It’s shaping up to be a thrilling climax to the 2024 F1 season, but one viewer who may not be so happy that’s the case is the one who’s got a six-figure bet riding on the title outcome
Lando Norris is turning up the heat on Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds and his hefty $250,000 wager on Max Verstappen clinching the F1 title.
With six races to go, including three sprints, Norris has slashed Verstappen’s lead to a mere 52 points with his stellar performance at the Singapore Grand Prix. He turned pole into a commanding win, finishing almost 21 seconds ahead of his rival.
Norris is setting the stage for a nail-biting finale to the 2024 season, which might not be welcomed by Dodds, who earlier this year confidently bet around £188k on Verstappen securing his fourth world championship. “99 per cent he gets that trophy,” he boldly claimed in a TNT Sports interview.
“I’ll tell you what, so if he doesn’t win it, there are 19 other drivers, if any one of the other 19 drivers wins it, we’ll give a quarter of a million dollars to the charity of choice of the other driver that wins it.”
Having previously lambasted the lack of competition in F1, with Verstappen easily bagging the 2022 and 2023 titles following his contentious initial triumph over Lewis Hamilton, Dodds is perhaps regretting his words as Norris continues to defy the expected script.
He’d continued: “It wouldn’t be the worst day in the office to give a load of money to charity. But absolutely, he is nailed on to win that season, which is why for me as a fan, or as a fan of Formula E and Formula 1 – I know I’m going to turn up to Sao Paulo, I run Formula E, you’re in the presentation team there, neither of us have any idea who’s going to win that race, right?
“So I’m quite excited by that. I know as a Formula One fan, this season’s about to start, and yeah, I’ll watch it and the fanfare and everything that goes with it, but I absolutely already know who’s winning. You can’t win 19 out of 21 races in one season, go in the off season, bit of development on the cars, come back for the next one and not win it. I just can’t see it.”
Norris’ win in Singapore is his third of the season, with Verstappen’s tally of seven keeping him in the lead but only narrowly. Unfortunately for McLaren, Daniel Ricciardo snatched the fastest lap point away from them in Red Bull’s sister car.
While it’s only a solitary point, it does mean Verstappen can afford to finish second to Norris in all the remaining races and still win the championship. They can both now recover with an extended break before the United States GP on October 20.
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