The third Las Vegas Grand Prix is finally upon us and there’s little doubt that this is the most consequential edition of the Sin City Formula One race yet.
McLaren’s Lando Norris arrives at the Las Vegas Strip on a tear, having won back-to-back races in Mexico City and São Paolo. Subsequently, his teammate Oscar Piastri has gone cold at the wrong time, allowing Norris to grab a 24-point advantage in the standings. Four-time reigning champion Max Verstappen still lurks in the background as well and is always a threat to turn the tide even if he has just a few opportunities left to do so.
It’s shaping up to be one of the most thrilling championship finishes in recent memory in F1, but there’s intrigue across the grid. What’s going on within Ferrari? Which team will end up second in the constructors’ standings? Who needs a good weekend the most?
Let’s dive in, beginning with a look back at what happened last season.
What happened at the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix?
F1 arrived in Las Vegas last season amidst another title fight, with Verstappen leading the way and Norris giving chase after a massive improvement from McLaren in the middle of the season. However, it was neither driver who stole the show, but rather the Mercedes tandem of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Russell stunned the field with a blistering lap in qualifying and never looked back, converting on his second win of the season and solidifying himself atop the Mercedes pecking order going into 2025. The result was also a positive sign for Hamilton, who’d won twice earlier in the year, but largely underwhelmed in his final season with the team. Since his second place finish in Vegas almost exactly 12 months ago, Hamilton has not finished on the podium in any full-length race during his first campaign with Ferrari.
Verstappen did just enough to claim his fourth straight world championship, coming in fifth—just a single spot ahead of Norris but by a margin of almost 30 seconds. The result set the stage for the 2025 season, where both drivers entered as the title favorites.
"VEGAS BABBBY!"
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 24, 2024
George Russell wins the jackpot with a stellar drive 🎰#F1 #LasVegasGP pic.twitter.com/kiyIchWsCy
Storylines to watch at the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix
Now that you’ve been refreshed on what happened last season in Sin City, let’s take a look at the most intriguing elements of this upcoming weekend.
McLaren is in the driver’s seat but with a Vegas weakness
Norris may be in the best position upon arriving in Las Vegas, but it’s important to point out that McLaren has struggled in each of the last two seasons at this circuit. And that might be putting it lightly.
In 2024, Norris finished in sixth and Piastri finished seventh, neither one being close to competitive after applying pressure to Verstappen across the summer months. Back in 2023, at the inaugural race in Vegas and at a time when McLaren had made tremendous strides up from the back of the grid, Norris crashed into the barriers on Lap 3 without any contact from any other driver. Piastri qualified a disappointing 18th and only managed to climb up to 10th to score a single point.
So what’s going on? Too much time spent out on the Strip?
Team principal Andrea Stella addressed the issues of recent years, confirming that the cooler temperatures caused McLaren to struggle to bring its tires up to the right temperature for the race, but also mentioned aerodynamic issues that suggest a more serious overhaul was needed coming into this weekend. Of course the car this season appears to be, on the average, stronger than it was in the two previous years, but with each track presenting its own challenges, it seems like McLaren is acutely aware of how Vegas doesn’t complement its natural setup.
Norris can’t clinch the championship in Vegas with only a maximum of 25 points to gain—and that being if Piastri and Verstappen are both held scoreless, which seems unlikely. The earliest he can do so is at the sprint race in Qatar, but that’s only if he can strike the sort of luck in Vegas that’s previously evaded him.
Vegas days with LN4 🧡 #McLaren | #LasVegasGP 🎲 pic.twitter.com/518LpvYXXF
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) November 19, 2025
Team battles for second place and sixth place
McLaren already wrapped up the constructors’ championship a few weeks ago, cementing one of the most dominant and thorough team performances in the past decade, reminiscent of Red Bull’s 2023 season or those of Mercedes in the mid-2010s. But the battle to be second has only gotten muddier with three teams trading positions across the past few races.
Mercedes got a massive boost with Kimi Antonelli’s double second-place finishes in the two Brazil races, giving the team an advantage over Red Bull and Ferrari going into Vegas. Red Bull will likely need Yuki Tsunoda to give Verstappen some help if they hope to keep up, while Ferrari will have to stop its recent slide and infighting to get back into the mix. But more on that later.
Elsewhere, we’ve been tracking what’s unfolding in the midfield for a number of weeks. After Williams, which has a rather firm grasp on fifth place, it’s up for grabs among the next four teams.
Racing Bulls notched a critical 10 points in Brazil thanks to a balanced weekend by Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson. Oliver Bearman nabbed eight individual points of his own to keep Haas, the hottest midfield team since the summer break, afloat going into Vegas.
The race has brought a handful of surprising results over the last two years. Pierre Gasly qualified third last season only to experience an engine failure and not be able to finish. In 2023, Esteban Ocon finished fourth and Lance Stroll finished fifth after starting on the grid 16th and 19th respectively.
One big swing could make the difference in these championships with so few races to go, so keep an eye out for what happens beyond the Big Three.
Ferrari’s inner turmoil
One of the most perplexing storylines to come out of Brazil was the fracture within Ferrari, which has appeared to hit a boiling point in Lewis Hamilton’s first season. Chairman John Elkann placed the team’s drivers in the crosshairs after the disappointing result, in which Ferrari scored a total of six points across the Grand Prix and the sprint, suggesting they should “focus on driving and talk less.”
The comments generated a media firestorm, which included both Hamilton and Charles Leclerc posting vague references to the schism in social media posts. Leclerc called for “unity” within Ferrari, while Hamilton was rather straightforward, writing, “I back my team, I back myself.”
a Ferrari spokesperson told ESPN
This still might not be rock bottom for Ferrari. Second place is up for grabs this season, but moving into a new regulations period, there’s no telling if the team will have a car to compete for victories right away. Things could still get worse before they get better. By alienating the drivers, Elkann may have already threatened a harmonious end to Hamilton’s illustrious career and given Leclerc reason to shop around, should someone like Verstappen make a move or a more competitive car become available.
Hamilton and Leclerc will surely be asked about what’s taken place within the walls of Ferrari since Brazil, questions that will largely be sidestepped. The real answer will be provided by what Ferrari puts out on track, and if the past few races have been any indication, it won’t be very competitive.
Which driver needs a good weekend the most?
Obviously the answer to the above question would be Norris, Piastri or Verstappen, but let’s take a look at the rest of the grid.
We could land on Hamilton, whose dream move to Ferrari has gone about as poorly as possible considering he’s only 26 points ahead of his replacement at Mercedes, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli. Then there’s also Carlos Sainz, the driver who got ousted at the Prancing Horse by Hamilton, who has been a step behind teammate Alex Albon and far from the talent who won two races just last season.
But here’s where we’re going to settle: Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson have the most to prove (and by proxy, the most to lose) this weekend. Long expected to be competing for a chance to continue at Racing Bulls in 2026, and perhaps beyond, both drivers are running out of time.
Tsunoda was dealt a tough hand with a sudden call-up to Red Bull after just a few races amid a time when clearly there was an inner fracture at the team under Christian Horner’s leadership. Unfortunately, very little has improved. Tsunoda has gotten outqualified by Verstappen in all 23 opportunities (19 Grands Prix, four sprint races) and has just a total of 28 points this season, barely ahead of Pierre Gasly at last-place Alpine.
Lawson, who quickly got demoted down to Racing Bulls after just two races with Red Bull has been more hit-or-miss, and has had some bright spots, like his fifth-place finish in Azerbaijan. And yet, he’s still clearly well behind rookie Hadjar, who seems to be next in line to race alongside Verstappen next season.
Sure, every driver would like a good result this weekend in Las Vegas, but Tsunoda and Lawson appear to be the most in need of one if they hope to continue in F1 next season.
How to watch the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix
This is the third straight year that Las Vegas will transform into an F1 town—and transform it will. There’s nothing quite like the spectacle of seeing F1 cars on the glitzy Las Vegas strip at night, making for quite the show during each and every session. But be forewarned: there’s a lot of late-night action on track, so sneak in that afternoon nap or that extra cup of coffee in order to stay awake.
Here’s all of the information you need to know to watch the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as What to Watch at 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix: McLaren Needs Answers, Ferrari’s Inner Turmoil.
