The drivers’ championship comes right down to the ultimate race in Abu Dhabi this weekend with primed for a maiden title and hoping to fend off Pink Bull’s four-time champion and teammate Oscar Piastri.
Whereas the drama has been on the entrance of the grid, the woeful yr for , and particularly , has been a painful storyline for followers of the seven-time world champion and the Scuderia.
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The reshuffle for the grid in 2026 is now set, too, with Isack Hadjar’s rise at Pink Bull and a debut marketing campaign awaiting British teenager Arvid Lindblad.
Whereas 2026 additionally alerts the return of Adrian Newey as the brand new Group Principal at Aston Martin F1, taking up from Andy Cowell.
Right here’s how all the things went down in 2025 with Unbiased Sport’s picks:
Finest driver: Max Verstappen
The very fact he’s nonetheless in rivalry heading into the ultimate race speaks volumes. The Dutchman has the joint-most wins on the grid – seven, alongside Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – within the third-quickest automotive on the grid. It’s fairly the feat that he’s inside 12 factors of the lead heading into this weekend’s season-finale.
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Japan, Imola and Austin had been Verstappen’s finest wins, in a yr the place his pedigree has shot up skywards. Seems, of us, it’s not simply in regards to the automotive. A fifth consecutive championship would put him up amongst the greats of the game.
Podium locations: George Russell, Isack Hadjar
Max Verstappen has reduce Lando Norris’ lead down within the remaining weeks of the season (Getty)
Finest group: McLaren
Regardless of their latest points, it shouldn’t be forgotten how far clear McLaren have been for almost all of this season.
The papaya-clad group secured the constructors’ championship with six races remaining and are nonetheless 341 factors away from second-placed Mercedes. The place Ferrari – who solely missed out on final yr’s group’s title by 14 factors – made no progress in any respect, McLaren’s automotive got here on leaps and bounds, giving each their drivers the equipment to problem for a maiden title.
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Podium locations: Williams, Sauber
Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have loved a nice season with McLaren (PA Wire)
Worst group/driver – Alpine/Franco Colapinto
Colapinto stays the one driver and not using a level this season, amid a marketing campaign the place the taking part in discipline has narrowed and by which his Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly has scored all 22 of the group’s factors. Much more startling, then, that the Argentine retained his seat for 2026, regardless of displaying no enchancment from the unlucky Jack Doohan, axed after six races.
Ditching their energy unit programme subsequent yr and taking over Mercedes engines, Flavio Briatore has some job on to revitalise a group who, 20 years in the past, had been prime of the pile as Renault and Fernando Alonso as world champion.
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Podium locations: Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton
Greatest disappointment: Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari
No-brainer. F1’s greatest transfer of all time has gone cataclysmically worse than anybody might have predicted: by no means thoughts a title problem or just a race victory, the seven-time world champion hasn’t even been in a position to register a grand prix podium.
Ferrari haven’t delivered with the automotive, that’s for positive. But Charles Leclerc’s seven podiums present how the Monegasque has squeezed the very best outcomes attainable out of a dire state of affairs in a approach Hamilton, so peculiarly, has not.
Simply two factors forward, the 40-year-old additionally appears set to undergo the ignominy of surrendering sixth within the championship to Kimi Antonelli, {the teenager} who changed him at Mercedes. It’s additionally notable that Carlos Sainz, whom he changed at Ferrari, has picked up two top-three finishes at Williams.
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However ought to Hamilton rip up his contract and retire? Completely not. These excruciating previous few weeks aren’t any approach to conclude a historic F1 profession. Optimistically, Ferrari will take heed to Hamilton’s know-how and expertise versus shutting him out. The Brit and Leclerc – whose prime years are being wasted proper now – deserve higher in 2026. Whether or not they’ll get any enchancment is one other query altogether.
Podium locations: Liam Lawson at Pink Bull; Franco Colapinto at Alpine
Lewis Hamilton has described his first yr at Ferrari as a “nightmare” (PA Wire)
Finest overtake: Max Verstappen, Imola
Current on-site for this one, the gasps within the media centre stated all of it.
Verstappen sprang from third to first with a mesmeric cross, threading his automotive by means of the attention of a needle at Tamburello and startling Oscar Piastri out in entrance. It was a race-winning overtake.
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Podium locations: Ollie Bearman on Verstappen, Mexico; Lewis Hamilton on Liam Lawson, Austria
Finest race: Australian Grand Prix
Loads of contenders right here, with Silverstone unlucky to overlook out, however the rain in Melbourne on season-opening weekend ruffled a good few feathers.
We had crashes on the formation lap, modifications within the race lead and drama on the finish, with dwelling hero Piastri sliding off monitor. It was one in every of Norris’s finest wins, setting him up for the season forward.
Other than that, with practically half-a-million followers in attendance, Albert Park reclaimed its rightful place because the top-billing season-opening venue; a title it fortunately retains from Bahrain for 2026.
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Podium locations: British Grand Prix, Canadian Grand Prix
Worst race: Monaco Grand Prix.
Farcical stuff. The enforced two-stop regulation was designed to enhance the sometimes uninteresting principality spectacle. And good on the FIA for attempting one thing completely different.
Nevertheless, the strategists had been two steps forward. Racing Bulls and Williams break up their drivers up, received one to carry up the pack and permit the opposite to pit and hold place. Ingenious, again to the drafting board for the rule-makers.
Basically, nothing will change in Monaco till they will change the monitor. Tough however regardless of what some folks say, not inconceivable.
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Podium locations: Qatar Grand Prix, Azerbaijan Grand Prix
