I was bored, so I decided, why not do a mid-season F1 review on the teams so far? Once again, because I have no sense of self-control, this turned into a 5,000 word mega-piece. You’re welcome, Internet.
So here’s one big piece breaking down every team on the grid so far, some key stats, some high and lowlights, and a generic score at the end, because I looked at IGN’s reviewers and wanted a piece of that life. Enjoy!
Note: I’ll be mentioning Supertimes here and there in this piece. It’s a theoretical potential average by assessing raw speed (Fastest laps), against the fastest car in the field, and then weighted as either a percentage, or time difference. It’s designed to give a closer representation of pace compared to just head-to-head comparisons, which can be a bit misleading at times.
Alpine – 10th Place (19 Points)
Main Positives: Pierre Gasly / Main Negatives: Second seat woes, yet more internal drama, 2025 confirmed dead
Pierre Gasly – 13th in Points (19), 3 Top 10’s, Average Start: 11.8 / Average Finish: 13.3
Jack Doohan – 21st in Points (0), Average Start: 15.5 / Average Finish: 16.3 (6 Races)
Franco Colapinto – 20th in Points (0), Average Start: 16 / Average Finish: 15.3 (6 Races)
Alpine’s already made some history. If they stay in 10th for the rest of the season, they’ll be the greatest bottom ranked team in F1 history, surpassing Haas’ 12 point haul in 2023. Alpine already has 19.
There’s been more behind-the-scenes drama. Oliver Oakes, who generally seemed to be in a pretty safe position as team principal, suddenly resigned citing “personal reasons” after the Miami Grand Prix. As much as this happened a week before his brother was arrested for carrying too much cash on him, there’s nothing connecting the two incidents besides just being Oliver’s brother, so it’d be baseless to accuse Oliver of any foul play. All we know is, he’s back at Hitech’s F2 team and has kept a low profile since.
Flavio Briatore has brought in Steve Nielsen to replace Oakes as “Managing Director”, making him Alpine’s sixth team boss in as many years. He’s another solid pair of hands, but once again, it’s hard to ignore the influence that Briatore has as “special advisor, even if he’s not officially in charge.
Pierre Gasly on the whole has been pretty good this season. Has scored points on four occasions despite generally being in one of the worst cars in the field, including seventh in Bahrain and an eighth in Catalunya. Average start of just under 12 as well. If you didn’t know any better, those don’t look like bottom feeder numbers. Without a doubt, he’s held up his end of the deal, hell, he’s the only driver to score 100% of his team’s points this year.
That’s also a part of the problem. Across the garage, mind you… more mess. Jack Doohan always seemed like a dead man walking when Franco Colapinto was given a reserve driver contract mere weeks after standing in at Abu Dhabi last year. Just six races later, after a tough start and a genuine split in Enstone as to what to do with Doohan, Colapinto was called in. And he’s largely been more of the same, struggling to deal with an Alpine that drives very differently than the Williams he was simulator testing last year. By Supertimes measure, there’s been about half a tenth between Doohan and Colapinto compared to Gasly, but I suspect the Argentine’s money was the kicker here, given his backers partnership with Alpine as an energy supplier.
Getting a good second driver alone would probably be enough to get Alpine off the bottom. It’s why a part of me wants to say that I don’t think Alpine has been too bad on paper. In other years, 19 points definitely wouldn’t put them last. The problem was, they were trending ninth last season until their miraculous Brazil weekend had them steal sixth at the death. But 2025 has been erratic in terms of midfield violence, with everyone else also having big outlier results, and other teams like Sauber have genuinely turned themselves into proper points scorers. Pierre Gasly’s sixth at Silverstone might be the drive of the year that no-one will talk about, purely because of Hulkenberg’s podium.
But all that seems trivial when the team itself has admitted it’s finished with the development of this car as they move towards 2026, and their new life as a Mercedes customer. As I’ve said many times before, a passable power unit and Alpine can use their solid chassis and be a regular scorer… and yet… 4/10
Haas F1 Team – 9th (29 Points)
Main Positive: Bad start fears were an exaggeration / Main Negative: Running out of ideas?
Esteban Ocon – 10th in Points (23), 5 Top 10’s, Average Start: 14.8 / Average Finish: 12.1
Ollie Bearman – 18th in Points (6), 3 Top 10’s, Average Start: 16.7 / Average Finish: 12.8
Again, with the way this season has been, 29 points really shouldn’t have Haas down in 9th. They have two points more than they had this time last year, and yet, they’re two spots lower.
The difficult second album for Ayao Komatsu has been all over the place. There were always going to be teething problems with a brand new driver line-up and the first car fully under Komatsu’s influence and it showed. A horrific opening weekend in Australia led to severe concerns about their cars’ high-speed cornering… only for them to immediately win the majority of their points over the next three weekends in China, Japan and Bahrain. Weird.
They’ve scored 9 points in their last 8 weekends, and have basically limped along, also having a car in 11th in the last three races. They’re just treading water right now and they’re starting to get left behind a bit by their rivals.
It’s a tricky time for Komatsu in Year 2 as leader. He’s having to juggle the comedown of a dream 2024 season where there was genuine hope in the Banbury camp, with the reality of them slipping back into a more realistic spot in 2025, all while thinking about when to shift development to 2026 and the new regulations. On a good day, Haas can still get one, maybe even both cars in the points, but the congested midfield is making that a much harder task.
After his fifth place in China, Esteban Ocon was at one point, the highest scorer in a Ferrari power unit. And while those days were obviously short lived, he’s done what Ocon normally does in F1 these days – Go to a team, and just be a solid scorer and team leader and chop some wood. Haas has the 9th best car on points alone, but Ocon is Top 10 in the driver standings and has a knack of converting Haas’ poor outright speed into some good race results. It’s exactly what Haas would have been aiming for, and he’s doing a very good job.
Ollie Bearman started out hot. After the aforementioned Australian disaster, he had three straight points finishes in China, Japan and Bahrain, China likely being a driver of the day performance that was robbed by Kimi Antonelli and thirsty Fantasy F1 owners. Amazingly, he’s not scored since, but he’s also had three straight 11th places in the last three races, so he;s doing his own Esteban Gutierrez impression. I’ve generally been impressed with Bearman this season, he looks like he belongs, his pace has been solid and he’s only down 7-5 to Ocon over a single lap, his Supertimes pace is only about a tenth and a half back. Really good stuff.
But he needs to be careful, as he’s racked up 8 penalty points since the end of last season, two in Monaco where he was caught napping on a red flag in FP3, and then four more for his hellaciously stupid pit-entry crash while under red flag at Silverstone. It’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen on a race track and Bearman was lucky he wasn’t told to sit the rest of the weekend out.
Haas dined on a brilliant, feel good 2024. The wheels haven’t fallen off, the field around them has just gotten better. Whether it elects to stick or twist heading into the new regulations could define Komatsu’s second chapter as team boss. 6/10
Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes (8th – 36 Points)
Main Negative: Lance Stroll’s hot start, Alonso’s late streak / Main Negative: This year probably doesn’t matter
Fernando Alonso – 14th in Points (16), 4 Top 10’s / Average Start: 10.4 / Average Finish: 12.3
Lance Stroll – 12th in Points (20), 3 Top 10’s / Average Start: 16.1 / Average Finish: 13.8
Is it a good sign that despite Lance Stroll getting off to an excellent start, it only took a handful of rounds for the mainstream media to start asking: “Hey, is Adrian Newey gonna work on this year’s car too?” The resounding “no” in response pretty much sums up Aston Martin’s 2025.
Alpine may have been the first to state their intentions officially about being all-in for 2026, Aston Martin spiritually I think have been there from the start. With Newey arriving and fully committed to the 2026 car, this felt like it was going to be a year of Aston taking the pain and seeing what comes out the other side. And well, it’s not been terrible, but the points standings don’t lie.
Lance Stroll got off to an excellent start, taking advantage of the chaos in Australia to finish 6th, and then backed it up with 9th in China. Then came nine-straight races out of the points. Oh, and he’s still yet to outqualify Fernando this season. In fact, only Ollie Bearman has been worse on average starting position in 2025. Typically, Lance is the best of those eliminated in Q1.
This normally wouldn’t be too stressful, but Fernando Alonso didn’t get on the board until his home race at Barcelona in May. There were some 11th places in there, some poor reliability in Monaco, and some dodgy racecraft too, like in Miami. It was like a bingo board of tough breaks.
Fernando’s found some pace and has now scored in each of his last four weekends, and lifted the team back into 8th, on the losing end of a countback tiebreaker with Racing Bulls. Unc still got it as he entered his 45th year of life. But with the team pretty openly courting George Russell as he hits the open market next year, is this the final Aston Martin season before a total reset for Team Silverstone? And if yes, who gets replaced? 5/10
Racing Bulls (7th – 36 Points)
Main Positive: Isack Hadjar, the surprise of the season? / Main Negative: Still being Red Bull’s play thing
Isack Hadjar – 11th in Points (21), 5 Top 10’s, Average Start: 10.2 / Average Finish: 11.7
Liam Lawson – 16th in Points (12), 2 Top 10’s, Average Start: 14.3 / Average Finish: 14.6 (10 Races)
It’s been a chaotic season for Racing Bulls, through no real fault of their own. They only had talisman driver Yuki Tsunoda for two races before losing him to the Red Bull factory team after the Liam Lawson experiment backfired in spectacular fashion, with the Kiwi back home in his original team since. And now with Christian Horner gone, their team boss Laurent Meikes has been moved to Red Bull CEO to take his place, with Alan Permane the new boss going forward.
Would it shock you if I said the most stable element of their team in 2025, has been rookie Isack Hadjar? You’d never have guessed after that tough start in Australia when he crashed on the formation lap in the rain. But he’s been a very impressive rookie otherwise this season. His qualifying has been excellent, 8-2 on Liam Lawson in the 10 races they’ve been teammates, and a Supertimes advantage of around three tenths, and five finishes in the points so far this season. This includes a chunky sixth in Monaco, and seventh in Barcelona. Again, is it a good sign when Hadjar had to go public and basically say “I’m not ready for Red Bull, please don’t send me there?”
Liam Lawson’s return has been rough. At times, it’s been really rough. It seems like the move back to Racing Bulls dented his otherwise bullish confidence. Poor outright pace, and a string of really sloppy moves in terms of overtaking racecraft led to Lawson racking up penalties. But he’s also earned some praise for being a team player in Monaco, figuring out that backing the train up got both he and Hadjar into the points, and P6 in Austria was a career high finish that shows that the talent is still there. I need to see more, but hopefully Spielberg was a step in the right direction.
It’s been a disruptive campaign for Racing Bulls, but there’s some good things here. It’s a quick car, and seemingly easier to pilot than their Milton Keynes counterparts. Now they just need to execute with hopefully some stability in their camp. I’ve got faith that Alan Permane can lead the charge. A Top 5 finish, something this team has always wanted, isn’t a million miles away. 6/10
Kick-Sauber (6th – 41 Points)
Main Positive: The best update F1’s seen in two years? / Main Negative: Killing future wind tunnel time?! (Joke)
Nico Hulkenberg – 9th in Points (37), 1 Podium, 5 Top 10’s, Average Start: 15.8 / Average Finish: 11.7
Gabriel Bortoleto – 19th in Points (4), 1 Top 10, Average Start: 15.3 / Average Finish: 15.6
Arguably the biggest surprise of 2025 so far – Kick Sauber have actually been good. Really good. So much so, they’ve been F1’s fourth best team in the last four race weekends. Hinwil paid Red Bull some extra bread to get Jonathan Wheatley out of the team early to lead this season, and it seems he’s been instrumental in the team’s turnaround. Apparently, there were “quick gains” to be made on their slow car, and the update the team brought to Barcelona was enough to leap them up maybe four spots in the power rankings overnight. Just like that, Sauber went from bottom of the barrel, to being a comfortable point scorer.
That push has been spearheaded by Nico Hulkenberg, who has been for me, a Top 5 driver on the grid pound-for-pound this season. Funnily enough, his usually excellent qualifying pace has slipped in 2025, being 6-6 with Gabriel Bortoleto head-to-head over a lap, and virtually nothing to separate them on average difference. But in race trim, Hulk has driven from Q1 elimination to being in the points FIVE times this season. The seventh in Australia and the fifth in Barcelona alone would have been outstanding. But the latter started a four race points streak, including the podium at Silverstone, a drive of the year contender. Hulkenberg’s having a career year in his Age 37 season, and a podium in his 239th career start sums up what a wild career he’s had.
Gabriel Bortoleto needs a little bit more seasoning, but he’s hanging in there. I’m glad Sauber’s put very little pressure on the Brazilian to be a success right away, but as said, his qualifying’s been really solid to match Hulk, and you can start to see the race pace coming together. His 8th in Austria was an awesome weekend and I hope it was a sign of things to come.
The only real downside of Sauber now is, they’re killing their own prospective “tank job” we thought they were going to have entering 2026. They could lose a good chunk of wind tunnel time with a critical development path towards their new car incoming. But on the other hand, I can think of 30, maybe 40 million reasons as to why ultimately, that may not matter. 8/10
Williams Racing (5th – 59 Points)
Main Positive: Your 2025 developments have been exceptional / Main Negative: Questionable reliability
Alex Albon – 8th in Points (46), 8 Top 10’s, Average Start: 10 / Average Finish: 10.4
Carlos Sainz Jr – 15th in Points (13), 6 Top 10’s, Average Start: 11.5 / Average Finish 12.7
Hey Vowles, I thought this was supposed to be the down year!
All the talk we’ve given Sauber for their recent turnaround? Williams pretty much did that first. All the more amazing when you realise they’re still using last year’s chassis in 2025, but the developments around it have unlocked some dormant pace they’ve definitely not had since Vowles took over the team.
There were murmurs about Alex Albon’s form after the flash in the pan that was Franco Colapinto, but he’s winning the battle with Carlos Sainz to establish himself as the leader of the team, and maybe even better than we gave him credit for in 2023. 9th in Points, 7th in Average Finish amongst the field, but also three Top 5 finishes in Australia, Miami and Imola. The latter should have been fourth given Leclerc’s… aggressive defending, too. When Williams is dialled in, they’re a genuine Top 4 team that can give the real big hitters a bloody nose.
Carlos Sainz’ form is a little concerning, and he’s lagging behind Alex. Now his qualifying pace is pretty good, 7-5 down is marginal, and the Supertimes reads that they’re within a tenth, but Sainz has had more trouble converting that into results once the race hits. He’s not getting the big chunks of points that Albon had, especially early on in the season. So to a degree, the scoreboard difference is a little worse than actual form suggests, but annoyingly, points make prizes, and Williams might come under pressure from Sauber if current form continues.
What’s not helped them, has been their poor reliability lately. Albon in particular has had a cruel streak lately of his power unit not working in Canada and Austria. The latter was a double donut after Sainz’ rear wing failed, and then had his brakes catch fire. Something that ought to be cleaned up.
Williams are in a good place… I think. They’ve slowed down in recent weeks, but they’re on pace for 120 points. That should get them fifth. Sixth at worst if Sauber keeps this up. Either way, that’s an outstanding effort for a team that was under pressure to deliver in Year 3 of the Vowles turnaround. They just need to finish strong. 8/10
Red Bull Racing (4th – 172 Points)
Main Positive: Max Verstappen / Main Negative: Everything else
Max Verstappen – 3rd in Points (165), 2 Wins, 4 Poles, 5 Podiums, Average Start: 3 / Average Finish: 4.9
Yuki Tsunoda – 17th in Points (10), 3 Top 10’s, Average Start: 13.3 / Average Finish 13.1 (10 Races)
Welcome to the end of an era. After 20 years of service, and 14 World Drivers and Constructors’ Championships, Christian Horner is no longer the CEO of Red Bull Racing, the Arden F1 Team in all but name.
It’s an overdue write-up but I’ve made my sentiments pretty clear on other social platforms. It irks me that a sexual harassment investigation didn’t remove Horner from his position, but a drop in performance did. Now I need to correct myself from TikTok – Horner wasn’t cleared of wrongdoing, he was found not guilty. There is a difference, and we all saw that folder. He remained employed for another year and a half.
And while said scandal ultimately didn’t bring Horner down, the residual damage may have done so indirectly. How many cogs had to fall out of that machine before it started malfunctioning? I think we’re finding out. It was too much for Adrian Newey. Jonathan Wheatley left for Sauber. Rob Marshall left for McLaren and immediately won a world title, a man known within Red Bull as “The King of the Flexi-Wings”. Will Courtenay, their head of strategy, is becoming McLaren’s sporting director next year. Pierre Wache, the true day-to-day man in Red Bull’s development hub is going to be under serious pressure to figure this out.
The car is Cinderella’s diamond slipper, if it was covered in dogshit. Clearly fast in the right hands, but everyone else Red Bull has tried has been unable to make their feet fit for a good three years now. Liam Lawson’s two-race experiment was organisational malpractice from a team that for a while, was bulletproof in that regard. Yuki Tsunoda hasn’t fared much better since, and it feels inevitable he will end up the same way. Isack Hadjar openly spoke out against a move, and Arvid Lindblad is an exciting but very raw prospect, and the team isn’t prepared to spend big money to have a two #1 driver setup like McLaren or Ferrari . So erm… good luck? For perspective, Max Verstappen has scored 96% of their points in 2025, with Lawson and Tsunoda combining for just eight out of 172 in the second car.
Max Verstappen has mostly been exceptional. If last year didn’t prove it, this year has, he’s the best racing driver on the planet today. The fact he’s even got two wins out of that silly car is a testament to his skill. But like with many other Max seasons, you can rattle him when the chips are down, with a needless corner cut in Saudi Arabia, and of course, his meltdown in Spain. While I attest it wasn’t totally Verstappen’s fault it escalated to what it was, given Red Bull’s awful communication and misjudgement of the state of the race, you cannot take the law into your own hands and use your car as a weapon, and he was lucky there was just enough grey area in the eyes of the stewards for them to give him three penalty points without saying “intent”. He still sits on nine penalty points until October, mind.
And that leads us to another problem – Was Horner’s sacking and Verstappen’s future linked? All the conversations started thanks to George Russell in Austria (More on him in a minute), ever since, everyone’s had their two cents as to whether Max is leaving.
My thoughts? I think they are linked, and I think we’re heading down one of two roads:
- The Verstappen camp forced a power play and got rid of Horner via threatening to leave the team, and that galvanised both sides of the business (The Thai half sold 2% so the company now has no majority owner), with the Verstappen camp of Jos and Helmut Marko are now largely in command.
- Max Verstappen’s already told Red Bull he intends to leave and is in talks with Mercedes to financially buy him out, and as a result, Red Bull reacts by sacking Horner.
My gut says Option 1. I think if you’re a top-tier racing driver with that much clout within an organisation, I think it’s better to survey the landscape and see what you have for 2026. No-one really knows how these cars will function until they’re all on track together after all. Not saying Red Bull’s going to be great (If anything, their complaining about the regs doesn’t fill me with confidence), but if moving to Mercedes ends up not working, Max is likely stagnant for a while. Better the devil you know, than the devil you don’t if you ask me.
Make no mistake though, if Max walks, this team needs to throw everything out and start over, because they are in serious trouble. They’re the worst team in F1 without Max, and their over-reliance on him is set to be their biggest downfall. Welcome to the Laurent Meikes era… he’s just been handed a “Hospital Pass”. 5/10
Mercedes AMG-Petronas (3rd – 210 Points)
Main Positive: George Russell, Driver of the Year? / Main Negative: Same car issues as 2024
George Russell – 4th in Points (147), 1 Win, 1 Pole, 5 Podiums, Average Start: 4.4 / Average Finish: 4.9
Kimi Antonelli – 7th in Points (63), 1 Podium, 6 Top 10’s, Average Start: 8.3 / Average Finish: 11
This is a weird team to evaluate. Is it wrong to think I expected better from them this season?
I’ve said many a time and will do so again – This is Year 4 of a Championship dry spell from a team we evaluate in the context of doing exactly that. Anything less is going to be seen as a disappointment, and after a year of genuine promise in 2024 with three wins, it feels like Mercedes is spinning its wheels again.
They took a brilliantly controlled win in Canada but that felt like the only real time they’ve punched up against their counterparts in McLaren all season, and we all know it’s not a great look to play second fiddle to a customer, even if McLaren is a bit more than that at this point. They’ve still got raw speed, Russell has been a superb qualifier this year, but their 2024 weakness of tyre temperature control has reared its ugly head again in places like Imola, and their new floor hasn’t really mitigated that problem as much as they would like.
There’s also been some brain fades by Toto and the management of the team, with Monaco being particularly embarrassing by starting beef with his old friend James Vowles, forgetting it was a mandatory 2-stop race, and then having George Russell intentionally cut a chicane and get a Drive Through Penalty. Bit sketchy on the reliability front too, Monaco’s weekend was derailed because of it, and Kimi Antonelli’s had a couple of mechanicals.
I’ll say this much – The drivers aren’t the issue. George Russell I think has a genuine case to be the driver of 2025 so far. In terms of extracting the maximum from his machine this season, I think he’s been as strong as anybody this season. His podium in Bahrain with a car that was experiencing something resembling a short circuit was incredible. He’s only been out of the points once all season, with 5 podiums and that excellent Canadian win. In a tight race, with three teams firmly in the mix, Russell, a man who’s had his bottle criticised in the past, toughed up and won. He’s been immense, and I have no idea why Toto Wolff’s even thinking about letting him walk. Is Verstappen that much better?
Kimi Antonelli has been pretty good too. If anything, I feel a bit bad because Russell’s been so good, it’s diminished Kimi’s pretty solid rookie season so far. The rookie numbers aren’t wonderful, 11-1 down in Qualifying, about a four tenths deficit on Supertimes over a lap, but that drops to a tenth and a half in races, and that is very, very impressive for an 18-year-old rookie. And at times, it’s shown. I remember his pace in Japan, where he was as fast as anyone towards the end of the race. His Canadian podium was superb, it proved he can hang with the best on equal footing, and of course, the Miami sprint pole was excellent and deserved a better result than he got. I was skeptical about his talent in the juniors, but there’s little doubt in my mind that this man is the real deal and is going to be a force in the future. I just hope he keeps his head up after a string of poor finishes that read like a bingo card of F1 folleys:
Imola – Mechanical DNF
Monaco – Binned it in Quali, Monaco’d, 18th
Spain – Mechanical DNF
Canada – PODIUM!
Austria – Collided with Verstappen
Britain – Collected by Hadjar
I think Mercedes should be the clear Number 2 team in F1 right now, and they’ve slipped behind Ferrari, and I think the body of work over the season has me thinking Mercedes has been better. Third would be seriously disappointing for this team. But hey, they might be about to get the Golden Goose, so who cares right? 7/10
Scuderia Ferrari (2nd – 222 Points)
Main Positive: Drivers have been pretty good / Main Negative: Organisational mess, development failings
Charles Leclerc – 5th in Points (119) – 4 Podiums, 10 Top 10’s, Average Start: 5.6 / Average Finish: 6.4
Lewis Hamilton – 6th in Points (103) – 1 Sprint Win, 2 Sprint Podiums, 11 Top 10’s, Average Start: 7.3 / Average Finish: 7.1
Another team that’s hard to truly evaluate, only this time for different reasons. If you didn’t know any better, you’d have thought Maranello was set on fire in the eyes of some of the Italian press.
Now it’s easy to forget that Ferrari were one pitstop away from the Constructor’s Title in Abu Dhabi and the team elected to go all-in to try and win it this year, via a radical overhaul of their car (90% new parts), and of course, Year 1 of the Lewis Hamilton experience. Safe to say half way through 2025, that it’s not worked. McLaren’s blown them away and have both titles in the bag and that’s been pretty much nailed on since Miami.
It’s even led to pressure on Fred Vasseur as team boss, already. While I don’t think he will be moved on that quickly ala Football, it is a bit concerning that Ferrari’s yo-yo’d in form this hard, this quickly, and that this season feels like a write-off already. I suspect the LH masterplan was winning in Year 2 or 3, but this all feels like a bit of an early setback. Chuck in the humiliation of a double Chinese GP Disqualification, and a full-blown radio meltdown from Hamilton in Miami, and with Ferrari in a similar boat to Red Bull, ie – seemingly not confident about their 2026 hybrid power-unit… okay, the Italians may have had a point.
Charles Leclerc has been once again, one of the best drivers on the grid, and maybe only half a step behind George and Max as the best of 2025. Four podiums, a gutsy second place at home in Monaco, and has had the better of the Hamilton matchup so far, something he was always going to be under pressure with heading into this season. I just hope we as an audience are finally above the “rag on Charles because he makes one mistake a year” haters.
What about Hamilton across the garage? Like with most controversial subjects, the reality is that he’s not been anywhere near as bad as some of his haters suggest, or as good as his fans think. The reality is somewhere in the middle. 8-4 down in Quali, 10-2 in races isn’t great, but on Supertimes his Quali deficit on average is less than two tenths, and he’s been consistently in the Top 6. I don’t think it’s too bad for a driver in a brand new team in a different country and with very different parts compared to 12 years in Mercedes, like Brembo brakes for instance. I see the signs he’s getting closer to Leclerc, and that’s a good place to be.
Ferrari may end up second again by the time this season ends, but it’s going to be a very distant second, and there’s going to be a lot of pressure on Maranello to get next year’s car right. I think it’s time for Ferrari to bail out of 2025. What do you say, reader? 6/10
McLaren (1st – 460 Points)
Main Positive: Just about everything / Main Negative: Pressure to keep drivers happy
Lando Norris – 2nd in Points (226), 4 Wins, 3 Poles, 1 Sprint Win, 10 Podiums, Average Start: 3.5 / Average Finish: 3.3
Oscar Piastri – Leader (234), 5 Wins, 4 Poles, 9 Podiums, Average Start: 2.2 / Average Finish: 2.6
Well just about everything has come up Milhouse over at Woking. They’ve done it. No ifs, no buts, they are now the clear, undisputed, best team in F1 for the first time since… maybe 1998? Zak Brown right now is the smugest son of a bitch in Europe (respectfully).
The car has been immense. Only a small weakness of being twitchy at the absolute limit and they still have 7 out of the 12 pole positions so far this season, but 9 out of 12 in races. Rob Marshall’s impact has been felt, the flexi-wing heat check in Spain turned out to be a complete nothingburger, they’ve still been the best team on the grid since, with no obvious weaknesses. Throw in absolutely exceptional rear-tyre management and they can have races like Austria where they can fight tooth and nail for 20 laps and still make time on the Ferrari’s behind them.
They’ve probably got enough in hand where they can shut it down for the rest of the season and focus on 2026, and still comfortably win both titles given everyone else is tripping over themselves.
It’s been a tale of two seasons for the drivers so far. Oscar Piastri came out of the traps like a house on fire – He recovered from home disappointment to win four of the next five, and it had Norris rattled, the Brit speaking about his struggles to adapt to a MCL39 that was built for raw speed and different from his usual driving style. Piastri leads the sport in average starts (He’s not qualified out of the Top 4 all season), and finish position.
Lando has tripped over his own ankles a few times but what I think people failed to clock in that bad run, was that they weren’t huge mistakes. Yes, he wrecked at Saudi Arabia’s qualifying… still finished fourth for instance. The bad one was Canada where he drove into the back of Piastri on the main straight. Lucky for Lando, it was at Piastri’s arguably weakest GP of the year so far and only lost 12 points.
And that’s the thing – Lando has genuinely pulled this back in the last few races. Wins in Monaco, Austria and Britain have nipped the gap back to 8 points, and Piastri at times has looked vulnerable. As said, was slow in Canada, made a pointless mistake at Silverstone to lose a win that looked pretty solidly on, and nearly drove into the back of Lando himself in Austria, with the flatspot opening the door for Norris to punish him on strategy.
After 12 races, they’re 6-6 on head-to-head results, 7-5 Piastri on qualifying, and all the Supertimes measurements I could find have them within a tenth of each other. All said and done so far, Piastri’s been better but it’s extremely close between these two and the results show it. It’s effectively a 12-race Championship between the pair of them and it’ll be fascinating to see if Piastri’s improvements hold out, or whether Lando’s experience comes through down the stretch.
And if they do end up clashing here and there – Can this team use its “Papaya Rules” and keep everyone on the same page? So far so good, to their credit, Norris and Piastri are largely pretty sensible, but they’ve not been in this scenario of having two title contenders since we had V8’s in these cars. Good luck, because it rarely ends well. 10/10
