Drivers crown Verstappen their 2025 Drivers’ Driver as Hamilton drops out of top 10
Lando Norris may have the big trophy on his mantelpiece, but when the paddock quietly cast their ballots on who did the best driving in 2025, they pointed to the other orange car in their mirrors. Max Verstappen has been voted the Drivers’ Driver of the Year, edging the new world champion to top spot in Formula 1’s annual peer poll.
It’s the fifth straight season Verstappen has taken the accolade, a streak that says plenty about how his rivals rate the Dutchman’s output even in a campaign where the title went elsewhere. The vote mirrors race scoring — 25 points for first, 18 for second and so on — and is conducted anonymously. Most drivers leave themselves off the list. Almost the entire grid participated, with Lance Stroll, Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hülkenberg the only no-shows.
Six drivers put Verstappen P1 on their sheets, enough to keep him on top overall. Norris, like last year, finished second in the peer vote. The top end did shift elsewhere though: George Russell climbed into third at Oscar Piastri’s expense, with the McLaren driver slipping to fourth after a bruising run-in to the season.
Ferrari’s up-and-down year didn’t stop Charles Leclerc earning respect at No. 5, while team-mate Hamilton was the headline omission — outside the top 10 for the first time since the poll began eight seasons ago. Carlos Sainz landed sixth after a strong second half, Fernando Alonso rose two places to seventh, and Alex Albon broke into the list for the first time in eighth. Rookies Oliver Bearman and Isack Hadjar rounded out the top ten, a tidy recognition from their peers in year one.
As ever, the team principals had their say, and their list came with a few wrinkles. They placed Piastri ahead of Russell, bumped Alonso all the way up to fifth, and slid Hülkenberg into 10th — with Albon missing out entirely. Different vantage points, different criteria: the bosses tend to weigh consistency, car context and feedback as much as raw moments of brilliance, and the divergence shows.
None of this is binding, of course, but it’s a useful barometer. Drivers are an unforgiving jury; they don’t hand out plaudits lightly. Verstappen topping both ballots tallies with the paddock consensus that, title or not, he’s still the most complete operator out there — relentlessly fast, relentlessly tidy, relentlessly hard to beat over a season. It’ll take a serious reset to dislodge that perception heading into the 2026 regulations.
Interesting, then, that Verstappen himself has been open about how future decisions won’t just hinge on lap time. Speaking to the BBC recently, he framed any potential change as something far bigger than “I need a faster car,” pointing to the family feel of his current team and the wider ecosystem around his racing life. If he ever moves, it’ll be because several pieces beyond performance line up at once.
Back to the now: Hamilton’s absence is the other big talking point. His first season in red had its flashes, but the drivers’ list is ruthlessly current — it remembers who delivered week in, week out, who made fewer errors, who dragged a result out of nothing. On that metric, 2025’s top 10 leaves him out. The bar hasn’t dropped; the competition has risen.
Quick recap of the drivers’ vote:
– 1. Max Verstappen
– 2. Lando Norris
– 3. George Russell
– 4. Oscar Piastri
– 5. Charles Leclerc
– 6. Carlos Sainz
– 7. Fernando Alonso
– 8. Alex Albon
– 9–10. Oliver Bearman, Isack Hadjar
Different list, same conclusion: when F1’s toughest critics scribble a name at the top of the page, they still write “Verstappen.” Norris owns the crown, but the dressing room nod goes to the No. 1 they’re still measuring themselves against.
