Why Max Verstappen couldn’t bunch the pack up in F1 title-deciding Abu Dhabi GP

McLaren’s strategy played a key role in preventing Verstappen from adopting tactics reminiscent of Lewis Hamilton at Yas Marina

Max Verstappen’s dominant victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was not enough for him to win the 2025 Formula 1 drivers’ title.

Championship leader Lando Norris, who was 12 points ahead of his Red Bull rival coming into the season finale, took third behind Verstappen and McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri – therefore prevailing by two points.

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So, could Verstappen and Red Bull have done anything differently to change the final result?

The situation was somewhat reminiscent of the 2016 Yas Marina showdown, which Lewis Hamilton went into with a 12-point deficit to Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg – the exact same gap.

Hamilton dominated that race from pole, but needed Rosberg out of the podium positions in order to take the title. The Briton slowed down in the last few laps to back the German up so that he would be attacked by Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen behind – a delicate art as Hamilton also needed to retain the lead.

The order eventually did not change, with those four drivers crossing the finish line within 1.7 seconds of each other and Rosberg winning the world championship by five points.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid, leads Nico Rosberg, Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid, Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari SF16-H, and Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing RB12

Photo by: Andrew Hone / Motorsport Images

Fast-forward nine years, Verstappen failed to overcome Norris’ advantage too, as no car other than Piastri’s troubled the McLaren driver’s march to the title.

“It was not quite enough, and it was one Red Bull against two McLarens,” Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko commented. “And unfortunately, we were hoping that Leclerc and Russell would have more speed, but that wasn't the case.” Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished seven seconds behind Norris.

“The problem was that Ferrari and Mercedes were not strong enough. We saw Ferrari just five, six laps, and then the tyres were gone.”

Asked if Red Bull considered bunching the field up like Hamilton did in 2016, Marko explained: “They did a clever move to put Piastri on hard tyres. That's why we couldn't bunch up the whole field, because the benefit would have been on the side of Piastri.”

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

Marko is not wrong, but his point deserves further analysis.

In the 23 laps before his first pitstop, there was no point in Verstappen backing the field up because so much could happen down the road, making the process irrelevant.

Then, while Piastri went long on a hard-tyre opening stint, Verstappen slowing Norris down would only have made Piastri a near-certain winner – which Verstappen couldn’t afford as beating Piastri was a prerequisite for the title.

The only time backing-up tactics would have been viable was the last 17 laps, but Verstappen would have needed to forfeit his advantage to fourth-placed Leclerc, who was 35 seconds down. That would have entailed slowing down by some two seconds a lap.

Therefore, it was preferable to keep the pace up, and hope something might happen to Norris behind.

“I had a lot of scenarios in my head, but then of course I knew [given] the tyres Oscar had on the car that that would be quite difficult,” Verstappen admitted.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

“We were probably a bit too quick up front, the others couldn't really follow that well; Charles drove his heart out today to try and get onto that podium so that was also impressive to see, but of course they went for a two-stop. That made it even more complicated, because if you stay on a one-stop, backing the whole thing up, it's tough.

“Anyway, this new layout around here makes it even harder to do that compared to 2016 or whatever,” he concluded, referring to the chicane-less track that has been in use since 2021 in Abu Dhabi.

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording