Ahead of last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Formula 1 fans believed that Oscar Piastri was the favorite to win the 2025 Drivers’ Championship. Piastri arrived in Austin with a 22-point lead over teammate Lando Norris, and despite an impressive run of form from Max Verstappen, Piastri enjoyed a 63-point lead over the Red Bull driver.
But my, what a difference a week makes.
Before the United States Grand Prix, we surveyed F1 fans in an installment of SB Nation Reacts. Despite Verstappen’s charge, 54% of respondents believed Piastri was going to win the title, followed by 25% of those who believed Verstappen was going to win, and then 21% who tapped Norris as the eventual winner:
However, after Verstappen’s commanding performance in Austin — where he won both the F1 Sprint race and the United States Grand Prix to take the maximum 33 points available — those numbers have changed dramatically. Earlier in the week, we posed the same question to fans: Who wins the 2025 F1 Drivers’ Championship?
58% of those who responded believe Verstappen will take home his fifth title, followed by a nearly even split for the McLaren duo:
As the grid arrived in Mexico for this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Piastri now holds a 14-point lead over Norris, and a 40-point lead over Verstappen.
In the buildup to the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Verstappen continually dismissed his title chances, telling us in the media that he was simply taking things “race by race.”
But after his win on Sunday afternoon, he was telling us a different story, admitting that he had a realistic chance to pull off the biggest comeback in F1 history and secure a fifth title.
