Seven-time world champion and arguably the greatest Formula 1 driver ever Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes won his home race, the British Grand Prix for the 9th time in his career. His victory, the first time he’s won since 2021, set the record for the most times a single driver has won at any circuit. Hamilton is one of seven different race winners this year, the most different drivers since 2021, and the season is only two thirds of the way through.
Last season, the Dutchman Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing’s number one driver and 3 time world champion, won 21 out of the 24 races. He was able to coast to an easy championship win for both himself and Red Bull. This year, many Formula 1 fans anticipated the same results. Last year, Verstappen won the championship with 575 points, a system where you get 25 points for a win, followed by 18 in second, all the way down to one point for tenth place. He clinched victory in Qatar, which was the 16th round of the championship, the earliest in the history of the sport. The fans’ concerns were amplified after Verstappen won the first race by over 20 seconds, where typically margins of victory range from a few tenths of a second to below ten seconds. He would win six of the next nine races, leading the championship. Fan favorite and now title contender McLaren’s Lando Norris stole one of the three victories from Verstappen, achieving his first ever win in Miami. Hamilton and Norris were not the only two drivers with meaningful wins.
Monegasque Charles Leclerc of Ferrari won his home race, something that had not been accomplished since 1931. Verstappen rounded out the first 10 rounds with a victory at the Spanish Grand Prix, and a wheel-to-wheel collision with Norris at the Austrian GP, knocking him out of the race, and Verstappen falling to 5th, allowing Mercedes’s George Russell to win a race this season. Since that race, the season has flipped upside down. Over the past 6 Grands Prix, 5 drivers have taken victory, none of them being Dutch, significantly opening the championship fight to many more drivers. McLaren’s car has been all but a rocketship since the summer break ended, as Australian Oscar Piastri led a McLaren 1-2 finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Lando Norris also won the Dutch Grand Prix just two weeks later, closing the gap to Verstappen and Red Bull in both championships. Ferrari is also in the mix, with Leclerc winning the home race of the Maranello-based constructor at the Italian Grand Prix on September 1st.
Currently, Verstappen leads the World Drivers Championship by 62 points, with 303 to Norris’s 241. Red Bull only leads the World Constructors Championship, the championship based on overall team performance by 8 points. Last year, Red Bull won the WCC by 451 points. McLaren fan Audrey Danz ‘25 commented, “I think Max [Verstappen] will win the championship this year. Lando [Norris] doesn’t have the right mentality to win yet.” Danz also said, “I think the rest of the season will be similar to how it has been. It’s been a lot more exciting than the 2023 season.” With just eight races left, Formula 1 fans are amped to experience another title fight, something they thought was nowhere near in the realm of possibility for this season at its beginning.
