McLaren should be “nervous” lining up on the Qatar grid on Sunday night as Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris can expect Max Verstappen to make a lunge for the lead at Turn 1 as that could be his only chance.

Helmut Marko says his driver is ready to risk everything.

A Turn 1 lunge from Max Verstappen?

Sunday night’s Qatar Grand Prix could be the race that ends Verstappen’s four-year reign as Formula 1 World Champion. Trailing Norris by 25 points after Saturday’s Sprint, Verstappen has to beat the Briton to keep his title hopes alive.

And Turn 1 on the opening lap could be his best opportunity to get ahead.

After that, Verstappen told the media, including PlanetF1.com, he may need to “cut a corner” to keep pace with the McLarens.

“If I don’t pass him [Norris], then he scores more points than me,” Verstappen said after qualifying.

“It will be tough. I mean, in the Sprint as well, I tried, but then we just fall into that window where we just struggle a lot on the tyres and we don’t seem to really be able to keep up.

“And also, the final laps of Oscar in the Sprint, I need to cut a corner to do that.

“So, it will be maybe a little bit better, but yeah, it will be tough, I think. But let’s see. It’s a long race. Anything can happen.”

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Marko reckons Verstappen will risk everything to beat the McLarens on Sunday, and that will surely have Piastri and Norris feeling a bit nervous on the line.

“Sure,” he told Sky Deutschland about the prospect of Verstappen making a lunge into Turn 1, “when you know that Max is next to you, most drivers get nervous.”

McLaren, though, is wise to Verstappen’s antics.

Last time out in Las Vegas, Norris tried to block Verstappen off the line and squeezed the Dutchman towards the wall, only to go into Turn 1 too hot and run off the track.

“For sure, you know he’s going to try and lead into Turn 1,” McLaren CEO Brown said to F1TV. “So I wouldn’t miss the start of the grand prix.”

However, should Verstappen not get ahead at Turn 1, Marko reckons the changes Red Bull made to the RB21 between the Sprint and qualifying could be enough to give Verstappen pace to challenge later in the race.

“We’re happy with third place, but we’re even happier with the time difference,” he added. “We were about half a second behind the whole weekend, now it’s only two tenths.

“If we take into account that we have coped much better with the harder compounds, we draw hope that we can compete at the front in the race. Due to the lap limitation on the tyres, two stops are necessary and a lot can happen there – both positively and negatively.

“Piastri has made a resurrection here. In that sense, it’s also better for us that Piastri is ahead. We can look forward to a very exciting race.”

A race that Brown is hoping will conclude with Norris and Piastri seeing off Verstappen’s title challenge.

“Our goal is to make sure papaya wins this championship, so if we can finish where we’ve started here and just have it be a two-horse race in Abu Dhabi, that’s our goal,” he said. “And if they want to reverse positions that’s up to them, I don’t care.”

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