The second half of the 2025 Components 1 season is upon us.
After a two-week layoff, the grid returns to motion with the Belgian Grand Prix, one in every of two races earlier than the August summer time shutdown. However with 12 race weekends left, the Drivers’ Championship stays a combat between McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Piastri maintains an eight-point lead over Norris, however the British driver has received consecutive Grands Prix for the primary time in his profession and heads to Spa in effective kind.
How may this battle between McLaren drivers unfold over the ultimate half of the season?
The official F1 web site spoke with 5 residing legends — 2009 Champion Jenson Button, 1997 Drivers’ Champion Jacques Villeneuve, 13-time Grand Prix winner and F1TV analyst David Coulthard, three-time Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert, and 12-time podium finisher Stefan Johansson — concerning the main storylines from the season, together with the Norris-Piastri title combat.
Every residing legend sees this bout taking place to the ultimate bell.
“If it was half a World Championship, Oscar’s received,” started Coulthard. “I don’t assume anybody might say he hasn’t deserved to be main – he was main earlier than (the McLarens) got here collectively in Canada. But when Lando turns it round within the second half of the season, he’s doing it in opposition to somebody that’s a proficient third 12 months F1 driver. It’s a bit like 2021, the place some persons are nonetheless so vocal about what occurred… just one driver might win. Each Max and Lewis Hamilton drove like World Champions that 12 months, however solely one in every of them might have the title.”
The previous Pink Bull and McLaren driver praised his former group for a way they’re dealing with the combat.
“I feel McLaren have dealt with it rather well. I feel each their drivers are on the tamer facet of animal than the wilder facet of animal, in order that most likely makes it slightly bit simpler,” added Coulthard. “However this may be their solely likelihood to win a world title; we don’t know what 2026 brings, we don’t know what the long run is, so that you’ve obtained to grab the second. That’s why I’m actually impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this 12 months. However Lando’s response during the last two races is displaying his high quality as effectively. I feel it’s going to be a kind of issues the place each of them deserve it, however just one can get it.”
Johansson famous that who wins the title may come all the way down to the “circumstances.”
“I feel it’s going to go all the way down to the wire. In the long run, it is going to most likely be circumstances that tip the result of the championship. As a result of speed-wise they’re so shut, it’s most likely going to come back all the way down to race craft, studying conditions the appropriate manner, and avoiding any type of unforced errors, in the event you like,” mentioned Johansson. “Oscar had his penalty at Silverstone, which you’ll be able to debate whether or not it was justified or not, however I feel issues like that, or Lando’s incident in Montreal… these are the issues which might be going to tip the size on the finish of the 12 months.”
Two of the previous drivers, Button and Herbert, praised Piastri’s psychological method. This mirrors what McLaren CEO Zak Brown advised me about Piastri throughout his rookie season, and the way the Australian driver slowly builds up over a race weekend and nearly all the time retains his composure.
“Austria was a extremely necessary weekend for Lando. I feel if it went on any longer with out Lando profitable, mentally it’s very powerful for a driver. Particularly somebody like Lando, who I feel might be his personal worst enemy at instances – he places loads of strain on himself. He’s unbelievably fast, but when he makes a tiny mistake, he actually takes it to coronary heart,” mentioned Button.
“He’s obtained to grasp that all of us make errors. It occurs, it’s a part of racing, and as a rule you lose slightly than win. I like his persona, and I actually assume he’s super-quick. Oscar’s a really totally different persona, very level-headed. Nothing appears to faze him, and that makes him a really, very troublesome competitor … “
“Oscar’s come into F1 in a really, very mature manner,” started Herbert. “He’s obtained himself in an excellent group on the proper time and he’s delivering. However then I throw it on the opposite facet, and Lando is bettering … he’s most likely a later developer in some methods, however he has modified during the last couple of years. I feel the incident in Canada, the positives of Austria and Silverstone … I all the time say it’s about capability, and I feel his mind capability generally will get full up. There’s the bags that comes with the whole lot that’s happening, and I do know from my very own profession, there are occasions the place you’ve obtained to eliminate baggage that’s hanging round your neck.
“It’s going to be all the way down to the mentality of each of them. However they’re each youngish and so they’re solely going to get higher as time goes by, like Max has performed, like Lewis did, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher… they’ve that fantastic capacity to discover a manner of shifting up each time the efficiency of the automobile will get higher,” continued Herbert, who received in Silverstone in 1995. “With all of the little ups and downs they’ve had, they’re nonetheless very, very shut total. It’ll solely be one over the opposite come the tip of the 12 months.”
Like the opposite legends, Villeneuve didn’t predict the winner — Button maybe got here closest with how he ended his ideas — however the winner of the 1997 Drivers’ Championship did define how Silverstone could have reshaped the race.
“It’s nice as a result of they’re very totally different. Each can win it, and we don’t know which one will get the higher hand. I feel Norris nonetheless has the sting speed-wise, however he’s so good at berating himself that it’s additionally self-damaging in some unspecified time in the future,” started Villeneuve.
“With Piastri, it was the primary time he obtained a penalty at Silverstone, and that noticed a little bit of a change of perspective. If you’re preventing for the championship, it actually adjustments your method. We’ve seen Norris being within the lead of the championship, being behind, preventing again, so we’ve seen form of the whole lot that Norris is. We haven’t seen the whole lot that Piastri is and the way he reacts in sure conditions. Will that make him higher or worse? That’s what I’m ready to see.”
You possibly can learn their full ideas on the remainder of the season, together with Lewis Hamilton’s begin at Ferrari and the way forward for Max Verstappen at Pink Bull, on the official F1 web site.
