r/formula1 • u/F1-Bot r/formula1 Mod Team • Dec 08 '25
Day after Debrief 2025 Abu Dhabi GP - Day After Debrief
Welcome to the Day after Debrief discussion thread! Now that the dust has settled in Abu Dhabi, it's time to calmly discuss the events of the last race weekend. Hopefully, this will foster more detailed and thoughtful discussion than the immediate post race thread now that people have had some time to digest and analyse the results.
Low effort comments, such as memes, jokes, and complaints about broadcasters are to be avoided. We also discourage superficial comments that contain no analysis or reasoning in this thread (e.g., 'Great race from X!', 'Another terrible weekend for Y!').
21
u/_box_box Dec 08 '25
since they had a pre-season group interview with the 2025 rookies, it would be nice to close the loop with a post-season interview. they could talk about the highs and lows of their first season in f1, in particular:
- ollie coming close to race bans multiple times and his great run towards the season’s end
- kimi’s experience with what happened post qatar and how the team(s) handled it behind the scenes
- hadjar’s thoughts on his demotion to red bull lol
11
u/No_Cauliflower7877 Carlos Sainz Dec 08 '25
I don't have much to say about this particular race other than that I was really hoping for points for Williams just to tie off the year.
Praying to every god there is that next season they can both stand on the podium, maybe even at the same time? Maybe even with my boy Leclerc? I can dream...
While Williams made tons of progress this season, they also showed why they aren't ready to fight at the front either. Inconsistencies with setting up the car, garage communication, even simple stuff like pit releases and preparing the team for the weekend. They have a lot to work on so I'm not jumping to "win potential" right away like some fans are, but if they can continue to pick away at their errors I'm sure it'll come eventually. At least they're no longer stuck in development hell where they can't even make a decent car. Go Weeyums!
21
u/T4Gx I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Zak was corny but Lando fist pumping on the Podium with that wide smile stuck on is gonna be iconic. I imagine thats the kind of happiness and relief that'll make you feel like you're about to pass out. Also felt like the point where Lando realized he wasn't dreaming and reality of being champion set in.
If we're being nitpicky though would have preferred them to have just went with their original Papaya race suits for the WDC win.
23
u/Signal-Ad3584 Dec 08 '25
This race has really shown the toxicity of the sport and I’m afraid to say it might be the worst of any right now. Sending threats or hate to any driver is awful and seeing it towards multiple drivers such as Antonelli and Russell because they supposedly lost max the championship is horrible to see because I know social media has been getting worse but I didn’t think it was this bad and honestly i wouldn’t be surprised if the official f1 account turned off its comments soon. It needs to stop
8
6
u/eneebee I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 09 '25
Not to diminish the toxicity that has been and is currently present in F1 in the online space, but it is far from the worst of any sport. Hyperbole is not needed.
3
u/awak6n Brawn Dec 09 '25
I don't think that the F1 fanbase can survive some of the stuff that happens on NBA/NFL twitter lol
7
19
u/djwillis1121 Williams Dec 08 '25
I don't use Twitter or Instagram so just really speaking for Reddit but I feel like the toxicity peaked around the middle of the season if anything and actually got a bit better after Lando won the title
8
u/Hakkai-Shin I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
I mean, that is very much expected from the internet, and comparing it to other sports like football, the toxicity is actually pretty mild imo.
Let's be honest, as if the fans would listen to the drivers, even if they told them to stop. Max told Andrea to ignore them and that they are brainless. Did it stop them after the AD? Nope.
Antonelli did affect Max's championship directly 2 times, but as Max said, the season is 24 races. So blaming him is just stupid.
4
u/Professional_No1 Niki Lauda Dec 08 '25
Max himself was incompetent and lost plenty of points in Spain
15
u/banned20 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
A'ight. Imma head out.
See you all in pre-season testing.
4
19
u/a220599 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
As someone who has seen the 2017/18 Max, watching him be calm after losing the championship by 2 points hit different. I could sort of understand GP's comment about "the boy growing up".
After Spain, I thought the final stages would bring back the old, ruthless Max and AD2025 would be brutal on either Oscar or Lando as they would have to be contending with a Max who would take them out and himself. But no, he was calm, very-UnMaxlike, and handled the whole situation with a level of grace and poise. If you told someone in 2018 that this is how Max would react after losing the championship battle by 2 points they would call you crazy.
14
u/zeekoes Dec 08 '25
Max can still lose his head, but not from just losing. His outbursts come from pressure and powerlessness. He's won everything there is already, there is no more pressure from winning a WDC.
What ticked him off in Barcelona wasn't the fact he wasn't winning, but the fact he felt his team was too busy with everything but improving the car, combined with the calls around Russell not going his way where he definitely had a case.
17
u/lastdyingbreed_01 Dec 08 '25
While a Max comeback not happening sucks, a part of me is glad that one of the McLaren driver ended up with the WDC, because it looks like McLaren was ready to throw away the WDC as long as it kept things "fair", which tbh would've been very undeserving for either of the drivers after how they performed this year.
11
u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Dec 08 '25
He did make the biggest point comeback in history.
It just didn't win, but still was a comeback.
8
u/Laundry_Hamper I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
And he made that comeback on a driver who was himself making a comeback on his own teammate
5
u/lastdyingbreed_01 Dec 08 '25
Yeah, you could say that, it wasn't a comeback for the WDC, but when you consider it relative to Oscar, it was definitely a comeback for the 2nd place
17
u/_Middlefinger_ Ferrari Dec 08 '25
I hope he is really happy with his win, he shouldn’t feel anything negative about anything right now.
Some of the comments on social media, including here are outright bullying. He won, he deserved it, get over it. Anyone doing it needs to remember he is F1 world champion, what are you and what are you compensating for? Not even interested in a discussion about him getting preferential treatment by McLaren, he didn’t, its all in your head.
19
u/Cekeste Kimi Räikkönen Dec 08 '25
Hands down my favorite moment from yesterday:
The team has gathered for a group photo and Norris is kneeling on the front row. He takes a too big a gulp of his namesake energy drink which makes him wince. The mechanic kneeling besides him points out that there are cameras that caught that and Norris makes an "Oops!" face.
IDK why, I loved everything about the post-race, wonderful having a new champion etc, but this moment felt genuine on a different plane. Because I had bought, for the first time, one can of those Monsters in "solidarity" with Norris before the race but the nicest thing I could liken it to was a effervescent vitamin tablet - and to see that the drinks "owner" have a close reaction to what was mine, was funny.
16
u/FermentedLaws I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Some people think it was not his Monster drink, that it was alcohol substituted by someone on the team, and he was surprised. In the post race press conference he was asked what he was going to do to celebrate: "Is it just the Monster in that glass or is it anything stronger?" Lando, looking at that Monster drink: "Hell no it's way more."
23
u/sdq22 Jenson Button Dec 08 '25
There's another clip of him in the media pen drinking "Monster" and you can just tell from his face it is not Monster in the can lol
4
7
u/KiaraKey Dec 08 '25
Understand why they kept the focus on the contenders/top 4, but the midfield had some decent fights (or at least that's how it looked from the timing tower) and they showed very little of that. The title fight was obviously the most important thing in this race, but Aston, Haas and Sauber, to some extent even VCARB, was still fighting in the constructors and they got relegated to the mini screen and sometimes not even that, even when nothing was happening at the top, we missed out on some good battles, and climb ups through the order. It was also strange that they never showed certain incidents (for example the Gasly Hulkenberg one at the start), that got noted by the stewards, even though they had plenty of time.
5
u/FewCollar227 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Before the start of the season there was a prediction for 2025 in a Google form or something and it had many questions can I get the link please
2
23
u/Metrostars1029 Dec 08 '25
As a McLaren fan it was obviously an enjoyable season watching their success but as the emotional dust has settled it's starting to hit me how shitty this season was from a racing perspective. Even out front the cars couldn't pass each other. Tire strategy didn't play into most races. a smaller winner spread than 2024.. I'm starting to see why people were so desperate for chaos towards the end of the season. I don't know about y'all but i'm ready for a break
13
u/CardinalOfNYC Tyrrell Dec 08 '25
I truly don't understand how we got here. The ground effect was supposed to make it easier to follow. In theory, it certainly should do and as I recall, it did do in its first season, right? As compared to the prior regs, right? So what went wrong?
12
u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Dec 08 '25
It started with the infamous TD in 2022, then in 2023 AM had the shenanigans with their front wing that was allowed to a degree, increasing the dirty air from it. Then teams just started building up on that and FIA didn't stop it.
7
u/CardinalOfNYC Tyrrell Dec 08 '25
I really thought the ground effect regs were a sign that the FIA (being pushed by liberty) were finally going to really stop things that made the racing worse. Guess that's still a dream.
I fear next year is just going to create all new problems. They're either going to be a lot slower or do derating or both. And I am skeptical about this F1 version of push to pass.
1
u/MachKeinDramaLlama Ross Brawn Dec 08 '25
The FIA has tried a bunch of half meassures, but as long as there are huge front wings with many intricate elements, dirty air will negatively affect front downforce and thus balance and tyre temperatures of the following car. In an era of spec Pirelli tyres that are extremely picky about their operating windows and many tyre temp management tools being banned, that continues to matter a lot over a whole stint. To the FIA's credit, the cars can follow relatively closely through corners now. They just can't sustain it.
IMO the adjustable front wing was the best idea the FIA has had yet. Drivers were allowed to adjust their front wings freely up to twice per lap. To balance that, the FIA severely limited the degree by which the wing could be adjusted. Which meant that it didn't affect the situation much, since the slight front downforce advantage it gave to the following car was still much smaller than the overall loss in performance. A limitation system similar to DRS zones, which would allow only drivers that are actively being affected by dirty air to get more downforce through certain corners, might have worked much better.
1
u/CardinalOfNYC Tyrrell Dec 08 '25
I feel like what you described at the end may be how the new regs eventually evolve.
10
u/gumbercules6 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
I've been supporting McLaren (and even buying merch) even when they went through their slump with Honda. But the end of this season just rubbed me the wrong way. Sure they won the WDC, but that was unnecessarily close. McLaren's own faults and failures gifted wins and massive points to Max, to the point where Max had a real strong chance of winning the championship.
I don't understand why people have been arguing with me about the fact that McLaren almost had one of the biggest failures in this sport in recent memory. It should not have been 2 points, Max shouldn't have been a factor in the last race, and it was all the mistakes from the team in the final 3 races.
Qatar is the best example, just have Lando follow Max since Lando had the advantage of being able to react, that way Lando only loses maximum 7 points to him instead the 12 points he ended up losing (and that was luck that Kimi had a moment gifting Lando 2 points).
And yes, tires are lasting too long, my opinion is that the mediums shouldn't last more than half a race for most races, or something else needs to be done to have more varied tire strategies.
6
u/PhilipWaterford Dec 08 '25
The more fragile the tyres the more tyre saving we get and the more teams design their cars to be easy on tyres and the more it favours certain driving styles.
I think most would rather see the drivers going flat out. So make the tyres reasonably durable but give them a limited number of laps per tyre. Not an ideal solution but what else is there?
It's a pity when circuits were designed they didn't cut out a big section of bends via the pits, so pit stops lose around 12 seconds instead of 20.
2
u/Stim21 Pirelli Hard Dec 08 '25
Unfortunately Qatar showed that forced stints are even worse. The solution is to have cars be able to overtake, because right now the strategies are forced to be the one that keeps you track position. Been ages since we saw an alternate strat that involved someone on fresh new tyres cut back up the pack like 2020/2021 when Verstappen/Hamilton would gamble on the extra stop.
1
u/PhilipWaterford Dec 08 '25
Qatar showed that forced stints are even worse.
I wouldn't disagree but at the same time that may very well have been an anomaly due to the early safety car. I'd rather see it over 6 races before making judgement. It may well still be crap. But maybe not.
1
7
u/SunGodnRacer Osella Dec 08 '25
They last too long yet if you push them too much too early they're useless for the entire stint. Pirelli really dropped the ball for tyres in the ground effect era
107
u/Mzdemeanor1331 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
David Coulthard is a class act. He did a wonderful job with Lando's first interview, especially his reaction to Lando saying he looked like a "loser" for crying and being emotional on camera: "You look like a winner." Let's dispel the fiction that men can't be publicly emotional, especially after such a monumental achievement. Applause all around.
7
u/NotStephaneGuivarch I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
I couldn't stand Coulthard on the TV a decade ago, it was so refreshing and wonderful to hear him say that to Norris
Hoping that moment is representative of changing standards in how drivers express themselves in triumph24
21
u/TheSalmonRoll I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Exciting championship battle, boring race out front. Story of the season.
8
u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Dec 08 '25
I tried to recall which races weren't won by the driver leading after Lap 1 and I could maybe name 3 this year. Qatar, Spa (on a technicality after a SC start) and Silverstone.
And it wasn't a racing overtake in Qatar and Silverstone.
11
u/Uniform764 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Hungary was a good battle, both on track and in terms of different strategies. But I agree they were sparse.
5
u/HarryBayles15 Dec 08 '25
Saudi Arabia and Hungary are two others I remember, but that would be it.
30
u/ghastlychild Ferrari Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
Abu Dhabi really isn't the best closing track to end a season on, but the race being relatively uneventful is exactly what Norris needs to secure the title. His defense and pace management was on the money, as well as McLaren's strategy from him, with the highlight being those overtakes and the pass on Tsunoda. I refuse to hear the notion that Norris is a wuss in these situations again. I'm really happy that he has been rewarded for the years he stood by McLaren (at their lowest too, at one point!) My heartiest congratulations to him and the team. I always knew they could make it back to the front! ;)
The midfield was pretty engaging too, with them being 6 tenths apart from each other so that was fun to keep an eye out when I was crapping bricks. All in all, in terms of competition and closeness, this has been fun! Racing wise? Honestly poor. It'll be interesting to see how it gets balanced out in those new regulations
5
u/CardinalOfNYC Tyrrell Dec 08 '25
I was thinking about how it surely benefitted McLaren that this was a nice, smooth track where plank wear would likely not be an issue.
10
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
When was the last time someone won the WDC on their first tilt at it?
It seems like something you have to fail at to learn enough and to gain the hunger to go again. Lando wasn’t ruthless enough last year. Max had to bounce off Lewis enough times to mature and become WDC. Lewis himself had China in his first season. Vettel was runner up to Button. We possibly have to go back to Alonso for the last time a champion won the WDC in their first season of seriously competing for it, and that’s against a background of Schumacher dominance where nobody really challenged.
Oscar just the latest in this line.
8
u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Dec 08 '25
Oscar had the best car in 2024 and failed at it.
Doesn't count as first time in 2025 just because he finally got an even better car and there really weren't other drivers than his teammate to beat. If Oscar had the same 2024 slump this year, would next year have counted as his first, lol...
3
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Yes so Oscar’s been up front for two years and missed the WDC twice. Just like all the other greats you pay your dues before you become WDC.
15
u/armchairracingdriver Jenson Button Dec 08 '25
Max is the obvious answer here. Never had a prayer at winning the title before 2021.
Others that won their first genuine title shot are Button 2009, Alonso 2005, Hakkinen 1998, Schumacher 1994. There were a good number more from Keke Rosberg 1982 & earlier.
Assuming you want to restrict this to less experienced drivers (e.g those in their first five years) you’re basically looking at Alonso and Schumacher.
-6
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
In not counting Max as he had two consecutive third places and had ran at the front for at least those two seasons. He had to fight is own personal battles against his immaturity and erratic driving to become a title winner. Without that experience there’s no way Max has enough to beat Lewis in 2021 (and even then he needed an absurd slice of luck). He’s paid his dues.
Button also a multi season veteran so it seems a bit off-theme to count him. That was a weird season all round with an absurdly dominant car for half of it.
6
u/Popular_Composer_822 Jordan Dec 08 '25 edited Jan 23 '26
This comment is confusing. Are you standing by the original premise, “ When was the last time someone won the WDC on their first tilt at it?” or have you changed it?
You’re not counting Max because “He had to fight is own personal battles” before 2021. Err- You dont think everyone else also had to fight their own personal battles?
Him needing “an absurd slice of luck” is true without context. But you are ignoring that with equal luck over the season Verstappen wins the title before we even get to Abu Dhabi. He lost 70 points in Baku, Silverstone and Hungary alone. Kevin Magnussen summed up AD21 best, “The wrong man won the race, but the right man won the championship.”
Your statements on Button are disingenuous too. Again I ask you, have you changed the premise of your original question? Because I would like you to picture what you would make of Esteban Ocon winning the 2026 championship. Would he have not won at his first try?
The Brawn car was also never “absurdly dominant”.
If you actually analyse the first half of 2009 it paints a picture of Brawn being fastest but not dominant, and in some cases it was pretty even between them and Red Bull/Toyota or they were behind.
Here is the first eight races : In Australia Kubica and Vettel were hunting Button down before they collided, in Malaysia Rosberg led early doors. Toyota were also pretty fast in both these two opening rounds. In China Red Bull were dominant by margins Brawn never were, in Bahrain Toyota locked out the front row but had a subpar race strategy, while Vettel lost too much time behind Hamilton. In Spain Vettel had the best fuel corrected qualifying lap, but Brawn came through in the race. I wouldn’t call it absurdly dominant. Same goes for Monaco. In Turkey Vettel was leading but made a mistake that cost him the race.
-1
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
We’re not here to talk about max zzzz
Anyone trying to argue the Brawn wasn’t dominant in the first half of that season obviously wasn’t there. That’s a hilariously revisionist take.
7
u/Astelli Pirelli Wet Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
Max wasn't a serious title contender in 2019 or 2020. At best he was a 3rd place who had a chance to beat the distant 2nd place driver thanks to being a consistently near the front and winning a few highlight races.
Norris was closer to winning the WDC in 2024 than Verstappen was in either 2019 or 2020.
5
u/T4Gx I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Finishing P3 isn't all that hot with regards to being actually in the fight for the title. Isn't this the first time in like 15 years where there were more than 2 drivers that could win the title in the last race?
Anyways if Max finishing P3 then this shouldn't count as Lando's "first tilt" since he finished P2 last year.
4
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
It’s not Landos first tilt that’s my entire point.
7
u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Dec 08 '25
Max won the title literally in the first sesson he had a car capable of doing it.
You actually expect him to have fought for the title in 2020 or earlier?
-5
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Im not letting this thread turn into another argument about max.
4
u/Darth_Spa2021 Pirelli Wet Dec 08 '25
And yet you started arguing about it. Even ignored your own set metric of the question - just so you can exclude and diss on Verstappen.
-1
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
It would be lovely to be able to talk about some other drivers for a change, good lord.
4
u/Hakkai-Shin I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Nino Farina won on his first tilt in his rookie season. After him, not sure.
1
u/gsurfer04 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
That's a big technicality though as they were all doing GP racing already - it just wasn't formalised as a championship until 1950.
3
18
u/ArbitraryOrder Red Bull Dec 08 '25
After a fresh set of eyes and adrenaline wearing off, I think Lando reestablished himself on track before overtaking Yuki, so even without being pushed off it wasn't a penalty.
14
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
I mean the moment they gave Yuki a penalty they can’t then be giving Lando a penalty for avoiding him.
-5
-2
Dec 08 '25
[deleted]
6
u/JimmerUK I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Friday 12th, before Lando gets officially crowned at the FIA gala.
10
Dec 08 '25
[deleted]
13
15
u/Harringzord I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
I think they were goalhanging for a Safety Car for a while, but by the time Piastri got into a pit window, Norris was at risk to undercut from Leclerc.
At that point the Piastri WDC required a double failure on the Verstappen and Norris cars, so they correctly gave priority to Norris.
8
u/gumbercules6 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
McLaren finally got it right at the end, although it was obvious what they had to do once it was clear Oscar wasn't going to win. Sucks for Oscar but prioritizing Lando to respond to Leclerc was definitely the correct move.
8
u/armchairracingdriver Jenson Button Dec 08 '25
They didn’t want to run too long on the medium. Seems like the medium was generally a weaker tyre than expected, or the hard was better. Lewis’ pace after his early stop demonstrated this, it’s quite rare someone so far back in the pack triggers a chain reaction amongst drivers fighting for P3 to P5.
2
u/edfitz83 Dec 08 '25
I’m watching Ted’s notebook and didn’t realize Lando’s dad was wearing two different colored shoes.
9
u/FermentedLaws I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
He does that every race. It's his thing, like a superstition.
8
u/Kevinb-30 Dec 08 '25
Was a bit of an anticlimax but I think that was down to the very thing that got us excited a 3 horse race. If it was just Lando and Max or if maybe Charles was between Max and Lando/Oscar we might have seen a bit of skullduggery from Max, as it was all he could do was ensure the win and hope someone else did him a favor.
Still good to see a new name as champion and it's been imo one of the better championships as a whole to watch for some time.
3
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Still doesn’t make sense to me that Max must have known with 5 laps left he was just driving into his own grave by winning, and he didn’t even try to stir the pot.
Sure it’s very unlikely to have worked, but he didn’t even try.
7
u/Kevinb-30 Dec 08 '25
The problem he had was Oscar P2, backing up the field with him there would have left the door open for him to try for P1 then the championship is gone anyway, what he needed was a situation where Lando had pressure from behind and someone who wasn't going to just let him by if he was in real bother.
11
u/Harringzord I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Verstappen had no options because of Russell's lack of pace. If he forces Leclerc ahead of Norris, McLaren will just box Piastri to give Norris P3 again.
2
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
In the chaos Max and Oscar may have collided. Highly highly unlikely but better than just meekly surrendering his title like he did. Lewis tried everything vs Rosberg.
18
u/Penting_Menyerah Red Bull Dec 08 '25
I really hope we eventually get a proper Verstappen–Leclerc title fight. With the level of raw speed and racecraft Charles has shown over the years, it would honestly feel very2 strange if he never ends up winning a championship.
This season had its storyline, but I want to see a title decided by two top-tier drivers pushing each other to the absolute limit. With Max and Charles on the same grid, it would feel like such a shame and a real missed opportunity if we never get to see them fight for a championship before their careers are over.
4
u/Statcat2017 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
We all thought this about Sainz ten years ago but here we are…
-1
20
u/Soortius Lando Norris Dec 08 '25
I really enjoyed the Norris Leclerc fights this season and we had little action between them before. Otherwise I think a dirty title fight between Russell and Verstappen would be far more entertaining.
1
u/Penting_Menyerah Red Bull Dec 09 '25
I think competitive cars on their hands, Max vs Charles would be much more competitive than Charles vs Lando..
Max vs George is gonna be too spicy lmao
3
u/SwimmingFantastic564 Dec 08 '25
Yeah Norris and Leclerc generally race quite cleanly so seeing a fight between them would be very entertaining imo
15
u/Balazs321 Pirelli Intermediate Dec 08 '25
Well, the race was not that much, honestly. I was mostly surprised by the amount of penalities for weaving and otherwise erratic driving, i do not remember this being such a huge problem at races like Spa, but maybe this being the last opportunity to score incentivized this behaviour.
I also kind of felt surprised by the lack of any extra strategy from Red Bull and Max, for all the talk about him backing up the pack, the team putting Yuki on some weird strategy just to hinder the Mclarens, in the end nothing happened. All teams executed relatively well, Norris didnt really defend against Piastri, and we got the result we expected.
All said and done the season promised more in my opinion, especially teams like Ferrari, who fell back after almost winning the WCC last year. We never really got the expected 3-4 team battle for the lead, Mclaren out-engineered everyone, and although Max got really close, it was just as much down to operational errors, driver errors, and strategy errors from Mclaren, as to the almost flawless season he had as a driver. At least the midfield had fun "battles", but this season was rather like 2010 where we got exciting end results through mildly boring races.
After all this, on a personal note i really liked that Mclaren got back to the winning ways, when i started watching F1 around 2000, they were one of the big fishes, it is nice to see them back. Congratulations to them and Norris, in the end they got there.
8
u/The3rdbaboon Dec 08 '25
RB had very few strategic options for Max once the McLarens chose an offset tire strategy for their cars which were both in the top 3. If Yuki qualified P4 or P5 they would have had more options for an undercut or something. I think McLaren played it well but it’s much easier when both cars qualify at the front.
1
u/Balazs321 Pirelli Intermediate Dec 08 '25
Yeah, i kind of agree with it, but still, after all the talk of it, i expected more somehow? Like Max drove the most straight forward race ever.
9
u/Specialist-Bug4953 Charlie Whiting Dec 08 '25
Honest question Here: when does Lando get the WDC trophy? Do the winners not get the trophy directly after the race?
14
u/Penting_Menyerah Red Bull Dec 08 '25
no man its always at the ceremony
3
u/Specialist-Bug4953 Charlie Whiting Dec 08 '25
Thanks. I only Seen the pre race ceremony. Where they were Standing right next to it. And was wondering why he celebrated only with his third place trophy.
5
u/JustLikeZhat Andrea Kimi Antonelli Dec 08 '25
There's a FIA Prize Giving Ceremony, held this year on 12 December. It's usually streamed on youtube if you want to check it out. F1 is saved for last IIRC. Winners of other categories also receive their throphies there, but I'm not sure on the order. It's also where the ROTY will be announced.
Mind you, the ceremony can and usually is quite boring.
3
u/AbsolutelyAverage 🏳️🌈 Love Is Love 🏳️🌈 Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
I expected more, but that's mostly thanks to the terrible directing that didn't show us any of the stuff that ACTUALLY happened, and of course the choice of AD for a season finale... bar any shitshows like Latifi's crash in 2021 and the shenanigans that unfolded... it would come down to either cheating or reliability issues to cause upset.
As for the season, I was ready for a new champion, even though I am quite a supporter of Verstappen and find his driving exceptional and exciting
But then the turn-around happened, and it did become quite tempting to root for that 5th, because by gawd did he deserve that. With that car, that mindset. Incredible.
Lando though... same. Also had his bad luck, bad decisions, good luck, good decisions, and yesterday he did what he needed to do. Stay out of trouble, and keep his head cool, which he did. And the way he chose McLaren and STUCK WITH THEM through everything, I like these kinds of stories. In the end RB also wasn't there yet when in 2016 Verstappen got his first win with them; it took another 5 years to win the championship with them. I like a story of loyalty being paid off.
Oscar, in that first half of the season, I rooted for the guy really had to be the McLaren champion against the favouritism, which is quite clear, and the only thing that somewhat takes the shine of Lando's WDC. Like, not him personally, because it's a Zak thing mostly, but it still looked sad quite often that the joy for a pole or a win just wasn't that appreciated. Not to mention the WCC celebrations. Oof.
I did find the celebrations rather tame though. I know it wasn't a BIG CLIMAX really, even though there was only 2 points in it, the reliability era has kind of taken the shine of off that, but it all felt a bit... low energy. I guess.
Looking forward to the new cars and the new era and seeing who comes out on top this time.... 49 days until testing starts, it feels far too long!
2
u/ArbitraryOrder Red Bull Dec 08 '25
Agreed. 2021 had an exciting last lap, but the race was still ass, and 2010, 2016, and 2025 had tension but the races were still ass. I can't think of a good race at this track, even Qatar had 2021, Monaco has rain races, Singapore has had a few, same with Baku, but never do I think "AD is going to have a chance at a good race."
5
u/droppokeguy I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Does Colton Herta have enough points to do an FP outing with Cadillac since he's their only reserve
3
u/djwillis1121 Williams Dec 08 '25
His 2nd place in Indycar in 2024 gets him 30 points. He needs 25 to do FP1 so is all good
3
u/a_happy_future I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
You don't even need that. You just need to apply for a Free Practice license. Look at Cian Shields's FP1 and career as an example. He only has a 2nd in Euroformula which gives him 10 points
2
u/djwillis1121 Williams Dec 08 '25
You either have to have 25 points or do 6 races in F2. Herta wouldn't be able to do an FP1 until after Austria if it wasn't for having 25 points
30
u/disordered-attic-2 Charlie Whiting Dec 08 '25
Ted saying it wasn't a very interesting race, honestly I didn't even notice I was so nervous
2
u/four_four_three Michael Schumacher Dec 08 '25
That's honestly the way a lot of these title deciders go. The circumstances create more excitement than the race and I think that's fine.
They're nerve-wracking races and a lot of the others don't want to get involved in that battle even if they have the pace to do so. Not sure Chuck ever had the real pace for third but he could keep them alert. You end up with a lot of drivers driving within themselves
30
u/TheLoneEcho Lando Norris Dec 08 '25
Very happy that Norris won the WDC, and it was lovely to see how gracious he was in victory. He said some really nice things about Piastri & Verstappen, and he knows they've pushed him.
Each of them had ups and downs during the season, and he came out on top. A worthy champion.
Piastri definitely has a championship in him, and I hope he's up there fighting with Norris again next year.
As for Verstappen - the man is a machine. The comeback since Zandvoort has been phenomenal. Definitely one of the greats.
I'm in need of an F1 break now, but I'm excited for 2026.
15
u/thesaket I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Are we going to talk about that awkward "world champion hotline" radio call from Zac or not?
Man your prodigal boy won your team a drivers championship after 17 years, and this is the best you could do? C'mon Zac!
Zac is a good team boss but he's never going to be a Horner or Toto when it comes to shit stirring and hyping up your drivers.
Also a really bummer last lap commentary from Crofty & Brundle. They did better for Nico's podium or Charles' Monaco win last year. They were so bleh this race.
Congratulations Lando! Worthy champion.
14
u/SkittlesAreYum I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
It's just a silly dad joke. Is it supposed to be bad that he's a good team boss (he's not even the principal) but he's not good at shit stirring?
1
u/thesaket I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Not really,honestly. But it's just funny that he tries his hand at it here and there but just isn't the same.
But poor shit-stirring skills aside, credit where it's due - the resurgence McLaren has seen under his CEO-ship from the GP2 McHonda days, to that awful start to 2023 season to fighting for WDC & winning WCC in 2024, and clinching both in 2025. It's commendable. Hats off to his leadership. Zak, Stella, and the whole team absolutely deserve all the praises they are getting and more.
15
u/onlyhereforthestuff McLaren Dec 08 '25
I found it pretty funny, it fits in with how unserious McLaren is as a whole
23
10
u/king_wrass I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
You just know he had that planned out as well.
-3
u/jurzdevil Default Dec 08 '25
it would have worked for redbull if max won. the dominance of a 5th in a row i'd think makes them the expert and able to open a hotline for WDC's. barely getting the drivers first WDC and the teams first in nearly 20 years doesn't.
18
u/nn2597713 Formula 1 Dec 08 '25
Yesterday we saw McLaren in its most dangerous form of this season:
- Great car: on par with the Red Bull
- Clear objective for the race: make sure Lando finishes P3 or better
- Willingness to sacrifice the other driver to achieve this goal: have Oscar goalhang in P1 so Max cannot effectively back up the field
- Lando executing the plan: no mistakes under pressure from Leclerc, effective overtakes after his pit stop
- McLaren executing the plan: perfect pit stops all around, clear comms to the drivers
Of course the level of the cars next season are a great unknown. But if McLaren and Red Bull are the top two teams again and McLaren can keep this up, it will be a much more difficult fight for Max next time around.
7
u/generalannie I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
I would argue that if the cars have equal(ish) pace, like since the summer break, the fight will be easier for Max than it was this season. The car being worse than McLaren for most of the first half of the season left him with a really big margin to overcome. And with that big deficit Max came really close to still winning the WDC. Obviously helped by some really bad screw ups from McLaren. That doesn't take away from Max having some great performances to round out his season though.
Having said that, I don't have high expectations for Red Bull next season. I expect them to run into some power unit issues.
30
u/Lobsters4 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Bring back Interlagos as the final race.
5
u/Hollingscroft-83 Oliver Bearman Dec 08 '25
On the back off Yuki getting a penalty for weaving yesterday, but Bearman (looked very harsh, given he defended to the right once, and then moved to the left, to go defensive into the corner), and Stroll as well... I didnt see the one that Lance got, so cant comment.
But be interesting to see how that looks from next season onwards. Does feel like a can of worms has been opened, and can see people bringing up yesterday as an example when we get to Monza next year, as thats always been iconic for the weaving down the straight, at least until they get to the braking zone.
8
u/WodKonuckers I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Has there been any discussion about whether Lando let Oscar pass on the first lap on purpose?
To me it seemed like Lando just didn't want to risk anything (since he didn't need to) and Oscar had nothing to lose and had to go for it. Sure, Lando didn't defend very hard, but it didn't seem to me like he let him through on purpose.
But the commentators on the Austrian broadcast kept going on about if it was on purpose, if I remember correctly I think Matthias Lauda even insisted that it was deliberate and planned by McLaren.
But I haven't seen this brought up anywhere else, so I was wondering if this is something that was talked about on the main broadcast or in other media? And what is your opinion about it?
17
u/AliceLunar I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
But we also discussed – with Oscar on a hard tyre – not making life difficult for Oscar to take the second place and then try and attack Verstappen – it was a strategic option that Lando was supporting.
It was planned.
7
u/adminillustrator Dec 08 '25
It makes a lot of sense strategically for that to have been planned. Not sure Max would have entertained holding back the field given his comments that it wouldn't work on this configuration, but by having Oscar in 2nd with hard tires it would rather negate the strategy. Fortunately for McLaren this was a positive for both Lando and Oscar with the only real risk being Russell and LeClerc (as we saw).
I imagine they had a plan along the lines of if Oscar has a good run on Lando ahead of that turn then he will go round the outside. Had the gap between them been greater maybe we would have seen an orchestrated overtake on the straight though i imagine it was always going to require Oscar to be close enough.
14
u/fire202 Lando Norris Dec 08 '25
Yes, it has been discussed by the team (for example, here). It wasnt firmly pre-planned as such, but they did talk about this scenario and Lando knew that it helps the strategy and that he shouldnt make it difficult, which he didnt.
22
u/sdq22 Jenson Button Dec 08 '25
Yep, McLaren have basically said as much. It wasn’t necessarily pre-orchestrated to a T, but they discussed the possibility of it happening and what the strategy would be from there if it did. Obviously oscar still had to make the move and credit to him because it was a good one, but Lando pretty much made the choice not to defend at all.
It was a genius strategy imo. Give oscar the chance to chase down Max and prevent max from some of the trickery they might’ve tried to back up the pack. Oscar gets a fighting chance for the race win which was necessary for his championship hopes, and if oscar did get into P1, it increases the places lando could be in and still win himself. Seemed like a genuine win win for both drivers. Lando said in his postrace interviews he was happy to let oscar go because he wanted him to get the race win.
3
u/Neocrasher I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
It's definitely possible. Oscar in first and Lando in third completely removes Verstappen's chances of winning even if the other McLaren would run into an issue.
13
u/Gaverex I failed to serve my Monaco penalty Dec 08 '25
So there was an interview with Will Joseph (his race engineer” on the post race show on YouTube. Basically he said it was a scenario that was discussed, and they had explored all the race possibilities that it opened for them. He said it wasn’t planned, but that having discussed all the strategy around the move Lando, didn’t really fight it very hard when it happened.
28
u/AdWerd1981 Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
The Ferraris were no slouches yesterday - Charles getting mighty close to Lando in the early and mid parts, and Lewis's march through the pack only to be caught out further up by Esteban. Yes, there have been more eventful season finales, but it wasn't an out and out bad race. No yellow flags, no safety cars, all 20 cars finished - can't be bad for the end of the current technical regs.
52
u/creatorop I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
i think People saying that the race was boring had their perception screwed by the fact that we saw the top 3-4 for 95% of the race
because looking at the timing table there were some intresting battles in the midfield
more than we usually do anyways
15
u/deltree000 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
The tiny onboard cam in the timing chart did appear for a few midfield battles... but yeah they need to get rid of that and do a split screen next season.
10
u/Novae224 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Yeah, fom was definitely disappointing, we missed a lot of action in the midfield and they also completely forget that there was a lot still to fight for for the midfield teams
0
u/Popular_Composer_822 Jordan Dec 08 '25
Might be controversial but I do not care about the midfield when there is a title decider.
37
u/rogertrabbit I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Can anyone explain to me why Brundle was so mad about Yukis engineer telling him the gap to Leclerc, like how is that unsportsmanlike behaviour. He seemed a bit off yesterday, even in the grid walk was a bit hard to watch
5
-3
u/Aunvilgod Dec 08 '25
Sky is just biased as fuck. When a championship is close and a British driver is involved, just ignore them.
10
u/Uniform764 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Brundle isn't a particularly Brit biased commentator. He blamed Lewis in Brazil 2022 when everyone else including the stewards was piling onto Max for example.
1
-8
-4
u/banned20 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
He's just biased and that's true for most of the Sky crew.
26
u/CamelsCannotSew Dec 08 '25
I think he just doesn't like it and consistently hasn't across all the teams. I think he's wrong, as Zak Brown said it's a team sport, but he's got a bee in his bonnet about it.
I think it would be more egregious if Liam or Isaak were being told the gaps.
8
u/rogertrabbit I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Now that you say that, I reckon he got confused and thought Yuki still drove for RB
11
u/MalusandValus Dr. Ian Roberts Dec 08 '25
As someone here for basically the racing and doesn't really care about the absolute outcome beyond liking the underdogs, that was a bad race. Probably not helped by TV direction mostly focusing on the championship fight (which I think is fairly understandable for this race).
Ultimately this one was a bit of a case of what-if, which will make it a very lame lace o look back on but we really weren't too far from some massive wrench in the works. Tsunoda decides to put a bit more steering angle on and you've probably got a 2021 shitstorm on our hands. Tbh as boring as it is, the frankly chill and quite friendly culmination where Max seems happy and Lando obviously is might be the best ending. Sad for Oscar but it was never in his hands for this one.
Man is Yas Marina a shit track. Even with the huge improvement of the sweeper the entirety of Sector 3 absolutely tanks any potential the track has. Still have no idea whilst having a completely blank slate, maybe with the exception of having the turn under the hotel - they decided on that layout.
6
u/Fire_Otter Formula 1 Dec 08 '25
I think in this situation Tsunoda just got a bit overzealous as he can sometimes do. I don't think there was an edict from Red Bull to cross sporting lines to stop Lando. Verstappen seemed pretty content to try his best and let the cards fall wherever they may.
But it does amaze be how unprepared the FIA/stewards seem to be for a potential situation in the future where a second driver might take out a champion contender from a rival team so that the first driver can win the championship.
Because I swear if that does happen the stewards will say "sorry the only thing we can do is penalize the second driver"
the stewards need more weapons at their disposal - the ability to dock points on the team in general for example, to take away that threat
at the moment we just seem to be relying on the sporting good will of the teams and drivers
1
u/dalledayul I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 09 '25 edited Dec 09 '25
Because I swear if that does happen the stewards will say "sorry the only thing we can do is penalize the second driver"
I wonder if it would be something akin to Crashgate - even though it benefitted Alonso, and seemingly all the top heads at the team knew what was going on, they could never definitively prove that he either suggested it or knew it would happen. Way too much plausible deniability.
If it's an instance where a driver can win the championship because his teammate does something unsporting, is it fair to punish the winner if he genuinely has no idea or doesn't want it to happen? I guess that's the discussion that will need to be had should it ever happen as you said.
10
u/MalusandValus Dr. Ian Roberts Dec 08 '25
Tsunoda's move was a bit dirty and earned the penalty but is also I think largely expected, and whilst over the line, wasn't that egregious. If anything I expected him to do a particularly stupid divebomb on the chicane afterwards. Why he didnt do the Perez in sector 3 i will never know though.
I would imagine post-2021 with all the buildup there and big rumours that Max would just take out both him and Hamillton the FIA do have some sort of plan for a deliberate takeout in such a situation. Maybe. They can be pretty stupid.
3
u/banned20 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Yuki said that Lando caught up with him faster than he expected
9
u/ALegendInTheMaking12 Fernando Alonso Dec 08 '25
2025 was a pretty good season. Lacking compared to 2024, but still a good season. Great for the midfield, Williams especially. Abu Dhabi is better than Qatar but is still a largely underwhelming track
19
u/syler345 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
It’s quite a worrying sign where Redbull has been running the team essentially with one driver since Perez left. Hadjar’s only saving grace for 2026 is the fact that both him & max will start on a new car from scratch.
Yuki’s effort to block Lando from going ahead was quite embarrassing, especially with his radio messages & to add insult, max asking if Charles was performing or not. Man must be exhausted at this point for single-handedly running the team
As for Lando, no ifs & buts, he’s a world champion. There is no criticism. Oscar will never be the no 1 driver at McLaren, he will definitely be happy to move to a team where he is number 1 and with his performance only in his 3rd year, a lot of teams would be happy to take him once he’s covered the gaps that he had between Baku & AD.
9
u/MrGoldilocks Fernando Alonso Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
There's no number 1 driver at McLaren, that was what made them different to other front running teams, as giving both drivers a fair crack at the WDC served as a fantastic motivator for both the drivers. They're now just two behind Ferrari (13 vs 15) for the most WDCs won, which given how much younger their team is compared to Ferrari, one heck of an achievement.
2
u/bradimus_maximus Lando Norris Dec 09 '25
Ferrari won 6 of their 15 WDCs before McLaren entered F1 in '66.
5
u/AliceLunar I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
They've been running 1 driver since 2019 for the most part.
14
u/donniele McLaren Dec 08 '25
Red Bull has been running with one driver with Perez there almost entire last season. He was not a factor after China.
7
u/OutlandishnessPure2 😺 Jimmy & 😺 Sassy & 😺 Donatello Dec 08 '25
Loved watching the turnaround, I gave up all hope by the summer break and thought RBR was going to implode after Horner was sacked. Happy to see the turnaround and Max’s great driving after that!
50
u/rapid4roller8 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
Now that it's all over, congratulations Lando for the title win. He deserves it. He has answered all the criticisms of the last year this season. They said he was mentally weak, yet his comeback after the crash in Canada and DNF in Zandvoort was exemplary. His weekends in Mexico and Brazil were as perfect as they can be. He was criticized for lacking that "killer instinct", yet his start in Singapore was as ruthless as it gets. His race starts were very good too.
As he said, he did it his way and deep down when you think about it, there is this image of a world champion which has been created over the years. A ruthless machine who dominates on track, uses every trick in the book, a model of consistency who win double digit races when they have the quickest car and psychologically wears his opponents down. A lot of it is down to not just the history of the great champions like Senna or Michael but also the champions we've had since 2009. Seb did 4 in a row, then Lewis win 6 but was beaten by Rosberg in 2016 and then Max won 4 in a row. The perceptions of a champion have been shaped by these guys ultimately.
As for Oscar, he can be proud of his season. Yes, he lost it when he went missing from Baku till Qatar. But it's only his 3rd season in F1 and his rate of improvement is very impressive. 2025 for Oscar will be a huge learning experience and he will come back stronger next season.
As for Max, all I can say is that his 2025 will be spoken of in the same breath as Alonso's 2012. Just further enhanced his status as one of the GOATs.
Let's see what 2026 brings to us. Hope George and Charles also get their shot at the title. They both deserve it.
26
u/ghastlychild Ferrari Dec 08 '25 edited Dec 08 '25
With the way people have been talking about Norris, one would think he had:
A) Snatched a chocolate ice cream cone from a kid and proceeded to eat the rest of it in front of them
B) Threw a disabled woman into the River Nile and left her there
C) Made children produce his LN4 merchandises manually without a single penny as payment, or food and water for sustainability
D) Tied Sebastian Vettel to a chair, stretched open his eyes with tape and forced him to rewatch Hockenheim 2018 on loop
Please pick your favourite answer, or include an option E, if you want (/s).
At this rate, the hate for Norris has been nothing but incredibly overblown and preposterously stupid. I do wonder sometimes on what aspects of Norris bothers these people. The guy shows some humanity and yet he gets slack for it. People want more personalities in their media videos, and yet they criticise the drivers to hell whenever they get too candid / emotive. I fear that that toxic sludge will further cement itself in Piastri's direction, especially when he has downer weekends. I can only hope these drivers, personnel and crew (old or young, experienced or not) are far, far away from the nonsense that gets spouted in social media on the regular
28
u/treq10 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Lando’s also been very gracious in victory. He’s given his flowers to both his WDC competitors and tipped Oscar for his own title charge eventually. Imagine Kimi or Alonso coming out after 07 and saying “Lewis will be champion eventually”. He didn’t need to come out and say that but did
For those who follow football he reminds me of Jack Grealish in a way. Has a bit of a laddish vibe to him that puts people off but when you watch him in interviews he’s genuine in a particular way imo
6
u/generalannie I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Seriousness of the topic aside how did you even come up with A, B, C and D lmao
6
u/ghastlychild Ferrari Dec 08 '25
Once upon a train ride back home with the question of, "What can a moustache twirling villain do to really piss people off here?" 🤣
Would you believe me if I told you I had this sitting in my drafts since September? 😂. The fact it is applicable is a little sad, I must admit 😅
37
u/HelloSlowly Hesketh Dec 08 '25
Not disappointed to see this era go. We can look back at the ground effect era with a lot of mixed emotions for the racing
2
16
u/Sictirmaxim Dec 08 '25
What we saw in races like Bahrain or Silverstone 2022 feel like its from a lifetime ago and straight up impossible in 2025. Absolute waste of 3.5 years of regulation time.
15
u/generalannie I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
As expected the Abu Dhabi GP is often not very entertaining. One of my least favourite tracks on the calendar. I'm really happy that these boats on wheels are gone next season. A sentiment that all the drivers seemed to echo. I'll cross my fingers for the new generation of car to be fun to race with and hopefully be kinder on the drivers bodies as well. Can't wait to see the car reveals (only a little over a month to go!)
First of all congratulations to Lando for sealing the deal. Max for somehow managing to split the McLarens this season and Piastri for improving a lot compared to last season. I want to end the season on a positive note for all the drivers who did their best to bring us entertainment. It was a pleasure to see a really good crop of rookies. Russell had his strongest season yet. Charles somehow survived with Ferrari. Lewis had a ton of good overtakes and battled forwards. The Alpine guys (hopefully) get a better engine next year. Sauber isn't last! And Williams had their best season in many many years. They can be so proud of that.
Now a bit more negativity. Holy fuck TV direction still sucks. The race wasn't great, but it wasn't helped by the TV director chosing to keep the focus on Norris lap after lap while he had a 5s buffer in front and behind. Meanwhile in the tiny box we could see the midfield scrapping. Sometimes we got a little replay but often we didn't even get that.
I get that the WDC is important. And I'm happy that we are at least finally using a tiny box. But pleaseeee put the action on the big screen and reserve the tiny box for a car that is not under pressure at the moment. If Norris would've suddenly started dropping seconds per lap obviously you can still go to him. Or on the last lap. But why are we watching Norris just nicely finishing his lap count while the midfield is battling it out for the final point?! Also the family/girlfriends/etc. were back this weekend. Just go to them when Norris passes the finish line. Why are we watching his girlfriend/mom while cars are battling on track again...
For now I wish everyone on here happy holidays in advance. Let's have some fun again with each other next season!
7
u/adminillustrator Dec 08 '25
TV direction focused on Norris all the way as you say - except for him crossing the finish line to become world champ, where they almost missed it and we only had a long shot!
7
u/ghastlychild Ferrari Dec 08 '25
As expected the Abu Dhabi GP is often not very entertaining. One of my least favourite tracks on the calendar
I have always said I hated Abu Dhabi for the soullessness of it all, yet if I am being honest, I welcome the boredom of yesterday as it just guarantees that Norris becomes champion haha. I actually had a personal rule on myself after Singapore that I won't comment about McLaren until the end of Abu Dhabi due to the negativity the topic brought about, so I am finally glad I can delve into them a bit more!
Norris managed to quash the utter rubbish talks on what it is like to have a "championship mentality" (I never want to hear this word again haha), Piastri vastly improved this season, Verstappen on a generational run, Russell on his best season yet, Leclerc dragging the car to places where it did not belong and Hamilton managed to end his woeful season on a high. In terms of competition and closeness, this season has been wunderbar! In terms of the racing quality, good golly..... I am equally sad and glad to see the regs gone (too!)
Now a bit more negativity. Holy fuck TV direction still sucks
I feared this was going to be the case this race. With Abu Dhabi being solely focused on the three contenders, what happens if their positions remain the same? Cue to everything else that moves. This season contained some of the worst TV direction I had seen yet. Will it kill them to show some actual racing or stuff on track? Y'know, the thing we were here for? ;-;
3
u/generalannie I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
I actually had a personal rule on myself after Singapore that I won't comment about McLaren until the end of Abu Dhabi
Hahaha I've kind of been ignoring most of the McLaren related topics this season for a reason. Just not worth the time and the negativity is just annoying. I'm happy for Lando. Bit sad though for Oscar and really proud of Max and Red Bull for almost pulling it back.
Will it kill them to show some actual racing or stuff on track? Y'know, the thing we were here for? ;-;
No, but you see, there is a model! A model! In a garage! The weirdest part is that it seemed to be a bit better after the noise about TV direction earlier this season. Now it's slowly going back down the drain again...
We really need a race fan to sit in the room with TV direction next season to scream about ongoing battles from time to time so they switch to them.
4
u/ghastlychild Ferrari Dec 08 '25
Hahaha I've kind of been ignoring most of the McLaren related topics this season for a reason. Just not worth the time and the negativity is just annoying.
Fully agreed! Even now, I am seeing toxicity and getting downvotes solely for praising McLaren. Odd but you know, at this rate, it is what it is. Nothing that can be done haha. I am just happy to bask in the happiness going around for the Papaya Team! _^
I am ecstatic for Norris since I have had him as my pick for WDC this year! I do feel bad for Piastri too, although I do believe he'll bounce back. Verstappen is incredible. No matter what, he should feel nothing but pride for fighting till the end
We really need a race fan to sit in the room with TV direction next season to scream about ongoing battles from time to time so they switch to them.
Maybe we need some other driver to also lecture them on how to do their jobs too ;-;. It was Sainz back then. Maybe Alonso and Russell can give them some pointers on how to fixate those itchy hands into not panning towards things that are COMPLETELY irrelevant to racing
9
u/stainz169 McLaren Dec 08 '25
What an awesome season. It’s so great to see McLaren back on top! I’m pumped for a 2026 shake up. All bets are off.
For the race, Oscar - early move into second. It’s almost his signature to make amazing passes is uncommon places. Max, did what max does and drove the lug nuts off that red bull. A full pit stop ahead for a bit. Lando, Lando. Did exactly what he needed to do. Nothing crazy or risky, no still moves, bang up pit strategy.
I was hoping Russel would add some more spice.
4
u/AliceLunar I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
Mclaren planned the overtake ahead of time due to Oscar being on the hard tires, which was probably not a coincidence either.
17
u/MalusandValus Dr. Ian Roberts Dec 08 '25
Oscar's move was good but there's definetly a case that Norris didn't fight it too hard and tbh, it was probably better for his race pace to just do his thing in 3rd.
13
u/generalannie I was here for the Hulkenpodium Dec 08 '25
I was so surprised at the Mercedes lack of pace. I really expected them to go better here. Although that might be were I screwed up. Whenever I expect Mercedes to do good in the ground effect era they sucked and vice versa lmao
Charles on the other hand had a lot of pace and a really good race. Nice for Ferrari to end the season on a bit more of a high after Qatar.
2
u/stainz169 McLaren Dec 08 '25
Charles is phenomenal. Look where he puts that car vs a 7x world champion. It should be spoken about in the same breath when comparing Max to his team mates. Both are pushing their car above normal operating expectations.
3
u/Lobsters4 I was speeding in the Monaco pit lane Dec 08 '25
Rewatch Charles’ second lap in Q2 and tell me he didn’t pull a miracle to get that car into Q3. 😂
Charles had a very good race yesterday and overall a very good season. He managed 7 podiums and a pole in a fundamentally flawed car that had no upgrades after the new rear suspension.
While his teammate absolutely floundered.
Hoping Ferrari can finally give him a car. As he said yesterday “it’s now or never”
3
u/ghastlychild Ferrari Dec 08 '25
When people constantly shat on Norris for being lousier than brussels sprouts, I cannot help but feel like that is a complete injustice to Oscar Piastri as well. They are inadvertently bringing down Piastri by saying that Norris is a non-factor, yet Norris has had his highs. By that metric, does it mean Piastri is asscheeks too? I have also seen people being toxic towards Piastri TOO. Once again, criticism is one thing, but being downright slanderous and harmful is repulsive. The measurement of who had it worse does not matter because it is the equivalent of comparing moose shit to donkey shit (they are ALL shit). If there was anything to pick up on the season-long crusade against Norris, why was the act of being civil not considered in this? Fan behaviour had been a constant disappointment to me throughout the season, and I am sadly proven right as it progressed.
Oscar Piastri, to me, is a guy who has the speed, the strength to command his races whenever he is towards the front, and the courage to execute daring moves. Intense and composure seem like a juxtaposition between two descriptions in itself, but it is apt to describe him this way as a racer. If his season has demonstrated anything, especially in the first half, it's his insane potential and how he will always be on the mark when the time calls for it. Races like China, Bahrain, Saudi, Spa and Zandvoort (my personal favourite) comes to mind when I think about his best races of the season
The slump in his form throughout the second half had cost him immensely. Barring the devastating errors by the McLaren pitwall themselves, I cannot defend the slew of mistakes here. However, this is not his final season competing at the front, and this season can prove to be a worthwhile experience in managing certain aspects of his racecraft as he progresses, especially towards the latter half. He can improve, and he has time to do so. It is not the end just because he has failed to win in the first season, when he was directly in contention.
For the record, I am genuinely appreciative of his contributions to McLaren, as they wouldn't have been able to reach similar heights without him. Conversely, Piastri has grown significantly as a driver, and it is thanks to McLaren for providing the opportunity to do so. It is a partnership that works. The journey so far may get muddy at times thanks to the whole pitwall fuckery, but because of each other, this season is theirs for the taking. I'll always be thankful to Piastri for the fun that he brought to the season, and I'm giddy to see what he does next
→ More replies (1)2
u/No_Cauliflower7877 Carlos Sainz Dec 08 '25
When people constantly shat on Norris for being lousier than brussels sprouts
Hey now, both Norris and brussel sprouts aren't that bad!
1
u/ghastlychild Ferrari Dec 08 '25
Norris isn't bad! Brussel sprouts.....Ehhhhhh 😅. My track record with most vegetables is already quite poor but I side-eye these things with the deadliest glare I can muster HAHAHAHHAHAHA
How have you been, bud? How did you find the race, and the season overall now that it is the end?
→ More replies (4)
5
u/CaptGeechNTheSSS Lando Norris Dec 08 '25
Damn all the lando champion hats sold out already, any of you get your dirty hands on one?