Yes, I know that, technically, the motorsport season never ends but with December now rolling in and the end of the calendar year upon us there’s no better time to reflect on the past 12 months of competition. So today I introduce a month of Motornerd celebrations: The first annual Motornerd awards! Six categories will be slowly revealed across the coming month, beginning with the most prestigious: The Motornerd Driver of The Year.

Simply put it’s awarded to who the Motornerd panel (admittedly consisting of just myself for now) believe to have been the best performing driver over the last year. I’m going to be honest here, it wasn’t even a competition. While Alex Palou, Sebastian Ogier and of course the McLaren pairing of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris will pick up honorable mentions, it could only really go to one driver.

Max Verstappen.

I mean, can you seriously choose anyone else this year? We’re talking about perhaps the greatest driver of the century, a man who stands head and shoulders alongside the established greats we’ve praised to no end. In a car that’s continually proved itself a tricky beast to handle, and a Red Bull best described as dysfunctional until Laurent Mekies steadied the ship, Verstappen has outdriven all the gremlins and demons he’s faced thus far.

To use a phrase born of Max’s own tongue: It’s simply lovely what he’s managed to achieve this year. Even if he doesn’t take all honours in Abu Dhabi, his incredible 1v2 duel against the McLaren pairing will almost certainly be the main surviving collective memory we all have of this season.

To put it another way, if this F1 season was a Star Wars lightsabre battle, it would be Darth Maul V Obi Wan and Anakin.

To be just 12 points behind and facing a very realistic prospect of a fifth world title heading into Abu Dhabi is nothing short of sensational. A clutch win in Qatar yesterday only further punctuates just how much I believe he’s been the best of anyone in 2025.

What’s been so impressive is just how he’s proved time and time again that you really can never count him out. After two disappointments in Australia and Bahrain people were already carving McLaren’s name on both trophies. As the flying dutchman took the chequered flag after a masterful victory in Japan, the hype was back. Again, after the Dutch GP Verstappen found himself facing the toughest mountain he had yet to climb, with 16 of 24 races having passed. Victory at Monza caused a tidal wave of memes all pointing out what he’d need to do to take the title.

At the United States Grand Prix he pulled off another brilliant victory that only spurned the talk of a fifth world title on some more. And now, heading into the final race he’s an arms width from perhaps the greatest comeback in F1 history.

 It’s not just been his F1 form that’s commendable: His Nordschleife side quest has been arguably even more impressive, and his speed became something of a hindrance. Under the alias of Franz Hermann Verstappen tested a Ferrari 296 GT3 with his own racing outfit, Verstappen.com racing. Almost immediately he was ratted out by the internet having unofficially broken the lap record. It was part of the Dutchman’s efforts to obtain his permit to race GT3 machinery on the Green Hell, which saw him drive a variety of machinery. When he finally entered his first race in his team’s Ferrari 296, partnered with simracer-turned real world pro Chris Lulham the duo won their first race, beating both the Nurburgring specialists and the established order of GT3. Such was the reach of the event that the 4-hour affair was picked up by Sky Sports. All because Verstappen showed up.

There’s been further consequences of Verstappen’s incredible outing, as it was recently announced that following his win sim racing can now count towards gaining that all important permit, meaning that the prospect of jumping from the sim into the real world might has now gained significant traction.

Of course, F1 drivers are always going to be public facing figures, but that’s part of the deal. But in this humorous situation, there’s a point to be made: Max Verstappen is so damn quick that he can’t even hide under a false name and helmet. Such is his raw talent that any rouse will fool precisely nobody. He is, essentially, him. 2025’s Max Verstappen has no equal, and it’s for that reason he is my driver of the year.

One down, five to go and next up is my team of the year, celebrating the one team across all motorsport who’ve outclassed the rest of the world.

Image credit – Jen_ross83, CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons