McLaren heavily favoured to claim F1's Constructors Championship this season

McLaren continues to chase Red Bull in the Formula One Constructors Standings this season, but the odds suggest the team will not remain in second for long.

After picking up another 38 points to Red Bull's 26 at the Dutch Grand Prix, McLaren's 404 points are 30 back of Red Bull's 434. With nine races remaining, McLaren has plenty time to close that gap and claim their first Constructors Championship in more than two decades.

According to FanDuel, McLaren is -340 to win the title for the first time since 1998. Red Bull has the second-best odds at +250, while no other team has odds better than +4200. 

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Red Bull has enjoyed a two-year reign atop the team standings after ending eight years of Mercedes dominance. The team appeared poised for a three-peat earlier this year, but a surge from McLaren, combined with poor results from Red Bull driver Sergio Perez, has seen the odds shift.

Max Verstappen continues to lead the Driver Standings and is closing on a fourth straight title for Red Bull. Perez, however, faced speculation of whether he could lose his seat after going nine races without a podium finish to enter the summer break. The 34-year-old finished sixth in last week's Dutch Grand Prix. 

Perez's tough run has come after he finished on the podium in four of the first five races to start the year, placing second behind Verstappen in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Japan. 

Both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri of McLaren finished off the podium in the first two races of the year. Norris, however, has picked up nine podiums in the 13 races since, while Piastri  has four, including his first career win at the Hungarian Grand Prix in a McLaren one-two. 

Norris earned his second win of the season at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, but remains 70 points behind Verstappen in the Driver Standings. He is +250 to win the title at FanDuel, while Verstappen is -330. 

Verstappen is without a win in five races, his longest winless run since 2020. He took the early lead in the Netherlands despite Norris starting on pole, but eventually finished 22 seconds the British driver. 

“I think it was quite clear that we’re not quick enough, so I tried to be second today,” Verstappen said.

Frustration also appeared to creep as Verstappen suggested that “something has been going on lately with the car” and that Red Bull needs to figure out problems with a lack of pace and higher-than-expected tire wear.

“I think it was, in terms of weekend progression, it has been a solid one,” Perez added. “But I was very disappointed with the pace we had today in the race, it was something we were not expecting to have.

“I thought we were going to be a lot closer to the McLaren. Ferrari were a massive surprise and obviously McLaren. Yeah, plenty of stuff to understand… It was discouraging to see what McLaren can do today.”

While Verstappen and Norris have largely traded points of late, Piastri has significantly outgained Perez over the past nine races. Piastri finished outside of the points at the Miami Grand Prix, but has four podiums since, finishing worse than fourth only twice. Perez has gone without points in three races over that stretch and has not finished higher than sixth.

Piastri enters this week's Italian Grand Prix sitting fourth in the Driver Standings with 179 points, well ahead of Perez in seventh with 139. The 23-year-old Australian believes he should have placed higher than fourth at the Dutch Grand Prix, as optimism continues to grow for McLaren. 

"Some great points for the team, especially with Lando's win, but a little bit disappointing on my side,” he said. “I made some good progress, but I got stuck in the dirty air behind the Ferrari, who had more pace than we were expecting, so I couldn't maximize the points on my side.

"However, we've got a quick car, so the next part of the season is going to be pretty fun. I am looking forward to it."