A 3-way title fight, Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari podium, and more: What the 2025 F1 championship looks like without McLaren

What if instead of a 2-way, we have a 3-way title fight, and Lewis Hamilton has already broken his Ferrari podium duck? McLaren has completely leapfrogged every team in F1 right now and is starting to dominate the sport.

In the first 14 races of the season, if we ignore the two wins of Max Verstappen and one of George Russell, McLaren has won everything.

With already 11 wins in the bag this season, it has been the kind of dominance that the sport saw in 2023 or any of the Lewis Hamilton-led Mercedes had during its heydays.

However, what if we didn't have McLaren on the grid? Well, we tried to find out how the championship would look if we didn't have McLaren and hence either of the two drivers on the grid. Let's just say that the results were fascinating. Let's take a look.

#1 George Russell leads the championship over Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc

Well, the championship standings would look quite different, as we would have George Russell leading the championship with Max Verstappen behind him, followed by Charles Leclerc. The best part about this title battle? The top 3 would be separated by just 26 points.

Russell would be at 250, followed by Verstappen at 242, with Charles Leclerc at 224 points. Lewis Hamilton will be in P4 at 165 points, albeit a bit too far behind the top 3 to be a factor in the title battle.

#2 Nico Hulkenberg is a race winner

The 2025 F1 season has already had a few feel-good moments, especially with Nico Hulkenberg breaking his podium duck.

Well, the season would have been even better if we didn't have McLaren on the grid, as Nico Hulkenberg would be a race winner by now.

#3 9 different podium finishers

After 14 races this season, there has been a certain level of stability that has set in. With that being said, the variance in podium finishers is something that's often an interesting stat. For the 2025 F1 season, if we didn't have McLaren, there would be 9 different podium finishers, with drivers like Esteban Ocon, Fernando Alonso, and Alex Albon ending up on the rostrum as well.

#4 George Russell has the most wins

If we look at the number of race winners we would have in a reality where McLaren is not on the grid, we would still have just 4 race winners.

George Russell, a driver who has spent a long time in the last few years in Lewis Hamilton's shadow, would be leading the way with 5 wins, while Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc would have 4 wins each. As we mentioned earlier, Nico Hulkenberg would be a race winner as well.

#5 Lewis Hamilton has broken the Ferrari podium duck

Lewis Hamilton has come under serious pressure lately, and a lot of it is down to the driver not even getting to sit on the podium even once this season. Well, in an alternate reality, Hamilton would have multiple podiums that went his way.

In that case, however, the biggest issue for the driver could potentially be the fact that his teammate Charles Leclerc is a title contender and has multiple wins under his belt.