Five Winners, Five Losers: Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
- Peter Johnson
- 10 hours ago
- 8 min read
Written by Peter Johnson, Edited by Meghana Sree
We have our champion. Exciting, perhaps not; tense, most certainly. Lando Norris was on top of the world in Abu Dhabi, but who else was all smiles?
Winner: Lando Norris
He didn’t win the race on the night, but he achieved something far bigger: Norris is the new champion of the world.
He may not have had it all his own way, neither in Abu Dhabi nor throughout the season as a whole, but Norris came into the weekend knowing a third place would suffice, and that is exactly what he delivered.
Truthfully, the Briton, Formula One’s 35th champion, could have won the title with rounds to spare if not for two major moments out of his control.
His engine failure at Zandvoort and disqualification in Vegas, both of which were out of his hands, cost 18 points each, and had either not happened his weekend at Yas Marina would have been rather more relaxing.
Given the hand he was dealt, which included a terrifyingly in-form Max Verstappen and resurgent Oscar Piastri as rivals, the 26-year-old, who in years gone has often been criticised for his vulnerability to pressure, played a blinder.
He began the weekend fastest in both Friday sessions and kept himself in the mix for the start of Sunday’s race. Come lights out, he chose not to fight teammate Piastri on the opening lap and was comfortable to run a rather distant third, covering Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who appeared a threat in the early stages, with ease.
In the closing laps, Norris even appeared to be teeing up a move on his teammate, but pragmatically crossed the line a handful of seconds down to claim his crown.
The Briton has been a McLaren driver since his debut in 2019 and said in his post-race media commitments that he was “proud to have made so many people happy”, a reflection of the journey that he and his team have been on from backmarkers to champions.
Norris has also already confirmed that he will run the No.1 on the front of his car for next year, when he will kick off a new season, and indeed a new era, as a man of elevated status.
Winner: Max Verstappen
Verstappen’s 1457-day tenure as reigning F1 World Champion may now be over, but even in defeat he was still a winner.
His stunning pole position and dominant race win on Sunday may have been in vain, but winners are often borne out of loss, at least as much as they are out of victory.
Take Lewis Hamilton’s magnanimity in 2021 as a case in point — as his world caved in around him, he conducted himself with the utmost professionalism and dignity, and came away from that season with even more admirers, despite losing his crown.
Verstappen, similarly, has experienced a perception change in 2025. As the man himself said, he needs new haters because all the old ones now support him.
His relentless speed, pursuit of winning and downright love of racing have become truly captivating this year in particular, and have greater currency given he has had to fight in a far less dominant, often substantially inferior car.
With eight wins in 2025, the Dutchman actually ended the season with more victories than any other driver.
Moreover, his conduct across the whole Abu Dhabi weekend, particularly the way in which he spoke to a devastated Kimi Antonelli in the media pen following the race, spoke volumes about his character.
The Dutchman may no longer be the driver with number one on his car, but arguably remains the man to beat.
Despite his occasional red mist, for example in Mexico last year or Spain this, as World Champion he has been a phenomenal ambassador for the sport for the last four years.
Winner: McLaren
They didn’t half make it difficult, but McLaren did finally complete the World Championship double in 2025.
Zak Brown and Andrea Stella have overseen a revolution over the last couple of years, during which McLaren rose from shock backmarkers to the class of the field.
The team’s ability to keep both Norris and Piastri on good terms while fighting for the title was always admirable, although was yet to be justified until either won the title. Their tightrope-walking strategy has now paid off.
The team has now won back to back Constructors’ titles since 1998 and the Drivers’ title for the first time since 2008, winning the teams’ championship with a record-equalling number of races to spare, too.
If not for the regulation overhaul next season, McLaren may have been set for a period of domination, but will surely make do with a couple of championships after a brutally challenging decade prior.
Winner: Esteban Ocon
It has been a challenging first season with Haas at times for Esteban Ocon. Not including his point-less half season with Manor in 2016, the Frenchman recorded his lowest ranking in the Drivers’ Championship (15th) and second-lowest points tally (38) of his career.
Ocon’s season offered so much promise in the early stages, with a season-best fifth place in China and eighth place in Bahrain in the opening four rounds.
He did end on a high, too, with seventh place at Yas Marina his joint second best finish of the season.
Given Ocon’s challenging 2024 with Alpine and Haas’ own challenges as a constructor in recent years, it was unlikely to be a particularly eye-catching first season together but there have been enough positive signs to suggest the team could run well in 2026 and beyond.
Oliver Bearman in the sister car ultimately had a very positive rookie season, too, despite a challenging middle third, and the team looks well-set for the future.
Winner: Fernando Alonso
The Spanish veteran ended his season with a final foray into the points, his eight points for sixth place elevating him into the top half of the Drivers’ Championship for the first time this season.
After going point-less in the first eight races of the campaign, his worst ever start to a season, Alonso scored points in 10 of the remaining 16 races to lead Aston Martin to a seventh-placed Constructors’ Championship finish.
It may not go down in history as the Spaniard’s greatest season, not even with Aston, but he has continued to show value for money even at the age of 44.
He can look forward next season to a potentially far more competitive package, as Adrian Newey takes the helm as Team Principal.
Loser: Yuki Tsunoda
The only of the 20 drivers in the 2025 field not to be returning next year, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marked a farewell, at least for now, for Yuki Tsunoda.
The Japanese driver showed promise at Red Bull’s junior team and was worthy of a shot alongside Verstappen, but he ultimately struggled as much as, if not more than, his predecessors.
Tsunoda had an opportunity to perform heroics in his final race, tasked with backing Norris on Lap 23 after the Briton had made his first stop.
Tsunoda confidently asserted “I know what to do, leave it to me” over the radio, while the watching world expected a repeat of Sergio Pérez on Lewis Hamilton in 2021.
On that occasion, the Mexican cost Hamilton to the tune of eight seconds in one lap, leaving Verstappen right on his rival’s tail.
Tsunoda performed no such miracles, though, with Norris passing him halfway down the first back straight and suffering minimal time loss in doing so.
The Japanese driver’s toothless defence unfortunately rather summed up a season in which he has simply looked slow and uncompetitive far too often.
Hopefully he will have a chance to return to the grid one day outside of the pressure cooker of Red Bull.
Loser: Lewis Hamilton
The ordeal is finally over for Hamilton, who concluded his disastrous first season at Ferrari by ending one incredible streak and breaking another more unfortunate record.
In only mustering a P8 finish on Sunday, Hamilton completed a season without achieving a Grand Prix podium for the first time in his entire career.
Any residual hope he may have had of a third place finish was dashed on Saturday, when he became the first Ferrari driver in history to suffer three consecutive Q1 eliminations.
Including his SQ1 elimination in Qatar, the 103-time polesitter was eliminated in the first stage of qualifying in each of the last four sessions of the year.
In some ways, Hamilton was one of the big winners by the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, given he appears in bigger need of some time away than possibly anybody else in the field.
The off-season will give the seven-time world champion time to regroup and refocus ahead of the new regulations in 2026. Don’t expect to hear from him in the meantime — Hamilton has made it quite clear that he will be switching his phone off for a while.
Loser: Kimi Antonelli
It seems slightly harsh to classify Antonelli as a loser after what turned out to be a rather solid debut campaign.
The Italian teenager burst onto the scene with a fourth place in Melbourne, but suffered a wobble throughout the middle part of the season before returning to the podium in consecutive races in Brazil and Vegas.
In isolation, though, his weekend in Abu Dhabi did not reach his recent heights. 14th place on Friday teed up a difficult Sunday, when he could not repeat his heroics of Vegas and instead slipped backwards a place by the chequered flag.
Antonelli also appeared bemused at Verstappen losing out on the title by two points, a week after his own mistake at the end of the Qatar Grand Prix handed eventual champion Norris an extra couple of points.
The Italian was eager to find out the championship result from race engineer Peter Bonnington and seemed to go silent as he processed his own role in its outcome.
He later sought out Verstappen in the media pen to apologise, with the deposed champion consoling him, saying: “It’s all good. No hard feelings.”
Antonelli ought not to dwell on this moment and instead be proud of a challenging but fruitful debut season.
Loser: Alpine
The last couple of seasons have been wretched for Alpine, but the Enstone-based outfit sank to new lows in 2025.
After the palaver surrounding the Jack Doohan-Franco Colapinto swap earlier in the season, as well as Oliver Oakes’ mysterious departure as team principal, the season continued to be a struggle.
Even under the leadership of Constructors’ Championship-winning Flavio Briatore, the team seemed destined from an early stage to prop up the teams’ standings.
Doohan and Colapinto failed to score a point between them, while even Pierre Gasly could only drag his A525 machinery to five Grand Prix points finishes and two sprint race top-eight finishes.
For all their struggles throughout 2025, though, Alpine had avoided having a driver classed 20th out of 20 across the first 23 races. In the four races in which every starter was a classified finisher, both drivers managed to finish ahead of someone.
However, Franco Colapinto could not avoid the acrimony in Abu Dhabi, and with Gasly little better off in P19, the team saved their worst weekend of an already terrible season until last.
Loser: Williams
Again, overall it has been a phenomenal season for Williams, but in isolation the weekend in Abu Dhabi was hugely underwhelming.
The Grove-based team were perennial backmarkers just a few seasons ago, but finished a comfortable fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.
The signing of Carlos Sainz also proved to be an absolute coup despite a challenging opening half season for the Spaniard, who went on to score podiums in Baku and Qatar.
Alex Albon elevated his game, too, coming up against a new, race-winning teammate, and was set to beat Sainz in the championship until the latter’s third place at Lusail.
Abu Dhabi may only have yielded 13th- and 16th-placed finishes, but it will not detract from an otherwise stellar campaign under the stewardship of James Vowles.
