Dominance in Formula 1 is a fragile thing. In 2025, the once-unstoppable Red Bull machine has waded into quicksand, its four-time reigning champion Max Verstappen watching a pair of McLarens rocket past with a force and consistency that’s left even seasoned observers rattled.
The numbers alone are staggering: Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris have combined for 11 victories in 14 rounds—an astonishing 78.5% win rate. Seven of those races have seen McLaren secure 1-2 finishes, propelling them to a decisive 559 points in the Constructors’ standings—more than double Ferrari’s total—and leaving Verstappen, so often the pacesetter, a distant third in the Drivers’ tally, 97 points behind Piastri and 88 shy of Norris.
McLaren Proves Too Hot For Verstappen to Handle
With the current margin between Super Max and the two Papaya stars, it should come as no surprise to hear that online betting sites now consider the title battle a two-horse race. The popular Bovada site currently makes championship leader Piastri the -175 favorite for the crown, with Norris just behind at +130. Verstappen is currently considered the best of the rest, but he is still a distant +6600 shot.
But these raw statistics tell only half the story. Formula 1, at its highest level, is as much about the psychological shockwaves as the mechanics. Verstappen, who for much of the last four years looked almost mythic in his ability to bend a Grand Prix to his will, hit the paddock this summer with brows furrowed and body language taut. After Hungary, he cut a resigned figure, candidly telling the media, “We’re not really fighting for anything anymore.”
McLaren, meanwhile, has not just defeated its rivals—it’s crushed their hope. Their seven 1-2s this year tie them with Mercedes’ historic 2014 campaign through this point of the season. Piastri leads the standings, and across the last two decades, rarely has the handover of supremacy come so abruptly and so completely.
The question on every fan’s mind now: Is Verstappen’s slide among the worst championship defenses in F1 history? To answer, let’s revisit some notorious flops by serial champions when the bottom fell out.
Sebastian Vettel
Rewind to 2013 and Sebastian Vettel was unstoppable—nine consecutive wins to close the year, 13 on the season, and a fourth title before his 27th birthday. But in 2014, Formula 1’s turbo-hybrid revolution turned Red Bull’s world upside down. The all-conquering V8s gave way to complex and fragile hybrid power units—territory Mercedes stamped with ferocious authority.
Vettel’s numbers made for painful viewing: zero wins, four podiums, a solitary fastest lap, and just 167 points—the same tally as Valtteri Bottas, who had never won an F1 race at that time. His new teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, outscored him by 71 points and snagged three wins. Vettel’s fifth-place finish in the championship was not just a statistic—it was a jaw-dropping fall from grace. Red Bull’s chronic unreliability – five retirements for Vettel alone – and lackluster pace were the headlines, but Ricciardo’s calm, incisive racecraft delivered the exclamation point.
Jenson Button
Jenson Button’s fairy-tale 2009 campaign with Brawn GP is the stuff of sporting legend. But his move to McLaren in 2010, partnering with Lewis Hamilton, exposed how fine the margins in F1 victory truly are. Button won two of the opening four races—Australia and China—and briefly led the championship. The promise was dazzling, but as the season wore on, the car’s inconsistency and Red Bull’s growing menace became impossible to ignore.
Button’s final numbers: 214 points, just two wins, nine podiums, fifth in the title race, and consistently a step behind Hamilton. While his smooth touch paid dividends in tricky conditions, poor qualifying and erratic McLaren strategies saw crucial points slip away. Far from the clinical ruthlessness of his title year, Button’s defense wilted in the heat of a stronger teammate and a resurgent Red Bull, ultimately unable to deliver when it counted.
Lewis Hamilton
How quickly a giant can stumble. Fresh off the dramatic, last-gasp heroics of his 2008 title, Hamilton entered 2009 with expectations sky-high. But the MP4-24 was a disaster out of the box: at the opener in Australia, Hamilton qualified 18th. By mid-season, the reigning champion had become a sideshow to the Brawn GP juggernaut—Jenson Button’s eight wins in the first 13 races set the tone.
It was only after a significant aerodynamic overhaul that Hamilton finally returned to the podium—victories in Hungary and Singapore served as brief reminders of his genius, but they were bandages for a season spent languishing in the midfield. He finished fifth overall with 49 points, collecting just two wins. His resilience and skill were never in question, but McLaren’s early failings left him with a mountain no man could climb.
Michael Schumacher
Five straight world titles had made Schumacher and Ferrari almost untouchable, a relentless force of nature. But the FIA’s new ban on in-race tire changes played havoc with Bridgestone’s rubber, and the F2005 was overhauled in pace, first by Renault and then by McLaren. The result: Schumacher claimed a single, hollow win—at the six-car 2005 US Grand Prix—amid a year of embarrassment.
The stats were stark: third in the championship, 62 points, one win, three poles—compared to Fernando Alonso’s 133 points and seven wins. Mechanical issues multiplied, and the tactical wizardry that once defined Ferrari became a parade of damage limitation. The unstoppable red tide retreated, leaving Schumacher fighting for scraps. While he would contend for the title once again the following year, the iconic German would never again claim a world championship.
