The 2025 Method 1 season might not have featured probably the most mind-blowing situations ever, however a few of its occasions nonetheless raised eyebrows – and rightfully so.
Listed here are these we recognized as the most important surprises of the yr.
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Purple Bull sacks Christian Horner – Jake Boxall-Legge
Christian Horner, Purple Bull Racing
Photograph by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
Christian Horner’s sacking and Purple Bull’s subsequent revolution. That Horner had managed to cling on to his management over Purple Bull following 2024’s scandal – through which he was accused of inappropriate behaviour in the direction of a feminine colleague – prompt he had weathered the storm, particularly after he was cleared of wrongdoing by an inner investigation.
Purple Bull’s decline over the course of 2024 and into the early a part of 2025 hadn’t essentially raised any exterior alarm bells over Horner’s future; in actual fact, there have been extra questions over Max Verstappen’s actions following an inconsistent opening to the season. Because it occurred, Horner was disposed of following the British Grand Prix – a lot to the shock of everybody at Purple Bull, not to mention these exterior of the crew.
Now below Laurent Mekies, Purple Bull is present process its most vital metamorphosis because it entered the championship in 2005. The architects of its earlier successes – Horner, Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley, and now Helmut Marko – are all gone, and Mekies is empowering these inside to step up into the important thing positions. By no means change a successful crew, they are saying, however there’s at all times a degree the place a successful crew turns into stale.
Isack Hadjar shines as a rookie – Ed Hardy
Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls
Photograph by: Piotr Zajac / NurPhoto through Getty Pictures
At the beginning of the yr I bear in mind considering that Isack Hadjar was simply there to maintain the Racing Bulls seat heat for Arvid Lindblad in 2026. The Frenchman was the surprising promotion, the person who did not win a title at junior degree and completed 14th in his rookie F2 marketing campaign together with his solely win being the Zandvoort dash.
None of that screamed an individual who was lower out to compete on the highest degree and greater than maintain his personal in Method 1. That feeling strengthened on the Australian Grand Prix when Hadjar crashed out on the formation lap and was subsequently on the receiving finish of some harsh phrases from Helmut Marko for the way in which he cried in response to the retirement.
However the 21-year-old’s response by producing a stellar marketing campaign confirmed I used to be as flawed as I may have been about him. There have been the 5 factors finishes in eight after Melbourne, clearly the rostrum at Zandvoort, whereas dominating team-mate Liam Lawson with a 21-6 document towards him in qualifying.
Hadjar has naturally acquired a Purple Bull promotion for 2026, thus doing extra together with his F1 profession than I ever thought he would. So truthful play to him, most undoubtedly the shock of the 2025 marketing campaign.
Oscar Piastri misses out on the title – Owen Bellwood
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photograph by: Rudy Carezzevoli / Getty Pictures
After only a handful of races, it appeared clear that McLaren had one hand on the constructors’ title for 2025 and its attain of the drivers’ crown grew shorter after every passing grand prix. By the top of the Dutch Grand Prix, it appeared ridiculous to recommend that anybody apart from Oscar Piastri may clinch the crown after he gained seven out of 15 grands prix as much as that time.
By then, his lead over team-mate Lando Norris had swollen to greater than 30 factors, and he was over 100 factors away from Purple Bull’s Max Verstappen – who was all however counted out by the chequered flag in Zandvoort. Piastri didn’t win one other race after that, nevertheless, and his drop-off in kind was seismic.
Crashes in Baku, Singapore and the Austin dash noticed his grip on the highest of the standings falter and he fell behind Norris after the Briton gained the Mexican Grand Prix. The unthinkable occurred in Las Vegas, when Verstappen additionally handed the Australian after each McLarens have been disqualified over extreme plank put on.
That wasn’t the one problem for Piastri, nevertheless, as his confidence in his McLaren automobile fell off within the second half of the season. And whereas he managed to clamour it again within the ultimate few races, it proved to be too little, too late.
The truth that Piastri didn’t maintain on to the championship result in take the win was shocking. The truth that he fell again to 3rd by the point the chequered flag fell in Abu Dhabi was stunning.
Williams finishes fifth within the constructors’ championship – Filip Cleeren
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photograph by: Erik Junius
There was little doubt Williams was at the very least not going to go backwards this yr after a woeful 2024 that began with a late and chubby automobile, which then led to a spare components scarcity because the injury payments mounted.
That is all previously, and there was a variety of different low-hanging fruit that will pay dividends for the Grove-based crew, like its trackside operations. However with Williams overtly being targeted on 2026 and barely giving its 2025 automobile wind-tunnel time this yr, I wasn’t anticipating Williams to safe fifth so emphatically.
In fact that’s partly because of a few of its friends not delivering, particularly Aston Martin, however Williams actually managed to make use of its assets effectively to make its 2025 launch automobile stable sufficient to put the groundwork for a profitable marketing campaign. Add the velocity and experience of Carlos Sainz to match Alex Albon, and you’ve got an impressive driver pairing to take the crew into the long run. There might have been some luck concerned in Sainz’s two podiums, however he and the crew have been good worth for them too.
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