After the strategic blunder by McLaren the driver’s championship contest is a bit closer.

Much has been written about McLaren not pitting their cars under the safety car while every other team pitted their cars. But could they? Andrea Stella, Team Principle, said that they could not under their driver fairness principle, “papaya rules”, as that would have compromised one or other of their drivers. I think they could have pitted both. Oscar Piastri was ahead of Max Verstappen with Lando Norris in third with a gap of 5.513 seconds between Oscar and Lando. McLaren’s pit crew are slick with the fastest car stationary time of 1.8 seconds and nearly always below 3 seconds. If Oscar had pitted first, Lando would not be double stacked for long and provided his tyres were near the pit box he would not have lost much time and probably not the third place.

The racing gods must have planned that safety car. Pirelli had mandated that any tyre set could only do a maximum of 25 laps. In a 57 lap race two stints of 25 laps leave seven to be done. A safety car on lap seven was serendipity. Every car would now have to pit only once more except the two McLaren cars which would have to pit twice more.

The Pirelli mandate was written about here-

LAS VEGAS GRAND PRIX – TYRE PRESSURES – F1 GUIDEF1 GUIDE

The above lack of pitting under the safety car cost Oscar Piastri a win, he finished second, and Lando Norris a second place, he finished fourth.

The World Drivers’ Championship points for 2025 post Qatar-

And the top 10 drivers graphically-

And the remaining 11 drivers-

There was enough change in the F1 World Drivers’ Championship to merit this graphic-

Both Carlos Sainz (Williams) and Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) moved up three places in the F1 World Drivers’ Championship. Carlos to ninth into the top ten and Yuki Tsunoda into fifteenth.

If Yuki Tsunoda could really get to grips with that RB21 he is driving and Max Verstappen does his thing it is just possible for Red Bull to get to second in the F1 World Constructors’ Championship. Currently Red Bull are twenty seven points behind Mercedes. Of course, for that to happen both Mercedes drivers. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli would have to do badly.

Kimi Antonelli is now just two points behind Lewis Hamilton. It would be ironic if Kimi overtook Lewis, the seven times F1 World Drivers’ Champion, in the championship.

To see the possible scenarios of who will win the F1 World Drivers’ Championship see this post-

WHO WILL BE F1 WORLD DRIVER’S CHAMPION 2025 – F1 GUIDEF1 GUIDE

The F1 World Constructors’ Championship points are-

Since the Singapore GP, McLaren are the F1 World Constructors’ Champions. The competition between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari for the lucrative second place before the F1 Qatar weekend was fierce.

Ferrari’s dismal performance at the Lusail circuit in both Sprint and Grand Prix races has taken them out of contention. Only Charles Leclerc scored at all and just 4 points in the GP race.

Mecedes did well over the weekend. George Russell’s fifteen points and Kimi Antonelli’s thirteen kept then ahead of Red Bull.

Mercedes’ points from Qatar-

With Max Verstappen’s win in the Grand Prix certainly helped Red Bull to close the gap to Mercedes. That gap is now only 27 points from the previous 34. Something more to look out for at the Abu Dhabi GP.

Red Bulls points from Qatar-

Graphically the World Constructors’ Championship –

A closer look at the last 6 teams’ F1 World Constructors’ Championship-

William’s Carlos Sainz third place podium finish of the Grand Prix pushed them into an unassailable fifth position. The last time Williams was fifth in the F1 World Constructors’ Championship was in 2017. That was followed by being last for the for the following three years. Now as the best of the rest, the challenge is break into the top four and compete for wins. Well done, Williams.

As for the anticipated Abu Dhabi finale for the F1 World Drivers’ Championship please read this post-

WHO WILL BE F1 WORLD DRIVER’S CHAMPION 2025 – F1 GUIDEF1 GUIDE

Enjoy that last race of 2025, there is certainly plenty of exciting situations to be watched out for.

There are three drivers with a mathematical chance of winning this year’s F1 World Drivers’ Championship. They are Lando Norris (McLaren), Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Oscar Piastri (McLaren). Their points are 408, 396 and 392 respectively.

Of the three drivers Lando Norris has by far the best chance of winning with his lead of twelve points over Max Verstappen and sixteen points lead over Oscar Piastri.

This table shows the three driver’s points for each of the top ten, point scoring finishing position.

COUNTBACK

Should two or more drivers end a season on the same number of World Drivers’ Championship points then a process called countback is utilised. This simply looks at the drivers points as to which driver had the most wins. If the wins are equal, then the driver with the most second places and so on until the driver with the best seasonal race finishes is declared the champion for that year.

As can be seen from the above scenarios there are several times that the points could be equal, so what does a countback or driver performance look like for this year?

And graphically

If Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have the same points, then Lando would win on first place finishes.

If Lando Norris and Max Verstappen have the same points, then Lando wins by virtue of having more second place finishes.

CONCLUSION

Given all above, unless something very unexpected happens, Lando Norris (McLaren) should win his maiden F1 World Drivers’ Championship in 2025.

Given how this season has unfolded I would not bet my shirt on this prediction.

Abu Dhabi will be an unmissable F1 experience, with free practice sessions, qualifying rounds, and the race itself all promising to be the most thrilling events in the world.

As we know, McLaren has already secured the World Constructors’ Championship, so the real competition now lies in the race for the millions of dollars awarded to the team finishing in second place. With two races still to go and two cars for each team the possible winning points are 86 for first and second place. The second place is between Mercedes, in second place now, Red Bull 35 points behind and Ferrari a further 28 points behind. Mercedes has the momentum having scored ten points with George Russell second and Kimi Antonelli sixth in the sprint race. Red Bull scored nine points in the sprint with Yuki Tsunoda finishing in fifth place, one behind Max Verstappen. For Red Bull to achieve the second place Yuki Tsunoda must contribute. Ferrari are 63 points adrift of Mercedes and for them to stand any chance of coming second in the World Constructors’ Championship, I think they need new cars that they can win with. They certainly can not get there on current form.

The other close competition is for seventh place. Aston Martin, Haas and Sauber are very close and there are only a few points between them.

Another possible is Racing Bulls on Williams for that fifth, best of the rest, place. Not very likely but doable. Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz both have had their moments for Williams with Alex Albon stronger in the early season and Carlos now coming to grips with his new team and car. Racing bulls drivers Isack Hadja and Liam Lawson have been successful in Brazil and Las Vegas lifting the team to sixth and 16 points clear of Aston Martin.

The World Constructors’ Championship 2025–

Its worth looking at the bottom six teams in the World Constructors’ Championship-

The last two races may have a massive impact on the prize money earnings of some teams. This is besides the World Drivers’ Championship that is yet to be decided. That makes F1 the fabulous spectacle that it is. Enjoy.

One of the earliest Event Notes issued by the Race Director for a race weekend contains Pirelli’s prescriptions for the tyres selected for that weekend. These prescriptions (mandatory rules) cover, amongst many others, the minimum tyre pressures.

Why is there a minimum tyre pressure even mandated? Because the lower a racing tyre pressure is, the larger the contact area of the tyre on the circuit surface. The larger the surface area contact the greater the traction. To avoid teams having such low pressure that the tyre may fall off the wheel rims, a minimum tyre pressure is mandated. In essence it is a safety issue.

For the Las Vegas race weekend-

A Minimum Tyre Pressures

On closer examination of these minimum tyre pressures and compared to those for other race weekends this year, these are the highest minimum pressures so far. Sounds strange to have highest minimum. This is in the context that a 28psi minimum is higher than a 26.5psi minimum.

What is strange is that the Pirelli preview chart for this event shows the asphalt grip of this circuit as being very low (1/5). One would assume that a larger tyre contact area would be desirable to counteract this. There is obviously some other consideration which prompted this high minimum pressure.

The Pirelli preview-

The range of the minimum tyre pressure so far, this F1 season-

As can be seen from the above the highest minimum for Las Vegas applies to the slick and intermediate tyres and not the full wet.

A fantastic Grand Prix. Great driving. Good overtakes with even better defending. Las Vegas did not disappoint and excelled as a spectacular event.

As the checkered flag was waved the results showed a second win for Max Verstappen at this circuit but with a diminished chance of winning his fifth World Drivers’ Championship. With Lando Norris scoring eighteen points for second place and only two race weekends remaining, the points gap looked too large to overcome. Still possible but very unlikely.

Then came the FIA scrutineers.

BEFORE THE FIA SCRUTINEERS.

The start to finish graphic looked like this-

That result would have left Max fifteen points behind Oscar Piastri and forty two points behind Lando Norris.

Point differences-

That result would have left Lando with one hand almost on the World Drivers’ Championship Trophy.

AFTER THE FIA SCRUTINEERS.

Both McLaren cars disqualified. Excessive plank abrasion was the reason for the disqualification. This is not the first this year as Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) and Nico Hulkenberg (Kick Sauber) have also been disqualified at the China and Bahrain GPs respectively.

The grid to flag graphic-

The points difference to Lando are now-

We now have Max equal with Oscar and both twenty four points adrift of Lando. This is still a large deficit with only the two remaining race weekends. The two GPs and Sprint provide fifty eight winning points but only fifteen points between first and second positions.

The World Drivers’ Championship point race is now-

It is hopefully going to be a very exciting conclusion to what has been an entertaining season of Formula 1.

Who knows, Max Verstappen may yet surprise us and retain that number one for next year.

Here’s looking forward to the last two race weekends.

Mainstream Media posted the market value of the F1 teams today 21/11/25. Quoted as sources were Forbes, BBC and AP.

In May, earlier this year I did a similar exercise and came up with this market value-

As the financial results of the teams came out it was seen that all the teams were actually profitable for the year 2024 except for Williams and Aston Martin. These two teams are still in a rebuilding phase. Williams have risen from ninth in 2024 and are currently fifth. Well done team, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz. Aston Martin with their focus on 2026 have fallen from fifth in 2024 to currently seventh.

Todays team value is –

The % Increase (%Inc) is the difference between the May value and todays. We would all enjoy our assets appreciating by these percentages in six months, especially those at 100% or more. Pity we cannot attract multimillion $ sponsors or investors like F1 teams.

Cadillac is only valued at the $450 million anti-dilution fee paid to join the series. It is estimated that they will spend an additional $1 billion more before the testing of next year’s cars.

Although Pirelli has opted for the hardest available compounds at the Lusail International Circuit, a group decision has imposed a maximum limit of twenty-five laps per tyre.

Qatar GP tyre selection

Being a sprint weekend the tyre allocation per driver is two sets of hards, four sets of mediums and six sets of softs. Along with 4 sets of intermediates and 3 sets of full wets.

The group that made this decision were the FIA, F1 and the teams at the urging of Pirelli. It was made in acknowledgement of the eventful 2024 Qatar GP.

Tyre lap accounting will be a demanding task for the tyre strategists. The lap count will include all laps in practice, sprint qualifying, the sprint race, grand prix qualifying and the grand prix itself. The laps completed under a safety car or a virtual safety car are also included. The only excluded laps will be laps to the grid, formation laps and laps completed after the chequered flag in the sprint race and the grand prix.

This means that the 57 lap GP will have to be a minimum of two pitstops. The sprint race of 19 laps will not have to have any pit stops unless sets of tyres have been used previously in practice or sprint qualifying.

Under the sprint weekend regulations, each driver will be supplied with two sets of hards, four sets of mediums and six sets of softs for the entire race weekend.

The next race is Las Vegas followed by Qatar and then finally Abu Dhabi to round off this year’s season. All in the next three weekends.

Who will win the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship?

Thrilling Formula 1 racing is expected.

FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE LA CIUDAD DE MÉXICO 2025 – Race

What a scintillating race. It lived up to all expectations.

Given the hot conditions of an air temperature of 26C (79F) and track temperature of 52C (126F) with a 25% less dense air than usual, the demands on driver and car were extreme.

Lando Norris (McLaren), who after a stunning lap record qualifying, started and ended without ever giving up the lead of the race. A judicious strategy from McLaren saw him maintaining the lead even through Lando’s one pitstop. He pitted on lap 35 and swopped his starting soft tyres for mediums. At that stage he was twenty nine seconds ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) who had not yet pitted. When Lando exited the pitlane he was a comfortable eight seconds ahead of Max.

Max pitted on lap 38 to change his medium tyres for soft. He came out in eighth place but on those soft tyres he was almightily fast. He overtook 5 of the cars in front of him and chased after Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) who was in second place. Max got into DRS range of Charles, and it looked inevitable that he would overtake Charles when the race director called a Virtual Safety Car (VSC). The VSC was initiated to recover Carlos Sainz’s (Williams) car which had stopped with mechanical problems on lap 67. A pity that VSC was called as it would have been a sight to see if Max could have actually overtaken Charles. This was particularly sad as it appeared that the William’s car of Carlos Sainz was stopped well off the racing line. Charles came second and Max third.

Oliver Bearman (Haas) had a very impressive race. Starting from ninth on the grid he fought his way to end fourth. His overtaking made him look like a seasoned driver and not the rookie in his first year in F1 that he is. His defence against Oscar Piastri (McLaren), who came fifth, was magnificent. With his teammate Esteban Ocon coming in ninth, this gave Haas a haul of points sufficient to overtake Sauber for eighth place in the World Constructors’ Championship.

Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli claimed sixth ahead of his teammate George Russell.

Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) finished eighth for Ferrari following a 10-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage over Max Verstappen. Something is wrong at Ferrari. Normally the team strategist or the race director would be monitoring the situation and via Lewis’ race engineer be advising the driver to give the place back to avoid the penalty. Had Lewis given the place back he would have finished the race in a much higher position.

The other rookie to not look like a rookie was Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber). He started in sixteenth and grabbed the last point for tenth Place.

All the grid to flag performances-

The full race lap chart-

The World Drivers’ Championship has really hotted up. With Lando Norris (McLaren) just one point ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri and the outsiders Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and George Russell (Mercedes) having suffered from “altitude and heat problems” the next four events are highly anticipated.

Where we are with the World Drivers’ Championship – Top 10

World Drivers’ Championship – Last 11-

With the World Constructors’ Championship already decided, the teams remain battling for the millions in prize money. This is also fascinating. Ferrari are now 2 points ahead of Mercedes and Haas has just overtaken Sauber.

The World Constructors’ Championship situation-

The winner of the World Constructors’ Championship has been decided; McLaren has an unassailable lead that no other team can overtake in the remaining four race weekends. What are the other teams still racing for? As was reported this year, the F1 prize money for 2024 was £1 billion.

The World Constructors’ Championship points post Mexico-

In Box A enlargement we can see Ferrari has just pipped Mercedes by a single point. With Red Bull also close these three teams are fighting for around £50 million. The prize money between them will range between around £110 and £160 million. Red bull really needs a contributing second driver and not leave everything to Max Verstappen. The points are Ferrari 356, Mercedes 355 and Red Bull 346.

In Box B there are 4 teams fighting for £20 million in the range of £60 to £80 million. The floor updates that Haas brought to the USA GP seem to have improved performance and they are now ahead of Sauber by two points. The points for these four teams are Racing Bulls 72, Aston Martin 69, Haas 62 and Sauber 60.

The fight for F1 prize money is still on, be it for second place or sixth place the teams will battle to the last race.

he Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit is situated at an elevation of 2,238 metres (7,343 feet), presenting challenges for engines, cars, and drivers due to the lower atmospheric density and reduced oxygen levels associated with high altitude.

For engines the lack of oxygen deprives the combustion part of the power unit of performance. The electric part is not affected.

The cars obviously suffer from the lack of combustion power, but the rarefied air also affects downforce. Despite the teams maximising the downforce for this circuit there is a limit to that due to the increased drag. This makes the cornering stability tricky to say the least. The other major influence of the rarefied air on the cars is a lack of cooling ability. The low density of air significantly impairs its capacity to dissipate heat from radiators. electronics, brakes and other heat sources. As demonstrated in the car presentation submissions, this represents a substantial engineering challenge.

The drivers must deal with the lack of performance speed and downforce. Besides tricky cornering their own breathing is affected, and shortness of breath is debilitating. Thank goodness these are very fit athletes.

The Mexico GP Circuit is not only the highest F1 circuit, but also the third slowest and the third shortest.

CAR PRESENTATION SUBMISSIONS

A summary of the submissions-

The submissions-

FREE PRACTICES

Sauber was the only team to field its regular drivers during the first free practice session. All other teams substituted one of their primary drivers with a development driver for this session.

It is not amazing that the teams, all but one, decided to run the first practice session with developing drivers. This circuit is seldom used, and its evolution is extremely high, five out of five.

All the practice sessions were entertaining and with some really surprising fast laps from unexpected drivers. The occasional yellow flag for wide running but no major interruptions. Only Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) had a serious car problem which curtailed his running to nine laps in FP3.

All the practise times-

QUALIFYING

Talk about surprises! After the second fast laps in Q2 Isack Hadja (Racing Bulls) was on top of the leader board with Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 0.003 seconds behind.

After that it was Lando Norris (McLaren) all the way except for the first fast run in Q2 when Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) put in a time of 1m15.991s, the first time under 1m16s, 0.179 seconds faster than Lando.

All the drivers in the top ten shootout did two fast runs with times improving. Lando clock a time of 1m15.586s which was 0.36 seconds faster that last year’s pole of 1m15.946s which was set by Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari.

The top ten qualifiers’ times for all their fast runs are here-

The race itself should be exciting. With fast Ferraris, George Russell (Mercedes) just behind them, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) in fifth and Oscar Piastri (McLaren) in eighth. Cannot wait to watch it.