F1 Abu Dhabi GP: Five quick takeaways

Lando Norris delivers a champion's drive when it matters

'He's going to bottle it'. 'He's not mentally strong enough'. 'Max Verstappen's in his head'. Forget about it. When the pressure was it its very highest, Norris kept cool and did what he needed to do to claim a maiden world title.

Following a clean getaway Norris slotted in behind poleman Verstappen, while Piastri had less to lose and passed his team-mate him with a great move around the outside of Turn 9.

From the outside it looked like a nervous start over the first few laps as he tried to bring his tyres gently to mitigate any graining, which mean the came under pressure from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. But Norris controlled Leclerc's advances under DRS, and after his first pitstop for hards he then decisively worked his way past traffic, including dealing with erratically weaving Tsunoda, which led to a correct five-second penalty for Verstappen's wingman.

Lando Norris, McLaren (Photo by: Bryn Lennon / Formula 1 via Getty Images)

I'm not convinced a 2023- or even 2024-spec Norris would have been as steadfast. But he has shown he has certainly has come a long way, even throughout the season as he started on the back foot against Piastri. Is he the best driver of the season? That title still belongs to Verstappen, but Norris has shown enough pace, guts and steel to deserve his trophy.

- Fil Cleeren

Oscar Piastri did everything he could do

Oscar Piastri couldn’t have done much more to become the 2025 world champion on Sunday. The 24-year-old Australian pulled off a sensational move on Lando Norris around the outside of the Turn 9 curve, on hard tyres versus medium rubber, then executed the alternate hard/medium strategy as well as he could.

It wasn’t enough to beat Max Verstappen, who was ahead in the standings coming into the title decider anyway, and one might even argue it was too little too late after a somewhat mediocre second half of the season. Norris’ title might steal the limelight, but Piastri still shone most of the time in 2025, and his future is bright.

- Ben Vinel

Mercedes seals second place in the constructors’

There’s no doubt that all eyes were on the drivers’ championship battle, and it is also true that second place in the constructors’ standings doesn’t look that important for a team that has won it a record eight times.

Nevertheless, sealing second place in Abu Dhabi was what Mercedes needed to do, and they did it, taking advantage of the 33-point margin they had over Red Bull with 43 available, in what was an anonymous race for the team, with George Russell only fifth and Andrea Kimi Antonelli outside the points.

George Russell, Mercedes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes (Photo by: Clive Mason / Getty Images)

It is clear that Mercedes was never good enough to fight for wins and podiums regularly in the ground-effect era, but at least they close it as the best of the rest behind the dominant McLaren after slipping to fourth place in 2024, as they put all their efforts into bouncing back when the regulations change next season.

- Federico Faturos

Hamilton's nightmare season is finally over, but question marks remain

Lewis Hamilton will be relieved his nightmare debut season is now consigned to the history books, even if it's one of the darker pages in Ferrari's recent history.

Admitting to anger and frustration, Hamilton faces another off-season reset after a character-building year, which didn't bring the anticipated fresh start that prompted his move from Mercedes to a childhood favourite team.

It's clear Hamilton never got on well with the ground-effect era of cars, punctuated by an unprecedented streak of three consecutive Q1 exits to close the season, and the 40-year-old's big hope is that 2026's major rules reset will reignite a late-career surge.

But with such an short off-season, there isn't all that much time for the seven-time world champion to recharge his batteries. Can he bounce back one more time?

- Fil Cleeren

Yas Marina is just not a great track

Alexander Albon, Williams (Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images)

Yas Marina is a great place to finish the season. Fantastic facilities, a great atmosphere in the paddock and a beautiful TV picture – but days like today are just another reminder that the track itself is, perhaps, the only missing bit that stops the event from being perfect.

After everything that has happened in the last couple of months, the championship was set for an exciting final round – yet the race itself obviously lacked drama. Of course, it’s not only about the track, and boring, procedural races can happen anywhere. But Yas Marina has never delivered thrillers.

Sao Paulo would certainly have offered something a lot more exciting, right?

- Oleg Karpov