Lando Norris is the World Champion. It feels weird to say, doesn't it? After years of Max Verstappen turning Sunday afternoons into a foregone conclusion, the formula 1 2025 standings have finally settled, and they look like something out of a fever dream from three years ago. We aren't just looking at a new name on the trophy; we're looking at a complete tectonic shift in how power is distributed in the paddock.
McLaren didn't just win. They dominated.
Honestly, if you told a fan in 2023 that Oscar Piastri would lead the championship for 15 rounds and Lewis Hamilton would be fighting for scraps in a Ferrari, they’d have told you to stop playing F1 Manager on easy mode. But here we are. The 2025 season, the 75th anniversary of the sport, ended with a nail-biter in Abu Dhabi that saw Norris clinch his first title by a razor-thin margin of just two points over Verstappen.
The Final Numbers for the Formula 1 2025 Standings
It came down to the final lap. Literally. Max Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, doing everything he possibly could to keep his crown, but Norris’s third-place finish was enough to keep him ahead. It's the kind of math that gives team principals ulcers.
Lando finished the year with 423 points. Max, despite a late-season surge where he looked like the "Old Max" again, ended on 421 points. That two-point gap is the smallest we've seen since the controversial 2021 ending, but this time, the drama was purely about raw pace and strategy.
Behind them, Oscar Piastri took third with 410 points. For a large chunk of the summer, it actually looked like Oscar’s title to lose. He was clinical. He was quiet. He was incredibly fast. But a few wobbles in the final flyaway races allowed his teammate and the reigning champ to reel him back in.
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George Russell rounded out the top four for Mercedes with 319 points. Mercedes finally figured out their "diva" of a car halfway through the year, but by then, the papaya-colored rocket ships were already over the horizon.
How McLaren Broke the Red Bull Monopoly
McLaren-Mercedes didn't just win the Drivers' Championship; they absolutely crushed the Constructors' race. They finished with 833 points. To put that in perspective, Mercedes in second place had 469. That’s not a gap; that’s a different zip code.
Why? Consistency.
While Red Bull was busy shuffling seats—moving Yuki Tsunoda up to the main team to replace a struggling Liam Lawson mid-season—McLaren just kept putting two cars on the podium. Zak Brown’s vision finally clicked. The MCL39 was a masterpiece of aero efficiency. It worked in the heat of Bahrain and the damp chill of Silverstone.
"It’s the first time we’ve secured both titles since 1998," a team representative noted after Singapore. They actually wrapped up the Constructors' title with six races to spare. That’s unheard of in the modern era of cost caps and restricted wind tunnel time.
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The Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Experiment: A Reality Check
Everyone wanted to know how the formula 1 2025 standings would treat Lewis Hamilton in red. The answer? It was complicated.
Ferrari finished fourth in the team standings with 398 points. Lewis had flashes of brilliance—a pole position here, a vintage podium there—but the SF-25 was temperamental. Charles Leclerc managed to outscore his legendary teammate, mostly because he knew how to "wrestle" the car when the rear end got twitchy.
It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't the "fairytale title run" the Tifosi were praying for. Seeing Hamilton finish behind George Russell in the standings had to sting a bit, especially considering Mercedes jumped Ferrari in the development race by July.
Mid-Field Chaos and the Rise of the Rookies
The bottom half of the grid was a total blender this year.
- Williams actually held their own, finishing 5th with 137 points thanks to Carlos Sainz’s grit.
- Haas saw Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman scrap for every single point, eventually landing 8th.
- Audi (Kick Sauber) finally showed signs of life late in the year with Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, though 70 points wasn't exactly what the board in Ingolstadt wanted for their debut era.
The most interesting story was Alpine. They started the year with Jack Doohan, but by the time we hit Imola, Franco Colapinto was in the seat. They finished last of the scoring teams with 22 points, a far cry from their "100-race plan" of years past.
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What the 2025 Results Mean for Next Year
We’re entering a weird "lame duck" year in 2026 with the massive regulation changes, which makes the 2025 results even more significant. Usually, teams stop developing their cars halfway through a season like this to focus on the future.
But McLaren didn't. They kept pushing.
This creates a massive psychological advantage. Max Verstappen spent the last four years being the hunter. Now, for the first time in a long time, he’s the one looking at the formula 1 2025 standings and realizing he’s the underdog. Red Bull’s internal drama—the seat-swapping between Lawson and Tsunoda—suggests a team that is still searching for its identity post-Adrian Newey.
Actionable Insights for the Off-Season
If you’re a fan trying to make sense of this new hierarchy before the 2026 cars hit the track, keep your eyes on three things:
- The Intra-Team Dynamic at McLaren: Norris won, but Piastri led most of the year. That garage is going to be tense. Watch the "Papaya Rules" carefully in the early rounds next year.
- Mercedes’ Upward Momentum: Kimi Antonelli showed enough flashes of speed to prove he belongs. If Mercedes starts next year with the car they ended this year with, Russell and Antonelli will be a problem for Norris.
- The Red Bull Second Seat: Did the Tsunoda experiment work? The standings say they lost second place to Mercedes by 18 points. That’s the difference between a good second driver and a great one.
The 2025 season proved that no dynasty lasts forever. Max is human. McLaren is back. And the record books have a new name at the top.
Get your tickets for the 2026 opener in Melbourne early. If the 2025 battle was any indication, the 76th year of Formula 1 is going to be even more chaotic. Keep an eye on the official testing times from Bahrain in February; that’s where we’ll see if McLaren’s 833-point masterclass was a one-off or the start of a new empire.