Here's a wild take from Bernie Collins that's got us thinking. McLaren are desperately clinging to third place in the championship right now, just 17 points ahead of Red Bull. But Collins reckons they'd already be behind Max Verstappen and the gang if Isack Hadjar hadn't picked up an injury. Seriously. The argument is that Liam Lawson's three-race substitute stint at Red Bull, while solid enough, wasn't anywhere near as productive as having Hadjar fully fit would've been.

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Let's break down the numbers. Hadjar missed the Dutch, Italian, and Spanish rounds because of a fractured hand from the summer break. In those three races, Liam Lawson managed 14 points for Red Bull with a seventh place in Zandvoort and a sixth in Madrid. Now compare that to what Hadjar delivered when he returned from injury. He scored a podium third in Baku, followed by fifth in Malaysia and tenth from the pit lane in Singapore. Collins' point is that if Red Bull had those extra points from a fit Hadjar instead of Lawson's contribution, they'd already have overtaken McLaren.

The pressure on McLaren is absolutely real right now. Since Lando Norris grabbed back-to-back wins in Hungary and the Netherlands, the team's been struggling badly. Norris has only hit the podium once since then, while Oscar Piastri hasn't finished in the top three since Miami. Things got worse at Singapore when Norris took out Piastri during the Sprint, costing them nine potential points and walking away with just one.

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Max Verstappen's turned up the heat massively. He's won the last two races in Malaysia and Singapore and hit the podium in seven of the last eight grands prix. Red Bull fixed their RB22 issues, particularly the rear instability problem, and now they look genuinely dangerous heading into the final races. Collins says McLaren need to seriously up their game if they want to keep that P3 position because it doesn't look like it's happening at the moment.

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So there you have it. According to Collins, McLaren caught a break when Hadjar got injured because Lawson's results weren't good enough to close that gap. But now Red Bull's flying again, and McLaren knows full well what could've happened if things had gone differently.

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