2025 F1 drivers ranked: Who had the best season?

The 2025 F1 season was one of the closest in years. So how do you choose the best driver?

It isn’t just about number of race wins, points scored or championship ranking.

You have to take into account on-track guile, their best press conference one-lines (slim pickings, we know) and promotional tie-ups gone disastrously wrong.

Below we rank the all the full-time (sorry, Jack Doohan) F1 drivers of the 2025 season.

20: Lance Stroll

The 200mph shrug. Stroll was actually ahead of Aston team-mate Fernando Alonso for a large part of the season, but this might have just been by accident.

After scoring points in the first two races of the season, the Canadian then didn’t rack up any for another nine (bar the Miami sprint). He finished 16th in the championship, while Alonso finished tenth.

As occasional bright sparks have shown, there’s a good driver in there somewhere. We’re just not sure where.

If the first Newey Aston turns out to be a stinker – not impossible, see the McLaren MP4-18 – how much longer will Stroll put off his snowboarding career?

19: Franco Colapinto

It appears the Argentinian was hired largely on the strength of his personality, in comparison to Stroll who continues in spite of it.

Alpine is putting all its money on 2026, which meant its drivers spent half the year having a mini-race at the back between themselves in its dire A525.

Colapinto earned himself a contract extension not only for outracing vastly experienced team-mate Pierre Gasly several times in these intra-team contests, but also with the way he did it – which included ignoring team orders not to overtake his colleague in Austin.

When asked by reporters about his actions, the Argentinian said “History is not written by cowards.” A view likely endorsed by his controversial principal Flavio Briatore.

It was hardly Colapinto’s fault that the season was so dire, but finishing last in Abu Dhabi summed up the misery.

As a result, he gets that title no one wants: the worst driver in F1 apart from Lance Stroll.

18: Yuki Tsunoda

As with Colapinto, it’s always difficult to separate the car performance from that of the driver, but Yuki Tsunoda’s poor season was to a great extent inflicted upon him by Red Bull.

The Japanese driver struggled in a car that only Max Verstappen has managed to get a proper tune out of, and Tsunoda’s season was also afflicted by bungled strategy, poor qualifying tactics and almost always being one step behind his team-mate in terms of getting updates.

And now he’s simply become yet more Milton Keynes cannon fodder. The lad’s actually got a personality – rare for F1 – so his absence from the grid is a loss for the championship.

17: Gabriel Bortoleto

Gabriel Bortoleto went about winning the 2024 F2 title methodically, almost quietly. It was appropriate then that almost no one noticed he was in F1 until the 11th race of 2025.

That was when he scored his first points in Austria, but the young Brazilian was dealing with a recalcitrant Sauber and a team which, for a period, seemed to have forgotten how pitstops worked.

Dynamic new leadership duo Mattia Binotto and Jonathan Wheatley whipped the Swiss squad into shape though, and Bortoleto became more of a regular Q3 fixture. It was a learning year for the 2024 F2 champ, coming up with a few brilliant performances, sixth at Hungary being the highlight.

The Brazilian is therefore certainly fast, but Sauber might have hoped for a bit more than five points finishes in a 24-race season, and not expected Bortoleto to have fewer than half the points of team-mate Nico Hülkenberg.

16: Liam Lawson

The confident Kiwi set a record for getting chewed through the Red Bull mixer, finding himself out after two races.

It was all slightly anti-climatic and, to compound his woes, Lawson found the Racing Bulls car not to his liking, despite it looking handy when driven by Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar.

Things got better as the season progressed though, the highlight being a fifth in Baku.

Far too often though promising qualifying positions came to naught after early-race collisions. Can Lawson keep his cool in 2026?

15: Esteban Ocon

F1’s smiling joker in the pack, known for getting his elbows out while not going very fast – and rumoured to not even be in the F1 drivers’ WhatsApp group — is the series’ antihero.

Such is Ocon’s marmite nature, the last season of Drive to Survive featured a season where Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu announces the driver’s signing for 2025, and a team member replies asking if it really is a wise signing.

So why was Ocon hired? To be the veteran foil to new hot shoe Ollie Bearman. The Frenchman should therefore be embarrassed to lose out to his rookie team-mate.

Three points in a dismal mid-season ten-race run allowed the Brit to overhaul him, and Bearman had a few star showings – most notably in Mexico – that Ocon simply didn’t.

With Bearman likely off to Ferrari sooner rather later though, you can see Ocon sticking around at Haas for a few seasons while Toyota puts its latest young Japanese star in the other car.

14: Pierre Gasly

Was this Pierre Gasly’s best year? The Frenchman pulled arguably one of the worst F1 cars of all time – and probably Enstone’s most abominable – into the grand prix points five times, and scored in a couple of sprints too.

There were some terrible results otherwise though, Gasly seeming to wonder at times why he was bothering.

“Long ****ing flight [to Vegas] to end up spun around,” he said in Sin City after getting taken out at the first corner. “Honestly, I’d like to tell you more things [but] it’s just been a pretty ***t day.”

However, Alpine is putting everything into 2026 – and will be using what many think is the pukka Mercedes power unit to have too.

13: Nico Hülkenberg

Ups and downs for the Hulk, a Le Mans winner lest we forget. After grabbing an opportunistic seventh in Melbourne, the German and his snot green Sauber didn’t score points for another eight races, until Spain.

The Hulk took a fantastic first ever podium at Silverstone, but then again after that didn’t score for seven races.

Who knows what the future holds at Audi? Probably a solid car, but a complete unknown on the engine front.

“Obviously so many things change on the technical side next year and I think many people are in the dark and we can only really just speculate,” the Hulk opines.

“But what is being built behind the scenes and the infrastructure, and the team structure that we’re building, that is growing. I think that looks good, [it] looks positive. Still a lot more to do if we look and compare ourselves to the top runners currently, but [we are] definitely going in the right direction.”

12: Ollie Bearman

Ollie Bearman has now announced himself as Ferrari’s next British star, but things weren’t looking so rosy at the start of the season.

The Brit was an untamed lion, overtaking under a red flag in Monaco and then crashing after in the pitlane after the session stopped.

“I’m sorry, but overtaking under a red flag is low,” was his unimpressed boss Ayao Komatsu’s verdict. “Shunting in the pit lane under a red flag is low. How much lower can you go?”

However, Bearman rallied to show sensational speed in the season’s second half, topped off with a fantastic fourth in Mexico.

Went from being a bit of a liability to the Haas talisman. It’ll be fascinating to see what his future holds with Lewis Hamilton’s continuing travails at Ferrari.

11: Fernando Alonso

A quiet season by the Humble One’s standards, but the Spaniard was typically resilient after a slow start, rallying to a top ten championship finish.

He outqualified team-mate Lance Stroll at every single race too. Is this achievement? Difficult to say.

“Honestly, it depends track to track,” was Alonso’s pithy ’25 analysis. “We saw all championship long.

“Imola we were already strong. Budapest we were two-tenths from pole and finished fifth, and some of the races we were out of Q1. It has been up and down. We lacked consistency this year and a bit of performance. We want to fix these things for next year.”

2026 could finally deliver him a car worthy of his talent, 20 years after his last title. It would probably be more ‘Alonso’ if it didn’t though.

10: Carlos Sainz

Sainz looked a bit lost compared to his Williams team-mate Alexander Albon for much of the start of the season. The Spaniard was scoring points, but it was Albon who was racking up the big ones.

Difficult to judge his year, as his two podiums clouded the fact they were part of a 14-race run where he scored grand prix points just four times. Not stellar numbers.

“For me, the vindication is not so much towards moving to Williams. I always believed in this project,” said a driver who was literally filmed by Netflix standing up Williams boss James Vowles as he desperately tried to sign him last season.

“I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again – this is my life project.

“If I manage to bring Williams back to being competitive and winning races, it’s everything that I care about and I will put the next three years of my life all my effort into doing that and committing to that.”

9: Alexander Albon

Albon would probably be much higher in this list were it not for his shocking second half of the season.

It shows how good the Thai driver’s first 50% was after he didn’t score for the last nine grands prix, and still finished eighth in the championship.

Must have been a bit galling to see Sainz scoop up that pair of podiums after all the Thai driver’s hard work, but his early season scorcher promises a lot if Grove manages to get its 2026 car right. Hooked up to a choice Mercedes power unit, of course.

8: Kimi Antonelli

2025’s biggest disappointment? Clearly extremely talented, but didn’t look ready for most of it – as had been indicated by his up and down form in one year of F2.

Antonelli’s early season highlight was when he chose the ‘pensive’ setting in an ad for Mercedes official lighting partner (we all need one of those).

However, some rapid pace was displayed later in the season, eventually bringing him three podiums to team-mate Russell’s nine.

Will 2026 bring more? It could turn into an epic championship scrap with his British team-mate, if Antonelli delivers on his junior promise.

7: Lewis Hamilton

One of F1’s all-time greats started off the season solidly, looking like he and Ferrari had something to build on – particularly by winning the sprint in China.

Sadly, his and Leclerc’s exclusion from the Grand Prix was a portent of things to come.

Hamilton tried to fire up Microsoft Teams to get things in order, but as most know that app isn’t very good either.

“I hold a lot of meetings, so I’ve called on lots of meetings with the heads of the team. I’ve sat with John [Elkann, Ferrari Chairman], Benedetto [Vigna, Ferrari CEO] and Fred [Vasseur, Ferrari F1 team boss], several meetings,” he said mid-season.

“I’ve sat with the head of our car development, with Loic [Serra], but also with the heads of different departments, talking about the engine for next year, talking about front suspension for next year, talking about rear suspension for next year, things that you want, issues that you have with the car.”

Things actually got even worse from there though, and it all tailed off, for driver and team. The blame can’t be with Hamilton though after the Scuderia got the car so wrong.

6: Isack Hadjar

The best Red Bull junior debut season since Max Verstappen, and even then the Dutchman didn’t score a podium.

The French rookie scored points ten times this season, and entertained with it too. Extra Motor Sport marks for that Alain Prost tribute helmet too.

Will he finally be the answer to Red Bull’s No2 woes, or just turn into the next Jean Alesi?

5: George Russell

No-one saw George Russell becoming so mouthy after he laid into Max Verstappen last season, but pleasingly he’s continued in that vein.

The Brit managed to coin several one-liners throughout the season, but hit his peak at Mexico when finding himself stuck between team-mate Antonelli and Oscar Piastri – and aired his frustrations to engineer Marcus Dudley.

“Marcus, I’ve got an ****ing car in my ****,” he told his engineer. “A car much quicker than ours. I’m trying to hold position. I’ve got much more pace than Kimi here and we can fight for a podium. I’m happy to give the position back if we don’t achieve it,” Russell said firmly.

The racing hasn’t been bad either, outdriving the car to two grands prix wins. It really has been a case of the Brit getting the best out of his Mercedes car, appearing to now be driving at his peak.

Would love to see Russell take on Verstappen in an equal machine. We almost put him ahead of both McLaren drivers. Almost.

4: Oscar Piastri

The form man for most of the season, but it all went a bit awry following his crash-filled weekend in Azerbaijan. He then failed to finish on the podium for six races.

It was a more expansive, heart-wrenching version of his 2024 season, when two wins punctuated other less impressive performances.

In 2025, when tracks with less grip and requiring greater driver feel featured in the season run-in, the Australian suddenly lost compared out to Norris.

When Piastri is running at full bore though, he’s almost metronomic. You get the feeling Norris might struggle to live with the Australian if he works on that low-grip weakness.

Or was it nothing to do with the cutting-edge engineering, technology and fine driver margins of F1? Piastri’s season went coincidentally went wrong after a promotional partnership with Australian restaurant chain Grill’d – promising a burger every time Piastri scored a podium – saw him not finish on the rostrum for five races.

“We never meant to create a burger so delicious it could change the course of F1 history,” Grill’d said after altering the offer.

Piastri looked back to his old self afterwards though. Can he be more consistent in 2026?

3: Lando Norris

One of the fastest drivers of his generation, and yet he sometimes doubts himself (i.e. he’s actually human, shock horror), which led to some wayward performances after that opening win in Melbourne.

You don’t get to this level without being seriously determined though, and Norris dug deep like few others to fight back from a 34-point deficit against Piastri.

“When Oscar was doing a better job than me and I wasn’t doing a great job, I was like, ‘Well, you know, maybe they’re just a bit better. Maybe they can just be more consistent, get more out of the car,’” Norris told the BBC.

“I just never thought at times that it was possible. So for me to then do that for myself, to kind of go, ‘You’re wrong, you can do it,’ is a pretty incredible feeling to have for yourself.”

It’s a well-earned reward for years of loyalty to McLaren also, when he could have gone to Red Bull in seasons gone by.

The new world champion had a brilliant 2025 season, there’s no doubt about that. It just seems he’s his own worst enemy at times.

2: Charles Leclerc

Another year of poor Chuck Leclerc dragging Ferrari to where it shouldn’t be. He managed to bag seven podiums in one of the worst Scuderia cars ever. Is he wasting his career?

After winning races last year, the Monegasque thought 2025 could finally be his year. Wrong!

“I am very disappointed, very disappointed because in general once you are in the heat of the season, race after race, you try and keep your head high,” he commented after Abu Dhabi.

“You try and stay motivated, smile and think about the positives. But when the season ends, that’s where the disappointment is getting to me on a season like that.”

Imagine if he were in the none-more-pointy Red Bull with Verstappen.

1: Max Verstappen

Still the gold standard in F1, not just for speed but also sheer determination.

He was over four race wins behind the championship leader at one juncture, and finished it two points behind Norris. Two points.

Verstappen scored eight race wins, more than either McLaren driver, despite at times having a Red Bull that didn’t want to play ball.

“I’ve hated this car at times, but I’ve also loved it at times,” he said. “And I always tried to extract the most from it, even in the difficult weekends that we’ve had. It’s been a proper rollercoaster with the car.”

The Dutchman’s 2025 was one of the greatest F1 performances ever seen, and probably the best ever for a driver who didn’t win the title.