Sports
Max Verstappen is F1 champion again, but the 2025 season already looks wide open
LAS VEGAS — Max Verstappen’s fourth world championship, secured under the neon lights of Las Vegas Boulevard on Saturday night, has cemented his place among Formula One’s all-time greats.
This was a championship victory unlike his previous three. In 2021, he went toe-to-toe with Lewis Hamilton over the course of the season, the pair scrapping in a direct fight. 2022 and 2023 were years of domination for Verstappen, any threats to his supremacy proving fleeting at best.
2024 has been different, even though the year started as 2023 ended. Verstappen dominated early on, only for Red Bull to lose its position as the pace-setter. Not just one, but three teams — McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes — emerged as persistent threats. Red Bull’s slump, particularly its impact on Sergio Pérez’s form, is poised to cost it the constructors’ championship for the first time since 2021.
Seven different drivers have scored wins this year. While Verstappen’s immense ability has got him across the line to secure the championship, the stiffer competition foreshadows what he can expect in 2025. Given the regulations’ stability and the need for teams to put as much time and effort as possible into the complete rule overhaul for 2026, most anticipate the pecking order will remain largely the same: McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes — then everyone else.
As title defenses go, 2025 is already shaping up to be an even greater test for Verstappen.
Is Lando Norris the (way too) early favorite?
F1 has long craved this kind of open, close competition at the front of the pack. The cost cap, introduced in 2021 to foster financial stability, has made it harder for teams to spend their way out of trouble. Upgrades and car development must be carefully planned.
McLaren’s rise over the past two seasons, which could culminate in its first constructors’ title in 26 years, proves how to get things right. Every update added to the MCL38 car throughout 2024 has offered a step forward in performance, giving Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri the chance to fight at the very front regularly.
Norris took advantage of that to mount the most serious threat to Verstappen. Norris’s first chance to properly get in a title fight brought hard lessons to learn. Often his own harshest critic, the Briton took full accountability — maybe even too much — for mistakes at points through the year that temporarily lessened the pressure on Verstappen.
Norris will likely enter 2025 as the championship favorite based on his form after McLaren took a major step forward with its car around Miami. Since the start of the second half of the season in Hungary, he has outscored Verstappen, delivering dominant victories at Zandvoort and in Singapore in a fashion reminiscent of Verstappen in the past two years.
It has proved to Norris that, in his words, “I have what it takes” to fight for a championship. He admitted on Wednesday in Las Vegas that he was “definitely not at the level I needed to be at the beginning of the year,” only to produce “by far some of my best performances that I’ve done” through the second half of the season.
Norris explained that it would also lead to a very different approach from all of McLaren in 2025. No longer chasing, it would be “going into a season with a mindset of let’s try and win it,” he said. “It’s a very different mindset to what we had this year.” The reset of a new season could be big for Norris.
But he isn’t the only McLaren driver who’ll be considering a title bid.
In only his second season, Piastri justified McLaren fighting so hard for his services back in 2022.. While his maiden victory in Hungary came in strange circumstances as McLaren stressed over its team orders, the fashion in which he controlled proceedings in Baku proved his star quality. There needs to be another step in form — Norris leads the qualifying head-to-head 18-4 — to really match Norris, but the positive signs are there.
Much as he’s done in recent months, Verstappen may have to fend off a two-pronged McLaren threat in 2025.
Hamilton’s pursuit of an eighth title renews at Ferrari
Hamilton’s long, successful Mercedes career has been inching toward an underwhelming end. Months removed from the emotional high of ending his win drought at Silverstone and the inherited victory at Spa, he admitted on Sky after the race in Brazil, where he struggled to P10, that he “could happily go and take a holiday.”
The upcoming switch to Ferrari for 2025 is one that, a few months ago, might have looked ill-judged. Mercedes was on the rise through the summer European races, and Ferrari sustained a dip in form. Those roles have reversed since the August break to the extent Ferrari is now chasing McLaren for the constructors’ title. Mercedes is 175 points back of Hamilton’s future team.
Hamilton recently admitted he’s keeping a close eye on Ferrari’s progress, even though his focus remains on finishing in fashion with Mercedes. Regardless of the constructors’ battle outcome, Ferrari should be a threat from the start of next year to win races, giving Hamilton hope that he could mount a challenge for a record-breaking eighth drivers’ title.
The other dynamic of interest in Hamilton’s Ferrari move is how he will stack up against Charles Leclerc, a driver regarded as having championship-winning caliber when given the right car.
Leclerc has been the leader at Ferrari for some time and is on a long-term contract for a reason. Wins in Monaco, Monza and Austin have made this his most successful season to date, and without Ferrari’s mid-season slump in form, there’s good reason to think Leclerc would have been as much if not more of a threat to Verstappen as Norris.
Much of the focus will be on Hamilton when he switches to Ferrari at the start of next year and whether it could be the turning point that gives him a final run of success to close out his trophy-laden F1 career. But Leclerc is also ready to fight for a championship. Amid inevitable discussion over Hamilton’s level of performance toward the end of this year as he nears his 40th birthday, comparing the two Ferrari drivers will be enlightening.
Either way, Verstappen will need to keep an eye on the red cars in his mirrors next year.
And what of Mercedes?
Hamilton’s recent disappointing form has not been felt across the Mercedes team. George Russell felt he could have won in the rainy Brazil race without pitting before the red flag, and he took pole in Las Vegas after the team swept practice.
It was a reminder that when Mercedes gets everything right, it can still threaten Ferrari and McLaren. Russell will head into 2025 as a team leader for the first time when 18-year-old Mercedes protege Andrea Kimi Antonelli joins him. Despite the hype around Antonelli, the expectations for his rookie season will understandably need to be managed, meaning Russell will naturally be expected to spearhead its efforts.
The challenge for Mercedes will be to finally remedy its struggles with its car under this generation of regulations. Since 2022, it has failed to fight at the front consistently, its form blowing from hot to cold, sometimes session to session.
Finally understanding that in the last year of the regulation cycle would be too little, too late, but it could at least give some hope of getting back in the title mix again.
Verstappen will remain very tough to beat
The potential of all three teams to take the fight to Red Bull in 2025 is tantalizing. But we should factor in how strong Verstappen will be regardless next year.
He proved through the second half of 2024 that even without the quickest car, he is still capable of getting big results and fighting against the likes of Leclerc, Norris and Russell. Red Bull worked to understand the balance issues that emerged midway through the season with its Austin update package, offering some encouragement. If it can fully resolve that for next year and restore Verstappen’s confidence in the car, he may go a step ahead again.
To Norris, that remained the biggest challenge. Regardless of the relative car performance, anyone wanting to dethrone Verstappen would still have to defeat him.
“I don’t think you’ll probably get a much better driver than Max ever in Formula One ever again,” Norris said. “That’s my opinion but that’s what I believe in and for me to go up against that belief, to fight against that person that I know is so good, it takes a bit more than what I probably achieved this season.
“But I think what I’ve done since the summer break is closer to what I need to be, and I think that is close to being good enough to be fighting for it next year.”
Carlos Sainz, the outgoing Ferrari driver, will likely be left to watch the lead fight from afar in 2025 upon his move to Williams. But he was excited by how this season was ending.
“It just shows that it could go anywhere,” Sainz said. “When you have four teams within two-tenths and they have a whole winter to work on the car and improve the car, those two-tenths could quickly switch around and create a different favorite. So all four teams, for me, could be in the fight.”
Speaking to the broadcast after the race, with Las Vegas’ iconic Fountains of Bellagio cascading behind him, F1’s four-time reigning champion acknowledged the challenge ahead to defend his throne.
“If you look at it to next year right now, I think it’s going to be a proper battle between a lot of cars,” Verstappen said.
Top photo: Getty Images; Design: Kelsea Petersen/The Athletic
Sports
Hate ’em if you want, but Chiefs make no apologies while continuing pursuit of history
Patrick Mahomes couldn’t help himself.
A couple hours after leading the Kansas City Chiefs to an AFC championship victory over the Buffalo Bills — a triumph that clinched the team’s third consecutive trip to the Super Bowl and the fifth in the last six seasons — Mahomes pulled out his cell phone, fired up the good ol’ Twitter/X app, loaded the iconic Kermit sipping tea meme and sent out the message: “I’ll see y’all in New Orleans! #ChiefsKingdom.”
https://t.co/l8yksh2rWx pic.twitter.com/rgh5x6aSUs
— Patrick Mahomes II (@PatrickMahomes) January 27, 2025
It was a slick clapback. Kermit jokes are nothing new for Mahomes, who has long been ribbed for the way his unique voice reminds many of the Muppets star. During training camp, members of the Las Vegas Raiders mocked their divisional rival with a Kermit puppet wearing a curly wig and red No. 15 jersey. Mahomes got the last laugh in the form of a regular-season sweep. Ahead of the Chiefs’ regular-season road game against the Bills in November, some fans found humor in hanging a Kermit the Frog doll in a similar wig-and-jersey getup high above a street outside Highmark Stadium (the racist overtones many saw in the image are likely the reason it stuck in Mahomes’ mind).
Buffalo won that regular season game. However, Mahomes again laughed last, in the game that really mattered. He ripped out the hearts of the Bills and their fans with one of his most dominant performances of the season, ending Buffalo’s Super Bowl hopes for the fourth time in the last five years.
Mahomes’ meme deployment represented both a good-natured rubbing of salt in the Bills’ wounds, and a wink directed at the increasing number of football fans who would love to see anyone but Mahomes and the Chiefs hoist yet another Lombardi Trophy.
The Chiefs have officially taken over as football’s Evil Empire. They replaced the New England Patriots, who under the direction of Bill Belichick and Tom Brady dominated the NFL for the better part of two decades. The Patriots won six Super Bowls while appearing in nine from 2002-19. One season after losing to those same Patriots in the 2018 AFC Championship, Mahomes and the Chiefs won their first Super Bowl. Three years later, they won another, and then another, the first back-to-back champs since New England (in 2004 and ’05). And now they’re back in the Super Bowl again, going for an unprecedented three-peat.
It’s remarkable that dating back to Super Bowl XXXVI, played in February 2002, 14 of the last 24 Super Bowls have featured either the Patriots or the Chiefs, with New England winning six out of their nine appearances and the Chiefs winning three of four (with the outcome of the fifth to be determined). The dominance, however, has caused the Chiefs to — in the eyes of some fans — morph from fresh-faced underdogs into reviled power players whose prospect of continued success provokes feelings of nausea.
Is it logical? No.
Surprising? Not entirely.
But there is a mindbending aspect to the speed at which some fans have turned on the Chiefs.
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Just a few short years ago, the Chiefs were viewed as the perfect antidote to decades of Patriots fatigue. They were everything New England was not.
Bill Belichick was the surly, personality-devoid leader of a franchise that required rigid adherence to the Patriot Way. Chiefs coach Andy Reid is the endearing, Hawaiian-shirt-wearing grandfatherly figure encouraging individuality while permitting his players to color outside of the lines.
Non-Pats fans viewed Brady as arrogant, overly polished, calculated, demanding and robotic. Mahomes was unassuming, with a knack for making Houdini-esque escapes under pressure and delivering throws to any spot on the field — from every conceivable arm slot. Meanwhile, sidekick Travis Kelce was the fun-loving freelancer drawing as much praise for his colorful personality as he did his confounding route-running and clutch catches.
The Patriots’ critics branded them as cheaters because of the sign-stealing scandal and the Brady-related “Deflategate.” The Chiefs maintained a wholesome feel while building their dynasty through homegrown talent, smart financial moves and continuity both at the core of their roster and on their coaching staff.
Kansas City seemed to have the whole country behind them six years ago as they fell short against New England in that 37-31 overtime loss at Arrowhead Stadium, which preceded the final Lombardi trophy of the Patriots dynasty. And the Chiefs’ popularity only further skyrocketed the following season as Mahomes and Co. pulled off a comeback victory over San Francisco for the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the 1969 season.
Mahomes’ jersey became the NFL’s leading seller and his team took on a new crop of bandwagon fans. Kansas City and their quarterback and coach remained a marvel three seasons later as they rebounded from a Super Bowl loss to Brady and the Tampa Bay Bucs to win a second Super Bowl a year later.
But somewhere between that second and third Super Bowl campaign, the feelings directed at Kansas City started to switch from fascination and fondness to fatigue and loathing. The distaste for the Chiefs has only increased this season.
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But why?
Is it envy over the way Mahomes always finds a way to get it done, winning 17 straight games decided by one score?
Is it the decrease of offensive fireworks as the Chiefs have reinvented themselves from a high-scoring machine to a defensive juggernaut, with Mahomes seemingly saving his difference-making plays for the closing minutes of games?
Is the off-the-field stuff, like the ubiquitous Reid-Mahomes commercials, or the constant coverage of Kelce’s relationship with pop icon Taylor Swift?
All of the above? Probably.
Regardless, for many the rage has become blinding. That’s reflected in the silly-yet-increasingly popular school of thought that the Chiefs now receive preferential treatment from officials, part of a mandate from the NFL to ensure Kansas City wins another Super Bowl. Those who subscribe to this belief view every questionable penalty flagged against Kansas City’s opponents (a late hit as Mahomes slips out of bounds, a roughing the passer call as a foe grazes his helmet, a pass-interference flag to extend a drive) as evidence that the fix is in. They do so while, incredibly, ignoring all of the calls that officials botch in non-Chiefs games.
Those fans also never stop to consider a couple of other facts that would discredit their stance.
Young or poorly-constructed teams typically wilt in the most pressure-packed moments and tend to hurt themselves by committing ill-timed transgressions. Quality teams and coaches execute at their best in the face of pressure. So it should come as no surprise that the Chiefs — a franchise that, like New England during its reign, is as well-constructed and battle-tested as any in the league — don’t burn themselves at critical junctures. There’s nothing fluky about the bulk of those 17 one-score wins.
The NFL goes to great lengths to ensure parity — revenue sharing, salary cap, free agency, the draft process — because league officials know that competitive balance and an ever-changing slate of contenders and champions is good for business. It would make no sense to fix games for a small-market team like the Chiefs. If anything, the league would want to see the Jets and Giants, Bears and Cowboys emerge as juggernauts rather than trainwrecks.
The haters seem to allow a blend of jealousy, boredom and obsession for the next big thing to cloud their critical thinking skills. And so, they parse through every play and every call in search of detracting factors. It’s the typical response of bitter fans of the hunters, directed at the hunted. Just ask the Patriots, Yankees, Dodgers, Lakers, Bulls, Golden State Warriors or any other dynasty.
If it’s not our team, we tire quickly of dominance. And rather than allow ourselves to appreciate historic feats, we distract ourselves with belly-aching, eye-rolling and teeth-gnashing over those unstoppable opponents.
In Mahomes, the NFL has a superstar piling up accomplishments at a rate that not even Brady proved capable of. Meanwhile, Reid continues to prove himself as one of the most creative masterminds in NFL history. How could you not appreciate such rare levels of greatness?
The Chiefs make no apologies for their excellence. By now, they’re a well-oiled machine powered by brilliant talent evaluators, creative coaches and special players willing to sacrifice to ensure that they have the best chance of extending what looks like another historic window of contention.
They’re also not bristling at all the hate. Instead, Mahomes and his teammates find it amusing. They embrace the role of the villain and continue their pursuit of history, which — sorry to break it to you — given the fact that Mahomes hasn’t even turned 30, could extend much longer.
Hate on.
(Photo: Fernando Leon / Getty Images)
Sports
2 NBA stars on the move in latest blockbuster deal: report
Two NBA stars are reportedly on the move Sunday, hours after the Dallas Mavericks traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis earlier in the day.
The Sacramento Kings, Chicago Bulls and San Antonio Spurs were finalizing a deal involving De’Aaron Fox and Zach LaVine, ESPN reported.
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Fox was traded to the Spurs and LaVine was traded to the Kings in the deal, according to the report. The Bulls will reportedly receive Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Heurter and a 2025 draft pick.
The Kings guard is two seasons removed from his first All-Star appearance. He was averaging 25 points, 6.1 assists and five rebounds with the team before he was dealt. He has played for the Kings since the 2017-18 season.
LaVine, a two-time All-Star, had been with the Bulls since the 2017-18 season as well. He was mostly injured during the 2023-24 season but bounced back and played in 42 games this season. He’s averaging 24 points, 4.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
Fox will now pair up with Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs are 21-25 this season and are about three games behind the Golden State Warriors for 11th in the Western Conference.
LaVine will team up with Domantas Sabonis. The Kings are two seasons removed from their playoff run in 2023. Sacramento has seen changes this season and the Fox trade appeared to be the end of it. The team fired head coach Mike Brow and replaced him with Doug Christie.
The Kings are in 10th in the West with a record of 24-24. Chicago is in 10th in the Eastern Conference with a 21-28 record.
San Antonio will also receive Jordan McLaughlin and the Kings will receive Sidy Cissoko, three first-round picks and three second-round picks.
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Sports
After hometown World Series run, Jack Flaherty is heading back to Detroit
At the start of the offseason, Los Angeles native and Dodgers World Series champion Jack Flaherty voiced his desire to remain with his hometown team.
But it became clear long ago this winter that the Dodgers — who have replenished their rotation with marquee signings of Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki — wouldn’t have the room to bring him back.
So, Flaherty decided to return to his other 2024 club instead.
On Sunday night, Flaherty and the Detroit Tigers, the team that sent Flaherty to the Dodgers at the trade deadline last season, agreed to a two-year contract for $35 million, ESPN reported. Flaherty, who posted a picture to X of himself in a Tigers uniform after the news broke, will make $25 million in 2025 and have a $10-million player option in 2026 — creating the possibility he will be back on the free-agent market again next winter.
It was a little over a year ago that Flaherty first signed with Detroit, joining the Tigers last offseason on a one-year deal.
Once a budding ace with the St. Louis Cardinals, Flaherty was looking to rebuild his stock after injury troubles and inconsistent performance. And in Detroit, the right-hander staged the turnaround he was hoping for.
In the first half of the season, Flaherty posted a 7-5 record and 2.95 ERA in 18 starts. With the Tigers then on the fringes of the playoff picture (they would later rally down the stretch to earn a wild-card berth), Flaherty became one of the top starters available on the midseason trade market.
On deadline day, the New York Yankees nixed a potential deal for Flaherty because of reported concerns over his medical records. That opened the door for the Dodgers, who were in desperate need of pitching help after a wave of injuries ravaged their rotation, to swoop in at the last second and add the Harvard-Westlake product to their undermanned staff.
Just as they hoped, Flaherty became a stabilizing force for the Dodgers on the mound. He went 6-2 with a 3.58 ERA in 10 starts down the stretch. And by the playoffs, he was one of only three healthy starters remaining on the roster, leading the team in innings pitched during their extended October campaign.
Flaherty’s postseason performance was inconsistent. He twice led the club to key wins in Game 1 of both the National League Championship Series and World Series. But he also suffered several clunkers, including an eight-run outing in Game 5 of the NLCS and an abbreviated four-run start in Game 5 of the World Series.
The Dodgers, of course, overcame Flaherty’s struggles in the latter contest, rallying from the early hole to clinch the title at Yankee Stadium. And as Flaherty celebrated the championship, he held out hope of remaining with his favorite childhood team.
“I love this city,” Flaherty said during the team’s World Series parade. “I never want to leave. I never want to leave.”
Despite that, Flaherty never seemed likely to stay with the Dodgers this winter.
The expectation was that he would cash in on his strong 2024 season to land a longer-term deal elsewhere. The Dodgers, meanwhile, added Snell (a two-time Cy Young Award winner) and Sasaki (a 23-year-old phenom from Japan) to a rotation that will also get Shohei Ohtani, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May back from injuries next season.
“I’m not going back to L.A. most likely — I can do the numbers, do the math,” Flaherty told Foul Territory last month. “It doesn’t bother me. I’m trying to go elsewhere and win and see if we can’t beat those guys.”
Flaherty didn’t ultimately get the long-term deal he was looking for (though he will earn a substantial 2025 salary and is positioned to test the free-agent waters again next season). However, he will get to return to a familiar setting in Detroit, rejoining a Tigers team he spoke highly of after his trade to the Dodgers.
“I really enjoyed my time with Detroit,” Flaherty said during the NLCS. “What those guys were able to do in the second half and the run that they made, I think, surprised a lot of people. I don’t think it really surprised me.”
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