#4 Oscar Piastri - McLaren
For 16 races, Oscar Piastri was the world champion elect. He was cool, clinical, and seemingly untouchable. Then came Baku.
A double-shunt weekend there shattered his aura of invincibility and triggered a downward spiral that saw him lose his grip on the title. Between struggling on low-grip tarmac and tossing cars into the scenery in back-to-back sprints in Austin and in Brazil, the Aussie looked surprisingly melted.
He still bagged seven wins - a number that should have been ten with better-inspired strategy calls in Hungary and in Qatar - but his late-season vanishing act is the only reason he isn't holding the trophy.
#3 Charles Leclerc - Ferrari
If there was an award for "Doing More with Less," Leclerc would be the perennial winner.
In a year where Ferrari provided a car that was allergic to rain and generally allergic to the podium, Charles dragged it to five front-row starts - a feat the SF-25 had no business achieving.
He spent the year comfortably neutralizing Lewis Hamilton, proving that he is the undisputed king of Maranello. He lacked the machinery to actually fight for the crown, but his seven podiums were acts of pure defiance.
Ferrari doesn't deserve him, but they’d be lost without him.
