Max Verstappen almost completed the impossible come back during the 2025 Formula One season. Adrift by 104 points in the F1 drivers’ titles race, the Dutch champion fell short of a remarkable fifth consecutive championship by just two points.
Just three podiums plus two race wins across the opening 14 race weekends, left Max severely on the back foot come the summer break. Yet remarkably since F1’s return from its August sojourn, Verstappen claimed six Grand Prix victories and four podiums into weekends, taking his tally of victories on Sunday above championship winner Lando Norris to eight for the year.
For this remarkable run of races, the F1 team bosses have voted him the number one driver in 2025. Verstappen must rue the poor run he had between his DNF in Austria and his P9 in Hungary with those four race weekends yielding just 24 points.
Verstappen beats Norris to No.1
It was Kimi Antonelli who started this run of poor form in Austria as he T-boned the Red Bull driver at the infamous turn three, taking them both out of the Grand Prix. Antonelli did not make the top ten on the team principal’s list given he was in a race winning car as proven by his team mate twice, yet his erratic performances saw him finish just 7th in the drivers’ table, with less than half the points of his team mate George Russell.
Second on the list was Lando Norris, as he was last season, although he finally won the drivers’ championship but not before a number of scares. With his team mate out in Baku, Norris struggled to make the most of his McLaren’s incremental power crossing the line in a lowly P7, his second worst result of there season after his DNF in Zandvoort.
Oscar Piastri completes the final podium slot in the team principal’s picks, moving up one place from last year where he was fourth. Much was made over McLaren favouring Norris in certain quarters of the F1 media, yet it was a litany of mistakes and poor driving from Baku to Las Vegas which cost the Aussie a 34 point lead over his team mate and dashed all hopes of a title. Just 42 points were scored across six race weekends including two Sprint’s which proved to be the downfall of McLaren’s young driver.
George Russell is a merited fourth on the list, having arguably his best season ever in F1. The Brit was the only other driver besides Verstappen and the McLaren pair to win a Grand Prix in 2025, dominating in Canada and Singapore.
Vettel said to be ‘extremely nervous’ about F1 return
Sainz remarkable sixth
The Mercedes team leader dominated his rookie team mate, qualifying ahead of the young Italian 21-3. His tally in the Grand Prix matched his Saturday afternoon heroics where again he was 21-3 ahead of Antyonelli in the head to head. Despite being involved in a lengthy arm wrestle with Toto Wolff over his contract renewal, Russell delivered week in and out before finally achieving his new deal for 2026.
Yet George has just one year guaranteed contract and Toto Wolff very publicly courted Max Verstappen who he hopes would move to Mercedes in 2027 should they prove to be the car/powertrain combination to beat.
Fernando Alonso climbed four places to fifth in this year’s standings as he dominated again his team mate Lance Stroll. The Canadian son of Aston Martin’s billionaire team boss featured just once ahead of the Spanish matador in qualifying on Saturday.
Sixth place went to the remarkable Carlos Sainz, who having been ditched by Ferrari for Lewis Hamilton had a very difficult start to the season. Following the Italian Grand Prix, the Spaniard was behind Alex Albon by a tally of 70-16, yet just eight race weekends later, the deficit had fallen to just nine.
Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari fiasco: The data you need to see
Leclerc drops four places and Hamilton snubbed
Sainz claimed Williams F1’s first podium since George Russell took one by default in 2021 – due to extreme weather and hefty slice of luck., Prior to that it was Lance Stroll back in Baku in 2017 who was the last driver for the Grove based team to claim a podium under normal circumstances. Stroll did not feature on any of the ten team bosses top ten this year.
The big loser in 2025 was Charles Leclerc who fell four places from his standing in 2024. The SF-25 proved a difficult car to set up and the Monegasque claimed all of the seven podiums for the Maranello based team. Lewis Hamilton was snubbed by the team bosses to finish outside the top ten team boss picks.
This was Lewis’ worst season since the list began, although being just seventh last year would have been disappointing too. Yet failing to score a single podium during the entire campaign was a low point in his career for Hamilton who once dominated the list from 2016-2020.
Lewis now has the dubious record of being the Ferrari driver who has for the longest failed to make the Sunday presentation ceremony, a record which stood for some 30 long years.
Details leaked of Hamilton’s long Ferrari contract
2 rookies make the top ten
Two new deserved entries into the list were rookies Oliver Bearman in eight and Iasck Hadjar one further back. Whilst iritic early in the year, Hadjar finally claimed a podium for the Racing Bulls in the Netherlands, holding off a charging George Russell in the closing stages of the race in Zandvoort.
The final entrant on the list of 2025 top F1 drivers – as picked by the team principals – is Nico Hulkenberg. He for years held the record as the driver with the most F1 entries never to have scored a podium.
At the 2025 British Grand Prix and in his 239th F1 career starts, the German finally came home in third place, holding off a desperate Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages of the Grand Prix.
the 2025 British Grand Prix. This monumental achievement came in his 239th career start, ending the unwanted record for the most Grand Prix starts without a top-three finish.
Ford weigh in on Red Bull engine rumours
Red Bull Racing are attempting something no other customer team has ever achieved in Formula One, building its own power unit. Even before the days of the complex hybrid PU’s of today, creating a competitive F1 engine has been a puzzle auto manufacturers have tried to solve for decades.
Having turned down a deal which would have seen Porsche take a 50% ownership in the racing team, Red Bull turned to American auto giant Ford to partner in the most difficult endeavour of the team’s F1 journey.
The Red Bull journey to build its own F1 PU was rooted in the last power unit development cycle, when the team’s engine partner spectacular missed the mark back in 2014. Mercedes with their massive budget came out almost a second quicker than the rest of the field and the French owned Renault power trains division were hampered by financial restrictions which came from board decisions in Paris…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
Andrew’s work focuses particularly on the intersection of Formula 1 politics, regulation, and team strategy. Andrew closely follows developments involving the FIA, team leadership, and driver market dynamics, helping to provide context behind the sport’s biggest stories.
With experience covering multiple seasons of Formula 1’s modern hybrid era, Andrew has developed a detailed understanding of how regulatory changes and competitive shifts influence the grid. Andrew’s editorial approach prioritises clarity and context, aiming to help readers navigate complex developments within the sport.
In addition to editorial duties, Andrew is particularly interested in how media narratives shape fan perception of Formula 1, and how reporting can balance speed with accuracy in an increasingly digital news environment.
