The season is over and now it’s time for the most important award ceremony of the year… the 2025 RaceValue Formula 1 Awards!
All joking aside, it is quite fun to determine the best (and worst) drivers within certain categories.
Best driver: Max Verstappen
Awarded to the best overall racing driver in 2025.
The first and most important award is absolutely clear. Max Verstappen had one of the greatest seasons in F1 history and took the title fight to the final round, despite driving an inferior car. It should be said that his team was operationally great and didn’t make as many mistakes as McLaren, but that doesn’t take anything away from Max who performed admirably in terms of preparation, pace and racecraft.
Fastest qualifier: Max Verstappen
Awarded to the most impressive driver in qualifying sessions in 2025.
Aside from being fast on race day, Verstappen was also the best driver on Saturdays. He took more pole positions than any other driver, in a car that wasn’t the fastest – so again, no doubt about this one. An honourable mention goes to Fernando Alonso, though.
Rookie of the year: Oliver Bearman
Awarded to the best new driver in F1.
Several of the new drivers had impressive highs during 2025. Oliver Bearman was the best overall, as he performed admirably next to his experienced and fairly well-rated teammate, Esteban Ocon. In the second half of the year, Bearman frequently qualified in the top 10 and maintained impressive pace in the races. His best performance was in the Mexican GP where he managed to keep Oscar Piastri and both Mercedes cars behind him.
Most improved driver: Oscar Piastri
Awarded to the driver who improved the most from 2024 to 2025.
Oscar Piastri took a massive step up in 2025. He was far behind teammate Lando Norris in his first two seasons, but for most of this year, he was ahead. A late-season slump cost Piastri the title, but if we look at the season as a whole, he was certainly the most improved driver on the grid. In 2026 he must attempt to maintain his impressive early-2025 pace for the entire year – and, if possible, make another step forward.
Midfield driver of the year: Carlos Sainz
Awarded to the driver who performs best in the midfield (Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes drivers excluded).
Carlos Sainz was by far the best midfield performer of the year. He struggled early on, but eventually got the hang of the Williams and put in some impressive drives. During the middle of the season, Sainz lost a lot of points due to car failures and bad fortune, and he likely would have beaten Albon on points if everything was luck-adjusted. He did lose the race H2H matchup against Albon, but Sainz showed much more upside than his teammate and was the only midfielder to secure two podiums.
Most overrated driver: Isack Hadjar
Awarded to a driver that most fans overrate.
Hadjar had a very solid debut campaign, with an impressive podium along the way. But he was also driving the fifth best car of the year, so those performances should be expected. Hadjar is definitely a promising driver, but he wasn’t the best rookie in 2025, and he doesn’t have the ceiling of a star driver. Yet some fans see him as such, but in reality his good results were mainly down to car performance.
Honourable mention goes to George Russell.
Most underrated driver: Lando Norris
Awarded to a driver that most fans underrate.
Strange to have the champion winning this award. Throughout 2025, it has been common for fans to hate on Lando Norris even though his season has been very good. Sure, he’s not at Verstappen’s level, but no one is. The McLaren driver performed much better as a title challenger than Leclerc did in 2022, and most models clearly show that he is faster than Russell. Norris also lost at least 50 points due to car failure, team decisions and others crashing into him – so if it wasn’t for bad luck, he would have won the title rather clearly.
Aggressive driver of the year: Max Verstappen
Verstappen is famous for his aggressive steering, and this year was no different than usual. The Red Bull car was built for his driving style, and it certainly paid off with 8 wins and a surprising title challenge. Aside from his aggressive driving style, he also had some nice overtakes and impressive defensive performances.
Smooth driver of the year: Oscar Piastri
Watching Piastri onboard looks very different than watching Verstappen. Piastri has a smooth steering style, and he was arguably the one who made the most of this. Technically, Piastri is a very good driver, and he improved on his pace tremendously this year – while still driving rather smoothly for most of the time.
Best sportsmanship: George Russell
Russell ended the year with zero penalty points and had very few issues throughout the season. He was rarely at fault for any incidents, and when he was involved, it was usually due to an error by the other driver. He kept his head fairly cool even in the heat of battles and on several occasions, he worked well with his teammate to secure the best possible results for Mercedes. Russell also deserves respect for publicly calling out Verstappen’s dirty moves.
Best overtake: Lando Norris on Oscar Piastri, Singapore lap 1
Awarded to the single best overtake in 2025.
Norris isn’t usually known for daring overtakes, but the move he put on Piastri in the beginning of the Singapore Grand Prix was excellent. No one saw it coming, not even Piastri himself. But this was a crucial move that looked cool and put some momentum back in Norris’ hands when he needed it most.
Best car: McLaren-Mercedes MCL39
Awarded to the best-performing race car in 2025.
The MCL29 was not a ‘dominant’ car, but it was the best one. McLaren had the pace advantage of most tracks. Sadly, they made some operational mistakes. The constructor’s title was easily won, but you could argue the driver’s championship should have been secured much earlier. Still, McLaren should be applauded for building such a fast car. Let’s see if they can stay in front in 2026 and beyond.
Best engine: Honda RBPTH002
This one is close between Honda-RBPT and Mercedes. Honda-RBPT produced a beast of an engine. Thanks to the engine power, Red Bull sometimes had the track advantage, including at Monza where Verstappen dominated. The fact that Racing Bulls had such a strong season with two underwhelming drivers also back up the claim that Honda’s engine was impressive, at least in terms of pure power. The Mercedes engine perhaps had better fuel efficiency and balance, but overall, Honda-RBPT deserves this award.
Best pit crew: Ferrari
Ferrari didn’t have the fastest car, but they performed excellently when their drivers boxed. They were particularly fast with the tyre changes in the early rounds of the year. McLaren later caught up, and Red Bull had impressive pitstops as well. Still, the Ferrari crew win this one, just as they won the real-life DHL Fastest Pit Stop Award on points.
Best strategic team: Mercedes
Close call here between Mercedes and Red Bull. But since Mercedes had strong strategic choices for both cars, rather than just one, they win the award. George Russell had a perfect strategy in most rounds, and while Kimi Antonelli’s strategies were sometimes a bit more creative, he had great advising as well.
Most improved team: Racing Bulls
Awarded to the team that improved the most from 2024 to 2025.
Racing Bulls had a decent car in 2024 and a very quick one in 2025. It was the fastest car of the midfield. Their driver lineup was below par, yet they still scored some great results. In fact, it was better to drive a Racing Bulls than to drive the #2 Red Bull! In earlier years, Racing Bulls had some issues with consistency, but this was also improved in 2025.
Best team radio: Alonso in Singapore
“Trophy for hero of the race” – Fernando Alonso acknowledged his own racecraft in the middle of the Singapore Grand Prix. He was by far the most entertaining driver of that race and this confident radio message was very well put. For us, it was the best team radio of the year.
Best insult: Stroll to Colapinto: “He should focus on scoring a point”
Toward the end of the year, it was fairly clear that Franco Colapinto strongly disliked Lance Stroll. The Argentinian criticised Stroll publicly and was mainly accurate in his quotes. However, Stroll gave a cold response when confronted by the media regarding Colapinto:
“I don’t know how many points he has in the championship. How many?”
Stroll was told Colapinto has zero points. He replied, “Zero? He has zero points.
“He should probably focus on his own things and try and score some points at some point this year.”
Not much Colapinto could say after that – it’s hard to criticise other drivers when you’re far from the points yourself.
Driver error of the year: Verstappen in Spain
Max Verstappen lost his patience in the Spanish Grand Prix and intentionally drove his car into George Russell’s Mercedes.
He should have received a race ban for this, but regardless, it cost him valuable points and he eventually lost the championship because of this mistake. It was so much worse than other driver errors because the move was completely unnecessary and solely a decisional error. In a way, it’s fair that Verstappen didn’t win the title, despite his great performances. This move was so dirty that it puts his sportsmanship into question.
Worst decision of the year: McLaren not pitting in Qatar
In a race where each car must box twice, it is absolutely incredible that McLaren didn’t bring their drivers in for a pitstop during the early safety car in Qatar. It ended up costing Piastri a win, Norris a podium, and it moved some valuable points over to Verstappen ahead of the final round. While McLaren had several operational issues throughout the year, this was easily the worst mistake as boxing was such an obvious decision.
Star of the future: Rafael Câmara
Awarded to the most promising young driver in the junior series.
Câmara was by far the best driver in this year’s F3. He showed skill in everything; qualifying pace, racecraft, defending, tyre wear, you name it. No driver, not even in F2, looked as impressive as the Brazilian.
Most efficient young driver: Leonardo Fornaroli
Awarded to the most efficient young driver in the junior series.
Fornaroli won F2 in his first attempt – mainly due to executing well and remaining consistent when others weren’t. It’s a shame he won’t drive in F1. He doesn’t seem like an absolute top talent, but his record is similar to Bortoleto who looks decent in F1, so it would have been nice to see him get a shot. Perhaps a seat will open up in 2027 for the Italian.
RaceValue bet of the year: McLaren WCC @ 1.88
Our best F1 bet of the year. It was obvious from the preseason that McLaren had the fastest car. They were also the only team with two efficient drivers, so it was fairly clear that they would win the WCC. We put our maximum unit count (3) on this outcome and it was never really in doubt. McLaren would’ve beaten the points record if it wasn’t for the Vegas disqualification.
RaceValue bad beat of the year: Colapinto > Gasly @ 3.25 (Mexico GP)
We had Colapinto to beat Gasly at odds 3.25 in Mexico. Colapinto was gaining on Gasly about 1.5 second per lap, but when he finally got close, faster drivers were coming up from behind to pass both Alpines with a lap; Colapinto respected blue flags and Gasly did not, so a larger gap was then formed between them. Then, after clearing the situation, a bogus virtual safety car was announced, and Colapinto was completely prevented from performing an otherwise easy overtake which would have flipped our balance sheet from -1 to +2.25 units. Sadly, it wasn’t meant to be.