Dec. 7 at 8:oo pm EST, a race began; a race not only against other drivers, but against time itself.
The winner of the World Drivers’ Championship (WDC) is decided in the last race of the F1 season and is the last chance for drivers with enough points to get ahead of the competition and be crowned as the world champion. The WDC usually features fierce competition from elite drivers in cutting-edge technology. This year was no exception.
In F1, there are ten teams with two drivers each competing in around 24 races per season to accumulate points. McLaren and Red Bull were the two dominant forces this year, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri racing for McLaren and Max Verstappen racing for Red Bull, being the three drivers out of 20 that had a shot at the championship title when entering the final race.
Max Verstappen has been dominating the F1 seasons ever since he won in 2021, becoming a four-time world champion and a force to be reckoned with in the years after. This year, McLaren has developed a swift and efficient car that has allowed them to lead the 2025 season and win the World Constructors’ Championship (WCC) early on in the season.
It was around mid-August that many fans believed one of McLaren’s drivers was a clear winner of the WDC in view of the fact that Verstappen, the closest driver to the championship leader, was a whopping 104 points away. Still, many fans held out hope.
That hope seemed to pull through, as a series of unexpected events occurred within the McLaren team. Some were human errors, others were accidents, whatever the incident may be for a particular race, the community started taking notice, especially when Verstappen had taken advantage. He performed consistently until that 104-point gap turned into only 12 points away. That signifies that in just eight races, he was able to gain 92 points.
Only the top ten drivers in the race score points. First gets 25, second gets 18, third gets 15, and it drops down all the way to just one point for tenth place. Every point matters, especially in competitive seasons. So, the fact that Verstappen was able to catch up is impressive considering Lando and Piastri were racking up points quickly, too, as they often finished pretty high as well.
It also helped that McLaren has what is known as the papaya rules. Papaya rules are relatively simple. McLaren’s drivers are expected to battle each other strongly but cleanly, emphasizing fairness, avoiding contact and positioning the team’s championship aspirations before individual victories. It sounds fair, but McLaren shot themselves in the foot by refusing to prioritize one of their drivers for the championship title.
In the midst of a large comeback, the race weekend on the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi arrived quickly. Fans of all kinds went wild because the three qualifiers were right in the front, ready to fight for the same title. Verstappen had won Saturday’s qualifying a day before the WDC, winning pole position, the most favorable position at the start of a race, with Norris and Piastri winning P2 and P3 right behind him.
When the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finally began, Verstappen led the race the majority of the time with Piastri right behind him, and Norris in third. The way they held their positions and the strategies of both teams made it more likely that either Verstappen or Norris would win, rather than Piastri.
The position each driver could win was different. For Verstappen to win, Norris would have to finish off the podium, but for Norris to win, all he had to do was finish in the top three.
There was a lot of pressure on Norris throughout the race, given that his teammate was fighting for the same position and other drivers on the grid preferred Verstappen to win. Yuki Tsunoda, Verstappen’s teammate, suffered a five-second time penalty for making “more than one change of direction” to defend against Norris, pushing Norris off track in the process.
Tsunoda was a temporary threat, but Charles Leclerc, a Ferrari driver, was one of Norris’ biggest threats to winning the WDC, as Leclerc was chasing him down from fourth position almost the entire time. It became clear quickly that if Leclerc failed to pass or stop him at all, Norris would likely win the championship. Fans held their breath, as Leclerc is known for being a great driver, but Ferrari’s strategies and cars have not held up to expectations this season.
Unfortunately for Verstappen, fortunately for Norris, Leclerc was unable to catch up to Norris, and despite Verstappen winning the grand prix, Norris won the championship title.
Norris’ win sparked a lot of controversy, though. Many believed the FIA made the wrong call when giving Tsunoda a five-second penalty and Norris no penalty at all, even though he drove over the white line, an offense that would usually be a 10-second penalty. The FIA reasoned that Norris was forced off the track by Tsunoda’s “multiple defensive moves.” That, along with ongoing debates about McLaren’s alleged bias in favor of Norris over Piastri, despite strong claims from McLaren that they treat them equally, has made many claim that Piastri’s title chances were “ruined” by team management choices and Norris’ win was unfair.
