After July 6th’s chaotic British Grand Prix, one of the most anticipated Formula 1 seasons in recent memory reached its halfway point. Fans hoped this season would be a title fight between multiple teams, but unfortunately it’s been a one-team show. The 2024 season ended with seven different drivers winning multiple races — this season, that number is down to three.
2025’s pace setters
McLaren has won nine out of the 12 races this season, with Oscar Piastri winning five and Lando Norris winning four. The team has amassed 460 constructor points, more than double of Ferrari’s 222 points in second place. Norris and Piastri have dominated podium finishes as well, with nine races where both finished on the podium.
The reigning champion Max Verstappen has tried to mount a championship fight, but his 2025 Red Bull Racing challenger RB21 is a handful to drive. However, he is the only other driver to have won multiple races this season, in both the Japanese Grand Prix and Imola Grand Prix. He has five podium finishes this season, tied with George Russell for most by a non-McLaren driver.
Verstappen’s title fight has lost its momentum in the last few races. He scored 41 points in the last five races and finished on the podium only once. Verstappen now finds himself 69 points behind Piastri. Fans wanted a championship battle this season — they got one, but it might not be what they hoped for.
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McLaren vs. McLaren
It’s an all-McLaren title fight, reminiscent of the iconic 1988 battle between drivers Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. Piastri leads Norris by just eight points, the same as it was at the halfway mark of the iconic 2021 season. This is also the first inter-team title fight since Mercedes’ 2016 season that saw Nico Rosberg beat Lewis Hamilton.
Fans didn’t get to see an on-track McLaren battle until the Canadian Grand Prix where Norris crashed out of the race while chasing Piastri for a P4 finish. That was a short-lived battle that only lasted a couple of laps, but the racing gods conjured up a spicier showdown in the hills of Austria two weeks later.
Norris, starting on pole for the Austrian Grand Prix, had Piastri on his tail for 20 laps. This consisted of several divebombs, one that almost took both the McLaren drivers out of the race. Norris ended up winning the race but the papaya cars lit up the Red Bull Ring and fans will hope for similar battles for the remainder of the season.
A one-team championship battle might not be what fans have hoped for, but they should be pleased it is a team with two equally matched drivers that has a car clear of the field.
Red Bull’s bull has fled
Everything has gone wrong for Red Bull this season. The team that was a force to reckon with the last three seasons has dramatically fallen off. This has dropped it to P4 in the constructor’s standings. Red Bull has tried five drivers for their second seat since 2019, but none have quite worked out. For 2025, the team dropped an underperforming Sergio Perez and signed Liam Lawson.
The team ended up dropping him after only two races, promoting Racing Bulls driver Yuki Tsunoda at his home race — the Japanese Grand Prix. Tsunoda has struggled, scoring 10 points in 10 races with Red Bull. Verstappen has scored 135 points in the same time. To make matters worse, Red Bull fired Christian Horner, its team principal since its first season in F1. It is hard to believe that this is the same team that won 22 out of 23 races in 2023. With a big regulation change coming up in 2026, the team is in a precarious position.
All this does is flame the Verstappen to Mercedes rumors that first started last season when Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he “would love” to have the Dutch driver join the Silver Arrows. With his team struggling this season, Verstappen might be tempted to join Mercedes, especially when they are the rumored championship favorite next season.
The prancing horse stumbles
Ferrari is unequivocally the disappointment of the season. The team has gone from fighting McLaren for the constructor’s title last season to a sometimes midfield car this season. With seven-time world champion Hamilton joining Charles Leclerc, it had one of the best driver lineups on the grid. And they have failed in giving their drivers a competitive car. It miraculously finds itself second on the constructor’s table. But it has been a miserable season for the Italian team.
Hamilton is still getting to grips with the Ferrari. He compared driving the car to “dancing with someone who has no rhythm” earlier this season. A recent upwards curve suggests he is getting better at handling the prancing horse. His last four race finishes are P6, P6, P4 (tied season-high finish) and P4. Leclerc has had to drive yet another incompetent Ferrari this season. He has somehow managed four podium finishes with his season-high finish being P2 in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Awful strategies, bad setups and incompetence have plagued Ferrari yet again this season. The team is bringing a critical rear suspension upgrade at this week’s Belgian Grand Prix. This is a complementary upgrade to the new floor it introduced in Austria. Its success will likely influence the team’s development choice between this season and next.
The wait is over
All the pre-season hype has combined to give F1 perhaps its most wholesome moment in recent memory. The heavens opened up to a heavy downpour of rain on July 6. Despite the British Grand Prix’s treacherous conditions,Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg kept his composure. This earned him his maiden podium with a P3 finish which ended an unfortunate record of having the most race starts without a podium in F1 history.
The record was never justified in the first place as Hulkenberg has driven midfield cars for most of his career. This was a podium celebrated by not only himself, but the entire grid. Kick Sauber, a backmarker team, didn’t have champagne to celebrate the podium with, so Aston Martin Mercedes shared theirs.
Race to the finish line
In all fairness, this season so far has failed to match the highs of 2024. There wasn’t a close championship battle last season, but with the pecking order constantly changing around, races were far more unpredictable. This season, it is a safe bet to pick McLaren to win.
But despite it not being a multi-team fight like fans expected, the second half of the season is all to play for. Barring any miracle, McLaren will likely secure both the constructor’s and driver’s championships this season. But it is a race to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to see which driver comes out on top.
If McLaren win the driver’s championship this year, it will be its first since 2007. The online sentiment around the team has largely been negative, most of it coming from fans upset about their team not competing for the title. But make no mistake, it is truly a special rise to dominance after years of mediocrity.
Piastri and Norris are two great drivers, both with different strengths and weaknesses. If viewers enjoyed their Canada and Austria battles, they can count on many more of those this season. F1 resumes after a three-week break this weekend at Spa-Franchorchamps in Belgium, as the race to the finish line begins.
