10 biggest moments from the 2025 F1 season at the halfway point, ranked

Looking back at the 10 best moments from a thrilling start to the 2025 F1 season

We have reached the halfway point of the 2025 Formula 1 season.

If the first 12 races are any indication, what awaits us on the track — and off — over the final 12 races could be a season for the ages.

To mark the season’s halfway point, let’s pause and rank some of the best moments from the campaign to date. Earlier this week, I solicited nominations from the incredible community of F1 fans on Threads, and thanks to those suggestions, and some additions of my own, I put together a list.

Then I ranked them, because everyone always agrees with rankings.

While the initial request was for “moments,” as you see, we explored the studio space, if you will.

10. Lego Drivers’ Parade, Miami Grand Prix

Right out of the gate, and we are stretching the rules a bit ...

Still, when the season draws to a close, do not be surprised if the drivers themselves continue to express just how much they enjoyed the LEGO drivers’ parade at the Miami Grand Prix.

“That was awesome, we need to do that every race,” quipped George Russell following the Miami Grand Prix, who finished on the podium in the actual race but seemed to enjoy the LEGO version much more.

I mean, look at how happy Verstappen looked during it:

In the days after the Miami Grand Prix, F1 and LEGO released the full “director’s cut” of the parade, including the onboard footage from each of the ten cars.

It is absolutely worth a watch.

I mean, consider what Alexander Albon told me when I chatted with him exclusively following the Miami Grand Prix.

“It was so much fun!” exclaimed Albon when I asked him about the LEGO drivers’ parade.

“Just before a race, we’re in the zone and concentrating on everything we have to do and remember. So the drivers parade it was a welcome surprise to see the LEGO cars on the grid for the drivers’ parade,” added Albon. “I am a HUGE LEGO fan, I have been since I was a kid and so when I saw them, even though I was in ‘race mode’, deep down I was super excited to jump in and have some fun.”

Can we get more of these?

9. Isack Hadjar’s spin in Australia

The 2025 F1 season began in Melbourne with the Australian Grand Prix, with several drivers embarking on their first full-time season on the grid.

One of them did not make it there.

As the grid worked around Albert Park Circuit in wet conditions for the Formation Lap, Visa Cash App Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar slid off the racing line and into the barrier, ending his day before it began.

The rookie driver was distraught as he wound through the crowd back to VCARB’s hospitality space, before he found a pair of welcoming arms to embrace him.

Those of Anthony Hamilton, Lewis Hamilton’s father:

Hadjar reflected on that moment the following week, ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix:

“He said it reminded him of Lewis parking the car in the pit entry in Shanghai,” Hadjar said in Shanghai. “It was a nice moment, sharing time with someone like Anthony, the dad of my idol. It was quite a special moment. Lewis sent me a message later that day, so they’re really classy guys.”

It was a tough start to his season, but Hadjar has impressed in his bounce-back from that Melbourne incident. He broke through with his first points at the Japanese Grand Prix, and finished sixth in Monaco and seventh at the Spanish Grand Prix. Hadjar has 21 points on the season, leading all VCARB drivers.

An incredible rebound from a tough beginning.

8. Oscar Piastri’s recovery in Melbourne

We stay in Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and the quest for a hometown hero to finally break through with a victory.

Since the Australian Grand Prix joined the F1 calendar back in 1985, no Australian driver has won their home Grand Prix, let alone stood on the podium. The best finish from an Australian driver has been fourth, achieved multiple times, including from Piastri himself last season.

Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line second in 2014, but was disqualified after failing a post-race inspection.

With McLaren impressing in pre-season testing, Piastri looked to have a chance at ending that streak. He qualified second, alongside teammate Lando Norris, and was running at the front alongside Norris and Max Verstappen in the closing stages of the race, when a heavy dose of rain split the skies open, and led to some chaos on the track.

That included Piastri, who skidded into the grass and nearly came to a full stop, which would have ended his day.

But that’s when this happened:

To the roar of the crowd, Piastri managed to get his MCL39 going in reverse, backing onto a run-off section and rejoining the fight. While he came back down in P13, he fought back into the points to finish ninth, including an overtake of Hamilton in the final stages.

Never give up, indeed.

7. Pierre Gasly takes sixth at Silverstone

Similar to 2024, it has been a tough start to the season for Alpine.

Last year, the team did not break through with their first points until the Miami Grand Prix, when Esteban Ocon finished tenth. This year, their first points came in the fourth race of the season, when Pierre Gasly finished seventh in Bahrain.

Yet they are on their third driver of the season (Jack Doohan was benched after Miami in favor of Franco Colapinto), their second Team Principal (Oliver Oakes submitted his resignation with “immediate effect” after Miami as his brother is facing criminal charges in the United Kingdom, and Flavio Briatore assumed those duties), they have yet to get any points from the second seat, and they currently sit last in the Constructors’ Championship standings.

Yet, Gasly keeps trucking along, and he delivered a stunning performance at Silverstone, coming across the line sixth after fighting in the top five for the early part of the race. That sixth-place finish also made some F1 history, as noted by Race Fans. Alpine is currently tenth in the standings with 19 points. Haas, back in 2023, finished last with 12 points, which was the previous record for the most points secured by a team that finished last in the standings.

Even if Alpine remains mired in tenth, they will have eclipsed that mark.

As Race Fans noted, under today’s scoring system, some teams that finished lower than 12 points would have scored more under the current rules. For example, Toro Rosso finished last with eight points in 2009, but would have finished with 29 under the current scoring format.

Still, none of that changes what Gasly has done so far this season, and what he did at Silverstone during the British Grand Prix.

6. Kimi Antonelli’s first podium

Young Kimi Antonelli stepped into a huge set of shoes, sliding into the seat once occupied by Lewis Hamilton at just 18 years of age. But even with the massive expectations he faced entering his first full season of F1, Antonelli has largely lived up to them.

At the moment, Antonelli sits seventh in the F1 Drivers’ standings with 63 points, just behind the man he replaced at Mercedes. But we have seen flashes of his potential throughout the season. First came the Miami Grand Prix, where he stormed to pole position for the F1 Sprint. But his best result came at the Canadian Grand Prix, where he finished third, becoming the third-youngest podium finisher in the history of Formula 1.

There have been some difficult moments — and the Canadian Grand Prix stands as his only points finish in his last five races — but on that afternoon in Montreal, Antonelli showed the entire grid just what he can do in a race car.

It was also just his tenth Grand Prix. Among the current grid, only Hamilton and Lance Stroll reached the podium faster.

Honorable Mention: My personal favorite moment

Now that we have reached our own halfway point, if you will allow me, a personal selection as my favorite F1 moment of the year. Being on the ground for a race week is an overwhelming experience, a week-long sprint with lots of walking, lots of writing, lots of standing in media pens and holding a phone to record a press session while dealing with crowds and increasingly overwhelming shoulder pain, and very little sleep.

I love every moment.

Now, a true contender would be seeing Leo Leclerc in person — him napping on the couch during Frederic Vasseur’s post-race media session in the hospitality space was, as you might imagine, adorable — but I think I have to go with this one.

My Aston Martin TikTok debut!

Apple News readers will need to click the above link to view my masterpiece.

Okay, so it was not as much of a “debut” as it was a quick glimpse of me getting out of Fernando Alonso’s way. But in my mind, it counts!

Also, a big shoutout to my pals at UNDRGRND Circuit for finding that for me! Make sure you’re subscribed to Casey and Owen’s podcast!

Now, back to the good stuff.

5. Max Verstappen wins in Japan

After the first two race weekends, it looked as if McLaren and their driver pairing of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were going to completely run away with the season. Norris took the win in Australia to open the season, and Piastri rebounded after a tough race at home to score the win in China.

Then came Japan.

It looked as if it would be a Piastri-Norris fight at the front after the three practice sessions. Norris topped the timing sheets in FP1, Piastri was out front in FP2 (with Norris right behind him), and the two flipped for FP3, with Norris ahead of his teammate.

That continued as qualifying unfolded. Piastri was fastest in Q1, while Norris was fastest in Q2.

But when the checkered flag flew at the end of Q3, it was Max Verstappen on pole position, having stunned the grid and the McLaren duo, with a thunderous lap to take P1.

He then converted that pole position into his first win of the season.

There are certainly some questions that Red Bull needs to answer over the second half of the season, but this year’s Japanese Grand Prix was yet another reminder that you can never count Max Verstappen out.

4. Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 Sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton’s shocking decision to move to Ferrari for the 2025 season, after years at Mercedes, kicked off the 2024 driver transfer market before the season began.

But after wrapping up his final year with the Silver Arrows — punctuated with an emotional win in his final British Grand Prix with the team — Hamilton embarked on a new challenge with a new team.

He may finally be rounding into form, as he finished fourth at both the Austrian Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix. However, the first glimpse of Hamilton enjoying success in red came in Shanghai, where he stormed to pole position for the F1 Sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, and held off Max Verstappen and the rest of the pack over 19 laps to capture his first win as a Ferrari driver.

He has yet to taste a Grand Prix podium, let alone a Grand Prix win, for Ferrari, but given his recent form, it feels like that day is coming.

Perhaps Ferrari’s latest set of upgrades will prove decisive for him.

3. Nico Hülkenberg’s first podium

When Nico Hülkenberg lined up for the British Grand Prix, down in P19, it was for the 239th start of his career.

On the 238 times prior, Hülkenberg climbed out of his car at the end of his race and went somewhere other than the podium.

That changed on Sunday at Silverstone.

Thanks to a tremendous drive in the rain, Hülkenberg finished third, sending him to the podium for the first time in his long career.

He even needed a little help along the way, as Lando Norris was sure to bring Hülkenberg his helmet in the cooldown room:

The veteran driver’s maiden podium is the latest tale of perseverance in a sport filled with them. Hülknberg began his career back in 2010 with Williams, and his motorsport career has included: A win at Le Mans; a spot racing for Germany in the now-defunct A1 Grand Prix series; a hiatus from F1 itself where he even entertained a move to IndyCar, testing for Arrow McLaren, and a return to F1 with Haas two seasons ago.

But he bet his present and future on a move to Sauber for this season.

And ended F1’s longest podium wait in the process.

2. Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris finally clash in Canada

It was the moment everyone knew was coming.

Last year’s “Papaya Rules” storyline, unfolding as Lando Norris tried to chase down Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship standings just as Oscar Piastri began to put some pressure on those in front of him in the table, was just an appetizer for what we saw as 2025 began. When McLaren looked strong again in pre-season testing, many believed that the Drivers’ title race could come down to an all-McLaren fight, making the “Papaya Rules” discussion from 2024 all the more relevant as the season began.

As Piastri pulled into a lead in the title race, thanks to wins in five of the first nine races, the pressure shifted to Norris to respond.

Then came the moment in Canada where the two were battling for fourth position in the closing laps of the Canadian Grand Prix. While trying to overtake Piastri, Norris made contact with the rear of his teammate’s MCL39, knocking himself out of the race.

The British driver immediately took the blame for the incident, and since then, rebounded with a pair of wins. To hear Zak Brown tell the story, it was actually a “nice moment” in hindsight, as it “took the air out of the balloon” and the entire team was able to turn the page.

“I think Montreal was actually a nice moment for all of us, in hindsight, that it just kind of took the air out of the balloon and we just kind of got it over with and everyone was talking about it,” said Brown to Sky Sports F1 after the British Grand Prix.

“I kind of feel like it’s raised everyone’s confidence and comfort of, ‘It’s happened, it was a mistake’, so I think we’ll see other incidents in the near future, but there will be racing mistakes and racing mistakes are going to happen.”

McLaren has been dominant for nearly the entire season, and seem well on their way to another Constructors’ title.

But the Drivers’ Championship race is well up in the air, and however that race finishes, Montreal will certainly stand as a flashpoint in that fight, even if we all saw it coming.

1. Chaos at Red Bull

Again, I know the full framing of this story was “biggest moments,” but let’s just take all the chaos we have seen at Red Bull Racing, mash them together, for one big moment.

Because while McLaren’s dominance — and the Norris and Piastri dustup in Canada — have truly shaped the 2025 F1 season so far, what we are seeing at Red Bull may shape the sport not just for the rest of 2025, but potentially for years to come.

Red Bull began the year with Liam Lawson driving alongside Max Verstappen. But after just two races, a switch was made: Lawson was demoted to VCARB while Yuki Tsunoda was given his dream shot, a spot at Red Bull alongside Verstappen just in time for his home race, the Japanese Grand Prix.

However, the switch has not delivered the kind of points Red Bull is looking for. Tsunoda has secured just seven points in his ten race weekends with the senior team, and with Red Bull requesting a waiver from the FIA for 17-year-old Arvid Lindblad to get behind the wheel of Tsunoda’s RB21 for FP1 at the British Grand Prix, questions had already arisen over Tsunoda’s tenure with the team.

Then came word from Sky Sports Italy that Mercedes was inching closer to a deal to secure Verstappen’s services. While subsequent reporting indicated that nothing was “imminent,” the rumors made for one incredible scene in Red Bull’s hospitality space at the British Grand Prix:

Having been in those scrums in a Red Bull hospitality space before, they are just as uncomfortable as they look.

Then came the biggest thunderbolt of them all. After 20 years as Team Principal, Christian Horner was out. Laurent Mekies, the Team Principal at VCARB, was promoted to become the Team Principal and CEO at Red Bull, just the second in the team’s storied F1 history.

Now, the rumors hold that it was a move made to placate Verstappen and dissuade him from leaving. But ultimately, as Erik van Haren at the Telegraf pointed out on Sky Sports F1 in the moments after Horner’s shocking dismissal, keeping Verstappen might come down to what Red Bull can do with the RB21 and the development of the RB22 for next year.

The chaos at Red Bull bubbled to the surface at the midway point of the season.

It may boil over before the year is through.