If you’ve followed Formula 1 even half-closely this year, you’ll know that the 2025 season hasn’t just been about who’s fastest but rather it’s been about pride, power, personalities, and, at times, pure chaos. With six races left, the paddock is buzzing with tension. The championship title is still in play between Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri and the sport feels alive with the first intra team championship contention after the famous (or should I say infamous?) Hamilton-Rosberg rivalry during the 2016 season. But that’s not all, this year has brought us some epic highs and unbelievable shockers from Christian Horner’s sacking to multiple rookies getting podiums, this 2025 season has it all and it’s not even over yet.
McLaren’s Civil War: When Teammates Become Rivals
McLaren, who were once the underdogs of the turbo-hybrid era, have become the team to beat since 2024. On track, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have gone from being teammates to becoming each other’s fiercest competition. What began as mutual respect has now evolved into a razor-edged rivalry for their maiden world championship.
They may be friendly off track but the want to beat each other have been unmissable throughout the season. In Canada, Norris lunged down the inside of Piastri while battling for position, clipping his front wing and forcing his own retirement – a costly, self-admitted mistake that instantly went viral. While, Piastri, somehow, managed to drag his damaged car home in the points, but the post-race silence in the McLaren garage said more than any statement could.
Then came Austria, which featured a phenomenal, tense, wheel-to-wheel duel for the lead in the opening stint where the two drivers were constantly trading places. Piastri even managed to take the lead briefly before Norris immediately reclaimed the position using DRS on the very next straight. The battle was thrilling and clean, yet it was separated by just 2.6 seconds at the chequered flag for a brilliant 1-2 finish, confirming the razor-edged intensity of their competition.
And just when it looked like the Canada drama had been fully resolved, Monza came much later in the season. Here, reports of team orders forcing Oscar to hand a position back to Lando, or moments where one driver was compromised for the other’s strategy, created an atmosphere thick with tension as the championship fight intensified. The car might be the top of the field, but managing two drivers who both believe they deserve to be world champion might be the team’s greatest test yet.
Red Bull’s Fall from Grace: From Dominance to Disarray
If McLaren’s story is one of rise and rivalry, Red Bull’s has been one of slow collapse. The cracks started showing midway through 2024, when the RB20 began to lose its once iron grip on race weekends after their four championship run. What looked like a blip became a downward spiral as by the start of 2025, the RB21 wasn’t just slower, it was temperamental, inconsistent, and, at times, visibly off the pace on circuits where Red Bull once ruled.
Even the reigning champion Max Verstappen couldn’t hide his frustration as the team’s qualifying struggles mounted and race strategies misfired. And then came the shockwave: Christian Horner’s sacking. After nearly two decades at the helm, the man who had built Red Bull Racing into a powerhouse was suddenly out.
The second seat saga which has become an almost comedic subplot and a prime source of instability that many point to as a factor in their failure to secure the WCC, must’ve also been a point for the sacking of Horner. The constant churn of drivers – from Sergio Pérez’s sacking to Liam Lawson’s promotion, only for Lawson to be sacked and replaced by a Yuki Tsunoda promotion – created clear disarray. For a team that once exuded confidence, Red Bull for a while looked like it’s chasing stability more than speed.
Though, since after the summer break, the team now under Laurent Mekies rule, is once again performing at the top level with Verstappen winning both Monza and Baku, and securing P2 in the other two races. While, this is a huge improvement, the second seat’s Yuki Tsunoda is still performing at a level which leaves a lot to be desired.
Ferrari’s Fractured Fairytale
Few moves in F1 history have carried as much emotional weight as Lewis Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari. The images of him in red, the roar from the tifosi, the sense that maybe, just maybe, this would be the fairytale ending to one of the greatest careers ever. And at first, it seemed possible. Hamilton’s early-season sprint win in China was a nostalgic burst of brilliance. He looked comfortable, calm, and commanding – like the Hamilton of old. But as the season wore on, Ferrari’s weaknesses began to show and Hamilton more or less fell behind his younger teammate Charles Leclerc.
Meanwhile, in a twist few saw coming, Carlos Sainz, now racing for Williams after being fired for Hamilton, achieved a podium in Baku. It was a quietly poetic moment, the driver Ferrari let go standing tall again, this time in blue and white. Not only was this a testament to his resilience, but it was also a historic first podium for Williams, their first since 2021. And Sainz did all of this before Lewis Hamilton could on a Sunday. For Ferrari, this has been a season to forget as the strategies fell apart, the car developed backwardly and the direction of the team simply turned south.
The Season of Rookies
While the big teams dominate the headlines, 2025 has also been defined by a new crop of rookies entering the grid. While every year we may get one or two fresh faces, this year we got five, who have all injected raw excitement into the grid.
Isack Hadjar, racing with composure beyond his years, stunned everyone with a podium finish at the Dutch GP. While Haas’s Ollie Bearman, with his incredible performances throughout the season, has turned heads with his consistency.
And then there’s Kimi Antonelli. The young prodigy who’s move to F1 has been marked by instant success with a P4 in debut, stunning pole position in Miami and a crucial podium finish later in Canada, providing weight to his merit and hype.
Finally, the Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto has been quietly exceptional. He made his mark by securing his first ever points finish in Austria at a highly impressive eighth place. And Bortoleto proved that wasn’t a fluke just a few races later, when he got an even stronger sixth-place finish in Hungary. His ecstatic post-race radio, overflowing with disbelief and joy, was one of those rare and unfiltered F1 moments that we all watch the sport for.
Together, these rookies have not only refreshed the grid but challenged the veterans, proving that fearlessness is sometimes more powerful than experience.
Hülkenberg’s Long-Awaited Redemption
One of the highlights of this season has been Nico Hulkenberg’s long awaited podium. After more than a decade of near misses, heartbreaks, and “what if” weekends, Nico Hulkenberg finally stood on a Formula 1 podium – at Silverstone, no less. The emotion was palpable as the crowd erupted, the paddock smiled, and his team wrapped him up in a very big fifty people hug at the end of the race.
It wasn’t just a podium; it was the culmination of fifteen years of persistence. Hulkenberg’s journey from perennial midfield warrior to that single champagne-soaked moment felt like a love letter to the sport itself – proof that in Formula 1, sometimes the best stories take the longest to unfold.
The Road Ahead: Six Races, Infinite Possibilities Finally, as the dust settles and the season enters its final stretch, Oscar Piastri leads the championship standings, with Lando Norris just behind him by 22 points. McLaren has already secured the Constructors’ Championship for this year at the last race in Singapore. Their internal tension, however, looms large as the two McLaren drivers are locked in a title fight so intense that one pit-stop error, one gust of bad luck, could swing the entire championship. Each race now feels like a psychological battle as much as a mechanical one. With six races left, the script is still left unfinished.