The fight at the top
McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari: in the months leading up to the start of the 2025 World Championship, these F1 giants had suggested a highly competitive season, making it difficult to predict who would emerge in direct battles. At this point, after just three races, McLaren appears to have an edge over its direct rivals, with Red Bull holding a top spot in the Drivers’ standings thanks only to Max Verstappen, Mercedes reaching the podium twice with George Russell, and Ferrari still searching for its rhythm, while Lewis Hamilton won the Sprint Race in China.
A unique start
Excluding Hamilton’s Sprint win in Shanghai, there is one statistic that highlights the battle for the championship leadership after the Japanese GP: for the first time in the history of the Formula 1 hybrid era, three different drivers have won the first three races of the championship. While Lando Norris stepped onto the top step of the podium in Melbourne, followed by his teammate Oscar Piastri in China, Max Verstappen completed his masterpiece in Japan.
To find similar results, we need to go back to 2013 — the final year of the V8 engines before the introduction of hybrid power units. That season saw victories for Kimi Raikkonen with Lotus (Australia), Sebastian Vettel with Red Bull (Malaysia — a race remembered for the team order ignored by the German), and Fernando Alonso with Ferrari (China). Not only were there three different winners, but also three different teams — unlike the early years of the hybrid era, which were particularly dominated by Mercedes, at least until Max Verstappen’s first world title in 2021.
Notably, the Anglo-German team managed to win the first three races in four different seasons (2014, 2016, 2019, and 2020), while Red Bull repeated the feat in 2023. Worth mentioning is Nico Rosberg’s achievement in 2016, when the German claimed his first and only world title: that year, the son of Keke Rosberg won the opening three races of the season.
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