Who will win the 2025 F1 world championship in Abu...

Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri all go into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with an opportunity of securing the 2025 System 1 world championship.

In a season-long tussle that has swung between every of the three protagonists, it comes right down to the season finale, with Norris main Verstappen by 12 factors and Piastri 16 factors off his McLaren team-mate in third.

So, for the ultimate time this yr, who will win the F1 title? Our writers have their say.

It’d take an excessive amount of of a blunder from Norris to not win – Ed Hardy

The distinction in high quality between Verstappen and Norris or Piastri within the 2025 System 1 season has been staggering. Verstappen has maximised his automotive all through – as any F1 nice would – and will he not grow to be champion, then it’s truthful to say that it gained’t be due to him. The McLaren pair, in the meantime, have simply stumbled in the direction of the road and fairly frankly ought to have already got this title sewn up.

So no, Verstappen wasn’t “talking nonsense”, to directly quote Norris, when he mentioned he’d already be a five-time champion had his automotive been like McLaren’s on the Melbourne opener. That being mentioned, it’s nonetheless a reasonably important deficit that Verstappen holds with only one race remaining and absolutely Norris, or his staff, can’t maintain presenting the Pink Bull driver with alternatives.

It has to cease in some unspecified time in the future.

Yas Marina can be a circuit that ought to swimsuit McLaren with its medium-to-high-speed corners and that was witnessed final yr when Norris dominated from pole. So it wouldn’t be a complete shock if the Briton was to repeat that, as a result of he can nonetheless carry out when the stress is on – Mexico – it’s simply that his and McLaren’s low moments have inevitably been heightened as a result of wider context.

However even when Norris doesn’t win in Abu Dhabi it isn’t the tip of the world, as a podium end would suffice ought to Verstappen take the chequered flag. He due to this fact has sufficient of a buffer to recover from the road.

A blunder is all Piastri wants – Owen Bellwood

After 23 grands prix and 6 dash races, simply 16 factors separate the highest three within the System 1 standings. With this in thoughts, the probabilities of title chief Norris not following by way of and successful the entire thing feels fairly slim. However whereas the Yas Marina circuit has usually turned up processional races throughout its time on the F1 calendar, it has produced its justifiable share of drama when the stakes are excessive.

And what would you say is extra seemingly over an F1 weekend: that Norris will put collectively a flawless grand prix, or that Verstappen will inject his personal type of chaos into proceedings as he chases a fifth consecutive F1 title? Personally, I believe it’s the latter.

Norris can be on the defensive off the road come Sunday, and regardless of the place he strains up Verstappen can be fairly shut by. Ought to the Dutchman make one among his signature daring strikes at Flip 1, there’s a superb probability that contact – or not less than a decisive penalty – will observe. A puncture, damaged wing or a spin might pressure both driver to the again of the pack. Or, ought to the protagonists come collectively within the warmth of battle, each racers may very well be out of the combat earlier than it’s even reached its peak.

If chaos like this unfolds, there’s one driver who can be there to choose up all of the items: Piastri. If the highest two come collectively and Piastri wins, he can be hoping that Norris cannot get better previous sixth to be able to take the title – which may very well be a practical consequence given the challenges of overtaking on the tight monitor in Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen will full the turnaround and add to his legend – Jake Boxall-Legge

At the beginning of the season, I wrote in Autosport journal that Verstappen would win the 2025 title – and I stand behind my earlier prediction.

Lando Norris, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photograph by: Zak Mauger / LAT Photos through Getty Photos

Everyone knows how we obtained right here; Verstappen’s deficit to Piastri spanned a triple-figure sum after the climax of Zandvoort, and since then he is been on a totally totally different aircraft in comparison with anybody else on the grid. This has been helped by Pink Bull’s post-summer enchancment, of which Verstappen mirrored that “you attempt a variety of issues, and a variety of issues didn’t work. However then I’d say since Zandvoort, we discovered a little bit of a course”.

In that very same thought, Verstappen reckoned that Abu Dhabi won’t essentially be up Pink Bull’s alley in the identical vein as Qatar, however Verstappen in the end gained on the Losail venue as McLaren threw its personal probabilities of victory away. However Verstappen likes to minimize expectations and, until Pink Bull encounters set-up issues of the identical magnitude because it had in Brazil, he ought to be capable of cope.

The opposite facet to think about is that Pink Bull solely has to fret about his technique, and may spend its total weekend understanding learn how to ship a fifth consecutive drivers’ crown. McLaren, in the meantime, dangers portray itself right into a nook with its dedication to equity between each drivers; that is not a criticism of the way in which it chooses to go racing, however invariably there can be some extent within the race that the staff must decide between its two drivers.

And Verstappen, who feeds off inflicting issues for different groups and drivers, can function at his greatest in these situations. If he leaves Abu Dhabi with a title in hand, it’d simply be one of the best of his profession.

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– The Motorsport.com Group