Significant differences midway through F1 seasons 2024 and 2025

A lot can happen in Formula 1 in a year, which McLaren certainly showed in the first half of the season. Compared to last year, the McLaren drivers scored many more points, while Max Verstappen has considerably dropped off. What is the difference between 2024 and 2025 for drivers from the top teams?

There have been some shifts within the four 'top teams', which might explain the point difference. Consider Sainz, who moved from the top team Ferrari to Williams and scored 146 fewer points - yet he is still enjoying a decent season for Williams. Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda managed to score more points for Red Bull's sister team, Racing Bulls, last year in the first fourteen races.

Points difference F1 drivers at top teams 2024-2025

McLaren's progress clearly visible

The big winners are McLaren. Piastri and Norris greatly improved and scored 193 more points for the team than the year before in the first half of the season. Red Bull is one of the big losers: Verstappen scored 20 fewer points.

Sergio Perez drove for Red Bull last year. Then he garnered 21 points, while Tsunoda now has 22 points. So there isn't much difference. Hamilton's replacement at Mercedes, Kimi Antonelli, didn't race in Formula 1 last year.

So, Hamilton is Sainz's replacement at Ferrari: there, he managed to score more points than Sainz did - who scored 128 for Ferrari in 2024.

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