Max Verstappen’s Abu Dhabi tactics explained as he misses out on drivers’ championship to McLaren’s Lando Norris

With Max Verstappen missing out on the F1 drivers’ world championship to Lando Norris by just two points, was he too “well behaved” in the final race of the season?

Verstappen cruised to victory in Sunday’s season finale in Abu Dhabi, beating Oscar Piastri by 12.5 seconds but crucially being denied a fifth straight drivers’ title as Norris claimed the third place he required for championship glory.

Many expected the Red Bull driver to deliberately drive slowly from the front to try and force a mistake from Norris with Piastri directly asking him in the cool-down room afterwards why he “didn’t want to back everyone up?”

It was a tactic employed by Lewis Hamilton in a similar title decider in 2016 when he deliberately slowed down in the final laps to try to force an overtake on championship rival Nico Rosberg from the drivers behind.

Rosberg himself, working as a Sky Sports F1 analyst for 2025’s Decider in the Desert, was certainly expecting a similar move from Verstappen.

“They were very well-behaved today,” he said.

“I expected them to try a few more tricks earlier on, backing up a bit more.

“Or at least to try it at some point to see does it work or does it not work?”

The obvious moment for Verstappen to employ the tactic came on lap 42 after Piastri pitted from second and dropped 24 seconds behind the Dutchman on track.

That offered a window for Verstappen to stop for fresh tyres and emerge in the lead just in front of Piastri and Norris, then potentially backing them into Charles Leclerc in fourth and George Russell in fifth.

However, Verstappen opted to maintain his big lead and hope that some misfortune would impact the McLarens behind.

Red Bull explain why Verstappen couldn’t back field up

When asked about the decision after the race, he said McLaren’s call to start Piastri on hard tyres and Ferrari opting to stop Leclerc twice made it too difficult to back the field up.

“I had a lot of scenarios in my head, Verstappen said.

“But I knew, once I saw the tyres Oscar had on the car, that it would be quite difficult.

“We were probably a bit too quick up front, the others couldn’t really follow that well. Charles drove his heart out to try and get onto that podium, so that was also impressive to see.

“But, they went for a two-stop. That made it even more complicated because if you stay on a one-stop backing the whole thing up, it’s tough.

“This new layout around here makes it even harder to do that, compared to 2016.”

Red Bull bosses later admitted that they had discussed employing the tactic, but felt it would have put Verstappen at risk of losing the win he needed to have a chance of the championship.

“It was possible to do it. We didn’t feel it was the right option for us,” said Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies.

“We would have given up quite a large advantage by doing so.

“We didn’t think playing tactics would give us an edge for the situations we were in, so we chose to stay out to maximise the advantage we had and concentrate on winning the race.

“We can’t control what’s behind us. We did discuss that option but stuck to our plan.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko admitted the tactic had been negated by McLaren’s surprise decision to split tyre strategies across Norris and Piastri at the start.

“It was quite clever from their side. It gave them a lot of options. We were not expecting it,” he explained.

“They did a clever move to put Piastri on hard tyre. That’s why we couldn’t bunch up the whole field, because the benefit would have been on the side of Piastri.

“It was not quite enough. It was one Red Bull against two McLarens and unfortunately we were hoping that Leclerc and Russell would have more speed, but that wasn’t the case.

“The problem was that Ferrari and Mercedes were not strong enough.”

McLaren’s smart call nullified Red Bull options?

It appears Red Bull’s options were ultimately thwarted by a clever pre-race strategy decision from McLaren whose drivers started the race second and third behind Verstappen.

Not only did they split tyre strategies with Norris on mediums and Piastri on hards, but they made sure Norris did not resist his team-mate – who was also in with a chance of the title – from going past him on the opening lap.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted they made that call a couple of hours before the race and made expectations clear to their drivers.

“There’s been more than one conversation this weekend with our drivers,” he told Sky Sports.

“We knew that in the first lap there could be a swap of position and we didn’t want to prevent it, but we said even more than normal to just play very safe.

“I think it was a very safe manoeuvre. It was interesting to let Oscar go with hard tyres and try to chase Max.

“This was even in the interests of Lando to some extent.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown added that he knew it would be difficult for Verstappen to back the field up in Abu Dhabi.

“There’s no chance that you can do that because the car approaching is so much faster you have a double DRS straight,” he said.

“To play games you have to do something that is not the way we go racing and you will not see this at McLaren.”

Tsunoda tactic angers McLaren boss

However, Brown was frustrated by the tactics that Red Bull did employ by starting Verstappen’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda on hard tyres, running long and then attempting to slow down Norris after his first pit stop.

Tsunoda was ultimately given a five-second penalty for forcing Norris off the track on lap 23, but the Brit successfully got past before claiming his maiden world title.

“That was a dangerous and unnecessary manoeuvre,” Brown told Sky Sports F1.

“This is a team sport, so I’m not surprised that the second car is going to help out, but I think there’s got to be a limit.

“But they [the team] are not driving the car so you’ve got to put that one on Yuki for, in my opinion, going over the line.”

Watch every race of the 2026 F1 season live on Sky Sports, starting with the Australian Grand Prix from March 6-8. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime