Having already ranked those who had a less successful 2025, it's time to take a look at the top 10 drivers of the Formula 1 season just gone.
I changed my mind a few times, but this is the order that I ultimately settled on:
10. Carlos Sainz
Sainz made a disappointing start to life at Williams, but once he settled into his new environment, he made it clear that he remains one of the best drivers on the grid.
After being dominated by teammate Alex Albon in the first half of the season, he was much better than the Thai driver and most other midfield contenders in the later stages, getting three top-three finishes - with one being in a sprint race - in the final eight rounds.
With how well he's driving and Williams set to benefit from a strong Mercedes engine next season, I can see him picking up plenty more podiums at the very least.
9. Kimi Antonelli
Huge things were expected of Antonelli - dubbed by some insiders to be F1's biggest talent since a certain Dutchman - in his rookie season, and while he didn't quite live up to them, he can still consider it a success.
The Italian rarely troubled the other Mercedes of George Russell and made his fair share of racing errors, but once he had some experience under his belt, he was excellent. He finished outside the top six just twice in the last eight rounds and picked up podiums with hugely impressive drives in Brazil and Las Vegas.
While it was scruffy at times, his first season ultimately saw him become F1's youngest pole-sitter ever in Miami and go on to score the most points of any rookie in the history of the sport (albeit with the added caveat that far points are handed out now than in previous eras). Not bad for an 18-year-old. Big things are coming.
8. Ollie Bearman
Like Antonelli, Bearman was another rookie who big things were expected of at the start of the year after he impressed as a stand-in driver for Ferrari and Haas last season, and he very much lived up to the hype.
He was rapid from the very start of the campaign, and scored points in three of the first four rounds. A less impressive run of form followed, but after the summer break, he picked up six top-ten finishes and crossed the line inside the top six on three occasions.
Over the course of the season, the Englishman outperformed teammate Esteban Ocon, was one of the quicker drivers on the grid relative to his machinery, and displayed world-class wheel-to-wheel racing. Another season like that and the Ferrari product could well replace compatriot Lewis Hamilton at the Scuderia.
7. Fernando Alonso
Alonso is well over 20 years older than the drivers around him on this list, but remarkably, the 44-year-old remains one of the very best on the grid.
The two-time World Champion made a slow start to the season, but once Aston Martin gave him a stronger car from the start of June, he showed he's still got it. Over the remainder of the campaign, he made the occasional error, but scored points in 11 of the 16 rounds with some elite drives.
He ended the year as the only driver to outqualify his teammate on every single Saturday and left little doubt that, remarkably, he's still good enough to battle with the very best if Adrian Newey can work his magic on Aston Martin's 2026 car.
6. Isack Hadjar
Hadjar was maybe the rookie with the least excitement surrounding him at the start of 2025, but he ended it as the best of them.
After a nightmare start, with a crash on the formation lap of his debut race leaving him in tears, the Frenchman bounced back in emphatic fashion. He outclassed both teammates he had, regularly scored points, made it out of Q1 all but twice and scored a sensational maiden podium in the Netherlands.
His reward was a promotion to Red Bull for 2026, and if - unlike those who were in that seat before him - he can adapt to his new car and drive as well there as he did for the sister team, Max Verstappen will finally have a competitive teammate again.
5. Oscar Piastri
Piastri will have bid farewell to 2025 with mixed emotions having shown that he has the ability to become a world champion but ultimately failing to become one after a late collapse.
The Aussie was arguably the best driver on the grid in the opening 15 rounds, barely putting a foot wrong as he claimed seven wins and finished outside of the top three just twice. His consistency and composure were simply remarkable, and gave him a big lead at the top of the standings.
However, things then fell apart. Whether through complacency or simply a lack of ruthlessness, he followed team orders and let Lando Norris pass him in Italy, and then had two costly crashes in Baku. He was second best to his teammate from that point forth, lacking both pace and poise and losing the title fight as a result.
Nevertheless, it can't be forgotten that he was near-flawless for the majority of the season. With him still only 24 and now possessing the experience of a championship battle, it would take a brave man to bet against him winning one in the years to come.
4. Charles Leclerc
2025 was a much less successful year than the previous one for Leclerc, but that was through no fault of his own, with the Monegasque squeezing every last drop of potential out of a disappointing car with some of his best driving yet.
His outright pace was as incredible as ever, his racing and consistency were better than ever, and he wiped the floor with Lewis Hamilton in their first season together. While the seven-time world champion failed to finish a Sunday on the podium, Leclerc did so seven times, and out-qualified him in all but five Saturdays.
It's hard to tell just how good he was given Hamilton was well below his best and inferior machinery prevented him from regularly testing himself against the other elite drivers, but he really couldn't have performed much better than he did.
3. Lando Norris
At one point in the season, it looked like Norris simply just didn't quite have what it takes to become a Formula 1 world champion, but a spectacular turnaround saw him do just that.
In the first half of the season, the weaknesses that had plagued him throughout his F1 career continued to do so, with the Brit struggling to deal with the pressure that comes with fighting at the very front, making multiple mistakes to end up a long way behind Piastri in the title fight.
However, free from the weight of expectations after seemingly having his title hopes ended by a mechanical failure in the Netherlands, he produced masterclass after masterclass. He was better than Piastri for the remainder of the season, and kept his cool to also hold off Verstappen, even with his own team making that task much harder than it should have been at times.
It won't go down in history as one of the great title-winning campaigns thanks to its shaky start, but it was one which saw Norris make a huge amount of progress and become maybe the first driver ever to become a world champion while having a more open, honest and healthy relationship with their emotions, and that's a real achievement.
2. George Russell
I entered 2025 feeling that Russell was as good as anyone on the grid except Verstappen, and ended it confident that he's in fact better than everyone but the Dutchman.
He was near-faultless for the entirety of the campaign, always extracting everything that his Mercedes had to offer. The fact that he picked up two wins and seven further podiums when up against Verstappen and two McLarens with a much better car than him is a real accomplishment.
There's really not much more to say. He did very little wrong, lots of things right, and with it being widely rumoured that Mercedes will have a stronger car than everyone bar McLaren next season, he's very much the 2026 title favourite in my eyes.
1. Max Verstappen
A fifth title may have alluded him, but the fact that Verstappen came so close to getting it made it even clearer that he's one of the sport's all-time greats.
He ended the campaign with the most wins and the most pole positions, despite the fact that he was in a much worse car than Norris and Piastri. Even taking into account the fact that he didn't have a teammate to contend with unlike them, that's mindblowing.
With the sole exception of the Spanish Grand Prix, where he lost his head and crashed into Russell, he always dragged his car as high as he realistically could thanks to a level of performance that precious few have ever produced.
While it's a grid full of excellent drivers, he remains a good way ahead at the top of the pile.
