The Singapore Grand Prix, hosted on Oct. 5, set the stage for an interesting turn in the driver’s championship battle for the 2025 season.
Singapore has long been one of the toughest tracks in the season. With scorching temperatures and difficult turns around the track, it’s an arduous battle just to get through all 62 laps. Most drivers were seen wearing ice pack vests under their race suits to help combat the intense weather, but in the back of their minds, there were more risks than just a hot seat when the lights went out.
As of Oct. 8, the McLaren Formula 1 team won the Constructors’ Championship with a whopping 650 points, which were attained by their top two drivers: Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. With one championship out of the way, this has all fans’ eyes on the Driver’s Championship, where only one person can come out on top. By the looks of it, the Singapore Grand Prix has just added a new curveball that changes the direction the rest of the season will continue.
A standard Formula 1 race consists of four days: Thursday where pre-race interviews are conducted, Friday where Practice Sessions one and two happen that allows drivers to test new set ups and adapt to the track length and weather, Saturdays for Practice Session three — a final chance to analyze the car’s data — as well as Qualifying to determine the starting grid order and lastly, race day on Sunday. The past two race weekends in Baku and Italy, Max Verstappen, the current reigning world champion since 2021, was the winner, and despite being third in the driver’s standings (trailing behind the current leader Piastri and second Norris), this has given him a significant advantage to still be considered in the championship battle. Singapore would be the race for Verstappen to comfortably score points and put up a good fight.
During an intense qualifying session on Saturday, Verstappen missed out on pole position by two-tenths of a second to Mercedes driver George Russell, and third place was claimed by Piastri with a similar two-tenths difference to the Dutch driver. In the post-qualifying interview, Verstappen was asked about what happened in his last stint of the session, as it could’ve been a vital chance for a win on a track that he had never gained victory before, to which he expressed his frustrations loud and clear. In response to interviewer David Coulthard, who asked about what happened at the end of qualifying, the Red Bull driver exclaimed, “Yeah, that’s what happens when there’s a car in front of you just cruising two seconds in front. So that’s noted. Will be remembered as well.” Additionally, when asked in the same interview as to which car was ahead that caused him to miss pole position, he cheekily quipped, “not Oscar,” hinting towards a subtle dig at Piastri’s teammate, Norris, who was the only McLaren driver ahead of Verstappen on track.
“Not Oscar.”
Verstappen’s subtle dig at championship rival Norris during the FIA’s Post-Qualifying Press Conference in Singapore, 2025.
On Sunday, Verstappen’s strategy was far different from the rest of the team, and instead of choosing medium tires to start the race as almost everyone else did, he started off with soft tires that were more susceptible to degrading faster. At multiple points of the race, Verstappen turned on his radio to express discontentment with the car itself, voicing his complaints about the low downforce and how the car was difficult to drive. Despite his problems, however, he managed to keep both McLaren cars behind him and secured second place at the end of the race by brilliantly defending his position with a failing car. Yet, despite scoring ahead of his rivals, Verstappen would’ve needed a 7-10 point lead for a comfortable chance at winning the championship; he only scored six points ahead, so the chances are getting slimmer even if the promise of the next few tracks would be more of an advantage towards the Red Bull car that Verstappen drives.
While Russell won the race and Verstappen scored second, there were increasing tensions between the two McLaren drivers, Piastri and Norris. Norris qualified fifth but managed to score third place ahead of his rival Piastri, who went from third to fourth place at the end of the race. This was due to a risky move that Norris took at turn one of the track that nearly sent his teammate into the wall. While this move is considered hard racing and essential for the drivers, fans seemed outraged at the confusing mix of rules that the team ordered. Most Formula 1 teams make it clear as to who the lead driver is. For example, in Red Bull Racing, Verstappen is the lead driver. In McLaren, the team issued a statement that no driver has priority and that they are free to race. With these rules established, both Piastri and Norris find themselves head-to-head on multiple occasions and often suffer from poor race strategies by the team that cannot decide who they should support.
In previous races, Norris suffered from very poor pit-stops that affected his race and in Singapore, Piastri also suffered a similar fate but this is where things take a turn: during the Monza Grand Prix, Norris suffered a poor pit stop and his teammate was ahead of him while the former exited the pitlane, the team issued orders for them to switch to make it fair between the rivals. However, in the Singapore Grand Prix, the team asked Norris if he would want to pit first or second. He chose first, and Piastri was hit with a horrible pit stop when he came into the pit lane after his teammate. There seems to be no consistency in how they treat their two drivers, and many fans speculate that this might lead to a premature downfall, allowing Verstappen to win his fifth consecutive title, a feat that has not been done before in the history of the sport.
While tensions arise between the top three over who can come out on top, it is clear that if this pattern of races continues, the championship fight might stretch out until the very last race of the season in Abu Dhabi. As previously mentioned, the next two tracks in Texas and Mexico are more advantageous to the Red Bull Racing team, and if Verstappen wins the remaining races ahead of the McLaren drivers, he could keep his title for another year. All eyes are now on McLaren, as they will eventually have to choose one driver to support lest they ruin the chances of winning for not just one driver, but both of their stars.