Going into the final race of the 2025 season and following a disastrous double disqualification at Las Vegas, McLaren was under the gun.

Lando Norris led Red Bull driver and four-time World Driving Champion Max Verstappen by a narrow points margin while teammate Oscar Piastri was third. If Verstappen won at Abu Dhabi (the site of his first championship in 2021 due to most egregious error ever committed by a F1 race director) he would become a five-time champion unless Lando finished third or better.

Norris did what he had to do after Max drove off into an ever-increasing lead. Piastri passed his teammate to take over second place but was ready to sacrifice his spot in case Norris dropped to fourth. Luckily it wasn’t needed and Lando Norris scored his first Formula 1 driver’s championship by two points and doing donuts in celebration before pulling into the winner’s enclosure. He ended with 423 points to Verstappen’s 421 with Piastri third at 410 points.

A long way back in fourth was Mercedes’ George Russell at 319, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in fifth with 241 and his teammate Lewis Hamilton sixth at 156 points. Everyone else was in double digits or no points.

Nine drivers aspiring to F1 but not yet with a 2026 drive took part in Free Practice One. Pato O’Ward, McLaren IndyCar pilot, drove Piastri’s car in the session and finished 14th overall and fourth in class.

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McLaren had wrapped up the constructor’s championship at Singapore, winning the lion’s share season prize money by far. Their final points total was 833. Mercedes took the second spot with 469 points, Red Bull was third with 451, Ferrari had 398 for fourth. All the other teams were more than 200 points behind Ferrari with Alpine finishing last with 22 team points.

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The season was dominated by two constructors, and I started thinking about how various teams have taken over all the major racing series. In F1 since 2010 Mercedes has won seven constructors’ titles, Red Bull six, and McLaren the last two. Lewis Hamilton has scored six drivers’ titles over that period and Verstappen four.

The score is even more lopsided in the NASCAR Cup Series. Hendrick Motorsports has won 15 titles since 1996, with Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske taking five each. Hendrick’s top scorer is Jimmie Johnson with seven titles, followed by Jeff Gordon with four, accounting for 11 of the 15 between them. Joey Logano’s three championships lead Penske’s five wins, while Kyle Busch has two of the five JGR totals.

Chip Ganassi Racing has dominated the IndyCar field since 2000, winning 13 championships. Team Penske has seven and what is now Andretti Global just three. Scott Dixon tops the Ganassi title count with seven while Dario Franchitti and Alex Palou have four each. Will Power and Josef Newgarden have two apiece for Team Penske.

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All these teams reinforce the old adage, “How fast do you want to go? How much money have you got?”

Despite efforts by the sanctioning bodies, nothing seems to make an impact on leveling the playing field. IndyCar and NASCAR are running basically spec cars, so the difference has to lie in resources – engineering, aerodynamics, pit crew performance, and driver skill. The top teams can afford the best in all those categories.

And although Formula 1 teams build their own cars to current regulations, grids are often within a second on a three-mile course. Even in such close competition, the same four parameters make the difference. So, the team that can afford to hire the best talent in all aspects is going to be at the top of the heap.