Piastri vs Norris, Hamilton’s start at Ferrari and Verstappen’s future – F1 legends on the 2025 season so far

We are now exactly halfway into the 2025 Formula 1 season, with 12 of 24 scheduled rounds behind us. From the developing intra-team battle at McLaren to Lewis Hamilton’s new adventure at Ferrari, there have been plenty of moments to keep fans on the edge of their seats and talking points to keep pundits busy.

Before the second half kicks off, F1.com has individually gathered the thoughts of several F1 legends: namely 2009 World Champion Jenson Button, 1997 title winner Jacques Villeneuve, 13-time Grand Prix winner David Coulthard, three-time Grand Prix winner Johnny Herbert and 12-time podium finisher Stefan Johansson.

So, what did they have to say about everything that’s happened on and off the track up to this point – and what might be on the way? Read on to find out…

What do you make of the season so far?

Jenson Button: I’m loving the season. Often it’s tricky when there’s just one team fighting at the front for the championship, but I think the great thing about the Mclarens is that they’re allowed to race, which is key – seeing them fight on track is great. Then you have other people that are winning: Max [Verstappen] winning races, George [Russell] winning races, Lewis winning the Sprint in China. It’s nice to see lots of people in the mix and lots of change up and down the grid.

For me, the two teams that have made a massive leap over the last couple of years are McLaren, obviously, to the front, and Williams from the back to the midfield. To make that sort of leap when there are no regulation changes is very impressive.

Jacques Villeneuve: It’s been fun. It’s what we want in F1. When you have a battle of two team mates then it’s okay if the team is ahead of the others. When it was just Max, his team mate wasn’t up to par, so that kind of killed it. But now, the two [McLaren] team mates are fighting and taking points away from each other. It also gives a chance to the other ones that are just slightly behind car-wise.

David Coulthard: If you’re a McLaren fan, you’re loving the run that they’re having, but even if you’re a generalist, I think it’s a great season of F1. The closeness of the grid is the thing that’s really impressing me, especially in Qualifying. Obviously come race time it opens up a little bit, but I’m just loving how close this season is. To have a perfect Hollywood season, we need Ferrari doing a bit more. I know we got the little excitement with Lewis in the Sprint, but they obviously got disqualified on race day.

Otherwise, I predicted the coming together of the two McLaren drivers, because I’ve been there and done that. I crashed into Mika Hakkinen, he crashed into me, and it’s always going to be the case that no matter how tight a team is, once you have the intensity of both drivers having a chance to win, then that’s going to get more and more complicated.

Johnny Herbert: It’s going to be very interesting to see how the championship battle pans out once the pressure starts to ramp up. At this moment, it’s just collecting, collecting, collecting [points] and not getting yourself into trouble. So far, I’m liking it. It’s great that Oscar and Lando are close, it’s great that Max is in it, and George and Mercedes every now and again. There’s a nice little mix-up.

Stefan Johansson: First of all, across the board now, I think the standard of drivers is probably as high as it’s ever been in F1. They’re all really, really, really good drivers, really fast drivers. With Oscar and Lando, it’s extraordinary how they’re normally within hundredths or thousandths of each other in Qualifying. You’ve also got Max, George and the Ferraris [involved] every now and then. I don’t think F1 has ever been closer from top to bottom than it is now. It’s incredible.

How do you view the Piastri vs Norris fight?

JB: Austria was a really important weekend for Lando. I think if it went on any longer without Lando winning, mentally it’s very tough for a driver. Especially someone like Lando, who I think can be his own worst enemy at times – he puts a lot of pressure on himself. He’s unbelievably quick, but if he makes a tiny mistake, he really takes it to heart. He’s got to realise that we all make mistakes. It happens, it’s part of racing, and more often than not you lose rather than win. I love his personality, and I really think he’s super-quick. Oscar’s a very different personality, very level-headed. Nothing seems to faze him, and that makes him a very, very difficult competitor…

JV: It’s great because they’re very different. Both can win it, and we don’t know which one will get the upper hand. I think Norris still has the edge speed-wise, but he’s so good at berating himself that it’s also self-damaging at some point. With Piastri, it was the first time he got a penalty at Silverstone, and that saw a bit of a change of attitude. When you’re fighting for the championship, it really changes your approach. We’ve seen Norris being in the lead of the championship, being behind, fighting back, so we’ve seen kind of everything that Norris is. We haven’t seen everything that Piastri is and how he reacts in certain situations. Will that make him better or worse? That’s what I’m waiting to see.

DC: If it was half a World Championship, Oscar’s won. I don’t think anyone could say he hasn’t deserved to be leading – he was leading before [the McLarens] came together in Canada. But if Lando turns it around in the second half of the season, he’s doing it against someone that’s a talented third year F1 driver. It’s a bit like 2021, where some people are still so vocal about what happened… only one driver could win. Both Max and Lewis Hamilton drove like World Champions that year, but only one of them could have the title.

I think McLaren have handled it really well. I think both their drivers are on the tamer side of animal than the wilder side of animal, so that probably makes it a little bit easier. But this could also be their only chance to win a world title; we don’t know what 2026 brings, we don’t know what the future is, so you’ve got to seize the moment. That’s why I’m really impressed with how Oscar has stepped up this year. But Lando’s response over the last two races is showing his quality as well. I think it’s going to be one of those things where both of them deserve it, but only one can get it.

SJ: I think it’s going to go down to the wire. In the end, it will probably be circumstances that tip the outcome of the championship. Because speed-wise they’re so close, it’s probably going to come down to race craft, reading situations the right way, and avoiding any sort of unforced errors, if you like. Oscar had his penalty at Silverstone, which you can debate whether it was justified or not, but I think things like that, or Lando’s incident in Montreal… those are the things that are going to tip the scale at the end of the year.

JH: Oscar’s come into F1 in a very, very mature way. He’s got himself in a good team at the right time and he’s delivering. But then I throw it on the other side, and Lando is improving… he’s probably a later developer in some ways, but he has changed over the last couple of years. I think the incident in Canada, the positives of Austria and Silverstone… I always say it’s about capacity, and I think his brain capacity sometimes gets full up. There’s the baggage that comes with everything that’s going on, and I know from my own career, there are times where you’ve got to get rid of baggage that’s hanging around your neck.

It’s going to be down to the mentality of both of them. But they’re both youngish and they’re only going to get better as time goes by, like Max has done, like Lewis did, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher… they have that wonderful ability to find a way of moving up every time the performance of the car gets better. With all the little ups and downs they’ve had, they’re still very, very close overall. It’ll only be one over the other come the end of the year.

Can Verstappen and Red Bull ever be ruled out?

JH: For the championship, yes. He’ll be in the mix, he’ll be causing trouble for the others, and he’ll have an influence – because he’ll be taking points away potentially from the others. That’s what he will enjoy as well: ‘I’m still here, I’m still here’. It’s very unlikely… there could be an implosion at McLaren, but I don’t think so. Max is just going to be in the mix and he’s going to be causing them to think in a slightly different way, because they’re fighting for a championship while fighting Max.

JB: I think it’s really difficult for Max. If Max has one bad race, like he did in Austria, that’s a lot of points for him to make up in a car that is not as good as the McLaren. You’d have to say it’s a two-horse race at the moment, but Max has had it his way for a few years, and what he’s doing with that car is just unbelievable. When you put so many drivers in the same car and they are nowhere near him it proves what a talent he is, and what he’s able to do with a difficult car.

What’s he going to do next year? I don’t know. I think it’s interesting that we don’t know what the best option is. I’m sure he doesn’t know either right now. You can kind of see the future a little bit, because you can see what the car’s doing in the wind tunnel, you can see what the power output is, but you don’t know what other teams are doing. They might say they’re doing better, but who knows? So, it’s a tricky decision for him and, whatever he chooses, I think it’s going to be an exciting season in 2026 – whatever car he’s in.

JV: Max will always be in it for some race wins and points, but the championship is tough. You cannot be on the edge the whole time – it won’t always go in your favour. Unless the two McLaren boys make a mess, end up fighting too harshly like they did in Canada, like they almost did in Austria… After Silverstone, there’s one half of the camp that’s upset, so I’m curious to see how that will evolve in the coming races. I wouldn’t know who to put my money on – I just have no idea right now…

DC: I wasn’t in Japan, but I was watching Qualifying, and when Max took pole there, I was like, ‘How did he do that?’ It was a little bit like that at Silverstone as well. That’s one of the things I love about the sport – seeing exceptional drivers do exceptional things when others can’t or haven’t. So, you can’t rule Max out. I think for the championship, we all know it’s going to take an upgrade to unlock some performance. Where Red Bull are right now, and if they were frozen, it’s difficult to imagine that the second half of the season circuits are suddenly going to suit the Red Bull better than the first half. It will take an upgrade from Red Bull to give him the consistency. Are they capable of doing it? Absolutely. Have they done it before? Yes. Is Max exceptional? Absolutely.

How do you assess Hamilton’s start at Ferrari?

JB: You always expect Lewis to be at the front, you expect him to be on a par with his team mate, if not better, but we’ve not seen that this year. It’s always difficult changing team, but especially to a team that’s not a British team. It’s an Italian team, he’s never experienced that before, or since karting, and his team mate speaks the language, he’s really embedded in the team. So, it’s tricky, but if anyone can be competitive in that car, moving in the way that he has, it’s Lewis. It’s a matter of time, but I’m sure it’s getting a little frustrating in terms of not being able to get the maximum out of the car.

JV: Lewis is slowly but surely putting his foot down, making this his team. That is very important for what’s coming next. He’s getting in a more comfortable place for himself. He has a lot of experience, he knows what it takes, and he’s biding his time. It was tough and he hasn’t collapsed, so that’s good. He’s always been a very emotional driver, but it seems that he’s passed the deep wave, so he might be on the up wave right now.

DC: Silverstone felt more comfortable. Up until Silverstone, and putting China to one side, it’s felt uncomfortable watching Lewis there. He hasn’t looked as quick as Charles [Leclerc]. I don’t think any of the teams mind a fast Ferrari, because they are sort of the biggest name in the history of the sport. But at Silverstone, it looked like he was more on top of things. Was that just because it was Silverstone or not? That remains to be seen.

SJ: I think Lewis is getting closer, at least in the last couple of races. The drivers are always looking for comfort, comfort meaning you can trust the car when you commit to the corner. I think what Lewis has been struggling with is that he’s not really comfortable with the turn-in of the car. So, you try a bit harder and you go over the limit, and then you lose even more time, or you’re hovering around the two- to three-tenths below the limit over a whole lap. When you have that level of comfort you just put the car exactly where you want it to be. That’s the hard part. When you’re at one with the car, it’s just an extension of your body, really – it’s the place you want to be. I think Lewis is still one of the, if not the best driver on the grid.

JH: It’s been a slow burner for him. He’s probably been internally very frustrated, but he hasn’t given up – he’s still working hard. Silverstone was hopefully a sign of better things to come. It was a much closer situation there and they were strong straight out of the box. Lewis made the mistake, yes, on that Qualifying lap, but there was only one driver who didn’t, and that was Max. It was a better performance, but Ferrari have still got to up their game. The problem will be when the focus goes to next year. At least they’ve got potentially a better direction now.

What else are you looking out for in the second half?

JV: How long Yuki Tsunoda will stay at Red Bull is the other big question mark. He was pushing so hard to go from the small team to the big team. He’s a good driver, but you have to be exceptional… you have to be a Lewis, you have to be a Fernando [Alonso], you have to be a Piastri or a Norris.

DC: Who continues to develop, because 2026 is looming and we know that’s a massive change. People will be working harder earlier than they would have done from 2024 to 2025, because of the continuation of many things. At a certain point, teams will either run out of resource or ideas, but considering we imagine Sauber/Audi would already be very focused on 2026, they’re getting some big results at the moment.

Some of the rookies have also been really impressive. They’ve shown they were good in the lower formulae... suddenly they come to F1 against drivers we know are good, and they’re really showing their speed. In the past we’ve had a couple of drivers where you go, ‘They’re passing through’, but it doesn’t feel like that. The drivers are there on merit and they’re doing a good job – they’re all good. But someone like a Max is exceptional, so that’s the benchmark they aspire to.

Then George not being officially signed [for the 2026 season] is slightly bizarre. Based on the performance right now, even if there was a change in Mercedes’ line-up, you wouldn’t think it would be George who would be the change. There are a few things we’re all waiting on to fall into place.

SJ: I mean, I’m just looking forward to every race, because every race is a nail-biter or a cliffhanger nowadays. What Max is doing with the Red Bull is absolutely incredible and it’s going to be great to follow him. He’s always there, kind of stirring it up in the middle of everything. George is also lurking. As I said, the level of drivers now is very impressive.

JH: I think the main focus will be the upgrades that have come from the majority of the teams, and that’s going to stop because obviously focus shifts to next year. Then it’s down to who doesn’t make mistakes. If we go back to the championship, who’s not going to make those mistakes? What I don’t want to see is McLaren getting involved with calls, as we saw a little bit last year. Let the drivers get on with it and the best driver will win. I don’t want any, ‘Turn 1, it’s your race to win’. I’m sure it won’t [happen]. It should be a straight head-to-head.