Abu Dhabi 2025. Verstappen wins the race but it is not enough

Yesterday, the 2025 Formula 1 season reached its final round in Abu Dhabi, and we have a new Champion for this year: Lando Norris. However, for me, this season has been unusual, and for many people, he has not been the best driver, despite being the one with the most points at the end of the season, which is the only thing that ultimately decides the champion. But let’s take a look at what happened.

How was the race?

For me, except for the championship fight, it has been a boring and predictable race. Verstappen did what he had to do to continue fighting, which is getting the Pole position and winning the race. And Norris did the same, securing the podium and the championship. Piastri, on the other hand, tried to do a different approach, doing a longer stint and was being used by McLaren to make the Verstappen strategic decision a bit risky. Piatri did a different strategy with a much longer first stint, so for Max, it was much harder to cover both. So, in the end, what was expected happened. Verstappen won the race, and Norris got the podium and the championship. In that way was a bit boring and predictable race.

What Verstappen could have done to win this championship?

In reality, nothing, I am sure that if it were needed, Piastri would have allowed Norris to overtake and win this championship. Anyway, I expected that Verstappen were going to try to slow down the race pace to give the chance to others to overtake Norris, but even doing that wouldn’t have been enough. He did that at the beginning of the race, but had to push to defend himself from Piastri. Anyway, Piastri could have given the position, and behind Leclerc, there was no one fast enough. Verstappen could have tried to do another pit stop at the end of the race when he had the chance of doing so without losing the position with Piastri, could have lost the victory and the championship anyway.

Why do I think that Verstappen was a stronger driver this year?

McLaren won the constructors’ championship many races before the end of the season. Therefore they had the best car of the year. But Norris won the championship only with an advantage of 2 points. This is nothing, so this year Verstappen overperform his car. He shouldn’t be that close considering this. Like everyone else, he also made mistakes; now it’s easy to think what would have happened if he hadn’t pushed out Russell in Barcelona. But he proved that Verstappen is a special driver like very few in this sport. Maybe like Alonso, Hamilton or Schumacher. But Norris, even though he is a good driver, is not in the same category. He is more like Rosberg or Button, a driver who won a championship but is not considered a top player in the Formula 1 story. However, Norris is still very young, 25, so he has time to prove that I am wrong.

Abu Dhabi the race of farewell

This is the last race of the season, and as every year we have to give farewell to some drivers and cars, Yesterday was the last race for the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda, who will be a test driver for Red Bull next year, A but pity because he is a good driver but maybe not enough to stay in this seat. He is the last victim of drivers who took the second Red Bull seat.
Another important farewell is to the team Sauber, which will not race next year with this name after 31 years. A bit sad, because I remember seeing this name since I was a child. But this project has been bought by Audi, so we will see what they can do next year with the new project and regulations.
And finally, we have to say goodbye to DRS, the system that allowed us to overtake by moving the flaps of the car, and gave more thrills to recent seasons, and which will not be available next year. Even though I am not a fan of this system, since it was implemented, we have seen many more overtakes in the middle of the straight instead of real fights in corners, I have to admit that it makes many races more entertaining. Without it, nowadays cars would have been impossible to pass, so maybe we will miss it in the end.
Finally, we are going to miss the Renault engines as next year the French car maker will use a Mercedes power unit. A bit sad, because Renault has always been related to Motorsport or Formula 1 in some way, and after a long and amazing history of success, they are leaving the tracks with disappointing results, finishing the last race in the last 2 positions. I hope that someday they will come back to get the success that they deserve.

The positive and the negative of this race.

For me, these are the most positive aspects of this race:

• Lando Norris. He did what he needed. Finishing 3rd to be the new world champion. Absolutely deserve this.
• Max Verstappen. He also did his part, he won the race and got the Pole Position. Should be very proud of the second part of the season.
• Charles Leclerc. Charles clearly did more than expected with the performance of this year’s car. He finished the race in 4th position.
• Fernando Alonso. Another driver who squeezed the most out of his car, finishing 6th.

And these are the most negative aspects:

• Yuki Tsunoda. He just didn’t do enough to stop Norris and got a penalty for waving in the straight. His defence was much worse than Checo Perez’s in 2021. Even though this penalty was not fair to me, he made the mistake of leaving the gap for Norris. He should have covered the inside line more, and after his team radio, it feels a bit ridiculous. However, next year is not going to be on the grid.
• FIA. After analysing the race, Norris should have been penalised with 5 seconds because he overtook Tsunoda outside the track, but it seems that they were not brave enough to make unpopular decisions.
• Lewis Hamilton. Disappointing, he failed to pass the Q1 for the 3rd time in a row. If he continues like this, probably next year will be his final season.

And that’s it. Now have to survive 90 days without Formula 1 until 2026. It will be hard, but I can survive until next year. Have a good winter break everyone!