After years of Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominance, the 2025 F1 season looks set to end with a different world champion. Oscar Piastri leads the way ahead of McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, with reigning champion Verstappen running out of time to catch the pair. Lewis Hamilton is even further adrift, though. The seven-time drivers’ championship winner ended a long race win drought last season and was hoping to kick on after a move from Mercedes to Ferrari, but things haven’t gone as planned.
Hamilton hasn’t fully recovered from the slow start he made with his new team and sits sixth in the overall standings at the time of writing. He’s between new team-mate Charles Leclerc and Mercedes successor Kimi Antonelli, and is still waiting for his first podium in Ferrari red. The British veteran’s seven Drivers’ Championship remains the joint-highest of all time, level with Michael Schumacher, while Verstappen will be stuck on four barring a dramatic late-season run. Debate over the best ever still rages, though, and F1 legend Gerhard Berger has given his verdict.
“[Verstappen] thinks through where you can overtake and where you can’t. Neither [Ayrton] Senna, Schumacher nor Hamilton had this tool,” Berger told Auto Motor und Sport in 2024.
“It’s just noticeable that Max is always in the right place. At the start, in the first corner, in a duel. I can’t think of anything that could be done better than him. That’s why Max Verstappen is probably the best we’ve ever seen in Formula 1.”
Verstappen has closed the gap to the two McLaren drivers thanks to wins in Italy and Azerbaijan, meaning the title race isn’t over just yet. If he can pull things back and win a fifth straight title then it will strengthen his argument to be considered the best ever, and even he wasn’t sure Red Bull would be able to turn things around in 2025.
“In the end, you always go through certain difficult moments,” the Dutch driver told Autosport. “And of course, sometimes you do think, ‘Is this going to be okay, can we still turn things around?’ But on the other hand, there’s no point to keep thinking like that.
“You always have to look for solutions, talk to people inside the team, and exchange ideas in a positive way. At the end of the day, that is what it’s all about, and that’s what we have done.”
Next on the calendar is the Singapore Grand Prix, which will take place at Marina Bay on Sunday. McLaren can clinch the constructors’ title with a podium for either driver, but the drivers’ championship can’t be settled just yet. Last year, McLaren had two drivers on the podium. Norris won, with Piastri third, and Verstappen finished between the pair.
