The 2025 Formula 1 season delivered one of the closest championship battles in modern history, with Lando Norris claiming his maiden world title by a mere two-point margin over Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi. Yet despite missing out on a fifth consecutive crown, the Red Bull Racing driver has earned widespread recognition as the season’s standout performer. British media outlets have now joined team principals and fellow drivers in placing the Dutchman at the top of their rankings, reinforcing a growing consensus that raw performance often transcends championship mathematics.
Team bosses and drivers reach rare consensus
Eight of the ten team principals participating in the season-ending vote placed Verstappen ahead of all rivals, with only Ferrari and Red Bull Racing abstaining from the ballot. The four-time world champion secured first place, relegating newly-crowned champion Norris to second ahead of Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Fernando Alonso. This margin of preference proved even more pronounced among the drivers themselves, where sixteen of the twenty participants selected Verstappen as their top performer. Norris again occupied second position, followed by Russell, Piastri and Charles Leclerc. Four drivers—Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hülkenberg, Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda—chose not to submit votes.
The alignment between paddock insiders and media observers suggests a shared recognition of performance quality independent of final championship standings. While Norris accumulated sufficient points to claim the title, the manner in which Verstappen extracted results from machinery that often trailed the pace-setting McLaren drew particular attention from those evaluating driver contributions across the campaign.
British outlets place Verstappen above their compatriot
PlanetF1’s comprehensive season review awarded Verstappen a score of 8.67 out of 10, comfortably ahead of Norris’s 7.98 rating. The publication’s assessment centred on Verstappen’s ability to maximise every performance window available to him throughout the year. “He has not won the title, but few will dispute that Verstappen extracted the maximum from his car, more than his nineteen competitors,” the outlet’s analysis concluded. This evaluation acknowledged the Red Bull driver’s consistency in delivering results that frequently exceeded the machinery’s theoretical competitive ceiling.
The Race positioned matters even more emphatically, ranking Norris fourth behind Verstappen, Russell and Leclerc in their year-end driver standings. Following unanimous agreement among all contributors, the outlet referenced Verstappen’s pointed remark in Qatar, where he suggested he would have secured the championship far earlier had he been driving the McLaren. “It was essentially impossible to contradict him,” their assessment noted, highlighting how the competitive landscape shifted dramatically after the opening rounds when Red Bull Racing struggled to match McLaren’s development trajectory.
Rare mistakes punctuate otherwise flawless execution
Verstappen’s season was not without blemish. Beyond his collision in Spain, which represented his most high-profile error, several other incidents dotted his campaign. A spin during the restart at the British Grand Prix compromised what had been a recovering afternoon at Silverstone. The sprint qualifying session in Qatar saw him run wide at a crucial moment, costing valuable grid position. Hungary proved particularly challenging, with the entire Red Bull operation struggling to find performance across the weekend.
Yet The Race’s evaluation emphasised how these isolated moments stood in stark contrast to the broader picture. “No other driver exploited his car’s potential as consistently as Verstappen, combining razor-sharp pace with flawless execution,” their verdict stated. This consistency proved particularly valuable during the mid-season phase when Red Bull’s competitive position deteriorated relative to McLaren’s ascending form. While Norris capitalised on superior machinery to build his championship challenge, Verstappen repeatedly delivered results that exceeded reasonable expectations given the competitive balance.
Performance versus results in championship context
The disconnect between performance assessments and final championship positions reflects broader questions about how driver quality should be measured when machinery advantages shift throughout a season. Norris drove an accomplished campaign that delivered his long-awaited world championship, demonstrating maturity and consistency that had previously eluded him in title fights. His ability to convert McLaren’s competitive advantage into sufficient points to overcome Verstappen’s early-season cushion represented a significant achievement.
However, the voting patterns suggest that paddock insiders and experienced observers distinguish between maximising given resources and simply accumulating points with the fastest car. Verstappen’s Qatar comments, while pointed, reflected a sentiment many shared privately: that the Red Bull driver had extracted every available tenth from machinery that spent much of the season trailing the McLaren in outright pace. This ability to operate at the absolute limit of car performance, regardless of whether that limit placed him first or fifth, earned recognition that transcended championship standings.
What this recognition means for 2026
These assessments carry implications beyond retrospective analysis. As teams prepare for the radically revised 2026 regulations, the paddock’s evaluation of who truly delivered in 2025 may influence driver market dynamics and technical development priorities. Verstappen’s reputation for maximising imperfect machinery enhances his value during regulation changes when competitive order remains uncertain. For Norris, the challenge becomes demonstrating he can replicate his championship success while also earning the universal acclaim that has so far eluded him despite his title triumph. The British driver has proven he can win when armed with the fastest car; whether he can do so without that advantage remains the question these rankings subtly pose.
