The real-lifeFormula Oneseason is already in full-swing, and last year’s Constructor’s Champions, McLaren, once again seem like the team most likely to drive off into the sunset with another shiny first place trophy.
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The team has been expected to be dominant, and they’re currently proving everyone exactly right. While not every single race has been a blowout, and Max Verstappen is still hanging around to cause as much havoc as he possibly can, McLaren did finally look the part of their front-runner selves with a 1-2 finish in Miami from Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris that left the closest driver a full 30 seconds in the dust.
Like most big-title sports games from EA Sports, the latest Formula One racing video game, F1 25, is an annualized release that aims to bring enough changes to the game each year to keep players coming back for more.
Driver’s ratings and rankings in the game are always changing and fluctuate based on real-life performance once the game is out, so it’s always an interesting day when Codemasters and the rest of the game development team release their ratings for the drivers ahead of the new game release.
This year, the ratings are extra spicy.
Oscar Piastri Ranked 8th In F1 25
In a post on X this morning, the EA Sports F1 account revealed the score that each driver will start with in the game.
Here are the initial Driver Ratings for#F125! 📊
These are the stats to watch out for when the game launches on May 30, and they’ll evolve throughout the year in line with real-world performance 🏎💨
Get the game:https://t.co/J5SpmvWNpepic.twitter.com/0AybaK5sPR
— EA SPORTS F1 (@EASPORTSF1)August 03, 2025
Very intriguingly, Oscar Piastri of McLaren is currently only rated 8th in these standings. In real life, he’s beginning to pull ahead in the actual driver’s standings, as he sits at an impressive 131 points overall. Second place belongs to Piastri’s teammate, Lando Norris, who is trailing behind at 115 points. No other driver has broken 100 points this season.
Yes, there’s something to be said about McLaren having the best actual car on the grid, so that fact does surely carry this pair of drivers at least a bit when factoring in their overall greatness.
Still, Lando Norris himself is ranked as the second best driver in F1 25 with a rating of 91. Oscar Piastri still sits in eighth place with an 87 as his starting score. Even if the dominant car factors in to what makes these two drivers equally dominant on the track, it’s definitely interesting that Norris is still thought of so much more highly when Piastri has just come off winning three straight races in a row in real life and leads the standings.
Historically, Norris has been a higher finisher than Piastri in real life. But that absolutely has not been the case through 6 of the 24 races so far this season.
Other Interesting Driver Ranking Decisions
The debatably questionable driver ratings don’t stop there, as there are a few more head-scratchers in addition to the Norris/Piastri discrepancy. Piastri also trails players like Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, who obviously have an insane amount of historical F1 success, but not nearly as much in recent seasons to necessarily warrant a higher rating than Piastri in 2025.
The rookie driver ratings also seem a bit all over the place, with Isack Hadjar of the Racing Bulls all the way in dead last with a pretty brutal rating of 68. He’s the only driver that hasn’t cracked a rating of 70 despite showing atonof promise during the real season.
Mercedes' rookie, Kimi Antonelli, is by all accounts the best of the 6 full-season rookies on the grid, and yet he’s rated 19th out of 20th in the game, behind even Alpine’s Jack Doohan, who just lost his seat and isn’t even a starting F1 driver anymore. Antonelli has looked great in real life and just claimed pole for the sprint race in Miami, so this rating also feels off.
Test These Skills Yourself Soon
If you want to put these driver ratings to the test yourself, you don’t have to wait long. F1 25 will release this month on May 30th. We’ll also have a couple more real-life races out of the way by this date, so the state of these starting driver rankings will become even more clear as more action unfolds on the track.
This year’s game boasts anall-new story modewhich was lacking in F1 24, so there are more reasons to have F1 25 on your radar as the release date draws nearer.
