Motorsport photoMotorsport StaffWed, December 3, 2025 at 5:02 PM UTC·7 min readThere’s a championship fight to finish – Owen Bellwood
It’s the final race of the Formula 1 season and after 23 grands prix, the drivers’ championship is still all to play for going into Abu Dhabi. McLaren’s Lando Norris leads proceedings with 408 points, but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen is just 12 points behind, and Oscar Piastri is a further four points back.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementNorris has the advantage going into the race, and will be out for redemption after McLaren missed out on a 1-2 finish in Qatar thanks to a botched pitstop call. Verstappen, meanwhile, is definitely the driver with momentum on his side. Despite a rough start to the 2025 season, the Dutchman's year turned around following an upgrade package in Monza, and he has since won five out of eight races - including the last two rounds.
However, Norris need only finishes in the top three to pick up a first drivers’ crown. Despite this, only a fool would count Verstappen out at this stage – especially as his team has a history of overturning similar deficits at the UAE circuit. And, should the Dutchman squabble with his British rival in the opening laps, Piastri need only be on hand to sweep up the pieces to take a first title of his own.
Sure, Norris is the favourite going into the weekend, but an in-form Verstappen and a McLaren team that seemingly jumps at every opportunity to make the wrong call means that the fight is still bound to be exciting – no matter how tough overtaking can be around the Yas Marina circuit.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementLando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Lando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull RacingMidfield positions still to be decided – Ed Hardy
Forget the 2025 Formula 1 title fight, because the true battle is in the midfield where several positions are yet to be decided. Racing Bulls hold sixth, just 12 points above seventh-place Aston Martin – which is seven points ahead of Haas in eighth. There are then just five points separating Haas and ninth-placed Sauber, so there is a lot to play for.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt may not seem important on the face of it, because quite frankly nobody is tuning in to see who finishes seventh, but it is of huge significance to the teams because the difference between these positions means approximately $10 million in prize money. And in a world where the midfield battle is incredibly tight, this kind of cash can help give a squad the edge for the coming years - so these teams won’t be resting on their laurels just yet.
That’s especially because so much can change in an instant as well, as even though Racing Bulls might look safe with a 12-point gap, it wasn’t long ago in Mexico that Haas claimed a score of 14 with its fourth and ninth-place finishes.
Also last week in Qatar, for example, Aston Martin scored six points thanks to Fernando Alonso coming home in seventh – so there is every chance that at least one of those positions in the constructors’ standings will change come Sunday.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin RacingAntonelli on course to overhaul Hamilton – Haydn Cobb
At the start of the year, if you had predicted Andrea Kimi Antonelli to finish ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the F1 drivers’ world championship you’d have raised a few eyebrows. If you had predicted that same feat around the end of the European stretch of the season, you would have been laughed at. But who is laughing now?
Had Antonelli not slipped off the track late on in Qatar, handing a place to Norris in the process, the Mercedes rookie and seven-time world champion would be level on points going into the final. While accusations of deliberately letting the McLaren driver by at Losail are “brainless”, per Toto Wolff’s assessment of Helmut Marko, Antonelli bridging the two-point gap to Hamilton looks entirely logical for the Abu Dhabi GP.
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Antonelli has hit a purple patch of results; second in Brazil’s sprint and grand prix, a promoted third in Las Vegas after McLaren’s double disqualification, and a sixth place in the sprint and a fifth place in the Qatar GP to round out 53-point haul. In contrast, Hamilton’s six-point tally over that same stretch is miserable.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFerrari impressed in Abu Dhabi 12 months ago with a double podium, which put it just short of overhauling McLaren to the F1 world constructors’ championship. But that form isn’t expected from the Scuderia this weekend, which means that Hamilton's chances of holding off Antonelli remain slim. Whether the Brit finishes sixth or seventh in the drivers’ standings won’t really matter. But would ending up behind the rookie chosen to take his spot when he opted to leave Mercedes for Ferrari?
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, MercedesOne last race for F1's ground-effect cars – Ed Hardy
The 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was an opportunity to say goodbye to several drivers who were leaving F1 due to the grid shake-up for 2025. That list included Zhou Guanyu, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Franco Colapinto, as they were all racing their final grand prix for the foreseeable future – though a few of them will be racing in 2026 – with many rookies coming in for this year.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAlthough that’s not quite the case again this weekend, only Yuki Tsunoda is dropping off the grid, the 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be an opportunity to say goodbye to the ground-effect era instead. That’s because a new set of regulations will come into force in 2026, with cars set to become lighter and smaller, while there will be an increased emphasis on electrical energy, which will have a near 50-50 split with the internal combustion unit next year.
So, find a moment to take in these cars because the racing promises to look very different in 2026. Is that a good thing? Well, it’s debatable. Some argue the ground-effect era hasn’t worked as intended because there’s still a lack of overtaking and the cars haven’t been the most enjoyable for drivers, but the pecking order has been incredibly tight and constantly changed…
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Alexander Albon, Williams
Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Alexander Albon, WilliamsCan Yuki Tsunoda end his F1 career on a high – Owen Bellwood
Red Bull confirmed the driver lineups for its senior team and the Racing Bulls junior side this week, with Isack Hadjar joining Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, and Arvid Lindblad making the step up to F1 to partner Liam Lawson. In the reshuffle, Yuki Tsunoda loses his full-time race seat to take a reserve driver role at Red Bull – bringing his stint in F1 to an end after five seasons.
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The news means that Abu Dhabi could be Tsunoda’s final race in F1, bringing a tough season to a close and rounding out a career that showed flashes of real promise. Tsunoda's best result was fourth place in Abu Dhabi for Alpha Tauri in his first season in the series, and he's since fought for points to try and secure his F1 future.
Now, the Japanese driver will be hoping to emulate his 2021 result and end the year on a high - despite spending the majority of the season struggling with his RB21. This looked like a real possibility in the early stages of last weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix, with Tsunoda out-qualifying Verstappen for the first time ahead of the sprint. But, his form came unstuck in Sunday’s grand prix.
Here’s hoping he can finally put together a strong weekend with Red Bull in Abu Dhabi.
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing Team
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