Presents or punishments? Who's been naughty and nice on the F1 2025 grid

Anyone can attempt an end of year awards piece, so this Christmas we're trying something different.

Santa's F1 naughty or nice list!

End of year awards? BORING!* Let's get more festive with it, having a look at the naughty and nice lists for this Christmas in F1.

(*Not our end of year awards, they'll be good. Other people's. Boring people's)

Going in championship order, because alphabetical would've been too much of a faff, here's the OFFICIAL 2025 Naughty or Nice list for F1...and what they're all getting under the tree.

The best thing an F1 driver can do for himself and his team is help all the end-of-season hardware come back to the factory. Norris did that this year, which puts him on the nice list by default.

On the other hand...that's his job, so he can just get his replica trophy under the tree this year.

Max Verstappen

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Itching powder on his sim racing seat

Don't drive your car into another car on purpose! That isn't a difficult rule!! You can't be on the nice list if you do that!!!

Oscar Piastri

Verdict: Nice list Reward: A veritable bushel of papayas

Whether he's wanted to or not, Piastri has played the role the team has asked of him all year. Doing the right thing when you want to do it is easy – doing the right thing when your self-interest is screaming at you not to is a different beast. Nice list.

George Russell

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Forced to wear clothes with primary colours

Russell had the best season of his career so far in 2025, and...nobody noticed. Real Gs move in silence like lasagna, perhaps his motto.

What we did notice was Mr Beige himself getting into beefs in the first half of the season, and then sulking in the summer when Mercedes pursued Max Verstappen. Tut tut.

Charles Leclerc

Verdict: Nice list Reward: Treats for Leo

Working with a smile and getting seven podiums in the season respite this year's Ferrari being an absolute dog, Leclerc also tried very hard to keep his car out of the barrier and lighten the load on his mechanics.

Did he get a pair of DNFs because of crashes? Yes. Were either of those crashes his fault? Emphatically not, getting hit by Kimi Antonelli at Zandvoort before being on the wrong end of a chain reaction started by Oscar Piastri and Antonelli in Brazil. Good lad.

Lewis Hamilton

Verdict: Nice list Reward: A time machine

We can't put Lewis on the naughty list this year, it'd just be too sad to see him sat under the tree in his pyjamas, face falling as he realises he's opening a lump of coal. Can't do it to him. Let him just go back a couple of years and remember what it's like to enjoy driving a good car.

Kimi Antonelli

Verdict: Nice list Reward: Some sweets

Couldn't put a teenager on the naughty list. I'm not a monster.

Alex Albon

Verdict: Nice list Reward: Vet bill amnesty

No coal for the Albon household this year, but instead a little respite for the man who has 11 (ELEVEN) cats, two horses and a dog. Paired up with a world class team-mate for the first time at Williams, and more than held his own.

Carlos Sainz

Verdict: Nice list Reward: Voucher for three hours of karaoke at Rowans in Finsbury Park

Dropped by Ferrari? New team, and a new environment? No problem. Carlos Sainz Jr. continues to be one of the most engaging drivers on the grid, and bagged Williams' best result in a full race since 2017. What more could you ask for?

Let him go to the happiest place on earth and mainline Smooth Operator until someone wrestles the mic off him. He's earned it.

Fernando Alonso

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Continues to be paired with Lance Stroll

A grumpy old man when he's not being actively impish, but we can't punish Nando any more than he punishes himself with his Aston Martin contract.

Nico Hulkenberg

Verdict: Nice list Reward: Maybe...Audi are good?

Full disclosure, it was very tempting to put him on the naughty list for making us change all our lists of drivers who went the longest before their first podium when he went up to collect his trophy at Silverstone, in his 239th start. But that would be Scrooge-y, and we aren't about that today!

Isack Hadjar

Verdict: Nice list Reward: A new seatbelt setup

He might get a bit chirpy on the radio, but Sonic the Hadjhog seems like a very nice boy and he had a cracking rookie season.

Just...remember the multiple times this year that he had to come into the pits to have his cockpit setup adjusted, because it was painfully impacting any possible future hopes of passing on his family name? Let's hope the main Red Bull team can get that sorted out.

Ollie Bearman

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Elocution lessons

Sorry!!! He probably can't help it!!! But Ollie Bearman having a mad continental accent after having lived in Italy for a couple of years in his late teens is weird and tickles my ear wrong and I want him to spend the winter changing that. You grew up in Chelmsford, Ollie.

Liam Lawson

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Mistakenly called Australian for six months

A lot of Lawson's excesses can be reasonably put down to 'youthful exuberance', and hopefully being the senior team-mate at Racing Bulls next year will straighten him out a bit. For now though: Liam Lawson, YOU are Australian.

Esteban Ocon

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Being outshone by his team-mate (again)

If you held me at knifepoint and demanded I recall a single thing about Esteban Ocon's 2025 season, I would develop a sudden and alarming new hole.

Lance Stroll

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Grounded for a month

Is there anything new that can be said about Lance Stroll at this stage of his career? He doesn't have what it takes to be one of the 22 drivers on the F1 grid. He will continue to be one of them for as long as his father owns his team. That's it.

Yuki Tsunoda

Verdict: Nice list Reward: A nice time in the paddock in 2026

Tsunoda was put in an impossible position this year, thrown into a seat that everyone knew was poison and asked to just do his best. It didn't work, but the 25-year-old gave it his all throughout.

He'll be the team's reserve and test driver in 2026, and if he can have a year like Valtteri Bottas just did with Mercedes, that seems like a lovely time.

Pierre Gasly

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Alpine continue to be depressing

Boring. French. Has to work for Flavio Briatore. I dunno.

Gabriel Bortoleto

Verdict: Nice list Reward: A custom 'Bort' licence plate from Itchy and Scratchy Land

The standings might not show it, but Bortoleto was in the conversation for most impressive F1 rookie in 2025. He's already well-liked within the paddock and with fans, seems to have a good head on his shoulders, and is a speedyboi. Nice list!

Franco Colapinto

Verdict: Naughty list Punishment: Loses four letters from his first name to become RC Cola-pinto

It's not Colapinto's fault in the slightest that Alpine got flighty and ditched Jack Doohan after just six races, but it sort of is his fault that he didn't score a single point for the rest of the season, and smashed up his car a couple of times in qualifying and practice.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton retirement verdict revealed by F1 insider

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