F1’s class photo night out: 17 drivers, three empty chairs and an unpaid bill (for now)
Abu Dhabi’s late-night glow isn’t just for the finale laps. As the season wound down, 17 of Formula 1’s 20 drivers slipped out for their now-traditional end-of-year dinner — a rare ceasefire where points, politics and pit walls are left at the door. Fernando Alonso, Nico Hülkenberg and Lance Stroll didn’t make it this time, leaving a few conspicuously empty seats in the annual group shot.
Lewis Hamilton posted the photo with a simple caption — “Class of 2025” — then added the kind of perspective that only really lands after a year like this: they’re “the only people in the world to do what we do,” and despite everything that happens on track, there’s “nothing but respect” off it. Lando Norris kept it on-brand with, “traditions (no food was thrown during this dinner),” while George Russell called it the “yearly dinner with the boys.” Yuki Tsunoda, naturally, noticed the fashion brief: “white shirt dress code, not all of us got the memo.”
Here’s the snapshot the paddock’s been passing around:
One big F1 family ❤️
The 2025 end of season drivers’ dinner!#F1#AbuDhabiGPpic.twitter.com/Pmv8CMv1m4
— Formula 1 (@F1)December 4, 2025
As ever, the evening’s most enduring mystery wasn’t who ordered dessert — it was who paid. In F1 lore, the reigning World Champion is supposed to pick up the tab. In practice, it’s not always that neat. The 2016 dinner is now part of paddock folklore: Nico Rosberg reportedly pushed for an 18-way split, which Lewis Hamilton memorably called “a little bit silly and ridiculous.” Hamilton said he offered to cover it — or split it with another driver — but others preferred to pay individually. Rosberg, for his part, shrugged that “the hidden agreement is usually that the world champion pays,” though he admitted that might just be his opinion.
Then there was last year’s curveball: Valtteri Bottas, between contracts at the time, quietly settled the whole thing — roughly 20,000 dirhams (just over €5,000). “It was my pleasure,” he said later, as if he’d just sprung for a round of coffees and not a feast for 20 very fast, very hungry people.
This year? No confirmations, no receipts waved on social media. Given the Abu Dhabi setting and the size of the group, it won’t have been small. But if there’s a theme to this annual get-together, it’s that what happens at the table stays at the table — mostly.
Not entirely, though. Look closely at the photo and you’ll spot the season’s lingering subplot: Max Verstappen and George Russell sharing frame but not necessarily proximity. Paddock chatter suggested an open chair next to Verstappen was left unused, and that Russell might’ve ever-so-slightly repositioned his seat after the fact. Harmless theater or a tiny act of social footwork? Either way, even at a truce dinner, you can’t keep the competitive edges out of shot.
As for the no-shows, there was no drama attached — at least none shared publicly. Alonso, Hülkenberg and Stroll had other plans or simply didn’t make it across town. It happens. The list of those who did turn up was broad enough to feel like a proper class photo: rivals on Sundays, co-workers the rest of the week. Plenty of white shirts, some dress code freelancing, and a noticeable lack of flying bread rolls, if Norris is to be believed.
If you’re new to the tradition, this dinner matters more than it should on paper. It’s the one night when the sport’s smallest club sits down without helmets and team gear and remembers that the grid is a very short roll call. The faces change, the dynamics shift, but the picture at the end of the year is a constant — and a reminder that beneath the results and radio messages, it’s a traveling circus that eats together, argues together, and flies out the next morning.
Bill paid or not, there’s one guarantee: the moment the plates are cleared, attention snaps back to Yas Marina and the last laps of the season. The photo will live on; the points will decide themselves. And somewhere in Abu Dhabi, a restaurant manager has a story to tell about the night 17 Formula 1 drivers showed up for dinner and somehow left more questions than answers.
