With the 2025 Formula 1 season now over, which drivers impressed Motorsport Week the most across the year?
While McLaren and Lando Norris took home the prizes, a record-equalling 24-race calendar provided drivers with several chances to make a mark.
Using the average score from our ratings produced following every event, here are our top 10 F1 driver rankings at the end of yet another campaign.
10. Nico Hulkenberg
Returning to his former home with the Sauber team saw Nico Hulkenberg continue to show his talent as a consistent midfield peddler.
The veteran German driver was classified in the points nine times in his 15th campaign, which included ending his podium drought at Silverstone.
Despite starting on the back row, great driving and bold strategy from his team saw the 38-year-old vault up the field to run third in a wet-dry thriller.
Even a charging home hero Lewis Hamilton, chasing a 13th consecutive British Grand Prix podium, was unable to stop him making an elusive trip to the rostrum.
When the pace was there, Hulkenberg tended to deliver top-10 results, with his 51 points only bettered by three drivers outside of the top four teams during 2025.
9. Carlos Sainz
Despite a slow start to his campaign, Carlos Sainz would turn his season around and provide his new Williams team with its first podium visits since 2021.
The Spaniard began the season in team-mate Alex Albon’s shadow as bad luck, mechanical gremlins and strategic errors all conspired to limit his chances.
However, he would return from the summer break revitalised. A brilliant lap to line up on the front row in Baku was converted into a debut Williams podium.
Having qualified inside the top three in adverse conditions in Las Vegas, Sainz then strung together an exceptional weekend to log another podium in Qatar.
Across the latter stages, Sainz comfortably outperformed Albon, scoring 48 points to the Anglo-Thai’s measly three from Baku onwards to end 2025 strong.
8. Isack Hadjar
Isack Hadjar’s inaugural race in F1 ended without him taking the start, as the 2024 Formula 2 runner-up crashed on the formation lap in the wet in Australia.
But while that would have derailed some drivers’ careers, Hadjar soon began to showcase the talent that prompted Red Bull to promote him to Racing Bulls.
The Frenchman would be a regular points scorer, scoring 11 times in 24 races, and he grabbed the glory on F1’s return from the summer break in Zandvoort.
Qualifying a sublime fourth, a position which he was comfortably holding, Hadjar inherited a maiden F1 podium when Lando Norris retired in the closing laps.
His impressive rookie campaign has since seen him given a well-deserved promotion to the senior Red Bull setup for next season alongside Max Verstappen.
7. Oliver Bearman
Following his excellent substitute appearances, it was no shock that Oliver Bearman got a permanent drive, and he only got better as the season progressed.
Despite scoring three times in 14 rounds to start with, Bearman produced numerous comeback drives that went unrewarded with finishes outside the top 10.
However, the Briton capitalised on Haas’ late-season upgrades in Austin to score in five consecutive rounds, including an astonishing run to fourth in Mexico.
With his connection to Ferrari remaining in place, another standout campaign in 2026 could almost guarantee Bearman a future drive with the Italian marque.
6. Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso might be the oldest driver on the grid at 45, but the two-time World Champion continues to prove that he belongs among the all-time greats.
Despite going point-less in the opening eight rounds, the Spaniard then scored in 11 of the remaining 16 races, securing a best result of fifth place in Hungary.
Aston Martin’s 2025 car proved to be a capricious beast to tame, with Alonso even remarking that he was convinced it was possessed when he spun in Qatar.
However, that proved to be a minor blip on a strong conclusion to the season, which saw Alonso ensure the Silverstone-based squad finished in seventh overall.
Competing in an Adrian Newey-designed machine next season, excitement is high as Alonso continues his quest to banish his now 12-year-long winless streak.
5. Oscar Piastri
Having put a disastrous home race behind him, Oscar Piastri was in the driving seat to claim a maiden World Championship up until a sudden late-season slump.
Having taken seven victories during the opening 15 races, the Australian sustained a six-race run without a podium as he began to wilt as the title race heated up.
Piastri would rue two crashes on the same weekend in Baku, another shunt in the Sprint Race in Brazil, and successive below-par weekends in Austin and Mexico.
And despite beating Norris in the last two weekends, it would be too little too late as Piastri wound up 13 points behind his team-mate, as well as Max Verstappen.
4. Lando Norris
Despite spending an extensive period on the back foot compared to his McLaren stablemate, Norris pieced it all together when it mattered most to claim the title.
The odd mistake and a mechanical retirement at Zandvoort had seen the Briton slip 34 points behind, but as Piastri crumbled, Norris unearthed some momentum.
Norris was in another postcode in Mexico, winning with over 30 seconds in hand, and then in Brazil, where his title bid imploded in 2024, he scored maximum points.
Becoming the 11th British driver to pick up the World Championship, and the 35th in F1 history, Norris delivered on the promise he had shown throughout his career.
3. George Russell
George Russell was comfortably the most consistent finisher on the grid in 2025.
In fact, the Brit only missed out on points once, with an 11th-place finish on the streets of Monte Carlo, where both Mercedes drivers paid the price for issues in qualifying.
Two lights to flag victories in Montreal and Singapore were backed up with seven more visits to the rostrum as Russell often got himself in the mix with the McLaren pair and Verstappen.
Having assumed the role of de facto team leader, Russell shone, and with a more consistent package underneath him would have been a factor in the championship for sure.
2. Charles Leclerc
With Ferrari enduring its first winless season in Grand Prix terms since 2021, Charles Leclerc had his hands tied in trying to push on from his strong 2024 campaign.
Achieving seven podiums and a stunning pole position against the odds in Hungary, Leclerc more often than not dragged his SF-25 to places it shouldn’t have been.
The Monegasque comfortably had the better of new team-mate, Lewis Hamilton, out-racing the seven-time F1 champion 18 times in the 21 races both were classified.
1. Max Verstappen
Verstappen might have missed out on a record-equalling fifth consecutive title, but his 2025 campaign cemented his status as the benchmark on the current grid.
Regularly competing against the quicker McLaren cars, the Dutchman would produce a stunning final third of the season to put himself in unlikely title contention.
Racking up the most poles, victories, and laps led, Verstappen almost overturned a 104-point deficit, ultimately missing out on the crown by just two points to Norris.
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