The F1 Drivers’ Championship will go down to the wire in Abu Dhabi on Sunday as Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri battle it out for the title. Their three-way race has captured the attention of athletes from the rest of the sporting world, including three-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud, who is in action at the UTS Grand Final in London this weekend.
The world No. 12 was so engrossed in the title race that he watched the final minutes of qualifying on a phone during his post-match media duties after beating David Goffin in the group stage on Saturday, holding it out for the room to watch. Ruud lived and died by Aussie Piastri, who qualified P3 behind Verstappen and Norris – and was just 0.029 seconds behind his McLaren team-mate.
The Norwegian star asked to watch the dramatic conclusion to qualifying whilst completing his interviews, and took a brief break from answering questions to watch the drivers complete their final laps. “Oh, Norris is also just behind! 0.003, nothing,” Ruud exclaimed while holding out a small phone so everyone could watch.
Ruud’s agent is Dutch, and naturally a Verstappen fan, and the world No. 12 turned to face him as the four-time world champion clinched pole. Piastri was still in contention for P2, and the 26-year-old shouted “come on Oscar!” to no avail, tipping his head back in disappointment when Norris outdid his team-mate.
Asked who he thought would win the Drivers’ Championship come Sunday, Ruud added: “My heart says Piastri. Yes, come on! And my gut says… Norris? And just for fun’s sake, Verstappen is maybe going to do it also. I don’t know, it’s so fun.”
Ruud is so passionate about Piastri that he’ll be working his pre-match preparations around the Abu Dhabi GP on Sunday. The 14-time tour title winner has qualified for the semi-finals of the UTS Grand Final. After topping Group B, the world No. 12 will face either Alex de Minaur or Tomas Machac in the second semi at 3.30pm local time. If he wins, he’ll get straight back on court for the 5pm final.
And the Norwegian ace has already planned to get his warm-up out of the way earlier in the afternoon so he can tune in and cheer on his man. “I am going to warm-up at 12pm to 12.30pm, and then just in time to watch it at 1pm,” Ruud explained.
“There was a time, after what happened in ‘21, I was watching a lot of the series on Netflix, and the way the season ended in 2021 with the last five laps in Abu Dhabi, I was, like, demotivated to watch Formula One for a long time. And then when they did changes of the car, and Verstappen was dominating for three, four years, this year it’s more interesting because we have new drivers and new teams doing well.
“I think Oscar seems like a very humble, nice guy, kind of taken the F1 world with storm this year so I think that’s why. He was leading the Championship for a long time, so I hope he can try to get it back.”