How Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso could decide 2025 F1 title fight

Recent comments from McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown may have given us some clues about which way the 2025 F1 drivers' championship is going to go. And it involves both Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Throw it back to the year 2007, Steve Jobs has unveiled the first iPhone, Tony Blair has resigned as UK Prime Minister, and Ratatouille had hit the cinemas.

But in F1, we were witnessing one of the most remarkable seasons in F1 history.

Hamilton, a fresh-faced 22-year-old rookie, was taking the fight to his McLaren team-mate Alonso - a two-time world champion who had been brought in by the team to propel them back to championship-winning ways.

Alonso was not happy that McLaren would not favour him over Hamilton in the championship battle - although let's not get into the Spygate story in this piece - and both drivers continued to fight hard.

In the end, neither Alonso nor Hamilton claimed championship success, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen swooping in to beat the pair of them by a single point.

So, what lessons have McLaren learned from that awful time that also saw them lose Alonso after just a year's association with the hottest prospect in F1 at the time?

None, it seems.

Asked what he would do if Max Verstappen ended up winning the title over his two drivers, Brown told the Beyond the Grid podcast: "I’d shake his hand and say ‘job well done’. I want to make sure if we don’t win, he beats us, we don’t beat ourselves. That’s important. And we’re well aware of 2007, two drivers tied on points."

"In the event 2007 happens again I’d rather have that outcome than all the other outcomes by playing favourites. We won’t do it, we’re racers and we’re going racing."

Can McLaren win the championship without picking a driver?

So, let me get this straight, McLaren would rather give up the chance of winning a first drivers' title since 2008 and hand it straight to Verstappen who has won the last four, rather than just back one of their drivers?

It's a bold statement from Brown, and a bold strategy which, if it pays off, we'll all congratulate McLaren for giving both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri an equal chance at claiming their first world title.

At the end of the day, that's what sport should be all about shouldn't it?

But problems will arise if McLaren lose the title to Verstappen. They've got a 36-point buffer to the Dutchman as it stands with four race weekends remaining, so it's easy to block him out and just focus on the fight between their drivers.

Should Norris v Piastri become as fiery as Hamilton v Alonso in the last few races however, it will be interesting to see if Brown still has the same approach.

If we're sat here with two race weekends left and Verstappen is eight points behind Norris and three behind Piastri, surely then McLaren will call the battle between their drivers off and use the Aussie as a buffer between Norris and Verstappen?

Sticking to their guns in that scenario would be like handing Verstappen the title on a plate, but I do like the confidence that Brown is instilling in his drivers that they're both good enough to beat Verstappen in a straight fight (even if it is a little misguided).

McLaren thinking long term

Whatever happens in the 2025 championship in the end, it's pretty clear that both Piastri and Norris have managed to go through this pressurised season without barely a bad word being thrown in the other's direction.

That's new for F1, and a refreshing sight for which McLaren should be applauded.

It means that neither Norris or Piastri will be tempted to 'do an Alonso' and leave the team. They will both be there fighting for the championship in 2026 and, in all likelihood, 2027 as well.

The problem for McLaren and their two drivers however, is that the Woking-based outfit are unlikely to have the same level of dominance over their competitors as they've had in 2025. This may be the one and only chance they get to secure a first championship double since 1998.

And that's because of the new regulations that are sweeping into the sport in 2026 that could potentially shake up the competitive order in F1, with Mercedes rumoured to be best-placed to master these comprehensive changes.

Both drivers will be desperate to claim their maiden title, and Brown himself even admitted that he would never want to be the one to take that away from his two young superstars.

"I’d rather we did the best we can on our drivers tied on points and the other guy beat us by one, than the alternative," the American continued. "That is telling one of our drivers now, when they are one point away from each other, ‘I know you have a dream to win the world championship but we flipped a coin and you don’t get to do it this year.'"

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