F1. United States 2025 Review

By Gavin Huet, Chelsea Wintle, Aiden McLaughlin and Joshua Arbury

Driver of the Weekend

Joshua: I know it’s boring but I can’t go past Max Verstappen. Two wins from two race, both start to finish. Pole position in both races. Only missed a grand slam by not getting fastest lap. Max just couldn’t put a foot wrong all weekend, and he had the race pace during the grand prix that he was worried he might not have when he won the sprint.

Chelsea: Charles Leclerc has long been the subject of high praise, with relatively little in terms of real results – indeed, he holds the dubious honour of the most pole positions without a championship win (27). This weekend we saw flashes of what might be, with a strategic win – starting on the soft tyre – combined with a deft overtake on lap one leading to third place on the podium. I continue to dream of a Ferrari that is worthy of the drivers who command it, but for now, Leclerc takes the day.

Aiden: I’m going out on a limb here, and the Sportsfreak rules may need to be reviewed by our team principal, but I’m going for 2009 World Champion Jenson Button. The man is a legend. About three men in the world could get away with wearing some of the pants he did over the weekend (and I have no idea who the other two are). He also teased the viewers at the end of the broadcast by holding up a pair of chaps that only he could make work. He is a living saint, always drawing the short straw and being paired up with Danica Patrick and finally, he just knows his shit doesn’t he. Honest, knowledgeable, technical, just get King Charles to knight him now.

Gavin: Max Verstappen may have won, but Charles Leclerc wins the accolades for a great strategy call (well done Ferrari) and then holding off the McLaren of Lando Norris for almost the whole race before finally finishing in third. I’ve never been so riveted to a driver and track limits as that particular battle. Good clean racing at its best.

 

Talking Point

Joshua: We have a genuine three-way battle for the driver’s championship now – for the first time in a very long time. Going into the weekend I wondered if Piastri’s struggles would continue, if Norris would continue to not really take advantage of this, and if Max would continue to barely put a foot wrong. Turns out the answer to all three was pretty much yes, which means we really are heading to a fascinating conclusion for the season.

Chelsea: In a race that didn’t have a lot in terms of moments, the battle between Leclerc and Norris had me glued. First Leclerc dobbed Norris in for hitting track limits, then Norris got a second track limits warning – three and he’d receive a five second penalty – all while continuing to battle over second place. In the final stages of the race Norris finally managed the overtake, and had a good grumble about track limits later: “We’re invited to try and race, but if you race too much, you get a penalty for it.” Like he wouldn’t have delighted in Leclerc being penalised.

Aiden: Despite George Russell *checks notes* winning the previous race in Singapore, the Mercedes driver isn’t happy. After finishing in P6 (having started in P6) at COTA, the Brit told Sky Sports F1 “Right now in F1 it’s a race to turn one. There’s no tyre degradation, there’s only three tenths between the quickest car and the slowest car in the top six. Every track we go to, you need at least half a second to overtake, so that’s why you’re not seeing any overtakes. I don’t even remember the last two-stop race.” What he says is generally accurate but if anyone expects tyre manufacturer Pirelli to invite criticism on themselves by increasing the tyre degradation, it’s unlikely. Perhaps the F1 hierarchy need to look at alternatives; a mandatory two stop race from time to time perhaps? Or they get more involved with the tyres? Or we go back to multiple tyre suppliers like the old days?

Gavin: Can we throw sprint races into the bin now please? Look, I have tried, and I can see what F1 is trying to do, but it is just not working. It’s not me, it’s the sprint race. This weekend we had a third of the sprint race nullified due to red flags, the longest of which was on lap 1 after the Papaya Fools crashed into each other. And then the race ended on a red flag too as Lance Stroll got into the spirit of being in Texas and T-Boned poor Esteban Ocon. So the two bits that should be exciting, well, they just weren’t. Another aspect which is just not working for me is that for the sprint race there are less points on the table, however, any punishment is the same as the main race. So we had the case of Oliver Bearman getting a 10 second penalty for gaining an advantage by leaving the track. And because the race ended under a red flag, there was no way for him to fight back and he effectively went from being last in the points in eighth to finishing last of the finishers in fifteenth. What a shambles.

 

Gossip Time

Joshua: If you’d told me that both McLarens would crash into each other at Turn 1 in the sprint race, I would have thought this would be the number one talking point of the weekend and there would be endless reignited debates over “Papaya Rules” and over who McLaren’s favourite driver really is. But actually they handled it really well. Other than that, the bizarre conspiracy theory Yuki Tsunoda had about Liam Lawson apparently getting in his way over and over again was kind of hilarious. I’m hoping this means Lawson has the inside running for that Racing Bulls seat.

Chelsea: I had no idea what was going on with what I’ll tentatively name “Tapegate” until it was explained to me. Apparently McLaren like to mark the grid wall with tape to aid their drivers with grid position before the start of the race. Just prior to the race starting, a Red Bull team member crept around and removed the tape – a move described by the Guardian as “low-level skulduggery”, and I can’t improve on that. Red Bull subsequently wore a token fine and, hopefully, some level of embarrassment. I’ve no doubt this is part of some sort of reciprocal buffoonery between the two teams and not entirely led by Red Bull, but with the driver’s championship getting toward the pointy end and Max looming as a serious contender, it’s only a matter of time before there are tears in the playground.

Aiden: One of the stories that flew under the radar a bit at the weekend (and to be fair there was plenty of other stuff going on) was what I’m going to call, ‘Tapegate.’ Yes folks, despite Darth Horner departing Red Bull, they still can’t be trusted, despite the much softer leadership of ‘one session at a time’ Laurent Mekies. In short, the team were fined 50,000 Euros because a team member returned to the grid to try and remove the tape marking Lando Norris’ grid position. There has been no comment from Emperor Marko, but Jedi Mekies called it a ‘misunderstanding’. Here’s hoping for an entire episode of ‘Drive to Survive’ to be dedicated to something that wouldn’t have looked out of place in ‘Wacky Races’ or ‘Cannonball Run’.

Gavin: So the Alpine sported a slightly modified livery to accommodate Franco Colapinto’s sponsors, nice. But near the end of the race Franco was told to hold position and not overtake his teammate Pierre Gasly, not only did he ignore that order but Pierre was also overtaken by Ganriel Bortaleto and ultimately ended last. Franco is fighting for his career here and was clearly faster than Pierre, so it was a weird call from the team, and if Franco had not overtaken him then he was probably going to be overtaken himself. All very weird and I would love to see how the debrief went down and how the contract negotiations are going to go in the future. All I know is that “team principal” Flavio Briatore is not a man to cross paths with so watch this space.

 

Looking Ahead

Joshua: Mexico is interesting because of its altitude and the trouble teams have keeping the cars cool. Earlier in the season that would have been advantage to McLaren, but those days seem to be over. Assuming recent trends continue and we get Verstappen ahead of Norris ahead of Piastri again, the overall championship race will continue to tighten. McLaren have said they’re not bringing any more upgrades, but you have to think at this point they’re panicking a bit over Max pulling off the impossible. My mind also jumps forward a couple of races to Brazil, another sprint weekend on a track with some of the best passing opportunities. We could be down to fewer than 10 points between the top three!

Chelsea: All eyes are on the driver’s championship, which is getting delightfully curly – Max Verstappen looms large on the two McLaren drivers, who are fighting a battle of their own. Red Bull have a solid record in Mexico, which is closely followed by the chaos of Brazil – this championship really could go any of three ways, and I’m loving it. My head says Verstappen, my heart says Piastri, so it’ll probably be Norris. You heard it here last.

Aiden: Is Max Verstappen the new Jimmy Spithill? Can Piastri and Norris seriously lose the drivers championship after dominating for so long? The answer to both, is potentially a big fat yes. A quick look at the TAB website shows that Verstappen is now a slight favourite with them to win the championship, ahead of Piastri, then Norris. Momentum in sport is a huge factor and it’s on the side of the Dutchman. With a quick turnaround to Mexico this weekend, you can be sure he will be all over it now that he has a car capable of getting him regular wins. The battle for the title is now simply lovely.

Gavin: Three drivers (realistically even though George Russell can mathematically still win) competing for the championship, but only one will be throwing caution to the wind as the other two need to adhere to team orders of some kind. If Max Verstappen wins again then I think all bets are off. McLaren have lost their competitive advantage with their cars whilst Red Bull seem to have found performance that just was not there when Christian Horner was. McLaren will be hoping Max can be sidetracked by George allowing their drivers to get the points – I genuinely don’t think McLaren care which driver wins the championship, they just want the win.

 

Bonus Pictures

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