Formula 1: A second half battle for the drivers championship and the lead up to it

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The Formula 1 summer break is coming to a close, marking the beginning of the second half of the 2025 season. The first half saw plenty of action in the World Championship for Drivers, including what looks to be the dethroning of four-time consecutive champion, Max Verstappen, and 2 first-time championship leaders in McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

McLaren is running away with the World Championship for Constructors, but only 9 points separate the teammates in the drivers standings. With 10 races remaining, excluding sprint races, and both teammates proving they are willing to do what it takes as seen in Montreal, Hungary, and throughout the season, the second half of the season is shaping up to be an intense battle.

The First Half Recap

With a new champion looking to be crowned, both McLaren drivers want to be the winner of this tight race for first. Norris started the 2025 season strong, picking up where he left off in Abu Dhabi 2024, winning the first race of 2025, and taking the Drivers Championship lead for the first time in his career. Not only did he win the first race of 2025, but he won in Australia, Piastri’s home Grand Prix.

In China, the race after Australia, Piastri bounced back to earn the win, and went on to win 3 more races before Norris achieved another win. Piastri took a dominant edge over Norris, winning a total of 5 grand prix’s compared to the 2 for Norris.

One of those wins came in Saudi Arabia, where Piastri officially took the Drivers Championship lead off of Norris, and has not looked back since. The race after this was Miami, and Piastri started to build the lead over Norris, by winning where Norris claimed his maiden victory in 2024. 

Montreal was the first, and so far only, race of the season that did not have a McLaren driver on the podium. After a mistake by Norris saw his race come to an end, and almost ended his teammates race, Mercedes driver, Geroge Russel won. However, Norris has since turned the tides, slowly catching up to his teammates in points. 

Since Montreal, in the final 4 races of the first half, McLaren was victorious in all. Norris has taken the win in 3 of the 4, with Piastri taking 1. This has almost caught Norris up to Piastri in race wins this season with Piastri winning 6 grand prix’s compared to 5 for Norris.

The last race of the first half of the 2025 season took place in Hungary, where Piastri took his maiden victory in 2024. Just like Piastri took Norris’ maiden win this year, Norris took Piastri’s, closing the gap to just 9 points. 

With Norris claiming victory in 3 of the 4 last races, including his home race, Silverstone, and the latest race, he has closed in on Piastri with increasing momentum. 

What the Second Half has in Store

The second half of the season starts this weekend, August 29-31, 2025, in the Netherlands. This was also the opening race of the second half in 2024, a race Norris won, fueling the idea of a championship battle between him and Verstappen.

Norris has faced the pressure put on in the second half of the season when a championship is on the line, a pressure Piastri has yet to face. Norris may have a slight advantage with this, but Piastri has consistently kept his cool, often being compared to Kimi Räikkönen, who earned the nickname “The Iceman” for his calm, carefree, attitude about F1.

Norris will be looking to further close the gap to Piastri and win the Dutch Grand Prix in back-to-back years, a possible and likely feat in the McLaren car.

The Dutch Grand Prix was on the calendar from 1952-1985 before being taken off. It was added back onto the calendar after 35 years in 2020, but the race was not held due to COVID-19. The first time the Zandvoort track was raced again in F1 was in 2021. The home racer, Verstappen, came out on top.

Verstappen won again in 2022, and his Zandvoort dominance continued in 2023 for his third consecutive win. Fuelled by the orange Norris saw in the crowd, he ended Verstappen’s reign and will be looking to start his own back-to-back-to-back victory streak in the Netherlands.

Piastri took the next McLaren win at Azerbaijan, and his only win in the second half of the 2024. This track was added to F1 in 2017 and has yet to see a back-to-back winner, which Piastri will aim to change in 2025 and Norris will aim to continue. While it has yet to see a consecutive winner, new Cadillac driver, Sergio Pérez, has won there twice, once in 2021 and the second time, two years later, in 2023.

Norris took back the title of McLaren’s latest winner in the following race: Singapore. This street circuit was added onto the calendar in 2008 and has only been won in consecutive years by 2 drivers: Sebastian Vettel, who won 3 years in a row, and Lewis Hamilton who won in 2017 and 2018. Since Hamilton’s second win, a different driver has won each year, with Norris being the most recent. This leaves the door open for Piastri to continue the streak of a different driver finding success at this track. 

Norris claimed one more win in the 2024 season, Abu Dhabi, the final race of the season. Abu Dhabi was added in 2009 and right out of the gate had a back-to-back winner in Vettel who won in its debut and again in 2010. Like Singapore, the next driver to get consecutive wins at this circuit after Vettel was Hamilton in 2018-2019. Following Hamilton’s success was Verstappen who won from 2020-2023 before being stopped by Norris in 2024. That means, the Yas Marina circuit has seen a driver go at least back-to-back since 2018, and if the trend is to continue, Norris will need to win Abu Dhabi again this year.

Abu Dhabi was the final and determining circuit where Verstappen's controversial first title win took place, with some arguing Hamilton should have won his eighth title instead. This championship battle took place in 2021, but Verstappen won the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for the first time the year prior in 2020, when Hamilton took the Championship title. With Norris in the hunt to win his maiden Drivers Championship title, a similar fate could be fulfilled by Norris as Verstappen won Abu Dhabi the year prior to his own maiden F1 Driver Championship and Norris may be on track to do the same.

Currently, Piastri sits at 284 points in the Drivers’ Standings and Norris at 275. The McLaren team will be eager to continue their mastery that has been seen throughout the season and was especially noticeable closing out the first half of the season as the Papaya boys were 1-2 in the last 4 races.

If Norris and Piastri were to continue their 1-2 streak in the Netherlands, watchers could see Piastri start to re-establish the lead he once had over Norris with a win adding 25 points to his tally, bringing him up to 309 points, and a second place win for Norris would add 18 points to his tally, bringing him up to 293. This would increase the point gap between them from 9 points to 16.

On the other hand, a Norris back-to-back win at Zandvoort and a back-to-back win building off the first half of the season could see him climb to within 2 points of Piastri. Adding 25 points through a win would bring Norris up to 300 points, and 18 points from a second place for Piastri would bring him up to 302 points.

As the season kicks off again, the fight for the title between the McLaren teammates is getting more intense with each passing race as we countdown to the end of 2025 season. All drivers will be working to stand on the top spot of the podium, but the battle is coming down to Piastri and Norris for who will earn and get to use the 1 next year.