Weekend Recap
FP1 was topped by Lando Norris with a 24.485 to put his McLaren eight hundredths faster than his title rival, Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc showed a stronger pace for Ferrari he was third fastest, a further eight hundredths behind the McLaren. While Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes fourth, the Italian was just over a tenth outside the top three, as he went two hundredths faster than Nico Hulkenberg
FP2 as the sunset saw Norris once again lead Verstappen, the Englishman setting a 23.083, giving him an advantage of just over three and a half tenths. George Russell put his Mercedes third; he was four hundredths ahead of Ollie Bearman, who underlined Haas’s strong pace at this type of circuit. Bearman was ahead of another surprise, Hulkenberg was half a tenth behind and two hundredths faster than his Sauber teammate Gabriel Bortoleto.
FP3 was topped by George Russel with a 23.334; he edged out Norris by four thousandths. Norris, however, looked to have a tenth advantage over his championship rival Max Verstappen while his teammate Oscar Piastri was fifth. Fernando Alonso put his Aston Martin fourth, a tenth and a quarter behind the Dutchman as he went a hundredth ahead of Oscar Piastri.
Qualifying saw Verstappen beat Norris to pole by two tenths for the championship-decider. The reigning champion set a 22.207, delivering two sublime laps that would have beaten both his championship rivals in Q3. The Englishman is beating his McLaren teammate Piastri by three hundredths. Piastri was just over two tenths faster than Russell,
Verstappen took a dominant victory, finishing twelve and a half seconds ahead of Piastri. Norris’s third place was enough for the Englishman to secure his maiden championship. Verstappen won the start and fended off the McLaren in a reminder of why he has dominated the sport in recent years.
Norris’ one nervy moment in the race came at the start of his second stint when, having pitted earlier than most other cars on lap sixteen, he had to overtake longer-running cars on older tyres. Red Bull, with the Japanese driver, handed a five-second penalty for forcing Norris off track as the Briton made his move down the back straight.
The Englishman was always under pressure then until the closing stages from Leclerc, before the McLaren was able to find a bit more pace in the final twelve laps and started to pull away from Leclerc.
McLaren
F2 champion Leonardo Fornaroli will join McLaren next season as the team’s test and development driver. The Italian went into this weekend having wrapped up the championship with second in the feature race in Lusail last weekend; he also won last years F3 title.
The Italian forged his path to a successful championship bid without backing from an F1 team’s junior programme. His achievements in junior categories, characterised by a consistent approach, have now brought him to the attention of McLaren. There was also an option for an FP1 outing.
He said, “I’m incredibly proud to be joining the McLaren Driver Development Programme after another successful year on track. Winning both the FIA Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles has been an important step in my journey, and I’m motivated to take the next step in my development through the programme as I work toward my ultimate goal of racing at the highest level.
“I’m very grateful to McLaren for this opportunity, and to everyone who has supported me throughout my career so far. I can’t wait to get started and work closely with the rest of the team.”
His championship rival Richard Verschoor will also join the programme, having been in F2 across the past few years, and was briefly part of Red Bull’s junior team during his days racing in the Formula Renault Eurocup. Spanish karting champion Christian Costoya also joins McLaren’s junior programme, he will race in Middle East F4 when the season begins in Abu Dhabi in mid-January.
Going into the weekend, Lando Norris has admitted he would “love it” if McLaren team orders with Oscar Piastri rescued a championship in a scenario where Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was otherwise headed for the title.
But the championship leader said, “I don’t want to ask” the team for them, while both Norris and Piastri also insisted that McLaren had not discussed the possibility of such tactics with them.
Championship contenders Norris, Piastri and Verstappen sat alongside each other in Thursday’s pre-event press conference in Abu Dhabi ahead of F1’s first final-race decider since 2021, and the first featuring more than two drivers since 2010. Norris leads Verstappen by twelve points, with Piastri four further behind and needing a top three as his easiest way to the championship, as it wouldn’t depend on where his rivals finished.
When that scenario and the wider topic of team orders were put to the McLaren team-mates in the press conference, Norris said: “It hasn’t been discussed. Honestly, I would love it! But I don’t think I would ask it because.. I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s up to Oscar whether he will allow it. I don’t think it’s necessarily down to me.”
Adding, “It’s the same if it was the other way around. Would I be willing or not? Personally, I think I would because I feel like I’m always like that and that’s how I am.”
Piastri concurred and stated that he was waiting for McLaren to clarify any team orders situations before he had any thoughts about that scenario. He added, “It’s not something we’ve discussed. Until I know what’s kind of expected, I don’t really have an answer until I know what’s expected of me.”
“I’ve been on the opposite side of the championship battle in the junior categories and I know what that felt like, and it was pretty tough. Coming into it from the least to lose out of us three is quite different for me.”
Despite topping Friday’s practice sessions, Norris said there is “nothing to smile about just yet”, In the more representative evening session, he was over three and a half tenths ahead of Verstappen. But says was ‘not yet comfortable’ as he would want to be in his McLaren.
He said, “I mean obviously, from the times and everything, things look good at the minute, but I still want a bit more from the car. I’m not completely happy, not completely confident.”
“We’re a bit in the middle of trying some different things and trying to understand some things with the car. Hopefully there’s some more stuff we can get out of it overnight. It’s not been a bad day, for sure, it’s been a positive day, but we always know it gets a lot closer going into quali, so nothing to smile about just yet.”
Following qualifying, where Norris was out-quailed by Verstappen by two tenths he said going into what was / could have been the biggest day of his life, not trying to avoid risk. A podium finish was all he needed to secure his first championship or outscoring the Dutchman by twelve points, though there were seven other ways he had / could have won the title.
He told Sky Sports, “There’s no point thinking of too much. I’ll go and sit with my guys and girls and see how we can best prepare for tomorrow and prepare for every eventuality. The goal is still to try to win the race tomorrow. That’s still our mindset. l need to do the same in Q2, and then you need to do the same in Q3, and, yeah, I know what it’s like to have a car that is… and also for the understanding of the car, it’s much more difficult to understand something from the car when you really have to push to the absolute limit.
“In Q2 I thought I would put it into the wall quite a few times and that makes it difficult to also improve the car – probably the McLaren or Red Bull do by pushing a little bit less in Q1 and Q2, you understand more about what’s going on with the car. So, yeah, it’s a tricky situation we are in.”
Ferrari have had a season where they failed to deliver and I don’t see how they can end the year on a high.
Hamilton was speechless when he spoke to the media, but did say, “I think most of the lap was good enough to get through, I just didn’t finish it,” he sighed, having also apologised to the team over the radio on his way back to the pits.
His tricky session came after a crash in final practice, and the seven-time World Champion added: “The team did a mega job [to repair the car]. They deserve better, for sure.”
Hamilton added to the written media: “I don’t have the words to express how I feel. [The crash] definitely doesn’t help when you miss your second run, but the car was feeling great, I just had some bottoming and then lost the back end.”
Discussing his season and his eighth-place finish in the race at the Yas Marina Circuit, Hamilton said, “At the moment, I’m only looking forward to the break. Just disconnecting, not speaking to anyone. No one’s going to be able to get a hold of me this winter. I won’t have my phone with me. I’m looking forward to that. Just completely unplugged from the matrix.”
Ferrari has had a difficult year and you need to hope this reset over the winter and the regulation changes can bring them back, as we said, its nearly two decades since their last drivers and constructors.
Red Bull
Red Bull said they “sincerely regret” the online abuse directed towards Kimi Antonelli following “clearly incorrect” comments suggesting the Mercedes rookie allowed title contender Lando Norris past in the Qatar Grand Prix.
Last weekend, Antonelli found himself running ahead of Norris in the closing stages of the race, thanks to a tyre strategy that had seen Mercedes pit both cars under the early Safety Car. That had gained Antonelli track position on Norris, who had slightly fresher hard tyres in the final stint.
Norris had closed to within DRS range of Antonelli, who was putting in a defensive masterclass to keep the McLaren at bay. But with just two laps to go, Antonelli ran deep into a corner and that gave Norris the opportunity he needed to grab P4 and two extra vital points
Gianpiero Lambiase, Verstappen’s race engineer, told the reigning champion over the radio: “Not sure what happened to Antonelli Max, looks like he just pulled over and let Norris through.” However, Lambiase was quick to apologise to Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff for the comment, conceding he had not seen the situation fully. Those comments implied that Antonelli deliberately allowed Norris to overtake.
A statement by Red Bull said, “Comments made before the end of, and immediately after, the Qatar GP, suggesting that Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli had deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him are clearly incorrect. Replay footage shows Antonelli momentarily losing control of his car, thus allowing Norris to pass him. We sincerely regret that this has led to Antonelli receiving online abuse.”
Following the conclusion of the Qatar Grand Prix, which saw the title battle move on to the finale in Abu Dhabi, Wolff was asked in his post-race media session about the remarks made about Antonelli, describing the notion he would move aside as “nonsense”.
Wolff explained, “We are fighting for P2 in the championship, which is important for us. Kimi is fighting for a potential P3 [in the race]. It annoys me, because I’m annoyed with the race itself, how it went. I’m annoyed with the mistake at the end. I’m annoyed with other mistakes and then hearing such nonsense blows my mind.
“The other thing is that, beyond losing the points for the Constructors’ Championship, I spoke to GP [Lambiase]. I saw him, and obviously he was emotional in that moment because they [McLaren] needed a P3, I guess, to win the championship or P4, I don’t know, but one position.”
Red Bull announced on Tuesday that they will promote Isack Hadjar to be Max Verstappen’s teammate from next season, with the eighteen-year-old Arvid Lindbland replacing the French Algerian. Lindblad, who races under the British flag and has a Swedish father and British Indian mother, will be the fifth British driver on the grid.
Lindblad will be a teammate to New Zealander Liam Lawson at second team Racing Bulls. The shuffling of Red Bull’s driver line-up sees Japanese Yuki Tsunoda lose his seat on the grid after five seasons.
Hadjar will become Verstappen’s sixth teammate in seven years. His promotion follows an impressive rookie season at Racing Bulls, which included an outstanding podium finish at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Following practice, Verstappen said that the team were lacking in short and long run pace in the representative FP2 session he was over three and a half tenths off Norris, making him concerned about Red Bull’s competitiveness. He said, “Pretty okay. I was fairly happy with the car we just need to be probably a little bit faster. Still not quick enough but overall, for us, in a decent window around here.”
Verstappen was heard complaining about his Red Bull throughout Friday and described the ride of his RB21 as being a “constant fight” but added, “that’s nothing new.”
“It seems like it’s a decent gap that we need to close. But from our side, we’ll just try to put the best car forward and let’s see how much we can find,” he added.
Asked whether Red Bull need to improve their race pace or single lap pace, Verstappen replied: “Single lap and long run needs to be better”. I agree with that assessment as there was nothing looking at the timing, mistake or anything to say there was anything costing him. But as we have been saying in the last few races, never count Verstappen out.
Verstappen turned the tables by beating both McLarens by two tenths to take pole position, with two sublime laps that would have beaten both his championship rivals in Q3. I think that was a brilliant attempt one I didn’t think was possible given how much he was struggling on Friday, and I was also expecting McLaren to have the edge in qualifying when it mattered.
He said, “Well, in Q2 I stayed on scrubbed tyres, and I think those laps already felt quite decent. When in Q3, around here the track temp is coming down, you know that you can push a bit more, and that’s exactly what we did.”
“We found a bit more lap time, and of course, I’m incredibly happy to be in first. That’s the only thing that we can do, right? That’s the only thing that we can control. I try to just maximise everything we have, what we have with the car, and we definitely did that in Qualifying.”
It’s sessions like this which have managed to keep Verstappen in this championship, though it may not be enough given that Norris started P2 and finished on the podium which was all he needed to do to seal the title.
Asked if it will be all eyes forward, rather than worrying about what the McLarens are doing, Verstappen said: “We’ll find out tomorrow! Let’s see what we can do. Of course, I will try to win the race, but also in the back of my mind, we want to try and score a lot of points to still try and win that championship. We need a bit of luck on what is happening behind us.”
Verstappen went on to win the race, but his comeback in the second half of the season was not enough to take five in a row. Asked if he had mixed emotions post-race, Verstappen said: “I feel good. I was already prepared for these kind of outcomes, because we needed a bit of luck to win.
“From our side, at least we optimised the weekend perfectly – we put it on pole, we won the race in I think dominant fashion, so there is nothing really that you can say about that.
“At the end of course, then you lose the championship by two points [and it] looks painful, but on the other hand, if you look from where we were in Zandvoort, more than 100 behind, then I think it’s not too bad.”
Verstappen showed why he is a four time champion with the way he brought himself back into this fight and he could have given up the fight after being that far off with eight races left after Zandvoort.
Mercedes
George Russell believed that Mercedes has a “very good shot” of sealing second place in the constructors’ this weekend. Mercedes had a thirty-three-point lead over Red Bull, and Ferrari has sealed third or fourth in the championship, going into the weekend.
Reflecting back on how they performed last time out in Lusail, Russell, who finished sixth, suggested that the final result did not necessarily reflect the team’s potential.
He said, “It’s another race, to be honest. Obviously, we want to try and secure P2 in the Constructors’ Championship. It was a bit of a shame we couldn’t achieve that in Qatar, but we have a very good shot this weekend and [we’ll] just go out and enjoy the last race of the season.”
Reflecting back on the performance in Russell suggested that the final result did not necessarily reflect the team’s potential. He added, “I think, thanks to Isack [Hadjar], I had quite a long race in traffic! I think, unfortunately, we were very competitive. I think it was only really Oscar [Piastri] who was more competitive.”
Following practice, Russell said that Mercedes had work to do if they wanted to be fighting at the front, as he was expecting “surprises” in qualifying. In FP2 he finish third just over three and a quarter tenths behind Norris. Though McLaren had a clear advantage, just under three tenths covered the rest of the top ten and Russell was three hundredths ahead of both Saubers.
After practice, Russell was keen to extract more pace as he explained: “It was definitely feeling better this evening. It always tends to feel a bit nicer when you’re driving in the dark and the track is a bit cooler. I think it’s going to be tight in Qualifying, probably between ourselves, Red Bull and Ferrari.”
“There are some other teams who were a bit unexpected as well – Bearman was right up there, and Hulkenberg as well, so we may have some surprises. The race pace wasn’t great in all honesty. We need to review tonight how we can improve that and see on Sunday.”
He admitted that was not easy to do on the C5 soft, the second softest in the range, this is because of both conditions and Russell’s feeling there was not much left in the Mercedes.
Kimi Antonelli looked much happier in FP1, which was the least representative session of the weekend, taking place earlier in the day, the temperatures were higher than they would be in the all-important Qualifying hour or the race. He was fourth in FP1 but in the more representative FP2 he dropped to tenth just under three tenths of Russell.
He said, “We started the day pretty well. I think FP2 didn’t really show the pace. The last lap on softs was looking pretty strong, but then I made a mistake in the last corner and lost a lot of time. We’re there in the mix.”
“Of course, McLaren look a step ahead of everyone but the gaps are very, very close and every little mistake can really punish you. I think the long run was much better in FP2 than FP1 so that was a positive. We’ve got to keep working in order to improve for tomorrow.”
Russell certainly remained in the mix through out qualifying but in the end the Mercedes lacked the pace compared to the Red Bull and when it got to Q3, he was going for it but the timings didn’t work on the final run.
He told reporters, “We were near the top of the timing screens in both Q1 and Q2, but we knew that Verstappen and the two McLarens had more pace to show come Q3. That turned out to be the case, and I think P4 was ultimately us maximising the package we had this evening. Q3 didn’t go too smoothly on our side but I don’t think we were ever in the fight for the front row.”
Aston Martin
Aston Martin will launch their 2026 car officially on Monday 9th of February, the team announced the date in a post on social media. Aston Martin simply published “AMR26 arrives”, confirming its upcoming challenger’s name in keeping with its nomenclature, followed by the date of the launch.
The launch will happen before the second test in Sakhir, but after the Barcelona test, which will be behind closed doors. 2026 is set to be a key season for the team after the investment in the team’s factory as well as several high-profile signings. Ambitious owner Lawrence Stroll’s patience might be wearing thin after the squad slumped from fifth to a likely seventh in the 2025 constructors’ standings despite the billionaire’s mammoth financial investment into its facilities and personnel.
Heads aren’t (quite) rolling yet, but legendary engineer Adrian Newey will take the helm of the team for 2026, becoming its third team principal in just a year after Mike Krack and Andy Cowell successively made way – and expectations are higher than ever.
Alpine
Alpine have announced they will hold their 2026 on Friday 23rd January at the Circuit de Catalunya – Barcelona, three days before the first pre-season test at the circuit. The French team made the announcement in a social media post which does not disclose much information as to what will actually happen, and whether its actual 2026 challenger might be revealed; Motorsport understands only a livery unveil is planned.
Haas
Ollie Bearman will go into 2026 two penalty points away from an automatic ban after being penalised by the stewards for his defence against Lance Stroll during the race. Bearman, Tsunoda and Stroll who were also given a penalty for separate incidents of weaving.
The stewards issued Bearman and Stroll a five-second time penalty each, plus one penalty point on their licences. In each case they ruled the driver “made multiple moves in defending” against a rival on the straight before turn nine. Yuki Tsunoda received the same penalties for his incident with Lando Norris.
Bearman’s latest penalty point means he is now on a total of ten. Any driver who collects twelve over a calendar year receives an automatic ban. The Haas driver will not have any points deducted from his licence until after the sixth round of next season in Miami. Stroll is now on six penalty points.
Williams
Carlos Sainz congratulated his former McLaren teammate Lando Norris for claiming his first drivers’ championship title. The Spanish driver partnered with Norris at McLaren when they both joined the team together in 2019 before Sainz moved to Ferrari in 2021.
He said after the race, “very happy for him. I think he’s a great F1 driver. I think unbelievably fast. But with his particular way of going about life and things, as much as he’s been criticised a lot during the last few years for being who he is, he’s world champion, and everyone can keep dreaming about being F1 world champion while he goes about his own way and does things his own way.”
Facts and stats (F1.com)
- Max Verstappen ends the season with eight pole positions, the most of any driver in 2025. He has also tied Lewis Hamilton for the most poles at this track, with both drivers on five apiece.
- Lando Norris outqualified his teammate Oscar Piastri 13-11 this season, as the Australian extended his run of never qualifying outside of the top three in Abu Dhabi.
- Fernando Alonso was sixth for Aston Martin, marking his highest start at the Yas Marina Circuit since 2012.
- Another high flyer was Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto, placing in P7. In the team’s last weekend with the Sauber name, he helped them qualify in the top 10, which they also achieved in their first race back in South Africa 1993.
- Lewis Hamilton ends his first campaign with Ferrari with three consecutive Q1 eliminations the first for the team since Giancarlo Fisichella in 2009. It ties his longest career run of Q1 eliminations, also from 2009.
- Verstappen won the race but has been deposed as World Champion after 1,457 days. Verstappen’s victory was his 51st win as the World Champion.
- It was Verstappen’s 10th consecutive podium finish to end the season (he scored just five podium finishes in first 14 races this season).
- Oscar Piastri was P2 in the race and third in the final standings – having led the championship longer than any other driver this season (15 races).
- Norris’ P3 finish in Abu Dhabi means he becomes the 35th driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship.
- Norris joins seven previous champions with McLaren: Emerson Fittipaldi (1974), James Hunt (1976), Niki Lauda (1984), Alain Prost (1985-86, 1989), Ayrton Senna (1988, 1990-91), Mika Hakkinen (1998-99) and Lewis Hamilton (2008).
Closing thoughts
Well, we have a new world champion, Lando Norris. As always, any champion is a worthy winner, and I think it was his experience in the crucial closing races allowed him to turn the tables on Oscar Piastri. The win here by Norris last year, I think was important, “this would be our year,” and so it was.
It was one of the great seasons as McLaren dominated the season, but they allowed both drivers to fight, only really using team orders to ensure a fair fight and correct team errors. Norris, only nineteen months ago was winning his first race but now is world champion, he has always had the speed, and I think last year gave him the advantage over Piastri being in that fight with Max Verstappen.
Verstappen, I think can be happy with how he stayed in this fight when he shouldn’t have been but that is a sign of a multiple champion. McLaren on paper look like they dominated this season, they did the first half, but both drivers were taking points out of each other and as a fan I loved that. Though there were moments where ‘paypa rules’ frustrated me.
Lewis Hamilton, shocking China was really the false dawn, we thought that Ferrari were in it but the team isn’t working. Ferrari need to get there act together after something like there fourth winless season since 2020, apart from Shanghai its been a nightmare.
Thank-you for reading this season, on a personal note, this season has be difficult at times why content dropped between Miami and Spa. Hence why I skipped Austria, but its been a great season and that got me through. See you in Barcelona…
Results Summary
Pole Position |
Max Verstappen
Red Bull – Honda RBPT 01:23.207 |
|||||
Podium |
||||||
Po |
Name |
Nat |
Team |
Time |
Points |
|
| 1 | Max Verstappen | NED | Red Bull – Honda RBPT | 01:26:07.469 | 25 | |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | AUS | McLaren – Mercedes | +00:12.594 | 18 | |
| 3 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren – Mercedes | +00:16.572 | 15 | |
| Fastest
Lap |
Charles Leclerc | MON | Ferrari | 01:26.725 | ||
Championship Standings
Drivers’ Championship |
Constructors Championship |
|||
Po |
Name |
Points |
Constructor |
Points |
| 1 | Lando Norris | 423 | McLaren – Mercedes | 833 |
| 2 | Max Verstappen | 421 | Mercedes | 469 |
| 3 | Oscar Piastri | 410 | Red Bull – Honda RBPT | 451 |
| 4 | George Russell | 319 | Ferrari | 398 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | 242 | Williams – Mercedes | 137 |
