Throughout the last season of Formula 1, there was a common joke about the post-race broadcast that would take place. Due to Max Verstappen’s long-standing winning streak, fans took to calling the post-race broadcast the Max Verstappen podcast. However, the recent Miami and Monaco finishes tell a different story.

The Miami Grand Prix saw a first for the driver who ended up in pole position. For the first time in his career, Lando Norris was on top of the podium in Miami. The McLaren car has been quite competitive since the start of the season, with both of their drivers finishing in the top three for many races. However, it was timing, race pace, and a bit of luck that pushed them to pole position in Miami. Norris and McLaren were able to keep incredible race pace throughout the race, and Norris quickly became the fastest car on the track once he was freed from behind Sergio Perez on lap 17. The “bit of luck” came in the form of a safety car that deployed after Kevin Magnussen in the Haas sent Logan Sargeant into the barriers on lap 29.

The safety car rules dictate that drivers must slow down while they evacuate the damaged car safely. This also allows drivers to complete their pit stops while losing less time relative to the cars around them than they would had the safety car not been out. Now, Norris was only 11.3 seconds ahead of Verstappen when the safety car appeared, so there was nothing saying that he would be able to keep this advantage. Nevertheless, Lando Norris was able to rejoin the track after his pit stop, 23 seconds ahead of Verstappen. This was also due to the fact that when the safety car was deployed, it was deployed in front of Verstappen, which caused him and everyone else that was behind him to lap at an even slower pace. Norris was able to gain 30 seconds over Verstappen with his race engineer, Will Joseph, believing that, “at one point, we thought we were going to be ahead for a whole lap” (Sky Sports). Now it is undeniable that the safety car gave Lando Norris and the McLaren team a much-needed edge to win the race, but this race win has been a long time coming for this strong driver-team pairing.

Now, McLaren is not just a strong contender in race pace. They also have one of the most competitive and secure driver pairings currently on the grid. In recent months, there have been a lot of transfers between teams and their drivers. As there were only 7 drivers who had contracts that extended past 2024, there were 13 spots left open that needed to be filled. Let’s take a look at what pairs have been confirmed and what pairs are still being rumored.

In William’s garage, Alexander Albon has announced that he has signed a multi-year contract until at least the end of 2026 with the team. This is not too big of a shock, yet there were thoughts that Albon could have been transferred to Mercedes to fill the spot left by Lewis Hamilton’s departure to Ferrari. Now that we know that this is not happening, it leaves wonders about who could be placed in the open seat—could it be Carlos Sainz? While the second William’s seat has not been confirmed yet, it is looking like it may be the last season Logan Sargeant will have in Formula One, with many envisioning him transferring over to Indy Car racing.

Along with rumors that Sargeant will not be driving in 2025, there were also rumors that the Williams team was trying to gain F2 driver Kimi Antonelli. Antonelli has been a strong driver in the Mercedes team, skipping F3 and going straight into his first F2 season this year. Everyone has had their eyes on him, including Lewis Hamilton, who stated that in relation to his replacement “I have no idea what Toto’s plans are, but for me, taking on a youngster, if it were my role, I would probably take on Kimi” (Sky Sports). Now, rumors about Antonelli driving in Formula 1 emerged in Miami when it was discovered that the Formula 1 governing body, the FIA, had received a request to give Antonelli a dispensation to race in Formula One before he turns 18. This was not done by Mercedes, and it is believed that it was done by Williams. If Williams plans to make a switch during the season, Antonelli would turn 18 years old between the Dutch and Italian Grand Prixs during the summer. There was also a major move with Nico Hulkenberg, who has been driving with Haas, signing a contract with the Stake F1 team, which will become Audi in 2026. This leaves his spot in Haas open for any driver currently on the grid, and it also means that either Zhou Guanyu or Valtteri Bottas will not be driving for the team in 2025. Both have had similar stats this season, so it is anybody’s game with which one will drive in 2026.

This past race in Imola was an emotional one, marked by the 30th anniversary of the deaths of Formula One drivers Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, who died on the track. This brought back four-time world championship winner Sebastian Vettel to pay tribute in their honor. Vettel achieved this not once, but twice over the weekend: he organized a memorial run around the track, where all the drivers participated while wearing specifically designed shirts for the moment. He also then drove in the last McLaren car that Senna did around the circuit and did multiple doughnuts in the car in honor of Senna while holding the Brazilian flag and the Austrian flag, which were in Senna’s car in honor of Senna’s and Ratzenberger’s home countries.

This past weekend, history was made with Charles Leclerc standing on top. On Sunday, the cars lined up for the Monaco Grand Prix, a race that has not been won by a racer from the country since 1931. Leclerc himself has had a rough history with this specific race during his time in both F1 and F2, with it resulting in retirements and podium finishes but never a pole position. The bad luck seemed to continue, so much so that people started to believe that the race was cursed. However, Leclerc never believed in the curse, even when an early red flag was called, which turned the race into a slow one where tire management was the focus. Even when he had Oscar Piastri right behind him for most of the laps, Leclerc did not let that rattle his confidence. Piastri made an attempt to pass Leclerc but was unsuccessful, and it became clear that the home-born racer was about to take first place. With the win in hand, the emotions seem to come through for people around the globe watching, especially when listening to the commentary describing the relationship Leclerc had with his father. His father had died a year before, and the Monaco native made it to F1. It was his dream to see his son reach F1. A little white lie before he passed from his son made his dream a reality; he told his father that he had signed a contract with a Formula 1 team. His driving made that dream a reality just one year later, when he entered Formula 1. Leclerc found it difficult to manage his emotions as he was brought back to the past with similar feelings to the ones he had in Baku 2017, the race he won in Formula 2, just days after his father’s passing. He could be heard on the team radio telling himself, “You cannot do that now. You still have two laps to finish,” when his eyes started to tear up. But the win in Monaco was a dream that Leclerc shared with his father, one that he was able to make true. “The grandstands he saw built as a kid growing up now rise for him as, for the first time in 93 years, this fabled race was won by one of their own.”