F1 2026 Storylines: What Is Still Left to Race For Before Las Vegas
This is the Happy Hour Racing Formula 1 Race Preview series. There is no Grand Prix this weekend, so this is a between-races storyline feature on what is still worth watching as the season heads to Las Vegas.
The Short Version
Both 2026 titles are settled. Andrea Kimi Antonelli won the drivers' championship in Mexico City and Mercedes took the constructors' crown a week later in Brazil. But the F1 2026 storylines are not done. Three races remain, starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Saturday November 21 at 11:00 PM ET on Apple TV, and there are at least five fights still worth staying up for.
If you want the circuit data first, our Friday feature already covered it: Las Vegas Strip Circuit by the Numbers has the lap length, the lap record and every past winner. This one is about people, not numbers.
Storyline 1: Max Verstappen Found Himself Again
For most of this year, Max Verstappen was the guy nobody expected to see struggle. He went the first 15 races of 2026 without a win. Red Bull, as a team, did not win a race until Round 16.
Then it flipped. Verstappen won the Bahrain Grand Prix, run at Sepang this year, from pole. He won Singapore from pole a week later. He was third in Austin, won Mexico City from fifth on the grid, and then drove from 21st to second in the rain at Interlagos. That is three wins and five straight podiums.
Here is the part that should get your attention. The last three races of 2025 were Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and Verstappen won all three. The last three races of 2026 are the same three. He lost the 2025 title to Lando Norris by two points. He will not win this one, but he looks like the driver nobody wants to see in their mirrors.
Storyline 2: Five Drivers, One Spot
With the title gone, the real fight is for second. Verstappen holds it on 279 points. George Russell is 17 back, Lewis Hamilton is 18 back, Charles Leclerc is 30 back and Norris is 33 back. Five drivers from four teams, with 75 points still to hand out.
Inside that fight is a teammate war. Hamilton and Leclerc are 12 points apart at Ferrari. Each has one win this year: Hamilton his first for Ferrari in Barcelona, Leclerc at Silverstone. Neither has a car that has won since July, so the bragging rights inside the garage may come down to who keeps it out of the wall in Las Vegas. The full table is in our Formula 1 schedule and standings page.
Russell has his own angle. His teammate just became the youngest champion in the sport's history, at 20, with nine wins. Russell has three. Finishing second behind him would still be a strong year. Finishing fifth would be a hard winter.
Storyline 3: Red Bull vs McLaren for Third
Ferrari sits a comfortable second in the constructors' standings on 510 points. Behind it, Red Bull has 415 and McLaren has 398. That is a 17-point gap with three races left, and both teams have three wins.
The momentum is split. Red Bull has Verstappen on a hot streak and Isack Hadjar putting together podiums, including third in Brazil. McLaren just won that same race with Norris from pole, the team's first win since Zandvoort in August. In a two-car fight like this, the second driver usually decides it. That brings us to the strangest story of the year.
Storyline 4: Oscar Piastri's Long Dry Spell
In 2025, Oscar Piastri won seven races and finished third in the championship with 410 points. He was a title contender deep into the season.
In 2026, he has not won a race. He has 152 points, sits seventh, and his last win came at the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix on August 31, 2025. That is more than 14 months. McLaren boss Andrea Stella has said Piastri is still learning how to drive the new 2026 cars, and reports from The Race and Autosport point to a car that rewards a different style than his smooth one.
Three races is not much time to fix a whole season. But one good night in Las Vegas would change the story going into the winter, and it would help McLaren in the fight for third.
Storyline 5: Cadillac Is Still Chasing a First Point
Cadillac joined the grid this year as F1's 11th team, with Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas in the cars. After 20 rounds, it has zero points.
It came close once. Perez crossed the line 10th in Monaco in June, which would have been the team's first point, but a post-race time penalty dropped him out of the top 10, per AP and RACER. That same penalty moved Fernando Alonso into 10th and gave Aston Martin its first point of the year. Aston Martin has seven now. Cadillac is still waiting.
Las Vegas is the race to watch for this. It is one of Cadillac's three home races in the United States, and it is a street circuit where a safety car or a wall can reshuffle the back half of the top 10. For more on the driver who nearly got Cadillac on the board, read our Sergio Perez spotlight.
There is a smaller fight down there too. Haas has 31 points and Audi has 28 in the race for seventh. Three points is one good afternoon.
What to Watch in Las Vegas
Watch Verstappen first. He has won two of the three Las Vegas races so far, and he arrives on his best run of the year. Then watch the gaps behind him, because every point Russell, Hamilton, Leclerc and Norris take off him matters. Watch the second McLaren, and whether Piastri can turn a season around on one cold night. And watch the bottom of the top 10, where Cadillac needs just one point to make its debut year feel different.
It is a night race in cold desert air, run on Saturday at 8:00 PM local time, so set an alarm if you are on the East Coast.
The Bottom Line
Antonelli already has the trophy. What is left is pride, prize money and momentum for 2027, and that is plenty. Verstappen is chasing a repeat of last year's three-race finish, five drivers are fighting over second, and the newest team on the grid is still looking for its first point. Las Vegas is not a decider. It is a good race anyway.
Shop Formula 1 Gear
Gearing up for the Strip? Here is what we have in stock right now:
- PUMA Formula 1 Las Vegas Special Edition T-Shirt, Black
- Red Bull Racing Special Edition Austin GP Bucket Hat
- McLaren Racing New Era Shadow Beanie
- Valtteri Bottas Special Edition Hoodie
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