Image: 2025 Japan GP – McLaren – Lando Norris – FP1 – By Liauzh – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, (Wikipedia)
The 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship was a motor racing championship for Formula One cars and the 76th running of the Formula One World Championship. It was recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the governing body of international motorsport, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship was contested over twenty-four Grands Prix held around the world. It began in March and ended in December, where Lando Norris claimed his first Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship
Drivers and teams competed for the titles of World Drivers’ Champion and World Constructors’ Champion, respectively. The season was largely dominated by McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, and reigning Drivers’ Champion Max Verstappen, driving for Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT. All three were in the running for the World Drivers’ Championship in the final race in Abu Dhabi. Norris maintained his points lead at the finish to claim his maiden World Drivers’ Championship by just two points ahead of defending champion Verstappen, who showed a strong late-season form, and 13 points ahead of his teammate Piastri, who had led the championship for 15 rounds. Piastri seemed to be on course to win the drivers’ title for himself at one stage after having comfortably led the Drivers’ Championship by a margin of 34 points after 15 rounds of the season had been completed but the Australian would ultimately see his title bid falter due to some lacklustre results in the latter part of the season allowing both Norris and Verstappen to overtake him. Norris became the eleventh different British driver to win the Formula One drivers’ title and the thirty-fifth different driver overall to claim the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship. Norris’ title victory was also the first for a McLaren driver since Lewis Hamilton in 2008, and the first driver’s title for a British driver since Hamilton won with Mercedes in 2020. McLaren-Mercedes secured a consecutive Constructors’ Championship at the Singapore Grand Prix, making it their tenth title overall, and their first win of consecutive constructors’ titles since 1991. The team retaining the Constructors’ Championship in addition to Norris’ success in the Drivers’ Championship meant that McLaren won both championships in the same season for the first time since 1998.
The 2025 season was the last year to utilise the power unit configuration introduced in 2014. A revised configuration without the Motor Generator Unit-Heat (MGU-H), but with a higher power output from the Motor Generator Unit-Kinetic (MGU-K), will be introduced for 2026. 2025 also marked the final year of the ground-effect generation of cars introduced in 2022, and the last year of the drag reduction system (DRS) introduced as an overtaking aid in 2011, as cars with active aerodynamics and moveable wings will be introduced in 2026.
2025 marked the last time the Sauber name appeared in Formula One, with the constructor taking on the Audi name in 2026, and also marked Renault’s final season as an active engine supplier for its team Alpine, with the manufacturer discontinuing engine production following the season’s conclusion.
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