Verstappen couldn't do it all on his own - Abu Dhabi GP takeaways

Lando Norris secured the 2025 Formula 1 crown in an Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in which Max Verstappen did all he could, but it wasn’t enough without much-needed assistance.

The finale became less a showdown of outright pace and more a demonstration of strategy and composure as McLaren used Oscar Piastri to protect Norris and help the Briton secure the team’s first drivers’ title since 2008.

We explore the main storylines from the final race of the 2025 season.

Verstappen missed the help from others

Verstappen’s commanding victory in Abu Dhabi was yet another masterclass in individual brilliance, yet it served as another reminder that in Formula 1, even perfection isn’t always enough.

While the Dutchman did everything within his power — taking pole and controlling the race to the chequered flag — he was ultimately undone by a lack of support from the rest of the grid.

To overturn Norris’s 12-point advantage, Verstappen needed a perfect storm: a race win for himself and for Norris to finish fourth or lower. Verstappen delivered the win, but he was fighting a lone battle.

Yuki Tsunoda was non-existent in the title fight, languishing in 14th place and not even contributing effectively when he had Norris behind.

Unlike the McLarens, which operated as a cohesive unit thanks to Piastri’s alternative strategy that safeguarded Norris, Verstappen had no rear gunner to disrupt the papaya cars or displace Norris from the podium.

McLaren’s split strategy even made Verstappen give up on the idea of playing games in an attempt to get the field closer together.

Crucially, the rivals that Red Bull might have hoped would play spoiler — namely Mercedes and Ferrari — were unable to mount a serious challenge. Charles Leclerc, despite a spirited drive that at moments threatened Norris, finished fourth, nearly seven seconds adrift of the Briton. Like Ferrari, Mercedes also simply lacked the pace to split the McLarens or pressure Norris into a mistake.

Without a team-mate to strategically back Norris up into traffic, or a rival team fast enough to push the Briton off the podium, Verstappen’s victory became a mathematical irrelevance.

Verstappen didn’t lose the 2025 championship in Abu Dhabi; his defeat was the result of a combination of factors, including Red Bull’s weak start to the season, but in the microcosm of the season finale, the four-time champion could have used the assistance that never came.

In the end, Verstappen won the battle, but without allies, winning the war proved too tall an order.

Norris deserved the title

While it is tempting to view the 2025 season through the lens of Verstappen’s individual brilliance — often dragging an unpredictable and inferior Red Bull to positions it had no business occupying — to deny Norris his due is to misunderstand the nature of Formula 1.

As clichéd as it may sound, the championship is not merely a contest of who has the fastest raw pace, but a test of the entire package: driver, machine, and strategy, and as pointed out above, also a team sport where a strong team-mate can often be helpful.

And in that holistic battle, Norris was the undeniable winner.

While Verstappen spent the year fighting the limitations of his car, Norris — particularly in the second half of the season — focused on consistency, maximising the potential of the superior McLaren.

He understood that championships are often won on a driver’s bad days, and his ability to salvage high points finishes when victory was out of reach proved to be the difference-maker.

This maturity was visible in the Abu Dhabi finale. With the pressure at its absolute peak and Verstappen disappearing into the distance, a less composed driver might have cracked or overdriven in a bid to escape the threats from behind.

Instead, Norris displayed cool composure. He ignored Verstappen’s pace, trusted Piastri to play the buffer, and drove a calculated race to secure the third place he needed.

By refusing to be drawn into a fight he didn’t need to win, Norris proved he has evolved into a worthy champion.

Piastri’s turn is likely to come

While 2025 belonged to Norris, few could argue the future could belong to Piastri if he can retain his consistency for a full season.

For a significant stretch of the year, Piastri looked like the man to beat, arguably displaying a higher raw ceiling than even his championship-winning team-mate.

However, his title charge was derailed after the Italian GP.

Whether the team orders controversy at Monza had an effect on his confidence, only Piastri will know, but in the races that followed, the usually unflappable Australian looked momentarily lost.

His consistency was replaced by uncharacteristic errors and a drop in pace, finally losing his long-held championship lead in Mexico.

Yet, the final two races of the season offered a glimpse of the Piastri that had made himself championship favourite early on. Piastri rediscovered his speed too late to have a real shot at the title, instead helping protect Norris in Abu Dhabi.

Crucially, however, Piastri ended 2025 not as a defeated number two, but looking like a man who has found something he had been missing for some time.

It will be a long winter for Ferrari and Hamilton

Much to his relief, the 2025 season is now over, but Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari will still face a long, cold, and anxious winter.

The Scuderia has finished the year without a win, and the seven-time champion has completed his first season without a podium finish and with another underwhelming weekend during which he was overshadowed by Leclerc.

The fact that a recovery to eighth place is seen as somewhat of a positive says it all about the year Hamilton has endured.

Ferrari dropped to fourth in the standings, where it held second for some time, a result that simply does not compute for the Maranello team.

The real focus of the winter inquest, however, will be on Hamilton. He finished sixth in the standings after enduring his worst F1 season to date.

His season was plagued by inconsistency, frequent struggles with the car, and a career-low three consecutive Q1 exits at the end of the year.

His form and his sombre attitude — he said after Abu Dhabi that his phone was “going in the freaking bin” — raise uncomfortable questions about the 40-year-old’s prospects.

Is the issue purely the car, which Leclerc was able to drag to seven podiums? Or, is it a deeper question about the adaptability and form of a driver entering the twilight of his career?

With the massive reset of the 2026 technical regulations looming, the pressure on both Ferrari and Hamilton will be huge.

Farewell to the DRS, but will F1 miss it?

Abu Dhabi marked a significant, if understated, moment in F1 history: the final race featuring the drag reduction system (DRS), which will be retired ahead of the 2026 regulation overhaul.

Its farewell race, however, ironically highlighted both its necessity and its shortcomings.

Reviewing the limited on-track action in Abu Dhabi, nearly every decisive pass for position — and certainly all those that occurred outside of the pitstop windows — was executed using the DRS.

It has been the defining trend of the current generation of technical rules, as the ground-effect cars have led to mostly processional racing.

The DRS’s removal, driven by the hope that the new 2026 aero philosophy will allow cars to follow more closely and create more natural overtakes, now casts a shadow of uncertainty.

If the new cars fail to deliver on that promise, will F1’s bosses regret abandoning the one mechanism that guaranteed passes?

DRS overtakes have very often been labelled as ‘too easy’ or ‘gimmicky’, and hopefully F1 doesn’t come to regret the alternative.

The title fight demonstrated that the car-to-car difference allowed for close racing and spectacular driving, but when a pass was required, a helping hand was invariably needed.

F1 now gambles that the future regulations can generate the same level of passing entertainment without the aid of the most criticised piece of technology in its modern era.