It’s that time of year again. Winter has come and the final race of the 2025 Formula One season is over. On Sunday, December 7, the F1 circus arrived in Abu Dhabi for the Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. This year, however, was different. Since the once-in-a-lifetime dogfight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen in 2021, Verstappen has been dominant, winning 44 races since 2021, and four championships since. This year, there was a three-way battle for the championship, and it all came down to two points.
The three drivers that were in contention for this year’s championship were the two McLaren Drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and the four-time defending champion for Red Bull, Max Verstappen. Norris won the championship (423 pts.), leading Verstappen (421) by 2 points, and his teammate Piastri (410) by 13 points. All Lando Norris needed to do in the race was to finish 3rd or better, and he did.
In Formula One, some of the best races are the championship-deciders. The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, where Felipe Massa lost out in a heart-breaker finish after a backmarker had a failure, allowing eventual-7-time-champion Lewis Hamilton to claim his first championship. The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix had Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen enter the race with an equal 369.5 points, meaning whoever finished higher won the championship, and featured the last-lap triumph of Max Verstappen that has been stuck in the minds of F1 fans for the 1,448 days that Verstappen was been the reigning champion of F1 from 2021-2025.
Max Verstappen did win the race, however it wasn’t enough to claim a fifth world championship, and ended his streak of four consecutive titles. Oscar Piastri finished second, he would’ve needed a miracle to be crowned champion, but he too came up short. In the end, it was Lando Norris who finished third that got the championship, granted, by the skin of his teeth, but in the modern era of Formula One, every point matters.
As is tradition in F1, the reigning champion can use Car No. 1 for their reigning season, a perk that 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton declined, but one that Max Verstappen has used for the last four seasons, but he will be forced to return to his No. 33, as Lando Norris will hang up No. 4 for No. 1 in the 2026 season.
The 2026 Season marks the beginning of a new era. New technical regulations force teams to build a new car from the ground up, and new teams emerge, such as Cadillac F1, and Audi taking over Sauber. Cadillac have signed F1 veterans Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez to drive in the team’s debut season, with IndyCar-star Colton Herta serving as the team’s test/reserve driver, while racing in F1’s lower series, Formula Two.
The first race of the 2026 Season will take place in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday, March 8th, and will be broadcasted on Apple TV. The celebrations at McLaren have ended, and all eyes are to next season, to defend their title.
