Back in the days when there were fewer races and the reliability of cars was far from bullet-proof, more often than not there was always something riding on the outcome of the final round of a Formula One championship season.
Increasingly though, that hasn’t been the case all that often over the last decade in the battles for the drivers’ title. You would have to go back to the infamously controversial Abu Dhabi 2021 finale between Max Verstappen and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton for the last time that a title race went to the wire.
Before that, Nico Rosberg holding off Hamilton in an intra-team war in 2016 had been the previous occasion when things had to be settled at the final race.
All of which makes this weekend’s conclusion to the 2025 season something to relish, especially as the permutations involve not two but three drivers. Not since 2010 have at least three contenders gone into a season climax with a mathematical chance of snatching the title.
Lando Norris is in the pound seat going into this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he chases a maiden title, 16 points ahead of his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, who admittedly only has an outside chance in their duel to become just the 35th different driver to become champion in the sport’s 76-season history.
Wedged in between them, 12 points adrift of Norris, is reigning four-time champion Verstappen. The fact that the Dutchman is even in title consideration is a testament to his brilliance, as well as autumnal upgrades to Red Bull’s RB21 and McLaren’s own fumbles amid their attempts to treat both of their drivers fairly.
Some conspiracy theorists do feel the team’s ‘papaya rules’ have ultimately had the effect of helping Norris at key junctures in the season even if Piastri’s own blip in form prior to last weekend in Qatar is more relevant.
Let’s not forget that nine races ago, Verstappen had fallen 104 points adrift of then-championship leader Piastri and his chances of joining Michael Schumacher in becoming only the second driver to win five titles in a row seemed more remote than the outer reaches of the Milky Way.
If he were to overhaul Norris and add the 2025 crown to his burgeoning list of achievements, it would arguably be the greatest comeback in championship history.
However, his efforts will all come to nought if Norris finishes on the podium at the Yas Marina circuit on Sunday. Third place is all the British driver needs to definitively prevent either of his rivals from overtaking him in the standings. Verstappen has to finish on the podium in all scenarios in order to have any chance and Piastri would need to be at minimum standing on the top two steps as third would not suffice even if Norris failed to finish the race.
Max Verstappen (r) hunting down Lando Norris in Qatar last Sunday before going on to win the race
However, if Norris were to finish fourth and settle for 12 points, then Verstappen would snatch the title from under his nose by a point with a victory. But if Verstappen were to only finish second then the Dutchman would need Norris to finish eighth or lower.
And if Norris were to end up sixth or lower, then Piastri would claim an improbable title if he won in Abu Dhabi. If the Australian can only manage second place then he would need his team-mate to have the misfortune of finishing 10th or lower while also having his fingers crossed that Verstappen cannot get himself onto the podium. In short, Piastri, who is only in his third year in the highest echelon of single-seater racing, has the longest odds among the trio in his bid to become the first Australian F1 champion since Alan Jones in 1980.
Given that this is not just an individual sport – notwithstanding that McLaren have long wrapped up the constructors’ title – there is a level of intrigue as to what the team may ask of Piastri and how he would respond if they are in a situation where they need him to help Norris get over the line.
Purportedly, unlike Red Bull where there is a de facto hierarchy, McLaren do not officially operate with a clear number one driver.
Piastri’s manager and fellow Aussie Mark Webber, who was himself involved in the aforementioned 2010 title decider and a fractious intra-team dynamic with former four-time champ Sebastian Vettel at Red Bull, will certainly be keenly aware that the balance at McLaren is not tilted away from his client going into 2026 and beyond.
Mark Webber fell short in 2010 when four drivers went into the final race with a mathematical shout at winning the title
However, that being said, if there was a scenario where Verstappen was leading the race on Sunday with Piastri third and Norris right behind him in fourth, the chances of him turning down a request to allow his team-mate past to go and seal the title is highly unlikely as refusal would sully his bib irrevocably within the team and also at any teams that would have designs on signing him up should the opportunity arise in the future.
As ever, qualifying will be a crucial determining factor and Piastri’s best hope would be to claim pole on Saturday, as he did in Qatar last week, and hope that the two rivals ahead of him in the standings have some misfortune in the pack.
The run to the first corner at Yas Marina can lead to chaos as Piastri found to his cost when Verstappen collided into him at the start of last year’s grand prix which Norris went on to win.
But right now, it’s the latter who is the clear favourite to hold on to his championship lead and become the final champion of this regulation cycle before the 2026 overhaul potentially shakes up the current order of things.
Next year will also be one to watch again from an Irish perspective in the lower formulae. Alex Dunne will also be in action in Abu Dhabi this weekend, in the final round of the Formula 2 campaign, but he is set to remain in the second tier series for 2026 with the Rodin team.
Having parted ways with McLaren’s driver development programme in October, the Offaly man, who won two feature races earlier in the year, has been linked with a switch to Alpine as he looks for the most opportune pathway into his dream of making Formula One.
And just like buses, when Irish motorsports fans have been waiting more than 20 years for prospective candidates for F1 to emerge, two have arrived at once – the other being Red Bull junior Fionn McLaughlin.
The Derry native will be on the Formula 3 grid with Hitech in 2026 as he looks to follow in Dunne’s wake. So watch this space but all after what could well be a dramatic Sunday.