After his McLaren failed at the Dutch Grand Prix, Lando Norris finds himself 34 points behind team-mate and title rival Oscar Piastri in the race to win the 2025 title.
Had Norris finished second at Zandvoort, he would have dropped 16 points behind the Australian, but after an engine oil pipe broke, he dropped out to hand Piastri a commanding lead in the standings.
It is such a big lead that if Norris were to overhaul him, he would vault into the record books as one of the drivers who had overhauled the biggest points deficit to win the world championship.
As it stands, Max Verstappen holds this honour by clawing back a 46 point deficit to Charles Leclerc after round 3 of the 2022 season in Australia, where Leclerc won his second race of the year, to go with a P2, whilst Verstappen just had a single win to his name.
But if the current F1 points system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1 is used and the calculations re-done, the largest deficit ever overhauled goes to James Hunt who clawed back a 98-point lead for Niki Lauda.
After the 1976 Swedish GP, Lauda enjoyed the near three-figure lead over Hunt after four wins, two seconds and a third from the opening seven races, compared to one win, a second, a fifth and four DNFs for Hunt under the 9-6-4-3-2-1 points system.
Incidentally, under the current points system, Lauda would have actually won the 1976 title by two points, including the two races missed whilst recovering from his fiery Nurburgring accident.
Elsewhere, in 2007, Kimi Raikkonen overcame a 56-point deficit to Lewis Hamilton after the United States GP at Indianapolis, to snatch the title in the Brazil finale.
If Norris does manage to overhaul Piastri's 34-point lead as it stands, he will slot into fifth place on the list under the current points system, as the table below shows.
The points system used to calculate is the 2025 grand prix onwards system of 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1. The fastest lap bonus point, as in F1 after its removal, is not counted.
Biggest points deficits overhauled to win title - all converted to modern points system
| Rank | Drivers | Year | Points/Race |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | James Hunt - Niki Lauda | 1976 | 98 points - Sweden (35 points with then-system) |
| 2. | Kimi Raikkonen - Lewis Hamilton | 2007 | 56 points - United States (26 points with then-system) |
| 3. | Max Verstappen - Charles Leclerc | 2022 | 46 points - Australia |
| 4. | Sebastian Vettel - Fernando Alonso | 2012 | 39 points - Italy |
| 5. | Sebastian Vettel - Lewis Hamilton | 2010 | 31 points - Belgium |
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