Max Verstappen has been named as the best driver of 2025 by his fellow Formula 1 racers. Lando Norris became world champion for the first time this year, holding off a late-season charge from his Red Bull rival who won the last three Grands Prix to finish just two points behind the Brit, which ended Verstappen’s push to become only the second driver in F1 history to win five championships in a row.

But, in the eyes of both the drivers and team principals up and down the grid, it was Verstappen who performed best over the course of the season. In total, 16 drivers and eight team bosses took part in the vote and, in both rankings, Verstappen was the driver who came out on top.

Norris was, at least, voted as runner-up in both rankings, though there was some disagreement over who was best of the rest behind them. Team bosses voted Oscar Piastri in third, after a season in which he led the championship for six months but lost out on the title because of a poor run of results in the latter part of the campaign.

The drivers, though, disagreed as their voting meant George Russell was named as the third best driver of the year by his peers, with Piastri below him in fourth. The Brit did enjoy an ultra-consistent campaign as the lead man at Mercedes, standing on nine podiums including two as the race winner, and was the only driver other than the McLaren pair and Verstappen to take victory in a Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton did not reach the top 10 in either ranking, with drivers and team bosses agreeing that the seven-time world champion’s struggles in his first season with Ferrari placed him in the bottom half of the grid in terms of performance. Charles Leclerc did well enough to earn fifth place on the drivers’ ranking, though the Monegasque was only seventh best in the eyes of the team bosses.

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.

Spanish duo Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso featured in the top seven of both lists. Veteran Alonso was fifth best according to the team bosses, clearly impressed with his performances despite it being a difficult year overall for Aston Martin, while Sainz’s huge improvement in the second half of his debut campaign with Williams, which yielded two podiums, saw him place sixth in both lists.

Rookies Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar also made it into both top 10s thanks to their performances for Haas and Racing Bulls respectively. Sainz’s Williams team-mate Alex Albon was the other driver to make it into the top 10 as voted by the drivers, though the team bosses felt Nico Hulkenberg was more deserving thanks to his performances for Sauber this year.

The four drivers who finished the year on the grid but did not take part in the vote were: Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda. Ferrari and Red Bull were the two teams not represented in the team bosses vote, with Frederic Vasseur and Laurent Mekies unable to take part for undisclosed reasons.