I know you’re all already thinking about 2026 and what the new regulations have in store, but the holidays are about tradition (and, you know, a little planning), so this is the point in the year where I like to be judgmental of all the teams and think about how their respective seasons stack up. Of course, by picking out both the good and bad aspects for each team, the score is never disputed…
We’ve arranged the teams in alphabetical order, with today’s episode taking us from Alpine to Mercedes. Tune in for part two tomorrow.
ALPINE
Poland: 0
Profit: 0
Position in the Constructors’ Championship: 10e (22 points)
The good: Pierre Gasly. That’s approximately based on this year. It’s quite remarkable that he managed a top six finish in the 2025 Alpine, and the fact that he’s locked in for the long term is a big plus for the team. Perhaps a bit of clutching at straws, but stability in the driver line-up over the winter should help, with Franco Colapinto finally getting a pre-season as a driver in preparation for 2026.
As sad as it was to see the Renault engine program axed, there is also optimism in the form of a Mercedes supply deal next year which should provide a strong step forward in competitiveness, especially as Enstone has regularly produced good chassis in recent years. A new era offers an opportunity for a step forward, even if the team still doesn’t seem to have a secure base.
The bad: Where to start? It wasn’t a fun time to be part of Alpine, with the shock departure of team boss Ollie Oakes after the Miami Grand Prix, and an uncompetitive car not receiving a huge amount of development investment.
Jack Doohan was predictably dropped for Colapinto after just six races, leaving him no time to learn the ropes as a rookie in what was clearly a difficult car and a troubled team. That environment also didn’t give Colapinto the easiest entry point mid-season, and the two sharing the second seat alongside Gasly were the only drivers not to score all year.
RATING: 3/10
ASTON MARTIN
Poland: 0
Profit: 0
Position in the Constructors’ Championship: 7e (89 points)
The good: This time last year I wrote: “The season is over and Adrian Newey arrives in 2025.” So now we have to make it: “The season is over and Adrian Newey has arrived.” Moreover, Fernando Alonso is still very capable of achieving results that the car hardly seems capable of, with a fifth place in Hungary and a sixth to round off the year in Abu Dhabi the standout scores.
Lance Stroll also achieved some solid results in the first half of the year, and despite the clear focus on 2026, Aston Martin remained a fixture in an extremely competitive midfield.
The bad: I also said last year that you’d be surprised if Aston Martin delivered a car good enough for the top five, and so it proved, although some of that can be attributed to the generally more competitive field. The score of 89 points was just five short of the 2024 total, which secured fifth place, but there was certainly no progress from a competitive point of view.
Despite such a long term under the 2026 regulations, the lack of stability within the team is a concern, and Newey does not appear to be the right choice as team boss despite his obvious brilliance. Andy Cowell’s repositioning late in the year suggests the right parts aren’t in the right places yet, and that doesn’t bode well for capitalizing on the start of the new era – especially capitalizing on a good car when Newey and co deliver.
RATING: 5/10
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FERRARI
Poland: 1
Wins: 0
Position in the Constructors’ Championship: 4e (398 points)
The good: Quite difficult to choose something for this purpose this year, which I did not see coming at the end of 2024. Lewis Hamilton did win the first sprint of the year – which ultimately proved to be one of the key highlights of the season for the team – and Charles Leclerc put in another strong campaign with seven podium finishes, coming very close to repeating his emotional 2024 Monaco victory. Halfway through the season, Hamilton also seemed to find his feet, with some strong qualifying performances.
There was also a grid-shaping moment in Mexico City, where Ferrari looked set for a new second place in the Constructors’ Championship, with both cars in the top three and finishing third and fourth in Austin. Leclerc held onto second place in the race, but that was as good as it got.
The bad: It’s quite a long list, but the car should be the main area of focus. Ferrari has shown in the past that if it has a good car it can be a very strong team and perform well, but that is rare in Maranello.
From where things ended last year, Ferrari should have been a major threat to McLaren. Instead, it went wrong with a new car, had to fix its problems early on (culminating in the double DSQ in China) and fell out of contention before the season was a quarter old. The focus shifted to 2026, and that took its toll towards the end of the season, especially as Hamilton’s form dropped and Ferrari limped home fourth overall.
Of the final eight rounds, Hamilton’s fourth-place finish in Austin was an anomaly in terms of results, except he never finished higher than eighth. It can still work out, but there is still a lot of hard work to do for both Ferrari and Hamilton.
RATING: 4/10
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HARE
Poland: 0
Profit: 0
Position in the Constructors’ Championship: 8e (79 points)
The good: Haas overturned a problematic start to the season – a weakness in the floor that forced the car to ride extremely high in Australia and lag miles behind – with incredible speed. The next time we were in China the car was able to run normally and Esteban Ocon finished fifth and Ollie Bearman eighth, kicking off a run of three consecutive points-scoring weekends. An update to fix the problem arrived in Japan just three weeks after the Melbourne battle.
On five occasions Haas managed to score points with both cars, suggesting good execution on both sides of the garage on those weekends. And there was the highlight of Bearman’s fourth-place finish in Mexico City, which showed what the team can do and further highlighted the rookie’s potential. Despite dropping to seventh in the standings, it felt like further progress.
The bad: As good as the response was, the flooring issue at the beginning of the year received valuable attention and was a notable issue that needed to be resolved. Year-on-year, the aforementioned progress was still limited, as there were some notable off-weekends – Barcelona a clear example – and some big missed opportunities. Belgium and Azerbaijan should have scored strong points, but Haas failed to put everything in order.
Ocon’s form in particular has been very up and down as he struggles with understeer, and it feels like the 13 points that separated Haas from Racing Bulls at six points in the championship were there for the team to take at different times. It hasn’t maximized everything, but right now it feels like Haas is operating close to the ceiling and needs further investment to realistically reach a higher target in the future.
RATING: 7/10
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McLAREN
Poland: 13
Wins: 14
Position in the Constructors’ Championship: 1st (833 points)
The good: The upward trend continued despite the last year in which the regulations offered a significant opportunity for convergence, with McLaren’s technical team doing an excellent job of pulling away from the rest of the field at the start of the season.
Lando Norris emerged as a real champion in the final third of the season, while Oscar Piastri also took a big step forward to utilize the full package for most of the year. And despite the risks of having both battle it out for the title, the end result was a championship double and plenty of excitement until the final round.
The bad: McLaren almost let a drivers’ championship slip away due to its own mistakes. As much as the neutrals may have enjoyed the battle that went to the extreme, the disqualification in Las Vegas only affected McLaren, and then the huge strategic error in Qatar handed Max Verstappen another win when he didn’t need an invitation.
Ultimately the job was done, but it was the worrying first two races of the triple header that put enormous pressure on the final lap, which really shouldn’t have been necessary. The infamous Papaya rules were admirable, but also far from perfect, and a simplification may be necessary to successfully maintain the approach next year.
RATING: 9/10
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