Lando Norris’ championship-winning 2025 season was anchored in his strong qualifying performances, according to data from GP Racing Stats.
The McLaren drivers topped the leader board with a difference in qualifying position average of only 0.08, while the Red Bull drivers are separated by a huge 9.08.
Alpine driver Franco Colapinto rounds out the bottom of the standings after joining the team following the shock departure of Jack Doohan.
Motorsport journalist Cayleah Wilson said: “[Qualifying] is highly reliable for assessing who is the best driver, as it is a neutral assessment of how drivers perform under consistent conditions.”
“It measures single-lap pace and can show a driver’s potential.”
Qualifying determines the starting grid for the race on Sunday, and often has a direct influence on race strategy and outcome.
The purpose of qualifying is to get as much out of the car as the driver can, to get a better position, whereas in the race, the focus isn’t completely on speed.
Wilson explained the difference: “During the race, they need to think more around team strategy, tyre degradation and deal with dirty air, whereas during qualifying they’re using soft tyres to get maximum speed and not worrying about degradation”
A surprise feature in the top 10 would be rookie Isaac Hadjar, with his qualifying average landing him in 9th position.
Hadjar drove the Visa Cash App Racing Bull’s car this past season, the 6th best car overall, proving he was truly pushing to get as much out of this midfield car as he could.
The rookie finished the season with better qualifying averages than race averages, which is the case for 12 of the 20 drivers on the grid.
When comparing the qualifying performances of McLaren’s Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri, they appear to be the inverse of each other.
Piastri started the season strong before declining, whereas Norris struggled at the start of the season before improving drastically towards the end.
Norris would go on to win the 2025 World Championship, with Piastri falling just short in 3rd position.
In Red Bull, 4-time World Champion Max Verstappen dominated over his teammates, firstly Liam Lawson and then Yuki Tsunoda.
Tsunoda began the season in the Visa Cash App Racing Bulls team, and therefore, a different car, before joining the Red Bull outfit and falling very short of his championship-contender teammate.
Wilson said: “Over recent seasons, you can consistently see one name popping up as a dominating driver: Max Verstappen.
“He has dominated season after season during qualifying.”
The difference in qualifying performance between drivers can be attributed to either the individual or the machinery itself.
Wilson said: “The qualifying performance is highly down to the car rather than the driver. If a car is having technical performance issues, even the best drivers cannot overcome this.”
Another popular talking point in the 2025 season was the decline in Lewis Hamilton’s overall performance.
The 7-time world champion’s points have been on a steady decline since he lost the Championship to Verstappen in 2021.
His 156 points with Ferrari in 2025 were the lowest points he has ever achieved since the introduction of the current points system in 2010.
Featured image credit: President.az via Wikimedia Commons (Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution International License)
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