The most memorable F1 victories after a comeback

With nine races remaining in the championship, Max Verstappen leads his closest rival, Charles Leclerc, by 80 points. Will the Monegasque driver manage to close the gap?

When the season seems to be over, history reminds us that Formula 1 loves spectacular comebacks. The sport's archives are full of drivers who, faced with seemingly insurmountable deficits, managed to turn things around in the final stretch—a scenario that applies today to Charles Leclerc, who needs to make up an 80-point deficit to Max Verstappen.

In 1964, the points system was very different from today's: the podium earned nine, six, and four points. With five races to go and 20 points behind the leaders, John Surtees managed to climb back up the rankings and beat Graham Hill by a single point to win the title. A similar saga unfolded in 1976. Niki Lauda went into the last seven Grand Prix races with a 35-point lead, but a terrible accident at the German Grand Prix kept him off the track for three races. James Hunt seized the opportunity to move up the standings in the remaining races and win the championship by one point.

The early 2000s saw another twist. In 2007, Lewis Hamilton was 12 and 17 points ahead of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen respectively, with only 20 points left to be awarded. Mechanical problems hampered Hamilton in the last two races, allowing Räikkönen to win both and clinch the title. In 2010, the gap between the winner and his closest rival had increased to 25 points, and the title race was even closer. Sebastian Vettel was 25 points behind Fernando Alonso with two races to go; two flawless victories, combined with mistakes by his rivals, allowed Vettel to win the championship in Abu Dhabi.

Four years later, the 2014 duel between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton proved that technical problems could tip the balance. Hamilton, who was 29 points behind with seven races to go, took advantage of a sudden reliability issue with Rosberg, ultimately reversing the trend and delivering a thrilling season that ended in Hamilton's favor.These precedents highlight why Leclerc's situation, although difficult, is not unimaginable. To make up an 80-point deficit in the remaining nine races, he would need to win all of the remaining Grand Prix races, while Verstappen would need to finish no higher than second in most of them and fall to third place at least three times. The math is simple, but the history of the sport teaches us that luck can change in an instant, due to mechanical failure, an incident on the track, or a sudden improvement in the performance of an outsider. Nothing is decided yet, and the final chapter of this championship could well echo the great comebacks of the past.