Red Bull’s best and worst moments from 2025 and driver head-to-heads

Of all 10 teams on the grid, Red Bull embarked on arguably the biggest turnaround in the second half of the season. Max Verstappen went from seemingly being out of title contention to only narrowly losing out on a fifth World Championship, racking up more wins than his rivals along the way. But there were struggles for Yuki Tsunoda, leading to another driver change for 2026. Here is Red Bull’s end of year report for 2025…

Best finish

Max Verstappen – 1st in Japan, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Azerbaijan, United States, Las Vegas, Qatar and Abu Dhabi

Prior to F1’s summer break, Verstappen’s win tally this season stood at two, the Dutchman having struggled to add to that number amid a dip in performance for Red Bull.

That picture changed quite dramatically during the second act as the squad bounced back; out of 10 races, Verstappen stood on the top step at six, bringing him right back into the Drivers’ Championship fight against the McLarens.

As well as earning those victories through his own champion-level driving, the 28-year-old ensured that he was ready to capitalise on any mistakes by his rivals – as was the case when Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris lost out on a potential win in Qatar owing to a strategy misfire from the papaya squad.

Qualifying head-to-head

Verstappen 2-0 LawsonVerstappen 22-0 Tsunoda

Verstappen was completely dominant in Qualifying form against both of the drivers who lined up alongside him in 2025, with Liam Lawson demoted back down to Racing Bulls after a tricky opening two rounds while his replacement Tsunoda also failed in trying to match the four-time World Champion.

This run of strong Saturdays for Verstappen saw him claim eight pole positions, bringing his career total up to 48.

Race head-to-head

Verstappen 2-0 LawsonVerstappen 21-1 Tsunoda

Unsurprisingly, it is also advantage Verstappen in the race day head-to-heads. Tsunoda’s only finish ahead came at the Austrian Grand Prix, where Verstappen recorded his sole DNF of the season following a Lap 1 collision with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

The final standings make difficult reading for Tsunoda; while Verstappen ended the Drivers’ Championship in second place on 421 points, the Japanese racer wound up down in 17th on a tally of 33.

Best moment

It is remarkable that after that performance lull for Red Bull earlier in the season – which led Verstappen to effectively rule himself out of the championship – the Dutchman not only returned to regular winning ways during the second half but only narrowly missed out on the title by two points.

As such, there are various highlights to choose from Verstappen’s eight Grand Prix wins, but perhaps one of the greatest moments of the season was actually not one of his victories and is instead his recovery drive from a pit lane start in Brazil.

While he did not claim P1 at the event – in the vein of his 17th-to-win masterclass in the 2024 race – the four-time World Champion had even more ground to recover this year, particularly when his initial rise through the pack was brought to a halt by a puncture.

That setback did not stop him, and Verstappen was chasing Antonelli down in a battle for P2 towards the latter stages. He ultimately crossed the line in third, a result that the Red Bull man hailed as “incredible”, adding: “I didn’t expect that at all.”

Worst moment

The aforementioned struggles of the squad’s home race in Austria certainly proved to be a moment to forget for Red Bull. Qualifying had proven far from smooth, with Tsunoda eliminated in Q1 while Verstappen took P7 after being hindered by a late yellow flag.

On race day things went from bad to worse; Verstappen was tagged by Antonelli on the opening lap and found himself immediately out of the running, and Tsunoda crossed the line in 16th and last place.

Unfortunately the difficulties faced by the 25-year-old throughout the season perhaps account for another of Red Bull’s toughest aspects of the campaign, with Verstappen’s points haul alone not enough to lift the squad higher than third in the Teams’ Championship.

Goals for 2026

It seems likely that the first goal for Red Bull will be to start 2026 in the manner that they ended 2025; had that level of performance been there earlier in the campaign, the championship fight could arguably have been even closer than it was.

Despite the sport’s introduction of new technical regulations posing some uncertainty, there is perhaps a greater level of stability for the squad entering into next year, with Team Principal Laurent Mekies now firmly entrenched in his role after replacing Christian Horner in July.

Verstappen insisted that missing out on the 2025 title by two points was not a disappointment, given that he was at one stage more than 100 points adrift of the lead. But the Dutch racer remains in the form of his life and will undoubtedly be keen to be in the fight again in 2026, a season he has labelled as “a big question mark for everyone”.

One less question, however, centres around the identity of Verstappen’s team mate, with Isack Hadjar confirmed to make the step up from Racing Bulls. Mekies has set out his expectations for the youngster, stating: “We see it as another start for him to continue to develop, to continue to impress us, to continue to surprise us.”

Only time will tell if Hadjar can build on his promising rookie season and deliver on those targets, and whether Red Bull can ultimately return to the top spot in 2026.