2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Preview: 5 Big Talking Points Heading into the Weekend

Linus O'Howell
Dec 4, 2025
8 min read

Lando’s to Lose!

We have finally made it to the Season Finale of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship, and somehow, we enter Abu Dhabi with a 3-way Title decider! So, because of that, we need to discuss all 3 contenders separately, starting with the Championship leader, Lando Norris! Lando Norris made his Formula 1 debut at the 2019 Australian Grand Prix, appeared on the Podium for the first time at Austria 2020, secured his maiden Pole Position at Russia 2021, and took his first-ever Grand Prix victory in an iconic 2024 Miami Grand Prix! Heading into this year, Lando entered as a lot of people’s favourite to become the latest F1 World Champion, with the firm belief that he would’ve learnt from last year, plus McLaren were very much expected to have the strongest package! Now, his victory in the season opener in Australia was mega, but after that, things got tough for Norris as he crashed in Saudi Arabia Qualifying, whilst also seemingly being slightly slower than teammate Oscar Piastri! If Monaco was a high point, Canada was certainly a low point, and despite plucky wins in Austria, Hungary, and his Home Race of Silverstone, things looked to be going away from the Brit after his engine failure at Zandvoort! Azerbaijan was also a massive missed opportunity for Lando, but after showing a lot of aggression to barge Piastri out of the way at Singapore, Norris picked up a couple of brilliant wins in Mexico City and Sao Paulo to all of a sudden look like a certainty to wrap the Title up before we even got to Abu Dhabi! That belief continued during Terry Crews’ carpool karaoke after the end of the Las Vegas Grand Prix, but little did we know what was to come next! See, not only were both McLaren’s disqualified from the event, but another blunder from McLaren in Qatar + a complete lack of pace for Norris meant he enters the Season Finale with “just” a 12-point lead out front! If we’re being totally honest, this Championship is still firmly in Lando Norris’ hands; he just needs to finish on the Podium to secure his maiden World Championship! However, having said that, 2025 has been the year of momentum swings when it comes to who’s going to win the World Title, so it’s not a done deal! Either way, the pressure is certainly on Lando Norris’ shoulders, something he has very mixed history of dealing with!

The End of an Era

Not only is their Championship to be decided this weekend, there’s also a whole lot of different chapters of Formula 1 coming to an end! Firstly, it has been officially confirmed that Yuki Tsunoda won’t be on the Grid from next season, bringing his 114 F1 appearances to an end! Unfortunately, Yuki never achieved his moment on the Podium, but we won’t forget his incredible drive to P4 in the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (yes, there was more things that happened in that Race than just the ending)! Secondly, Isack Hadjar will leave Racing Bulls at the end of this weekend, hoping he can be the first young driver for a long time to find success at Red Bull, whilst we’re also saying goodbye to the Sauber name in Formula 1, with Audi taking over the team from 2026! Without a doubt, I will miss their striking green livery! We also can’t forget about the end of the Renault engine, as the Alpine team will move to Mercedes power from next season! Now, the Renault engine was first introduced into Formula 1 for Lotus in 1983, and whilst it’s not always been particularly popular, it has delivered success, with multiple Championships with Williams, Benetton, Red Bull Racing, and of course their own team with Fernando Alonso (back in 2005/2006)! And finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the fact that this is also the final weekend of the “ground-effect” era, a change that Formula 1 brought in from the start of the 2022 Season! Now, I wouldn’t exactly say that these cars have been a great success, particularly when you consider how much better the racing was when they were first introduced in Bahrain 2022, but that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some great moments! Carlos Sainz’s iconic win in Singapore stands out, Lando Norris’ win in Miami was pretty special, Sergio Perez became the “King of the Streets” with big victories in Monaco, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan, George Russell’s maiden win in the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix was a long time coming, Oscar Piastri’s overtake in Baku will always be remembered, as will Lewis Hamilton’s return to the top step of the Podium for Mercedes at Silverstone 2024, whilst almost everyone has a soft spot for Charles Leclerc’s dream Monaco victory, and Nico Hulkenberg’s maiden Podium after more than 15 years of waiting! Oh, and we haven’t even discussed Max Verstappen, who dominated this era, with his 2023 Season perhaps being the greatest single-season by any driver in the 75-year history of Formula 1!

Oscar Piastri’s Dilemma

Now onto our next Championship contender, Oscar Piastri! Whilst Oscar Piastri had shown signs of greatness in the past, I think everyone took him seriously as a Title contender after he dominated in China, just a week after his cruel slide off the track in front of his home fans in Australia! Oscar then continued to show quality with victories in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Miami, and Spain, and he seemed incredibly relaxed after his teammate crashed into him in Canada! However, whilst it wasn’t really talked about at the time, Piastri let wins get away from him in both Austria and Silverstone, whilst he lost the win in Hungary due to his team giving his teammate a better strategy! Speaking of his team, whilst Oscar looked in complete control after extending his Championship lead to 34 points after a huge Dutch Grand Prix, things started to go away from him in Monza when McLaren asked Piastri to let Lando Norris back through after a slow pitstop, something that never should’ve happened! Then, in the next weekend in Azerbaijan, Oscar Piastri looked like a completely different driver, crashing twice (as well as jumping the start), and things continued to get to “Osc” after McLaren were seemingly fine with Norris barging him out of the way at the start of Singapore! Piastri’s head then seemingly dipped completely, with a real lack of pace in both COTA and Mexico City, whilst Sao Paulo was another messy weekend, with a small error in the Sprint bringing severe consequences, whilst his rather harsh penalty in the Race cost him another 8 points in his Championship fight! To be fair, the double disqualification in Vegas proved to be a little bit of a blessing for the Australian, and he seemingly returned to his best out of nowhere in Qatar! However, despite being perfect all weekend, more McLaren decisions cost Oscar once again, losing him the Race Win, and he now enters Abu Dhabi 16 points behind his teammate and Championship leader, Lando! For Oscar Piastri to walk out of this weekend as the new World Drivers’ Champion, he’s almost hoping for a miracle, a situation he really shouldn’t be in! Australia was a cruel bit of luck, as was his penalty in Sao Paulo, whilst I can’t even begin to count how many points McLaren have cost him this season! However, having said all that, Oscar has made some poor mistakes this year too, and there’ll be a lot of different reasons as to why this year’s Title got away from him! As for this dilemma that I hinted about, if we get into a situation where McLaren asks Oscar Piastri to let Lando Norris through in order for McLaren to win both Championships, what does he do?! Honestly, I don’t think there’s a right answer here; whatever decision Piastri decides to make will hurt him in more ways than one!

The Other Championship Fights

We can’t have a Season Finale Preview without talking about other interesting Championship battles! In the Constructors’ Championship, Haas currently find themselves 8th on 73 points, 7 points behind Aston Martin, and only 5 points clear of Kick Sauber! Realistically, the Constructors’ Championship means the most to Haas, given their lack of funding compared to the teams around them, and I would certainly say that a P7 finish isn’t off the cards for them! However, on the other side of things, Haas really can’t afford for Kick Sauber to beat them to 8th, because that would hurt them a lot in the long term! Elsewhere, whilst positions in the Drivers’ Standings aren’t as critical (other than 1st), there’s still some battles to keep an eye on! Currently, there are only 2 points separating Lewis Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli for 6th in the Championship, and this is pretty significant for a couple of reasons! Firstly, Kimi beating Lewis in the Standings would tell you a lot about Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes in the first place, but also, Hamilton hasn’t finished outside of the Top 6 in the Standings in his entire 19-year Formula 1 Career, so this isn’t the history that the 7-time World Champion wants to be making! Amazingly, there is currently only 9 points separating Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz in the Williams h2h battle, and this is pretty wild given the gap between the two drivers earlier in the season! If Carlos could beat Alex to 8th in the Championship, I think that would sting Albon a lot! Oh, and one final thing, Isack Hadjar, Nico Hulkenberg, and Fernando Alonso are all in a position to end the season in the top half of the Championship Standings, and I actually think that would mean a lot to all three of them, given the seasons they’ve had/the teams they’re driving for!

Is Max Verstappen Truly Inevitable?

And finally, we have to end the final preview article of the 2025 Formula 1 Season by talking about the reigning, defending, 4-time Champion of the World, Max Verstappen! A lot of people really weren’t feeling Max Verstappen as a Championship contender this year, like I barely saw him get picked for the Title by anyone! And in fairness, you should’ve been right, as besides his special victories in Japan and Imola, Red Bull were seemingly nowhere, with Max finishing 6th in Bahrain, 9th in Hungary, and we of course have to mention his moment of rage in Spain, driving straight into George Russell and costing himself plenty of points! Verstappen was also completely wiped out by Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Austria, and despite a great second-place finish in Zandvoort, the Dutchman left the weekend 104 points off the Championship lead! However, since then, McLaren (and particularly Oscar Piastri) have imploded since then, with Max Verstappen dominating in Monza (whilst laughing at McLaren’s decision making), gaining 25 points in Azerbaijan, and another 23 points at COTA! Unfortunately, despite a great attempt to come back into the Championship fight, it again looked all but over for Max after the worst Qualifying of his entire career in Sao Paulo, with not even a Pitlane to P3 drive being enough to keep him in contention! However, then McLaren decided to do their thing, and what I mean by that is to completely mess things up! Max was delighted to celebrate a victory in Las Vegas, but it was a post-Race double Disqualification for McLaren that really left Verstappen smiling, with the gap going from 42 points (at the chequered flag) to “just” 24 points! Then Qatar happened, and despite a tricky Sprint Qualifying (he was literally beaten by Yuki Tsunoda), more McLaren fumbles meant Verstappen won again, meaning he enters Abu Dhabi 12 points off the Championship leader, Lando Norris! To say that Max Verstappen will play mind games perfectly against Lando Norris would be maybe the easiest prediction to make of the entire weekend, but deep down, Verstappen knows he shouldn’t be in this fight, nowhere near it in fact, meaning he’s driving with nothing to lose! That is a very scary prospect for both Lando and McLaren, and if Max could pull this off, it would be one of the biggest turnarounds in sports history!