{"id":329696,"date":"2025-12-05T15:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329696\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T15:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:51:11","slug":"class-of-2025-annual-dinner-but-who-picked-up-the-cheque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/329696\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Class of 2025&#8217; annual dinner, but who picked up the cheque?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The F1 drivers met for their annual end-of-season dinner, but there were some notable absentees with Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, and Lance Stroll not attending.<\/p>\n<p>As has become tradition, the Formula 1 drivers put aside their rivalries and championship fights to celebrate as evening as the only 20 drivers, or in this case 17 of those 20, who race in Formula 1.<\/p>\n<p>But who picked up the cheque?<\/p>\n<p>The drivers, excluding the Aston Martin teammates and Hulkenberg, went to a restaurant in Abu Dhabi with several of them posting about it on social media.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClass of 2025,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/driver\/lewis-hamilton\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hamilton<\/a> wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re the only people in the world to do what we do and for that we\u2019re incredibly lucky.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m grateful for this group of drivers I have the privilege of racing against and even though we\u2019re competitors, there\u2019s nothing but respect and I\u2019m proud to call them friends.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHope to give you all a great last race of the season.\u201d \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>Lando Norris captioned it, \u201ctraditions (no food was thrown during this dinner)\u201d while George Russell called it the \u201cyearly dinner with the boys\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Yuki Tsunoda joked that there was a \u201cwhite shirt dress code, not all of us got the memo\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>One big F1 family \u2764\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 end of season drivers\u2019 dinner!<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/F1?src=hash\\&amp;ref\\_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#F1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AbuDhabiGP?src=hash\\&amp;ref\\_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#AbuDhabiGP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Pmv8CMv1m4\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Pmv8CMv1m4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\\\u2014 Formula 1 (@F1) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/F1\/status\/1996664077687668827?ref\\_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 4, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The drivers arriving and the seating arrangements caught the attention on social media.<\/p>\n<p>F1 Drivers from yesterday dinner<br \/>And we have a small Seat arrangement \ud83d\ude2d<br \/>\u201cMax and George were between Charles and Lewis Hamilton\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1RgjWvXBTB\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/1RgjWvXBTB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 LH44(A)fan (@LH44Fanpage8) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LH44Fanpage8\/status\/1996824392584806909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s been some speculation over the years as to who picks up the bill for the yearly dinner, or if it is separate cheques.<\/p>\n<p>It has been said it\u2019s the reigning World Champion, but in 2016 Nico Rosberg reportedly wanted an 18-way split.<\/p>\n<p>That was shot down by Lewis Hamilton, who called it \u201clittle bit silly and ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt probably wasn\u2019t really that expensive. I did say: Why don\u2019t I get it now, or two of us get it now, and then the next time someone else gets it? And they are like: No, no, no. I want to pay individually.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It, however, seemed Rosberg thought it should be Hamilton who covered the cheque as the Briton was the reigning World Champion with the F1 2016 title yet to be decided.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom what I can remember,\u201d said the German, \u201cthe hidden agreement is usually that the world champion pays, but that might just be my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, though, it was Valtteri Bottas, who despite being unemployed for F1 2025 at the time, covered the cost at a 20,000 dirhams, just over \u20ac5,000!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can confirm, it was my pleasure,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he was willing to reveal the cost, he replied: \u201cI think it was about 20,000 local money whatever that is in Euros.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But it was the bill so much as the lingering drama between Max Verstappen and Russell that caught the eye in that end-of-year photograph admits claims Russell even moved his chair after the others cheekily left him an open space next to Verstappen.<\/p>\n<p>A video posted by Mercedes saw Russell confirm that, this time around, \u201cLewis was in charge of the order and he literally ordered everything. Everything possible on the menu.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Esteban Ocon hinted it was Hamilton to have organised the annual dinner this time, too, thanking the Ferrari driver when he posted on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>Read next: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/news\/lando-norris-oscar-piastri-mclaren-abu-dhabi-grand-prix-2025-press-conference\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u2018Up to Oscar\u2019 \u2013 Norris puts Piastri under the spotlight over key McLaren question<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The F1 drivers met for their annual end-of-season dinner, but there were some notable absentees with Fernando Alonso,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[94915,64,63,818,806,805,803,804,44,17165,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-329696","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-motosport","8":"tag-abu-dhabi-grand-prix","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-home-page","12":"tag-motor","13":"tag-motor-sports","14":"tag-motosport","15":"tag-motosports","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-popular","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}