Lando Norris
McLaren
Mercedes
Red Bull
Ferrari
Williams
Racing Bulls
Aston Martin
Haas
Alpine
Formula 1 have released the team principal rankings of the top 10 drivers from the 2025 season, and they have made one seemingly glaring mistake in their assessments of one driver’s campaign.
Max Verstappen’s incredible comeback in the title fight earned him the top spot for the fifth consecutive season, with the driver who dethroned him, Lando Norris, being placed as the second-best driver on the grid for the year.
Verstappen received a lot of plaudits for his performances in less-than-optimal machinery throughout the year, with Red Bull’s upgrade packages throughout the year aiding his quest to challenge for a fifth consecutive world title up until the very final race of the year.
That’s why it’s no surprise that he was chosen as the best of the best by those on the pit wall. However, one of the rankings was very surprising, and that came in the form of the team principal’s assessment of Charles Leclerc, who was viewed as only the seventh-best driver on the grid.
- READ MORE: F1 experts rank the top 10 drivers of 2025 with Max Verstappen not the unanimous number one
What did Formula 1’s team principals get wrong in this list?
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F1 team principals underrated Charles Leclerc’s season in their 2025 end-of-year driver rankings
In the full list of rankings from Formula 1, Leclerc was seen to have put up inferior performances to those of Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz, who occupied the fifth and sixth spots, respectively.
The Monegasque may be forgiven for feeling hard done by in their assessment, given that he regularly maximised his results in tricky Ferrari machinery.
The Ferrari teammate battle between Leclerc and Hamilton was completely one-sided, with the 28-year-old taking a 19-5 victory in qualifying, as well as an 18-3 demolition on race day.
He was also Ferrari’s only driver to clinch a podium for the Scuderia, which he achieved on seven separate occasions.
Adding in the fact that he was also the Prancing Horse’s only pole-sitter in 2025 only adds to the reasoning that Leclerc should have been seen in a greater light among those on the pit wall.
Ferrari had an extremely frustrating campaign this year, but Leclerc’s lack of mightily impressive results can’t be attributed to his racecraft.
He simply did not have the right tools at his disposal to be able to challenge for consistent race wins.
- READ MORE: F1 2025 teammate head-to-head battles including Grand Prix, Sprint and qualifying results
What was the most iconic image from the 2025 F1 season?
Fernando Alonso was the most improved driver in 2025, according to F1 team bosses
As alluded to earlier, Alonso was the biggest improver in the 2025 team principal power rankings when compared to 2024.
The Aston Martin driver made up four positions this year, after being voted as the ninth-best driver in the last term.
The Spaniard had a much more competitive year in 2024, notching a total of 70 points, 14 points more than his 2025 total of 56.
What’s more, Alonso didn’t have a points-scoring finish until the ninth round of the season at his home race in Barcelona.
Sainz, in sixth, also had a similar year. After swapping Ferrari for Williams ahead of the new year, the 31-year-old had difficulties in adapting to the new machinery before finding his form in the second half of the term.
Granted, Sainz ended the season with two heroic podiums, but over the course of the whole season, Leclerc definitely argues for being the more consistently better driver.
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