F1 top 10 drivers of 2025 - Part 2

And so we conclude the RacingNews365 run-down of our top 10 drivers of 2025.

On Christmas Eve, our five writers - Ian Parkes, Sam Coop, Nick Golding, Jake Nichol, and Fergal Walsh - brought you drivers 10 to six on their list, adopting F1's grand prix scoring system by giving 25 points to the driver who they felt performed best over the 24-race season, down to one point for the 10th-placed driver, providing a comprehensive breakdown.

Below the top five, you will also find a table of how the points stacked up for each driver.  

As always, this is a subjective list. You, our readers, may have your own view, so please feel free to provide your comments in the box below.

And a very happy Christmas to you all!

5. Charles Leclerc

A stand-alone fifth in the drivers' championship, so a natural fifth in these rankings. There were many occasions when Leclerc pulled off a result seemingly beyond the capability of the car, the aerodynamic development of which was shut down in late April after team boss Frédéric Vasseur recognised the Scuderia was not in a position to challenge for either championship this season. That Ferrari went from finishing 14 points behind McLaren in the constructors' championship last year, to 435 this past campaign says it all, and that for Leclerc, and new team-mate Hamilton, it was a season to forget. Whilst Hamilton failed to register a top-three finish for the first time in his F1 career, Leclerc still scored seven podiums, at least affording the Scuderia a semblance of respect in an otherwise miserable year.

4. George Russell

Aside from Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, George Russell was the only other driver to win a grand prix over the record-equalling 24-race season, doing so deservedly in Canada and Singapore, whilst there were an additional seven podiums along the way that ensured 2025 was comfortably his best year in Formula 1, not just from a statistical point of view, but also from a performance perspective. He was easily the best of the rest behind the trio of title-chasing protagonists. The British driver appeared to thrive in being the de facto number one inside the team for the first time, and with a more stable car beneath him compared to the previous iterations from Mercedes since the introduction of the ground-effect regulations in 2022, Russell was able to deliver consistent, reliable results, even if the W16 was still not a close enough match for its rivals.

3. Oscar Piastri

Up to and including the Dutch GP, in which he took the chequered flag for the seventh time in the first 15 races, it appeared for all the world as if F1 would be hailing its first champion from Australia since 1980. In only his third season, Piastri delivered cool, calm, level-headed drives beyond his years and was rightly earning the plaudits for doing so. After Zandvoort, where Norris retired, he was 34 points clear of his McLaren team-mate, with Verstappen seemingly dead and buried, 104 points back. But then came Monza, where McLaren's team order to hand back second position to Norris due to the Briton encountering a slower pit-stop messed with Piastri’s head, openly he conceded, and from which he never truly recovered until late on. He then astonishingly crashed in qualifying and the race in Azerbaijan, and he was annoyed again by team affairs in Singapore. He also suffered miserably around the low-grip circuits in Austin, where he collided with Norris in the sprint, and Mexico City. It was a case of what might have been.

2. Lando Norris

Over the course of the season, Norris may have just done enough to be champion, but he fell considerably short of topping this list. By his own admission, after starting the season superbly with a win in Australia, he struggled for several races thereafter. Small mistakes here and there, along with slow getaways off the line, severely compromised him, and then came his shocking aberration in Montréal, where he went for a gap that simply did not exist and ran into the back of Piastri. The aforementioned retirement in Zandvoort pitched Norris adrift of Piastri, and from there, it appeared a long way back. But with a team of people around him, something he shared after the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, he rebuilt his challenge, and as Piastri wilted, Norris bloomed, scoring crucial victories in Mexico and Brazil, in particular, to take charge. There were nerves late on, but a more mentally robust Norris stood up to the task and delivered. 

1. Max Verstappen

Norris may be champion, but without a shadow of a doubt, Verstappen was again the stand-out performer of the year. Bar one moment of reckless madness that was a significant contributory factor in the Red Bull driver not equalling Michael Schumacher's record of five consecutive titles, he delivered before the summer break with a car not worthy of some of his drives. Even more so after, as the RB21's faults were rectified, he rattled off 10 consecutive podiums, including six victories, to take it to the wire in Abu Dhabi. That mad moment was, of course, when he decided to deliberately collide with nemesis George Russell during the Spanish GP, earning a 10-second penalty that relegated him from fifth to 10th at the chequered flag and cost him a decisive nine points. Aside from that, Verstappen was impeccable and imperious, and but for the poor performance of his car early on, which was his predominant downfall, we would be hailing him as a five-time world champion right now.