2025 Abu Dhabi – Season Finale

And what a season.

In modern Formula 1, we’ve grown used to dominance—one team, one driver, winning year after year. Inevitably, the same question resurfaces: is it the car, or the driver?

The real answer is less convenient: it’s the team. Formula 1 is, first and foremost, a constructors’ championship.

In 2024, McLaren emerged with a genuinely competitive car. By the start of 2025, its superiority was unmistakable. Over the course of the season, Red Bull clawed its way back into form, putting Max in a position to challenge the McLarens.

That’s the Formula 1 I watch.

A real-world laboratory for studying high-performance organizations. And in that respect, 2025 did not disappoint. The resurrection of McLaren was admirable.

Also admirable was the evolution of the rules—and of F1 car design—aimed squarely at making racing more competitive. Liberty Media has turned Formula 1 into a spectacle worth watching, and in doing so has produced something rarer: a genuinely tight competitive field.

In that landscape, we saw close-range racing and an abundance of talent. And that inevitably raises the question that matters most:

How do we measure greatness?

That is the central question behind PitWallGeek.

In that context, Abu Dhabi was a perfect summary of the season. Rarely do we see a race where three drivers are still in contention for the title, and where the final result mirrors the dynamics of the entire year.

Not just the podium finishers—Max, Oscar, and Lando—but also the under-appreciated underdogs, George and Charles, delivered standout performances.

The race had drama. I loved Charles barking at Lando, briefly opening the door—at least in theory—for Max to take the championship. In reality, McLaren team orders would have handed the title back to Lando.

The race was also a strategy textbook. A one-stop strategy beat the two-stop. Max started on mediums, Oscar on hards. With no major incidents, the race unfolded cleanly, allowing pace and strategy to play out without distortion.

A perfect showcase for the PitWallGeek algorithm.

In this blog, I will reference only one chart: the Dartboard. All other charts live in the instrument panel. The blog does not substitute the panel—it sits alongside it.

The Geek Notes attached to each chart explain what you are looking at and how to read it. This blog is editorial—it focuses on why it matters.

The Dartboard is a compressed view of the Pace chart, mapped onto a polar layout. It’s designed for a quick glance.

From the Dartboard, the one-stop runners start ahead: Max, Oscar, George, and Fernando. Charles and Lando begin behind, carrying roughly a 20-second penalty from the second pit stop.

Max beats Oscar on pace throughout the race, steadily opening a meaningful gap. It was a magistral drive, echoing the racecraft of Professor Prost.

George and Fernando executed flawlessly, but lacked the pace to contend for a podium—arguably a car limitation. The Spec view is where those hypothetical scenarios are explored.

Pay attention to the duel between Lando and Charles. Both overcame the handicap of the two-stop strategy, though not enough to beat Oscar. That tension feeds a broader argument: Charles could, in theory, have derailed Oscar’s title bid, given Oscar needed at least a third place to secure the championship over Max.

Abu Dhabi was not a surprise. It was a confirmation. The same patterns that shaped the season reappeared in its final race, compressed into one last lap sequence. The purpose of PitWallGeek is to make those patterns visible.