Following four consecutive titles, there was a compelling case for Max Verstappen to make it five in a row in 2025. That is something only Michael Schumacher has achieved before. But it was not meant to be. Instead, Lando Norris took the 2025 Formula 1 championship. Norris became the Formula 1 world drivers’ champion for the first time after securing the 2025 title at the season finale in Abu Dhabi. The McLaren driver fought challenges from teammate Oscar Piastri and defending champion Max Verstappen before clinching the title at the final round, where all three had a chance.
Norris, starting second, was overtaken by Piastri early but held off the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to finish third. Correlate that was all he needed to triumph. Verstappen won the auto racing odds result but finished two points behind Norris in the standings. In turn, Norris’ title ends Verstappen’s run of four consecutive championship victories, which stretched back to the Red Bull driver’s first title in 2021.
2026 Formula 1 Betting Overview
While 2025’s three-way championship fight went to the offshore betting wire, racing was arguably the worst it had been for a while. It was the final year of the controversial, much-disliked ground-effect cars introduced in 2022.
Now, Formula 1 has a clean slate this year, with a complete overhaul of the rules on both aerodynamics and engines. As a result, F1 will look and feel radically different in 2026. Under the new rules, the cars themselves will be shorter, thinner, lighter, and nimbler, with the stated aim of creating better racing. Pirelli is still supplying 18-inch tires, but they’re narrower.
And perhaps the best bit of news for haters of the last generation of cars is the simplification across the board. To show, there are flatter floors and side pods with larger openings replacing the long ground-effect tunnels of the last cars. Front and rear wings are also becoming much less complex after looking more and more like a sci-fi writer’s dream in recent years.
Beneath the bodywork, the new engine rules were enough to convince Red Bull to partner with Ford to build their own. Also, they convinced Audi to join as a fully-fledged manufacturer by taking over the Sauber team. And then they saw General Motors’ promise to have the new Cadillac team race with American-made engines by the end of the decade.
While the complexity has shifted away from some design elements, it has shifted toward the driver in the cockpit. Early simulator feedback from drivers was hardly enthusiastic. While virtual running is far from definitive and the cars will evolve rapidly through testing and the early races, one theme has already emerged: workload.
Managing power deployment, aero modes, and energy recovery looks set to become a constant, relentless task inside the cockpit. Specifically, those simpler front and rear wings will become big talking points, as they are both part of the “active aero” rules.
Thus, expect more radio traffic than ever as drivers and engineers attempt to unlock performance lap by lap. F1 had to explain all of this in an eight-minute video, hinting at the complexity that might dominate the start of the new season.
Finally, Cadillac’s new Formula 1 team has been several years in the making and will join in 2026 with Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas at the helm. It’s a landmark moment, the first new team to join under the current owners, Liberty Media.