F1 followers have been handled to a spectacular present in 2025, with the hole between the entrance and the again of the sector persevering with to shrink, three drivers going wheel-to-wheel for the Drivers’ Championship, and loads of others having fun with their second within the highlight.
Forward of the decisive last few rounds, F1.com gathered the ideas of former technical chief, group boss and F1 Managing Director of Motorsports Ross Brawn, who drew some insightful connections together with his vastly profitable time within the sport alongside the way in which.
An F1 season for the ages
After Red Bull’s commanding begin to the most recent floor impact ruleset, and Mercedes’ dominance for a number of years earlier than that, the final couple of seasons have delivered a degree of competitiveness not seen in F1 for fairly a while.
In 2024, 4 groups and 7 drivers claimed victories, whereas in 2025, three groups and 4 drivers have triumphed up thus far, together with seven out of 10 groups and 9 out of 20 drivers making their manner onto the rostrum.
Though there stays a class-leading squad, with McLaren managing to wrap up the Teams’ Championship a couple of rounds in the past in Singapore, the margins up and down the order have usually been nearer than ever.
Take the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix weekend, the place 0.771s separated Lando Norris in P1 and Franco Colapinto in P20 on the finish of Q1, or the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, which produced the closest Q3 part in F1 historical past when simply 0.528s coated the highest 10.
Brawn, together with many hundreds of thousands world wide, is watching on keenly.
“It’s been an excellent season,” says Brawn, chatting with F1.com after a charity occasion for the Thames Valley Air Ambulance on the Williams manufacturing unit. “I feel the beauty of F1 not too long ago is the variety of completely different race winners we’ve had.
“Clearly McLaren are doing exceptionally nicely, as a result of they’ve had two drivers up there on a regular basis, however in case you have been to ask me who’s going to win the subsequent race, I feel I’d battle to say, which wasn’t all the time the case.
“In prior years, the Purple Bull dominance or the Mercedes dominance generally took the sting off the spectacle. This time we’re having a classic season.”
Oscar vs Lando – and Max…
On the very sharp finish, a gripping intra-team battle between Norris and Oscar Piastri has headlined many of the season – the momentum ebbing and flowing from one McLaren driver to the opposite and the factors hole remaining comparatively small.
Each have loved loads of highs, from Piastri’s early-season hat-trick of wins in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Miami to Norris’ emotional first victories across the streets of Monaco and on dwelling soil at Silverstone.
They’ve additionally endured their fair proportion of lows, such because the Australian’s current spate of incidents and the Briton’s late-race retirement on the Canadian Grand Prix, the place he bumped into the again of the sister MCL39 and got here near wiping the pair out.
Norris is the McLaren man in type because the title race heads into its last three rounds, preventing again from his agonising technical retirement at Zandvoort to place a strong run of performances collectively and wrestle the championship lead again from Piastri in Mexico.
Nonetheless, there’s the added layer of a revived Max Verstappen and Purple Bull placing strain on each of them – the Dutchman greater than halving a 104-point deficit by way of three wins and 4 podiums from the final seven Grands Prix.
So, what does Brawn – who has labored with a bunch of World Champion drivers over time, together with the likes of Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton – make of the state of affairs?
“We’re seeing the layers peeling off the principle contenders, significantly Oscar and Lando,” Brawn feedback. “Everyone knows Max very nicely from the previous, however we’re seeing the characters of Lando and Oscar being revealed because the competitors will get extra intense.
“I feel once you’re on the trail to success in F1 it’s very team-centric, however once you get there and also you’ve acquired a Drivers’ Championship at stake, it turns into a bit extra self-centred, which is pure. Now the Groups’ Championship is settled, it’s going to be fascinating to see how these two additional reveal and develop their characters.
“We’ve had Oscar, who’s all the time been portrayed as ‘Mr. Cool’… and Lando, who’s all the time been seen as a bit bit conservative, and is displaying much more aggression in the previous couple of races.
“I’m going to be extremely entertained to see how they work all of it out between themselves, however then there’s additionally the resurgence of Purple Bull as a aggressive group, which is giving Max an opportunity to combine it up in there!”
As Brawn touched on, whereas Verstappen is used to successful and has claimed the final 4 world titles on the bounce, that is the primary correct F1 championship struggle for Norris, after his mini push for the 2024 crown, and a brand-new expertise for Piastri.
“As a driver, it’s very simple to remark once you’re down the sector about what’s happening on the entrance of the sector, however it’s very tough once you get there,” provides Brawn. “You’re not within the highlight once you’re in fourth or fifth, you’re not underneath the identical scrutiny.
“Once you’re preventing for a championship otherwise you’re successful races, you abruptly come underneath intense scrutiny, and Lando and Oscar are usually not used to it but. They’re getting used to it, however Max has been there and completed it. He is aware of what it’s like, he is aware of the feelings, he is aware of the sentiments, he is aware of the dynamics of all of it.
“It’s displaying us completely different sides of their characters that we haven’t seen earlier than, which is, once more, the fascination of F1, the fascination of sport.”
Brawn’s different star performers
Past the scrap between Norris, Piastri and Verstappen, which will likely be settled throughout the last flyaway stretch in Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi throughout November and December, a number of different drivers have caught Brawn’s eye in 2025.
Rookies Isack Hadjar and Ollie Bearman are two drivers namechecked by the skilled group chief, with the Racing Bulls man reaching the rostrum on the Dutch Grand Prix and the Haas racer starring en path to fourth in Mexico Metropolis and sixth in Sao Paulo.
However it’s the different driver who remained mathematically in rivalry for this 12 months’s title till Mexico who sits on the high of Brawn’s checklist: Mercedes’ George Russell.
“George has completed a wonderful job,” Brawn states, pointing to Russell’s unbelievable consistency, brace of wins and eight podiums – regardless of having to cope with loads of speak about his future within the media – aboard a Mercedes that didn’t ship the step required to be a real championship contender.
“I feel in these circumstances, George’s efficiency has been very, very spectacular, and naturally, the lead to Singapore was distinctive. Hats off to him for this 12 months.”
Hulkenberg’s Silverstone shock
Elsewhere, a driver Brawn got here near working with when he was on the helm of the Mercedes works group – the German producer returning to F1 in 2010 after buying the 2009 title-winning Brawn GP outfit – put a smile on his face on the British Grand Prix.
A kind of 9 podium finishers this season, Nico Hulkenberg lastly put his palms on an F1 trophy at Silverstone after 239 begins – a feel-good second that was celebrated not solely by his Kick Sauber squad however the remainder of the paddock.
“Once I was at Mercedes, we nearly employed Nico, as a result of we didn’t know what the state of affairs was with Lewis for 2013,” Brawn explains, going again to Mercedes’ pursuit of the then-McLaren driver. “We have been having a difficult time closing that deal, and Nico was on standby. He behaved in a really mature manner throughout these discussions.
“I made it as clear as attainable what the state of affairs was, that there was an opportunity [of him racing for Mercedes], however it trusted what Lewis determined to do ultimately. When Lewis did signal with us, we managed to kind issues out with Nico that we couldn’t go forward.
“However I used to be fairly wanting ahead to working with him, as a result of I feel he’s an excellent driver. He’s very, very mature and really balanced. He’s had an excellent profession. It’s onerous to think about that Silverstone was his first podium after so lengthy, and after some nice performances and nice drives.
“So, that end result was pretty to see, and I used to be significantly happy provided that I do know him pretty nicely. It was a very good consequence for the season.”
Hamilton’s new chapter at Ferrari
One other main speaking level this season has been Hamilton’s transfer from Mercedes to Ferrari after greater than a decade on the Silver Arrows – the seven-time World Champion embarking on a brand new chapter with the purpose of delivering his first title since 2020 and the Scuderia’s first since 2008.
Hamilton is, in fact, a driver who Brawn is aware of very nicely, because of that aforementioned profitable mission of convincing him to hitch Mercedes again in 2013, forward of the 2014 guidelines reset that yielded a hatful of titles.
Ferrari are additionally a group that Brawn is aware of very nicely, having spent some 10 years on the well-known Maranello marque and been one of the key figures who helped turn them into serial winners throughout the early-to-mid-noughties.
It has been an up-and-down journey for the driving force and group thus far, with Hamilton’s spotlight being a Dash pole place and victory on the second spherical in China, earlier than a difficult mid-season run the place he battled to know Ferrari’s creating SF-25 package deal.
Whereas Brazil introduced a DNF, earlier rounds have been extra encouraging, because of Ferrari discovering a manner of extracting extra from their automotive, and Hamilton “lastly feeling like I’m on high of it” to push group mate Charles Leclerc onerous throughout the Austin and Mexico weekends.
So, what’s Brawn anticipating from the partnership going ahead?
“Lewis is a reasonably decided character and has proven resilience prior to now, so there’s no motive why he received’t [deliver],” he says. “I simply hope that Ferrari get it proper with the brand new guidelines.”
