re-enters the conversation. They had hoped to become prominent from Austin onward, but on the night circuit of Marina Bay, they unexpectedly discovered an unbeatable car.
It would be unfair, however, to overlook that Singapore awarded McLaren the constructors’ championship for the second consecutive year. Exactly the title Ferrari once aspired to, yet they now trail the Woking-based team by over 350 points. This small but telling detail highlights how Maranello lives in a dream world far removed from reality, while also showing how the British team, backed by Bahraini capital and technically led by Andrea Stella, has excelled with careful planning, selecting talented personnel, and drivers who delivered precisely what was required of them.
On the eve of Singapore, Norris stated that McLaren has been superior to everyone in at least 95% of the races—and he’s right. They could have won on Sunday as well, but in recent races, Piastri and Norris have been overly cautious, marking each other too closely. In my view, McLaren had the car to win at Singapore, but the strategic interplay between their two drivers condemned them to defeat, without diminishing George Russell’s brilliance, which confirms that Mercedes doesn’t miss Hamilton too much.
Ferrari’s painful reality
Now, let’s address Ferrari. The 45.9-second gap suffered by Charles Leclerc, who qualified sixth, is far too large to dismiss as a normal setback in an unlucky season. Behind that deficit are not just routine problems that can appear in any race—setup issues, ECU errors, braking system faults—but fundamentally wrong decisions that only Fred Vasseur fully understands. Ferrari’s decline in the second half of the season demands immediate intervention from John Elkann and Benedetto Vigna, who must ask whether a better future is realistically achievable with this current technical staff.
Today, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton represent an unnecessary luxury, hampered by a car that exposes them to doubts and poor results. McLaren has won the championship with a driver budget worth a quarter of Ferrari’s, yet thanks to teamwork and cohesion, both Piastri and Norris are still in contention for the drivers’ title. Observing, with some humility, what happens at other teams could be the first step toward a cure for Maranello. This is the view of Giuseppe Allievi, a journalist and one of the best-known writers of the automotive world, having written many books on the history of the car.
