Williams' Dramatic F1 Resurgence Highlights 2025 Season's Biggest Winners and Losers
Williams stunned the F1 world with a 120-point surge to finish fifth in 2025, its best result in nearly a decade, while Ferrari collapsed with 254 fewer points. The dramatic shift highlights a season of major midfield resurgence and unexpected struggles for traditional front-runners.
Williams achieved its best Formula 1 season since 2016, rocketing to fifth in the constructors' championship with 137 points—a staggering 120-point improvement over 2024. This remarkable turnaround, fueled by podiums from Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz, starkly contrasts with the struggles of traditional powerhouses Ferrari and Red Bull, whose significant point drops defined the season's shifting competitive order.
Why it matters:
The 2025 season witnessed one of the most dramatic redistributions of performance in recent F1 history. Williams' resurgence from a perennial backmarker to a consistent points-scorer challenges the established hierarchy and proves that midfield teams can make monumental leaps with the right development. Conversely, the steep declines at Ferrari and Red Bull underscore the relentless and unforgiving nature of F1's development race, where standing still equates to falling behind.
The details:
- Williams' Historic Climb: After scoring only 84 total points across the seven seasons from 2018 to 2024, Williams amassed 137 points in 2025 alone. Key to this were podium finishes in Azerbaijan and Qatar for Alex Albon, coupled with a strong late-season surge from Carlos Sainz, who also secured a Sprint podium in the United States.
- Other Big Improvers: Williams was not alone in its progress. Stake F1 Team made a colossal jump from 4 points in 2024 to 70 points in 2025, highlighted by Nico Hülkenberg's emotional first career podium at the 239rd attempt—the first for the Sauber-operated team since 2012.
- The Major Losers: Ferrari suffered the most severe setback, scoring 254 fewer points than in 2024 and plummeting from second to fourth in the standings, now 435 points behind champion McLaren. Red Bull also regressed, losing 138 points due to a lack of contribution from its second car after Sergio Perez's departure.
The big picture:
McLaren's continued dominance in securing both championships confirms its position as the current benchmark. However, the real story of the season is the compression and volatility of the midfield. Teams like Williams and Stake have successfully closed the gap, capitalizing on stable regulations to optimize their packages. This suggests the competitive field is becoming more fluid, where a single off-season can radically alter a team's fortunes, as evidenced by the contrasting trajectories of Williams and Ferrari.
What's next:
The pressure now mounts on the underperforming giants. Ferrari and Red Bull face intense scrutiny to understand their developmental missteps and mount a recovery challenge for 2026. For Williams, the challenge shifts from achieving points to converting this newfound momentum into regular podium contention and establishing itself as a permanent fixture in the upper midfield. The 2026 regulatory reset looms as a critical opportunity for all teams to reset the pecking order once again.