2025 F1 midseason driver rankings: Oscar Piastri surges, rookies shine and a champion falls

New York Times

2 days ago

After a hectic run of 14 races since March began, the Formula One paddock has a chance to breathe in the summer shutdown.
With no racing until the end of August, when the Dutch Grand Prix will start the 10-race dash to the end of the 2025 season, all 20 drivers have an opportunity to digest the campaign so far.
Advertisement
McLaren duo Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris may be the drivers fighting it out for this year's world title, and with Red Bull's Max Verstappen not quite yet out of contention, but there have also been impressive displays from those further down the field.
Given the summer break provides a natural time to review the season so far, The Athletic's experts Luke Smith and Madeline Coleman give their top-10 driver rundown.
As always, let us know your thoughts on this ranking in the comment section below.
Oscar Piastri has blossomed in his third F1 season, converting raw speed into pole positions (4) and race wins (6), and minimizing his mistakes. The year started on a sour note as he made a costly error and spun during the wet season-opener in Australia, but he really found his groove in Bahrain after winning in China. Bahrain was a race where he calmly commanded proceedings from lights out to the checkered flag. This was one of three consecutive wins that led him to the championship lead, which he hasn't relinquished since the Saudi Arabian race. Aside from Australia (P9) and Canada (P4), the Australian has stood on the podium every race weekend so far. Piastri holds a nine-point lead over teammate Norris in the drivers' standings, and the margins are fine as their title battle heats up. McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown told select media in Hungary earlier this month that one area the team felt Piastri needed to improve on during the winter offseason was qualifying – and he has done so, putting together stronger Saturdays on the back of solid practice starts and leading Norris 8-6 in qualifying. The average gap between the pair is just 0.042 seconds, with Piastri having the edge. The 24-year-old needs to maintain his calm demeanor and clean performances during the second part of the season as the pressure will continue to climb.
Even without the best car on the grid, Max Verstappen has produced some miraculous performances so far in 2025.There have been stunning battles, pole positions, podium finishes and wins, plus he's secured points even when the RB21's limitations are severely exposed. At Suzuka in April, Verstappen converted a P1 start to his first victory of the season, finishing over a second ahead of the McLaren duo despite race-long pressure. At Imola, he nailed a beautiful race-winning first-lap pass on Piastri that was the key to victory. Strategic errors and car set-up issues have all played a part in why Red Bull's dominance has ended. But the Spanish Grand Prix in June is the most notable black mark on Verstappen's personal 2025 record, as he crashed into George Russell and received three penalty points for the incident, putting him at risk of a race ban. The incident raised questions over whether the Dutchman should have been disqualified as many people thought it appeared a deliberate act, while he later acknowledged his move 'was not right' on social media. Verstappen is unlikely to secure a fifth consecutive drivers' title, but he has totally outclassed his teammates, holding an average qualifying gap of 0.540 seconds to Yuki Tsunoda (after starting the year against Liam Lawson). Verstappen's performances in a tricky car illustrate why he's a four-time world champion.
George Russell's seamless transition into the team leader role at Mercedes following Lewis Hamilton's departure should surprise no-one. Working harder than ever off the track and in a contract year, Russell arguably has been performing his best yet in F1, scoring more podiums this season than anyone outside of the McLaren drivers. The Mercedes car just hasn't given him the chance to regularly fight for victories. His form was stymied by the updated rear suspension made after June's Canadian Grand Prix. But that weekend in Montreal, when conditions aligned to bring out the best in the Mercedes package, Russell flourished, winning from pole position ahead of Verstappen. Russell has been consistent and quick this season, grabbing opportunities that came his way and being unruffled by the arrival of a new teammate in Kimi Antonelli. A new Mercedes deal, long a formality, will be richly deserved if it arrives as expected post-summer break. All he needs to be a serious contender is a championship-challenging car.
There was never any doubt over Lando Norris's speed heading into 2025, justifying his status as the preseason championship favorite. But a series of small, yet costly, errors have allowed Piastri to marginally gain the upper hand both in terms of points and pace. At his best, Norris has been very hard to beat. He started perfectly in Australia, winning from pole in tricky conditions, and was in total control of the Monaco weekend, which resulted in a significant victory. He struggled for total comfort in McLaren's 2025 car, especially over a single lap, before a suspension geometry tweak was introduced. Then there were mistakes such as running into the rear of Piastri in Canada, or his qualifying crash in Jeddah. None helped his cause. Although he's generally fought back, it's often been a recovery that should not have been required in the first place. But heading into the summer break with three wins in four races was an important statement. Norris had the edge in Austria, made the most of Piastri's penalty at Silverstone, and then held on superbly in Hungary after a poor start moved him onto a one-stop strategy. The outright pace is still there for Norris to win the 2025 title. But in a year where fine margins are decisive, he can't afford more mistakes through the final stretch to Abu Dhabi.
The Ferrari spotlight may have been on Hamilton after his blockbuster winter move, yet Charles Leclerc was always going to be a presence at the front given the right car. But Ferrari failed to maintain its late 2024 momentum, instead falling back from McLaren. This left Leclerc and Hamilton struggling with a car that needed 'extreme' setups, to quote Leclerc, to achieve the best speed through most of the season's opening chunk. Leclerc's natural one-lap pace, his calling card from across his time in F1, wasn't as easy to unlock. Yet Leclerc was often able to maximize what Ferrari could do and this was seen no clearer than in Hungary, with his magical run to pole. The rear suspension update introduced at Spa is a positive step that should give him more chances to fight for podiums through the closing stages of the season with more orthodox setups. That Leclerc has only twice trailed Hamilton on a Sunday points to him still being Ferrari's leader, as does his qualifying advantage. Though Hamilton may have got closer as the season progressed, Leclerc has proved why he's the man Ferrari has long seen as integral to its future success.
In his sixth F1 season, Alex Albon has exceeded expectations and extracted the maximum performance from Williams' FW47. He scored points in seven of the first eight weekends, finishing a season-high fifth three times – his best since joining Williams in 2022. Three consecutive DNFs followed, with a crash in Spain, a power unit issue in Montreal and another car issue in Austria, but of Williams' 70 points, Albon has scored 54. He's rarely misstepped in competitive sessions. Albon's impressive performances come at a time when the intra-Williams battle is closer than in recent years. Albon had outqualified former teammate Logan Sargeant 14-0 by this point last season, but Williams newcomer Carlos Sainz has closed the qualifying head-to-head gap as the season has gone on. Albon still has the edge, 8-6, but the average gap is just 0.072 seconds. Sainz is the Albon's toughest teammate since he was at Red Bull with Verstappen in 2019-2020 and if it wasn't for reliability issues, Sainz would likely have more than his current 16-point haul. But Albon has made a statement so far this year that can't be ignored — he's a consistent top 10 contender.
Pierre Gasly has been a constant for Alpine and the Frenchman has scored all of the team's points so far. While there was a driver swap in the other car, with Franco Colapinto replacing Jack Doohan after Miami, Gasly has taken a difficult car into Q3 seven times. And Alpine's highest qualifying position so far was Gasly's fifth in Bahrain. He holds an average qualifying gap of 0.256 seconds over Colapinto and was 0.362 seconds quicker than Doohan on average. He's scored points four times in grand prix races (plus the Miami sprint), with his best finish coming in the wet thriller at Silverstone in early July. Alpine's poor car has prevented Gasly from being consistent, whether it be tire management issues or the car just lacking competitive pace. Meanwhile, both of his crashes this year happened with Tsunoda – with their Jeddah collision deemed a Lap 1 racing incident and Gasly at fault for the Monaco chicane shunt. Aside from these incidents and colliding with Sainz in Hungary, Gasly's race craft has been relatively clean. He's generally done all you can ask from a driver, extracted the maximum from his car and got his elbows out to fight for points.
The thought of Nico Hülkenberg ending his 15-year wait for an F1 podium seemed fanciful early in 2025. Since his full-time return to the F1 grid two years ago, 2025 has proved to be another chapter in the veteran German's revival. Although he's been matched for pace by rookie teammate Gabriel Bortoleto, when the opportunities for big points have arisen Hülkenberg has seized the moment. His day in the sun (peeking through the rain clouds) at Silverstone stands as a career high-point – the sort of shock F1 result that feels increasingly rare. And he had to fight for that third place, passing Lance Stroll and outpacing Hamilton's Ferrari in the race's second half. It's not just Silverstone that gets Hülkenberg into our top 10. He kept his head through the chaos of the wet race in Australia to finish seventh in what was then clearly F1's slowest car and grabbed P5 through the late drama in Spain – after Sauber had significantly developed the C45. He's failed to net points in nine out of 14 rounds, but when he has scored they've been significant hauls. He was also eighth in our 2024 mid-season ranking.
Isack Hadjar's F1 career may have started in heartbreaking fashion after he spun out on the formation lap on his Australia debut, but since then it's been very positive. Hadjar's qualifying pace has been there from the get-go, as he's made it past Q1 at every race so far and he's regularly popped up in Q3. The forgiving nature of Racing Bulls' car this year has certainly helped the rookie, yet it took Lawson time to adapt once he was back aboard. Hadjar said at Spa he had surprised even himself with his qualifying form, as he's outpaced the slightly more experienced Lawson by 0.150 seconds on average. Although that's not translated into points of late amid some struggles with race execution and car reliability, the latter being costly in Belgium last month, he's unquestionably been one of 2025's brightest rookies. That Australia mistake was a big one, and there'll be a desire to get back to regular points-scoring form after the summer break, but Hadjar has plenty to take pride in so far.
After Gabriel Bortoleto finished sixth in this month's Hungarian Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso, who is part of the Brazilian driver's management team, told Spanish broadcaster DAZN, 'He's the best rookie of this generation.' Earlier this season some fans may have doubted such a claim, but Bortoleto has been on an upward trajectory since Austria in June and is in the conversation for best rookie of the season. He headed into the break having scored points in three of the last four weekends. Bortoleto's junior category accomplishments before he joined Sauber for 2025 matched some of the most successful F1 drivers of this era: He won the Formula Three title in 2023 and secured the Formula Two championship after just a year in each championship. But moving from F2 to F1 is still a big jump. He had a quiet start to the season and has made mistakes, such as his first-lap spin in China or his early exit crash at Silverstone. In the updated Sauber, Bortoleto found his stride and the team secured what is so far its only double points finish with Bortoleto eighth and Hülkenberg ninth in Austria. Although not reflected in the race results earlier in 2025, Bortoleto has an impressive edge on the rapid Hülkenberg in qualifying, with the average gap between the pair currently at 0.059 seconds. If Bortoleto can continue to improve, his F1 future appears very bright.
(Top images: Mark Thompson/Jayce Illman/; Illustration: Will Tullos/The Athletic)
Spot the pattern. Connect the terms
Find the hidden link between sports terms
Play today's puzzle