The numbers don’t lie, so halfway through the 2025 Formula 1 season we have more than enough data to understand the real performance of every single car and driver.
Using our supertimes methodology, which takes a team and driver’s fastest single lap from each grand prix weekend and expresses it as a percentage, we can evaluate performance across the season with equal weighting for each of the 12 events. Single-lap pace is far more accurate given race pace includes so many more variables.
I’ve ranked the teams in order of their supertimes. This gives you a theoretical performance potential and shows how well each driver has exploited that. The constructors’ championship position is also included - if everyone is doing the maximum it should correspond with their supertime rankings.
1st McLaren - 100.044%
Championship positions: McLaren (1st), Oscar Piastri (1st), Lando Norris (2nd)
McLaren has achieved what it set out to by carrying over the momentum of last year’s strong finish. You could say it has dominated, but it has been a little nip and tuck on some occasions.
All you can ask of your people is to keep moving forward and that’s what’s happened. The McLaren MCL39 is a car for all occasions, be that qualifying or racing, slow or fast corners, wet or dry conditions - nothing seems to faze it.
Crucially, the good management of the rear tyres means that race pace is always strong. After last year’s question marks, the team’s reaction to everything thrown at it both strategically at the track and back home with development is second to none.
McLaren doesn’t throw new developments at the car on a whim. These are evaluated at the track and when they are understood they stay on the car and, so far, McLaren has never looked back.
McLaren has scored on average 36.4 points from a potential 43 points per race (ignoring the two sprints, in which it has added 23 points). It is 238 points ahead of its nearest rival, and with 12 races to go even without scoring in five of them it would still walk away with the constructors’ championship.
What can McLaren do better? Not a lot, just keep doing what you are doing and I would argue that this could be F1’s next powerhouse team, stringing together multiple championships.
As for its drivers, it has probably the most evenly matched pairing. Oscar Piastri has scored an average of 19.5 points from a potential 25 points per race, while Lando Norris is going at 18.8 points per race - so just a 0.7 point difference. This shows how important a two-car team, with both drivers contributing, is.
We have criticised the team, myself included, for not implementing team orders but when you look at the points situation it’s clear there’s no need to. McLaren is on course to win the constructors’ championship and whichever of the two drivers keeps his nose cleanest will win the drivers’ title.
This also means that, in reality, the cleverer of the two drivers could instigate those team orders themselves by earning priority through performance.
2nd Red Bull - 100.329%
Championship positions: Red Bull (4th), Max Verstappen (3rd), Yuki Tsunoda (17th)
This is Red Bull’s worst season since 2020, the year before it returned to championship-winning form. Yes, it’s had four pole positions and a couple of wins, but they came out of nowhere thanks to Max Verstappen.
The fact Red Bull is second on my performance rankings but fourth in the constructors’ championship shows it is the epitome of a one-car team. Having one driver doing all the heavy lifting is not the way to win the constructors’ championship because Verstappen can only drive one car at a time.
With Christian Horner now removed as team principal, Red Bull needs to regroup and open its collective eyes to the reality of what’s going wrong. I’m not blaming Horner for this, but sometimes you need a major shock to wake everyone up and shake them into action.
This means the key improvement Red Bull must make is producing a car that is more driver-friendly. If that’s achieved, it can become a two-car team again and Verstappen might even be faster and more consistent.
Without doubt, Verstappen is exceptional, with total confidence in his talent but even he needs the car to be in the ballpark. Arguably, his ‘good’ performances have done more harm than good given they have hidden just how difficult the car has become.
For a long time, Verstappen has complained about balance problems and although things have improved, it's not been by enough. Perhaps that’s convinced technical director Pierre Wache that sustained success is just around the corner if you can tweak the correct knob to make that performance be produced consistently.
In the second car, both Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda are unquestionably competent drivers. But taking on the pressure of being in a frontrunning team alongside a great like Verstappen is not just about being competent. Their results reflect that even with the difficulties of the car, they weren't and aren’t doing anywhere near enough.
3rd Mercedes - 100.475%
Championship positions: Mercedes (3rd), George Russell (4th), Kimi Antonelli (7th)
Mercedes is third in the performance rankings and in the constructors’ championship, so you could argue it has achieved what the car is capable of. However, the randomness of its results are something that needs to be looked at closely.
Mercedes and George Russell dominated in Montreal, but then two weeks later were nowhere at the Red Bull Ring - although Silverstone was OK until that was thrown away by going to slicks too early.
Mercedes is nowhere near as confident as McLaren when it comes to finding a development direction. This shows that whatever it is doing in the simulation programme is a bit off-kilter. All of these exotic pieces of kit like driver in the loop simulators are great, but they are only as good as the inputs. Sometimes you need someone with a gut feel to question the outputs.
Team principal Toto Wolff keeps saying that the car doesn’t like the heat, abrasive track surfaces and long corners. If you know the problems they need to be solved and it’s no good just repeating the need to do that if you don’t make any progress.
As for the drivers, George Russell has done the heavy lifting so far and deserves an extension to his contract. I suppose that is to be expected given Kimi Antonelli’s lack of experience, but he will need to up his game in the second half of the season. He has shown he has the speed at times, but there are more mistakes than I would like.
4th Ferrari - 100.561%
Championship rankings: Ferrari (2nd), Charles Leclerc (5th), Lewis Hamilton (6th)
Ferrari’s season has been disappointing, but as Ferrari is fourth on my pace ranking and second in the constructors’ championship it shows how ineffective both Red Bull and Mercedes have been at bringing in the points on race day. Having two fairly evenly-matched drivers who know how to bring the car home and score good points even on bad days helps.
Ferrari has generally been stronger on race pace than qualifying pace, and that’s all part of the wider car problems.
We keep hearing of development steps that will put Ferrari right in the mix, but I haven’t seen that major progress yet. Even the floor upgrade in Austria that appeared to improve the car didn’t make any tangible difference to the relative performance.
We’re expecting to see a modified rear suspension appear perhaps as early as Spa with more powerful damping, which will make it possible to run the car as low as Ferrari wants to. There are also rumours of revised power steering to give the driver more feel, a problem that Lewis Hamilton has been complaining about since day one.
The key is that Ferrari must show a good understanding of its problems. You don’t have to find the magic bullet, but to have confidence in which direction you will take for 2026 you need to show that you are capable of coming up with something that makes the drivers feel more comfortable in the car.
As for the drivers, the Charles Leclerc and Hamilton combination was supposed to be the magic duo. It’s probably the most expensive combination on the grid, but that doesn’t always bring success. Without doubt, Leclerc is magic on one lap in qualifying, but unless he is running at the front in the race, he seems to get into a rhythm of the cars around him.
In the China sprint race, it looked like Hamilton had found his feet. Pole position and a sprint win was excellent, but by the next day it had all gone south. Since his arrival at Ferrari, from session to session, anything could happen, and, to be honest, it’s not much different from his last season at Mercedes.
5th Williams - 101.026%
Championship rankings: Williams (5th), Alex Albon (8th), Carlos Sainz (15th)
We’re now moving into the second group of teams outside of the ‘big four’. Being the fifth-best is akin to winning for those teams and right now Williams is on top - albeit with a huge gap to the top four with Red Bull on 172 in fourth place and Williams just 59.
Williams started the season strongly - or at least Alex Albon did. However, over the last few races, things have fallen away not only in performance but more importantly in reliability. To finish first, first you have to finish - and the mysterious cooling problems Williams has encountered haven’t helped that.
On a good day Williams can qualify and race in the top 10 but on a bad day its cars can both be out in Q1. Again, we have heard talk that the car doesn’t suit certain circuits, primarily those with longer corners, but the unfortunate thing is that all 24 circuits count towards the championships. You need a car for all occasions - as McLaren's proving.
We keep hearing that Williams is in a building process and yes it’s very important to get the foundations correct before you start on the building, however at some point in time you have to commit with what you have. The big problem is that F1 waits for no one, the seasons come and go so part of that building process is finding the correct timing to switch to the next season. As 2026 is a major rule change, it’s the ideal timing to put your best foot forward.
Both Williams drivers are very competent having come through the Helmut Marko-Red Bull school of motoring so know first hand what is expected of them as drivers. Sainz has won grands prix with Ferrari and Albon is without doubt a match for him, so give them the tools to do the job and they will bring you the results.
6th Racing Bulls - 101.076%
Championship positions: Racing Bulls (7th), Isack Hadjar (11th), Liam Lawson (16th)
Racing Bulls is in many ways the mirror image opposite of Red Bull given it has a car that seems consistent to drive and inspires confidence in the drivers.
When Lawson was promoted, it brought in Isack Hadjar then got Lawson back when Tsunoda was promoted. However, through all of this disruption, the focus was maintained and Hadjar has been the outstanding rookie of 2025 so far.
From a team point of view, drivers moving around like musical chairs can be very disruptive. Any team plans its developments around the drivers’ needs and if that keeps changing it can alter your priorities. Racing Bulls is a sister act to Red Bull but has its own way of doing things. Yes, it uses what is possible from Red Bull but the cars aerodynamic philosophy is very different. That means it is a more driver friendly car, however one that while it might lack a little in terms of peak downforce, as proved by the fact that it isn’t the strongest car in the fast corners it’s one that the drivers can extract the most from.
While Hadjar has proved his worth, there’s still question marks over the second seat with Lawson’s difficult season. However, he appeared to find himself again with a great weekend in Austria so needs to repeat that, or else I’m pretty sure Arvid Lindblad will be taking his seat.
Losing Laurent Mekies to Red Bull isn’t ideal, but Alan Permane has all the experience you need to take over as team principal.
7th Alpine - 101.255%
Championship position: Alpine (10th), Pierre Gasly (13th), Jack Doohan* (21st), Franco Colapinto* (20th) *part season
What’s just happened to Red Bull and Racing Bulls is nothing compared to the day-to-day happenings at Alpine. I’m not going to get into the management personnel or driver changes in detail because basically I can’t keep up, but one thing I will say is that if stability equals success, then owner Renault still has much to learn.
The car started the season poorly, despite looking promising in Bahrain testing, which was misleading because it was one of the few tracks where the car worked well. Generally, the Alpine lacks grip and doesn’t ride bumps well, which has made life very difficult this year even though there have been occasions when Pierre Gasly has mixed it with the big guns.
That Alpine is seventh in my performance rankings but 10th in the constructors’ championship is telling, although that’s partly down to being effectively a one-car team. Alpine is paying the price for management decisions made in haste, with Jack Doohan dropped after six events for Franco Colapinto.
Doohan was doing OK, at times showing good pace, and just needed more time. But that wasn’t to be and with Colapinto on the sidelines I think Flavio Briatore thought he was a sure bet for a few extra points and a lot more dollars. Unfortunately, instead of continuing how he started at Williams last year he continued as he finished at Williams.
8th Aston Martin - 101.287%
Championship position: Aston Martin (8th), Fernando Alonso (14th), Lance Stroll (12th)
Aston Martin is in eighth place in the constructors’ championship and the same in my performance rating, so in effect is getting the best from the machinery. However, the expenditure to achieve those 36 miserable points is second to none.
Now Adrian Newey is on board there really are no other excuses. It’s now all about getting the team to work together and I am pretty sure quite a few people will have had their egos stomped on. What’s encouraging is that at least now the team is introducing upgrades that make the car better, not worse, which suggests that at least the understanding has improved.
Designing a new car for a new set of regulations, designing your own gearbox for the first time since 2008 and building a relationship with new power unit supplier Honda will not be easy. But Aston Martin now has the people and the kit, so it’s time to prove it and move up the ladder.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll have on some occasions performed similarly, but I think that is just the car characteristics. In a decent car I think Stroll will be OK to get consistently in the top 10, but in that same car Alonso could still embarrass some of the new up and coming superstars. Even so, 2026 might just be his last year.
9th Haas - 101.550%
Championship position: Haas (9th), Esteban Ocon (10th), Ollie Bearman (18th)
Ninth in the constructors’ championship and my performance rating shows that the drivers are getting what they can out of the Haas. The season didn't start well, with big problems with porpoising in the high-speed corners, but Haas regrouped and probably should have scored more points. Then again, you also make your own luck, and we have seen both the drivers make mistakes at critical times.
This is a small team but with very widely spread tentacles. With input from Ferrari, Toyota, Dallara, Haas in the USA, Italy and the UK it must be a bit of a nightmare to keep everything pointing in the same direction, so I don’t envy anyone having to do that. And with 2026 and new regulations just around the corner it’s just going to get worse.
However, Haas seems to have a reasonable understanding of the car and when it introduced a new floor for Suzuka to reduce its bouncing problems without having run it in the windtunnel, the results were good. That proves that the ability to apply a bit of gut feel to correcting a problem can still happen in this world of ever increasing computer driven technology.
Driver-wise, Haas benefits from youth and experience. Ollie Bearman is without doubt fast, but he has made too many stupid mistakes like at Silverstone, and suffered the consequences with grid penalties. He needs to tidy that up, and quickly.
Esteban Ocon is experienced but still sees the red mist too often. For a team like Haas, it’s about finishing races and reaping the reward from others mistakes and not throwing it all away.
10th Sauber - 101.721%
Championship position: Sauber (6th), Nico Hulkenberg (9th), Gabriel Bortoleto (19th)
This was the season where I thought Sauber would start to benefit from the alliance with Audi. It didn't start like that, but progress has been made and Nico Hulkenberg’s recent results, especially his third place at Silverstone, are testament to that.
There are also signs that the team under technical director James Key is focusing in the correct area. Recent upgrades for Spain and Britain gave more downforce, but far more important was the improved consistency. As I always say, a driver can only drive to the troughs, so a peaky car is bad for confidence.
Sauber is currently sixth in the constructors' championship, but 10th on my performance rating so those 15 points from Silverstone have made a huge difference. The podium was a one-off brought about by circumstances, so I don’t expect it to become a regular feature.
Sauber still has a lot to do to be getting into Q3 semi-regularly, which will be the minimum expected when it turns into Audi. Its drivers have good experience and Hulkenberg is the ideal driver to lead this team into that era, and while Gabriel Bortoleto hasn’t had the luck he has got the speed. Alonso’s guidance as his manager can only be positive.
Conclusion
McLaren has shown everyone what’s possible given it’s not long ago it was struggling to get out of Q1. As long as its drivers don’t slip on a banana skin, or drive into each other too often, then I’m pretty sure both championships are sewn up. However, below McLaren the battle will be interesting and it’s going to be an exciting last 12 races.
With the new regulations for 2026 fast approaching, some teams will have stopped 2025 development entirely but most will have something in the pipeline and will bring some kind of updates after the summer break. But beyond that it will be about getting the best out of what you have. Sometimes, that’s not a bad thing to do as rather than changing things and confusing yourself, you optimise performance with a package you know well.
From front to back, across 21 drivers and 10 teams, we have a spread of 2.411%. In the 1990s, you could qualify sixth with that sort of pace.
Now, we throw that close competitiveness all away come 2026 as we have a whole new challenge for everyone to get their heads around.
But that’s a topic for another day...
