…Lando Norris! In the end by a margin of two points on Max Verstappen, and 13 on his team mate Oscar Piastri. In my before-last F1 update back in June that you’ll find here, yours truly wrote: “I would claim we’re well beyond it (referring to halfway into the season, my remark) in terms of seeing where the season is heading – and the color of that is a solid orange. That’s however not the orange of Max Verstappen and the Netherlands we’ve gotten used to, but rather the papaya orange of McLaren!
Given the double Constructors’ and Drivers’ titles McLaren took this year, I guess I could say I was right, but of course, what I meant at the time was that McLaren would dominate the rest of the season as they had the first part. In my defence, I think few would have contested my statement back then. Only a few weeks later however, Red Bull’s team principal Christian Horner was sacked, and the summer thereafter became somewhat of a turning point, making the fight for the F1 Drivers’ title 2025 the most exciting it’s been since 2010, when Sebastian Vettel clinched it as one of four contenders in the last race of the season, also in Abu Dhabi.
Until the end of August this year, McLaren had won 12 of the 15 races, split 7-5 in Oscar Piastri’s favour over Lando Norris. Of the remaining three, Max Verstappen had won two, and George Russell one. Piastri was at the time in a relatively comfortable Championship lead, with Lando Norris a solid second. Verstappen at most was all of 104 points behind Piastri. It all looked like a McLaren internal fight for both world titles, with not even Max Verstappen being close.
From September onwards we had another nine races, including the last race of the season today in Abu Dhabi. George Russell won his second race of the season in this period, but that’s the only similarity with the first 2/3 of the season. Because of the remaining eight, Oscar Piastri has won none, Lando Norris has won two, and Max Verstappen no less than six. Going into today’s race, the three of them thus all had the chance to win the Drivers’ title, something that hasn’t happened in years.
Digging into this a bit closer and starting with Max and Red Bull, it’s no doubt true that he’s done far better in the last part of the season, meaning more or less since the departure of Christian Horner. The conclusion has to be that letting go of Horner was the right move, as it’s pretty clear the team does quite well without him. However, all of it is neither on the back of Horner, nor of Max’s doing either. McLaren has combined mistakes with a bit of bad luck since the summer, helping Max unexpectedly get a renewed chance at the title. And with Max, that’s really all he needs.
It started in Austin, where none of the McLarens finished the sprint race, which Verstappen won. In Las Vegas, both papaya cars were disqualified for skid wear (referring to too much wear on the plank running below the car, meaning it could run lower than allowed by regulation). Again, Verstappen won the race. And as late as last week in Qatar, when Norris was supposed to tie it all up, for some inexplicable reason, McLaren was the only team not to pit in a safety car phase early in the race, leaving both Piastri and Norris in complete limbo with some hilarious radio conversations between the drivers and the team we all could listen to taking place. Who won the race? You guessed it.
This isn’t meant to take anything away from Max Verstappen though. Until the end of the season, everyone would agree that McLaren had the better car, but in spite of that, as soon as there was a glimmer of hope, Max stepped it up and grasped it, pulling what feels like 130% out of the McLaren car in a way only he knows the secret of. It didn’t take him all the way but boy was it close, and as many that agree that McLaren had the better car would probably also agree that Max Verstappen is still the best driver.
It’s worth looking at bit closer at Oscar Piastri as well, who after winning seven races in the first part of the season, and having been on the podium in 13 of the first 15 races, has only been so three times since the summer. F1 veteran Martin Brundle named five reasons for this turnaround for the worst, being head, luck, setup, tracks, and Norris. I won’t go through all of them and it’s no doubt a mix of everything, also including team orders and tactics, which Brundle didn’t name. Piastri is a very good soldier, never contesting team orders and playing it all by the book. It pains me to say so, but that’s not exactly the traits of a world champion (did anyone mention Max?).
Behind McLaren and Red Bull, Mercedes-AMG has emerged as a solid third, even beating Red Bull in the teams’ classification. Much of this is thanks to Kimi Antonelli’s fantastic driving in his first season, scoring no less than three podiums and 150 points (that’s three podiums and 117 points more than Red Bull’s second driver Yuki Tsunoda…). That’s not bad for a 19-year old, and although it’s only less than half the points his teammate George Russell scored, the pair is more complementary than many would have thought.
In comparison, what happens down in Maranello has us all scratching our heads, especially when it comes to Lewis Hamilton. How can it be that a seven-time world champion doesn’t manage it beyond Q1 in the last two qualifiers when his teammate Charles Leclerc does so with a margin? Plenty of theories are going around, essentially boiling down to Lewis at one end complaining and calling his first season at Ferrari a nightmare, and others pointing out that as a 40-year old driver with seven world titles, you should perhaps be able to make it beyond Q1, and if you don’t, that it’s perhaps time to say arrividerci.
I would tend to agree and also point out that it would be good for Lewis to change his tune before the team loses confidence in him as well. Ferrari is a Latin outfit which Seb Vettel and especially Schumi learnt to handle and exploit fully, but which Lewis seems to struggle with. That’s a bad direction to go in, especially when you’re 40 years old and cash a very big cheque. Before the season, I would definitely have put the Ferrari duo ahead of Russell and Antonelli at Mercedes, again showing that my predictive powers are about as reliable as worn-down Range Rover.
The other teams are all miles from the leading four, but it’s worth mentioning Williams who for many years were at the very back of the field but who now regularly score points with the well-functioning duo Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz. They both scored a similar amount of points (Albon at 73, Sainz at 64), with Carlos notably finishing third in the before-last race this season in Qatar. That’s nice to see, although it’s difficult to see the team moving further up the ranks.
As we close the books on 2025, we do so with Lando Norris as brand new world champion and McLaren thus taking the double. Seen over the full season, I would say it’s well deserved, as he’s been more constant than Oscar Piastri over the full season, and McLaren has clearly been the best team. Max Verstappen finishing second, only two points behind, is no doubt a disappointment for him, but far more than he could have hoped for a few weeks ago. Oscar Piastri’s disappointment is no doubt bigger, having basically had it all in his own hands back in September.
Of course, Piastri will have a new chance next year, as there is little doubt McLaren will be among the top teams then as well. It’s difficult to say more though, since the 2026 season will see a total revamp of the cars, with major changes notably to the power unit, chassis and aerodynamic rules. More on that next year before we start off the season 2026, but even as we conclude 2025, we know that it will be a tall order for the new cars in the new year to beat the excitement of the 2025 season!
The Thrill of Driving 