Lando Norris is the 2025 Formula 1 world champion - so you can guess where he is in our Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winners and losers selection.
But here's our judgement on everyone else as well.
Winner - Lando Norris (3rd but world champion)
This was a no-frills drive to the title. But there's no way Norris will care about that.
He had earned the right to that kind of drive from the lead he'd built up from a hugely impressive spell in the final quarter of the season. And it wasn't all straightforward, either: he had to be incisive in cutting his way through midfielders after his first stop, and dealt with the persistent headache that Charles Leclerc represented with unflappable calm.
Norris said after being crowned that "my best performances this year came when I needed them the most". This drive might not have had the headline result attached to it that some of those performances did, but it looks just as impressive in the context of what was on the line. - Jack Cozens
Loser - Max Verstappen (1st but title lost)
Giving Verstappen a place in this section is obviously incongruous with the principles of our winners and losers picks. But there's obviously one reason why this race winner can't end up anywhere else.
A lot had to go right - including some good fortune along the way - for Verstappen just to be in this title fight. But there was little doubt once he found himself in the thick of it that he'd take it down to the wire in the way that he did.
This was a brilliantly executed weekend and race drive, as Red Bull-Verstappen transformed itself from a package that was marginally behind the McLaren to class of the field in a way only that combination seems capable of doing.
Whether there was more that could've been done on the day, who knows? With Leclerc the only 'other' contender in the lead pack, it might well have been futile trying to back the McLarens up, anyway - after all, even had Leclerc got past Norris, the option was there for McLaren to order Piastri to drop back and help his team-mate.
Was this a brilliant performance from Verstappen? Of course. Was it one befitting of a title? Undoubtedly.
But does he end up a loser in the grand scheme of things? Yes - especially having come up just short of extending his 1456-day reign as world champion. - JC
Loser - Oscar Piastri (2nd but title lost)
Much like Verstappen, Piastri isn't here for anything he did wrong on the day. It might even be so that his actions in overtaking his McLaren team-mate at the start helped Norris win the title - as the intricacies of Piastri's offset tyre strategy meant Verstappen didn't really have the flexibility to back the pack up in the way many expected him to.
At 16 points back pre-weekend, and with Verstappen in the kind of form he's been in, Piastri always looked to have the longest championship shot. But it's testament to him that, fresh from his one and only pitstop, he was still asking McLaren about how he could win this race in the closing laps.
Piastri was brilliant for much of this season. He even said, after defeat, "I've felt unstoppable at points" this year. And that's no overstatement: he was the class of the field multiple times in 2025.
That should be what's focused on when the dust has settled. Right now, though, it might be that tricky late-season run where he came up short that steals the attention. - JC
Winner - Fernando Alonso (6th)
Almost unnoticed by the cameras for much of this weekend, Alonso quietly delivered one of his strongest performances of this season in both qualifying and the race.
Alonso missed the first practice session of the weekend after handing his seat over to Cian Shields for FP1, but as soon as he stepped into the car he looked well on the pace. Ninth in second practice became an even more promising fourth in FP3, hinting that the Aston Martin was going better than at many other recent races.
It was up to Alonso to take advantage of that pace though, and he did just that in both qualifying and the race, with the improved pace of the AMR25 seemingly coaxing Alonso to give his best.
After recording the fourth best time in both Q1 and Q2, Alonso dropped to a still-excellent sixth on the grid after Q3, giving him the honours of best of the rest ahead of his protege Gabriel Bortoleto.
That strong starting position set Alonso up well for race day, and he again capitalised by making an excellent start to jump ahead of George Russell. The latent pace of the Mercedes proved too much for Alonso to maintain this position, but he still managed the race creditably to finish where he started.
In doing so, Alonso helped significantly in securing Aston Martin's seventh place in the constructors' championship (even if it fell short of catching Racing Bulls for sixth), which was particularly notable on a weekend where the team's rival Haas was also enjoying strong performance. - George Wright
Loser - George Russell/Mercedes (5th)
Mercedes accomplished its mission for the weekend, hanging on to second in the constructors' championship by 18 points over Red Bull, but this dire race showing was perhaps a rather fitting send-off to this disappointing era for the team, in which it never became a true contender.
Toto Wolff described it as "really mediocre", which is rather kind. He also acknowledged it was a sign of the fact "these cars are still not very clear to us, because we come off the back of some really good weekends".
The W16 pummelled the front right tyre through Turn 1 and Turn 9, and Russell limped home a dreadful 48.6s behind the winner, while Kimi Antonelli laboured in the pack.
Mercedes will hope this was one final insult from this ground effect era before a 2014-style resurgence. - Valentin Khorounzhiy
Winner - Ferrari (4th + 8th)
Ferrari is only really a winner in the context of the days and weekends that preceded this particular Sunday. It looked reasonable in the hands of Lewis Hamilton given the penalty of his 16th place starting position, and downright feisty in Leclerc's hands as he created the faintest flicker of title jeopardy for Norris by chasing the McLaren for the final podium spot.
Leclerc, who "didn't expect to be that fast", said there was a clear idea now within Ferrari for why a deeply recalcitrant SF25 could be turned overnight, from qualifying to the race, into a genuinely potent package.
But "there is not another race to prove it, and it's the last race of this era of cars anyway so it doesn't really matter". - VK
Loser - Yuki Tsunoda (14th)
Let's be honest, there is something darkly comic about Yuki Tsunoda having told Red Bull "I know what to do, so leave it to me", then holding up Norris for all of no seconds, earning himself a time penalty in the process, and then completely disappearing from the TV screens from the rest of the race.
It's been that kind of season, quite possibly his last in F1, with flashes of performance largely drowned out in the struggle, capped off by another race undone not just by a penalty but by getting stuck behind slower cars and just not finding a way past.
Strategy probably didn't help, the penalty definitely didn't help, and both of those things were a consequence of his race having to serve Verstappen's, so it's difficult to be too critical. But apart from a moment of unintentional comedy, if this turns out to have been his final grand prix start, it was very uninspiring. - VK
Winner - Esteban Ocon (7th)
Ocon made it three points finishes in the last five races to round off what had become a difficult season in good form. He was narrowly beaten by rookie Haas team-mate Ollie Bearman in the final standings, 41 points to 38, but made sure to end the season on a high note.
Ocon struggled in Friday practice, stating he was "at the lowest point" after the initial running. However, he was able to work with the team between FP2 and FP3 and managed a Q3 appearance in the final qualifying of the year.
He turned that into a points finish, ending the race in seventh and putting it down to "great pace, great tyre management, good overtaking as well" as he fended off Hamilton's faster and fresher-tyred Ferrari to the flag.
Given how tough the second half of his 2025 has been, Ocon admitted the result had a "bittersweet taste" and that at "the last 10 races we should have been strong like this". Nonetheless, it was a strong end to the season for Ocon that should serve as momentum as it was good to "build up the foundation" for 2026. - Michael Williams
Loser - Ollie Bearman (12th)
Bearman started the Abu Dhabi weekend strongly, stating his car was "insane" during FP2 as he went fourth fastest. However, the weekend only got harder from that moment onwards.
He failed to advance into Q3 by just seven thousandths of second, illustrating the tight margins this weekend, but this meant he would have to start the race from 11th.
Bearman showed a persevering drive and did run in the points alongside team-mate Ocon, but post-race was demoted outside the top 10 by a time penalty for illegal defending against Lance Stroll - just minutes after Stroll copped the same penalty for doing the same thing to Carlos Sainz.
Bearman was mystified as to why he was penalised, calling it "strange". It ultimately didn't make any difference to Haas being beaten to seventh in the constructors' by Aston Martin at least.
But it was a disappointing way to end such an outstanding rookie season for the Haas driver, which featured points finishes in five of the last seven events. - MW
Winner - Nico Hulkenberg (9th)
Hulkenberg was another driver who had something of a stealthy weekend. In his 250th grand prix, the bulk of the Sauber talk prior to Sunday was about his team-mate Bortoleto's qualifying performance and the departure of the Sauber name from the grid.
Hulkenberg endured a rough qualifying, managing only 18th on the grid after a mix-up which nearly led to both Sauber cars not making the flag to start their laps in Q1. This compromised Hulkenberg more, and it seemed that he could have a long race ahead of him.
However, Hulkenberg bounced back strongly in the race, working his way up the field and taking full advantage of a car which was far stronger than his 18th-place starting position indicated.
Starting on the soft perhaps didn't yield the launch off the line Sauber was hoping for, with Hulkenberg only holding position in the early laps. As it turned out though, the two-stop strategy his choice of starting compound brought about worked well for him in the midfield, particularly when compared with Bortoleto's one-stop - which left him with no tyres in the closing laps.
Hulkenberg was therefore able to catch and pass his team-mate on the final lap despite starting 11 places further back on the grid. When Bearman and Stroll were both penalised, he rose further to ninth, to give Sauber two well-earned points in its swansong race. - GW
