Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are in a two-horse race for the Formula 1 drivers’ title with McLaren 299 points clear of their nearest rival and virtually guaranteed glory

2025 will be McLaren’s year(Image: LAT Images)

No-one at McLaren wants to say it out loud yet, but both Formula 1 titles are theirs this season. The only thing yet to be decided is how long it is going to take for things to become official in both the constructors’ and drivers’ championships.

For the latter, pretty much everyone hopes it goes on for as long as possible. After Lando Norris won the Hungarian Grand Prix last weekend, the Brit is now just nine points behind team-mate Oscar Piastri in what promises to be a thoroughly entertaining run-in.

They have both been very well-matched over the course of the first 14 rounds of the year. Piastri has six Grand Prix victories while Norris has five. They have finished ahead of their team-mate precisely seven times each, while Piastri has edged his title rival two to one in the three Sprints held so far in 2025.

Piastri has led the championship for most of the year, but never by a significant margin. Every time the Aussie has threatened to build a comfortable lead, Norris has struck back to keep himself within touching distance.

With any luck, the same will continue right up until the end of the year to give us a showdown to get excited about in the Abu Dhabi season finale. Sadly, in the constructors’ championship, any intrigue about who will come out on top disappeared long ago.

McLaren have had the dominant car all year long and have only failed to win three of the 14 Grands Prix held so far. With 10 rounds remaining, they are 299 points ahead of Ferrari who have been aware for some time that second place is the best they can hope for.

Because there are still three Sprint races to be stages, on top of those 10 Grands Prix, there are still a maximum of 475 points up for grabs for any team. That means it is still mathematically possible for McLaren to be caught, though it would take a virtually impossible set of circumstances for them to throw it away from here.

Assuming they won’t suffer a series of highly improbable disasters that mean they don’t score any points at all for the rest of the year, the leaders are on course to ensure a successful team’s title defence fairly soon. In fact, they could do it within just three rounds, at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix which follows the races at Zandvoort and Monza after the summer break.

Even if they do not finish first and second in those next three races, which is not necessarily unlikely given they have done it in their last four outings, McLaren look likely to get over the line at the following race, the Singapore Grand Prix. That would get the job done with a whopping six rounds remaining.

That would match Red Bull’s record from that dominant 2023 season which saw them win every race but one. But even if they don’t manage to do that, what seems certain is that the drivers’ title will soon be the only thing left to fight for this year – not that any racer not representing McLaren will play a part in that.