Reflecting on McLaren's Victory and Farewells: A Season Finale to Remember

I'll cut straight to the chase: McLaren won the Constructors' Championship! Their last win was in 1998. Lando Norris secured the title by winning the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and securing the points necessary to keep Ferrari in second place. With him on the podium was Carlos Sainz in second place and Charles Leclerc in third - and neither of them went down without a fight. 

Oscar Piastri, who started the race in P2, finished in P10 after colliding with Max Verstappen in the first lap. Sergio Perez barely started the race before DNFing due to a collision with Valtteri Bottas, who had to retire his car later. Franco Colapinto had a premature end to his F1 interim stint after getting hit in the back by Piastri.

Some of you were hoping for a Ferrari victory, but it looks like it'll have to wait another year. At least it was a thrilling battle in the end, and it broke the Red Bull streak that I had been calling for a while. This is great for McLaren but not great for Red Bull.

The race, of course, wasn't just the season finale or a battle for the Constructors' title. It was a night of goodbyes. 

After twelve years and six World Championships, Lewis Hamilton finished fourth in his last race with Mercedes. It was the moment that everyone was both eager and fretfully waiting since the news of his surprise exit broke in February - and it didn't disappoint. It was emotional to watch Hamilton stand in his car and become awash in cheers from the stands. I was getting increasingly choked up as he did his send-off donuts. Any and every photo and footage of Hamilton post-race revealed a teary face that was no different from the tears one experiences at a high school or college graduation. 

It's been a long and dynamic journey for the driver and the team. And this race concluded an era that has left its permanent mark in F1 history. The British driver's Ferrari debut will undoubtedly be the talk of the year, perhaps even more so than this year's announcement. I don't know about any of you, but my Tifosi senses have been tingling about Hamilton - maybe an eighth World Championship is around the corner. 

As Hamilton enters Ferrari, Carlos Sainz leaves. To borrow vocabulary from the world of Bridgerton, Sainz was "The Diamond of the Season." All eyes were on him (aside from Hamilton) as rumors swelled about interested teams and purported conversations in hospitality suites in the paddocks. It was a relief to finally learn of his seat securement for at least the next few years - not Kick Sauber (soon to be Audi with uncertain potential), not Alpine (formerly Renault, a team Sainz once drove for before his days in McLaren), not Red Bull (where the team roster continues to be a big fat question mark), and not Mercedes (a team that fans were and still are eager to see him join one day) but Williams, a team ever so keen to return to its former glory. 

I know many are skeptical about Sainz's decision, but here's my take - Sainz is one of the more pragmatic and cerebral drivers on the grid who is always brewing something in the back of his head - it is a trait that differentiates him from his fellow drivers. It certainly drew the attention of James Vowles, the Team Principal of Williams, whose engineering background has defined his leadership style thus far. He seems to be up to something as well. Let them cook - the Williams messy era might just be over. 

We also say farewell to several drivers as they leave their definitive teams or the series altogether. I've made a list, excluding Hamilton and Sainz, to keep track: 

• Kevin Magnussen joins BMW Motorsport in 2025. 

• Nico Hulkenberg is leaving Haas for Kick Sauber. 

• Valtteri Bottas may or may not be the new Mercedes reserve driver. 

• Zhou Guanyu, who I feel will pop up again in 2026. 

• Esteban Ocon is leaving Alpine for Haas, though he was axed after the Qatar Grand Prix and replaced by Jack Doohan, who was supposed to make his F1 debut next year. 

• Franco Colapinto will likely be Williams' reserve driver, though nothing's been announced yet. Like Zhou, I get a strong sense that we'll see him with a permanent seat in 2026. 

• Sergio Perez, though there has yet to be an announcement. The writing, however, is on the wall. That, of course, is a tangent for another time. 

Let's not forget the drivers who were cut during the season: Logan Sargeant, who will compete in the European Le Mans Series in 2025, and Daniel Ricciardo, whose future in motorsport is riddled with rumors - another tangent to be explored another time. 

And with that, the countdown to 2025 officially begins. In the meantime, we'll all have to find something else to fill our Sundays for the next three months.