Hamilton's confession should worry Ferrari - Las Vegas GP takeaways

The 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix delivered drama on, but especially off, the track as the Formula 1 championship battle took yet another twist.

From McLaren‘s shocking blunder that put Lando Norris under unexpected pressure, to Max Verstappen‘s relentless charge keeping the title fight alive, the weekend had a little bit of everything.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton‘s stark admission that he is not looking forward to 2026 cast a rare shadow over the Ferrari camp, highlighting the mental toll of a frustrating season and raising questions about how the seven-time champion will approach the next era of regulation changes.

Elsewhere, Mercedes quietly consolidated its position as the likely runner-up in the constructors’ championship.

Here’s a look at the main storylines from the Vegas weekend.

McLaren’s blunder leaves Norris exposed

McLaren’s calamitous Las Vegas weekend has reshaped the closing stages of the season in a way that no one could have anticipated when it all pointed to an easy final two races for Norris to secure his first F1 title.

Instead, McLaren’s mistake and its drivers’ subsequent disqualification have left Norris, and to a lesser extent Piastri, unexpectedly vulnerable to the threat from Verstappen.

In isolation, McLaren’s technical blunder would be damaging enough, but in the context of the current championship situation, it could have a transformative effect.

The most immediate consequence is the swing it has delivered to Verstappen.

The Red Bull driver, who looked increasingly resigned to settling for a distant third in the standings, capitalised fully on McLaren’s misstep.

His surge to within 24 points of Norris has reopened a title fight that would otherwise be almost settled.

With only the Qatar and Abu Dhabi rounds left, the pressure has pivoted sharply onto McLaren, which will have to navigate the Qatar GP weekend without any margin for error and with the pressure of a team with all to lose.

Granted, the current championship picture is not only the result of the Vegas mistake, but rather Verstappen having been an absolute beast over the past months since the Red Bull was transformed into a real challenger.

Still, beyond the points swing, the episode has chipped away at the sense of operational authority McLaren had projected throughout the year.

Las Vegas may have exposed a fragility that Verstappen will be quick to exploit.

Norris in particular will be wondering how a team in championship contention has allowed a procedural lapse of this magnitude.

The championship is still McLaren’s to secure, but Las Vegas has ensured that it no longer feels entirely in its control.

Verstappen’s relentlessness knows no bounds

Verstappen’s relentlessness once again defined the race’s narrative in Las Vegas, another reminder that even in a year marked by an inferior car, he remains the most punishing driver on the grid.

His victory from second on the grid was another statement of refusal and, to some extent, McLaren’s double disqualification was some sort of poetic justice for Verstappen, a driver who would have walked away with the title had his Red Bull been this strong all year long.

Verstappen’s hunger despite the yawning points gap highlighted his instinct to hunt, pressure, and force mistakes from his rivals.

That instinct was on full display at the start of the race in Las Vegas.

Verstappen put immediate heat on Norris, and within seconds the McLaren driver was pushed into the smallest of misjudgements, the kind of error Verstappen specialises in extracting.

Once in clean air, Verstappen delivered the kind of drive that has defined his late-season charge. He managed the tyres, controlled the rhythm, and never allowed the threat behind him to materialise.

With his win, Verstappen had already sent the message that he won’t give up on his title chances regardless of how tiny they are. McLaren’s disqualification upped the pressure to huge levels going into the Qatar sprint.

If there is one thing McLaren did not need in the final two rounds, it is a reinvigorated Verstappen. Las Vegas had exactly the opposite effect.

Hamilton’s alarming confession

Lewis Hamilton’s stark admission in Las Vegas has cast a long shadow over the final stretch of the 2025 season and raised fresh questions about his mindset heading into the major regulatory reset of 2026.

Hamilton bluntly describing 2025 as his worst season ever after Vegas shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point, and not just because it’s another item on his long list of downbeat assessments about his Ferrari spell so far.

As hyperbolic as Hamilton’s comments have been over the past months, there is a worrying aspect to it all with his admission that he is not looking forward to next year either.

“It’s a terrible result. There is nothing positive to take from today,” Hamilton told BBC Radio 5 Live after Las Vegas.

“I’m eager for it to end, I’m looking forward to it ending. I’m not looking forward to the next one,” he added, referring to 2026.

Those comments are a rare glimpse into the emotional toll of a year spent battling an uncooperative car and stalled progress.

Hamilton has built his career on relentless optimism and an uncanny ability to extract belief from even the bleakest competitive situations. That is what makes this latest confession so jarring.

Few could have predicted that the dream partnership with Ferrari would lead to this scenario in which Hamilton appears not to want to be around the padock anymore, while some are starting to question his ability to bounce back.

His remark about not looking forward to 2026 is particularly revealing.

The new rules are supposed to be an opportunity for a reset, a chance for Ferrari to return to its glory days. Yet Hamilton’s tone suggests a deep-rooted scepticism both about himself and the team.

This level of resignation is unprecedented.

The battle Hamilton is fighting now is not just against the stopwatch, but against the eroding belief that the next era will offer him the redemption he once thought was almost inevitable.

Good news for Mercedes despite no win

There was no repeat win for Mercedes in Las Vegas this year, but the team moved into a comfortable position that should see it secure the runner-up spot.

Now 40 points ahead of Red Bull and 53 in front of Ferrari, Mercedes has benefitted from having two drivers scoring strongly regularly, something that neither of its rivals can boast about.

Amid all of this, the best news for Mercedes continues to be how Kimi Antonelli has quietly grown into a key piece of the team’s challenge.

His recovery in Las Vegas was perhaps the clearest sign yet: starting deep in the field, he gambled on a bold strategy, made up ground, and ultimately brought the car home in fifth place despite a penalty.

While he faltered in qualifying, his 48-lap stint on hard tyres in the race was impressive by most standards.

The kind of composure he displayed continues to show maturity well beyond his years.

While the win eluded Mercedes in Las Vegas, the weekend continued to highlight that the team may have a blueprint for sustained competitiveness with its two drivers.

Las Vegas hasn’t yet found its place

Despite the glitz and spectacle, the Las Vegas Grand Prix continued to struggle to carve out a sustainable place on the F1 calendar.

The race itself was nothing special, but that could be said about so many of this year’s events; but several drivers had, understandably, complaints about both the track and the weekend’s placement on the schedule.

Fernando Alonso hit out at the surface quality, calling the asphalt “not Formula 1 standard” – too slippery, too bumpy, and unsafe to push properly.

A repeat of the issues with the manhole covers didn’t help either, but at least it didn’t affect the weekend as much as in 2023.

However, it wasn’t just the surface that raised eyebrows, but also where Vegas sits on the calendar.

The race is slotted in two weeks after Brazil and just before Qatar, which means brutal travel for crews and drivers without any valid justification.

“We go to Qatar now straight, and it’s a 17-hour plane ride and a 13-hour time difference. I don’t think any other sport in the world will accept that,” Alonso said after the race.

Las Vegas continues to adapt to try to become a staple on the F1 calendar, but, being Las Vegas, it appears to continue to try to meet an unrealistic standard to justify its very existence.