Formula 1 analyst and commentator Peter Windsor has argued McLaren's decision to drop Daniel Ricciardo for Oscar Piastri three years ago may have inadvertently led to the team now being on the cusp of coughing up the drivers' championship.
After McLaren's double disqualification resulted in zero points from the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Piastri's deficit to his teammate Lando Norris in the championship has reverted to 24 points.
However, with Max Verstappen's victory on the Strip, the Red Bull driver is now level on 366 points with Piastri and within striking distance of a remarkable fifth-straight title.
Norris was within touching distance of the trophy after his original second-place finish in Vegas, but his title bid now faces another severe test.
To claim his maiden world championship, the Brit must first run the gauntlet of the pressure-cooker Qatar Grand Prix, which is also a sprint race, and then face the season's do-or-die finale in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking on The F1 Hour podcast, Windsor asserted that McLaren's lack of a clear hierarchy and the presence of two top-tier drivers are preventing either one from running away with the championship, calling this parity a self-inflicted wound.
"From day one, I've been saying it was a mistake to hire Oscar Piastri as Lando Norris' teammate at McLaren if you already had Daniel Ricciardo, because that was a really good combination," he said.
"That was a combination of the ilk of Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, or Felipe Massa, or Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez."
He continued: "They dovetailed really well; they both brought a lot to the team in different ways. Had they kept that driver pairing, I think Lando would possibly have clinched the championship by now. But I don't think they'd be in the situation they are now, whereby they've won the constructors' championship.
"Everything's very equal, and that's the problem. You can't run two equal cars when you've got two equal No.1s and hope it's going to be fair and happy for everybody. It isn't. It's never going to work out."
The internal rivalry has seen the two drivers cancel each other out, a dynamic that Windsor believes has directly allowed Verstappen to catch up and re-enter the title fight.
"If Oscar had a clear No.2 in the other car, it'd be plain sailing, and he'd probably be an easy world champion by now in a McLaren. That's the problem, they've cancelled each other out, and now we've got Max Verstappen sniffing around," he said.
"Either driver is capable of winning the championship this year, but they need to have a lesser driver in the other car to make it straightforward."
Windsor suggested that on a tricky circuit like Las Vegas -- which had known issues like cold temperatures, bumpy surfaces, and manhole covers -- a smart team like McLaren should have left a "margin" on sensitive settings to avoid unnecessary risks.
However, the team could not afford to be cautious because of the "infighting" between Piastri and Norris.
"You would think if any team was to leave a bit of margin when it comes to ride height, on a sensitive circuit, it would be McLaren," Windor said.
"On the contrary, because they've still got this race going on between Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, they cannot do anything but run the cars as near the optimum as they possibly can.
"That's not a great situation for the team to have been put into, for the engineers or anyone."
Windosr proposed that the internal competition forced McLaren to operate illegally close to the limit.
"Having this competitive infighting between two sides of the garage, even if you try to have the glad-happy let's all sit around the campfire and sing folk songs and let's all be one big family approach that McLaren now has -- it never works," he said.
"Because race drivers are super competitive and McLaren shouldn't be in the position they find themselves in, having to be so on the limit with everything.
"You could say that's because they want to beat Max Verstappen. But at the end of the day, if you're running Lando Norris' car, you should be saying, 'He's just had two good wins, we're going to Vegas now, which is a bit iffy. We've had a few manhole covers come up; it can be a bit bumpy, the track surface -- let's just not go anywhere near the ride height or any other regulations which could be a problem in those conditions -- and we'll focus on Qatar and Abu Dhabi, more straightforward racetracks.
"We'll just make sure Lando's on the podium on Vegas' -- that's how you do it.
"But they couldn't do that because Lando's still conscious of wanting to beat Oscar Piastri."
He reiterated that Ricciardo was a suitable teammate for Norris, implying Ricciardo was an effective, slightly subordinate No.2 driver who would have created a stable environment where Norris could secure the title without having to push the team to the absolute regulatory limit.
"It comes back to my original point. All of this stuff, the disqualification of the two cars, can be traced back to the very poor decision to replace Daniel Ricciardo," he said.
"It's a little bit like Ferrari replacing Carlos Sainz. It's against the grain; it's not a natural thing to be doing.
"Daniel Ricciardo was a perfect teammate for Lando Norris."
With this in mind, Windsor's argument overlooks the reality that Ricciardo battled consistently to rediscover his form at McLaren, ultimately struggling behind Norris.
Ricciardo's two-season tenure with Norris at McLaren was marked by struggles, netting him only one victory -- the 2021 Italian Grand Prix -- and lowly finishes in the drivers' standings of eighth and 11th.