They left him out way too long, ruining his chances, but it prevented Verstappen from backing Norris into LeClerc, ala Hamilton in 2016. Whether it would have made a difference we’ll never know, but for Piastri, if he’d pitted earlier he could potentially have caught Verstappen on fresher tires.
He was on the hard tyre the plan was to go long while Max and Norris were on the medium. The differential in speed between Max and Piastri was not enough in Pisatri’s favour even when on fresh tyres. Even if they had pitted earlier it is highly unlikely Piastri would have caught let alone pass Max. In any case if Piastri had won with Norris finishing 3rd it would not have made any difference to the Championship but it may have been some consolation to Piastri.
There is no way McLaren would have risked both drivers losing the championship to Max.
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I agree Verstappen would likely still have won, but at least Piastri would have had a chance. The plan was to go long, but this was excessively long. And then when he did pit, he was behind on much fresher tires, so Verstappen couldn’t back off. As you say, they were making sure Norris would win the Championship as Piastri’s chance was slim at best. They let Verstappen win the race, but did prevent him from playing any games.
To be clear, I’m not arguing they shouldn’t have done it. It makes complete sense they did, I’m only wondering to what extent Piastri was onboard considering the whole papaya mess they created throughout this season.
I expect he can rub his end of season bonus cheque on where it hurts.
But it still would not have mattered if by some miracle Piastri caught and pased Max he would not have won the championship Norris only needed to finish 5th to achieve the win in that scenario. I do not think there was much hardship for Piastri in the last race he was given his chance. Radio transmissions demonstrated Piastri was consulted on what race plan he wanted to be on while on the hard tyres and was in agreement.
Oscar had no chance unless Max had a dnf, even then he had little chance unless Lando had a dnf.
No chance for the WC, but a chance for the race win. The right thing happened, the only question is whether the team decided or whether he proved to be a team player.
I don’t think there was anything to decide as it didn’t really matter once Piastri was ahead of Norris what happened next Max or Piastri for the win. It had no real bearing on Norris’s race. There was no reason for McLaren to want Max to win either.
With Max leading after first corner, sending Oscar ahead of Lando was only strategy that made sense. Assuming Lando could stay ahead of 4th, which I figured would be George, not Charles.
And that was bizarre, both Mercs suddenly having no pace at all. while on fresh tyres, both Ferraris were quite racy.
I’m delighted for Lando winning the 2025 F1 drivers world championship, well done and congratulations, looking forward to seeing your car with the No 1 on it in 2026.
On the team front McLaren managed to win both the Constructors and Drivers Championships albeit they almost managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the drivers standings.
I do wonder what would have happened if Red Bulls had fielded a two car team and been able to take some points off McLaren instead of just relying on Max to score their points this season.
Rather than talk drivers I thought that I would go through the teams and give my impressions of how they performed over 2025.
McLaren - Excellent season but almost managed to screw up winning the drivers championships, also given their dominance over the other teams should really have had 1st and 2nd in the drivers championships.
Mercedes - Very good season, 12 podiums including two wins, with two drivers who contributed and can move the team forward in 2026,
Ferrari - Disappointing, so much expected from them but they didn’t get their act together across the season, Lewis went there with so much hope, won a sprint but stopped racing well before season’s end.
Red Bull - Bemused, clearly the team had a good car, they almost clinched second in the constructors championships, however it would seem that only one half of the garage turned up to race whilst the other side appeared to be elsewhere, the side that raced did rather well winning the most races of any driver over the season.
Aston Martin - Loads of money but lacked any direction, the team have two drivers who IMHO shouldn’t be racing in F1, I don’t doubt the talents of one but his time is past, the other driver (?)…..
Sauber - Their final season but they did okay, not much was expected but they picked up points throughout the year and managed an excellent podium at the British GP.
Haas - A good season, some impressive performances when they ran a different strategy from other teams, they managed to qualify well and had a fast car on occasions picking up points regularly throughout the year.
Racing Bulls - A well executed season, 6th in the rankings and a podium from possibly rookie of the year with some excellent performances from both drivers.
Alpine - A poor season, bottom of the table in both the constructors and drivers championships yet at times they seemed to have good speed and surprised a few in qualifying but didn’t pick up as many points as maybe they should have.
Williams - A very good season, deserved their pre-season hype by ending up top of the mid-table runners finishing 5th in the standings, claiming two podiums and had both drivers in the drivers top 10 at the end of the season.
What will 2026 bring us as F1 heads in a new direction, will the current hierarchy prevail next season or will the changes cause a major upheaval, we only have 13 weeks to wait before we find out.
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Can’t help but feel the behind closed doors test at Barca in January will spit out shedloads of rumour amid the teams delights and disappointments.
Am looking forward to having the Bahrain tests on TV in February.
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Spoke to a chap I know a couple of days back who was at Merc F1 for years with Lewis.
He said that while he wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Lewis had decided to other things outside of F1, he says he is hanging around for 2026 rule changes, which he thinks will be far more suited to Lewis’ more dynamic driving style.
The big idea was to get a ‘bedding in’ season at the team beforehand. And for Merc to ship him out without taking any secrets in good time! Unfortunately he didn’t believe how Ferrari-like the new team behaviour would be…Apparently he has no regrets for making the move, just a huge sense of loss and disappointment as to the way the year moved on without getting better and in fact just getting more tense with other people in the garage and back at the factory.
Merc still believes in Antonelli for the future but reckon if the car works as hoped that George will have a strong shot to be WC next year! If there is a move for 2027 they may try and pry Bearman from Ferrari, or Carlos from Williams, though they prefer Ollie’s age…
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I obviously know neither you nor your chap, but if it were anything other than speculation, would you be posting it here? Would he even have told you? But it does sound reasonable, so could well be close to the truth.
But for 2027, I think that every (top) team will leave their options open in case Red Bull don’t have a good car and Verstappen comes unto the market. Especially Mercedes, as Wolff has been courting him for a long time.
Yep, he left Merc a few years ago, in a different industry now but still knows and chats with many people there.
I guess they don’t reveal any secrets to an ex team member (no specific mention of the new Merc engine or wings/aero) but in conversations he gets the back story still and they have good feelings apparently. Maybe that’s what they tell everybody… You may have read my references to conversations with him in the past in the thread which seem to have been on the money before, so I assume the same now. Fwiw he thinks Lewis made the right move, it’s just not worked. Maybe it will still work if he and/or Ferrari don’t get too emotional about it. Merc do like Kimi though. (Though I’m not entirely convinced…)
I saw Toto (and Susie) a couple of weeks ago in conversation promoting Susie’s new book. Toto was almost gushing about Kimi. Toto is a very funny guy and was interesting to listen to but the 2 takeaways I got from listening is just how deeply 2021 hurt him (and still does) and how good he thinks Kimi is and where he will end up in htis sport.
But wasn’t he the same about Russell in the past? I guess you can never be a 100% certain up front.
Sounds like Russell needs to keep his CV up to date if next year’s Red Bull is ordinary.
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I was reading about the British F1 champions and recall that Lewis could have won 2007 for McLaren didn’t he go into the gravel on the pit entrance?. In fact he could have won 2016 Rosberg and let’s not go to 2021. So he could easily have been 8 time or even more WC
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Nobody has mentioned MV’s chances for next season with the brand new RB/Ford power unit.
He must be praying that the new engine is rather better from the off than Honda’s was on their return to F1 with McLaren around about 2015/16.
I heard a rumour that they have all the right people and set things up very well, but being a new engine manufacturer might suffer from teething problems. An engine that’s expected to have it’s issues initially, but with great potential when those are fixed over time.
But who knows, it’s all guess work. I think the Mercedes being ahead rumour is also only based on past results with new engine rules, no one knows.
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Yes, as you say, all rumour at this stage.
I would expect Mercedes to hit the ground running, given all their experience since 2014, supplying numerous teams with consistently good engines.
Ford have been away from F1 for some time & Red Bull are totally untried. Given that, I assume that their personnel must have learned a lot from the Honda association. I also have no idea how many employees/engineers have been bought in from elsewhere.
It will be very interesting to see what Aston Martin come up with. Could be Red Bull but in metallic green. Newey rarely, if ever, produces a dud car & Honda know him well, & presumably, have built their power unit to suit the chassis characteristics they are familiar with from years of working with him. The pressure will be on Newey as both designer & team manager & he is no longer a young man. I wonder if he has taken on too much?
The only weak link may well be the driver lineup. Stroll looks incapable of winning in a field of one & Alonso looks quick for a lap or two but, even with the best car, must be doubtful of being a regular race winner due to his advancing years. If the car does perform well, & Red Bull have teething troubles, it would not surprise me to see Max & Adrian reunited for 2027
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