We’re every week into 2025, however there’s nonetheless seven weeks till anticipation for the brand new 12 months’s Formula 1 season will actually start to construct, with the annual preseason check happening in Bahrain Feb. 26-28. That will not cease us from trying forward, as a result of there’s a lot to unpack, lengthy earlier than a single wheel will likely be turned in anger.
A legend of the game finds himself in new colors. There’s a wide-open title battle. One of the game’s most dominant groups is on the point of implosion. And there’s a youth revolution afoot.
Nate Saunders breaks down the storylines that can outline F1 in 2025.
Hamilton at Ferrari
Few driver strikes may very well be as massive as Lewis Hamilton becoming a member of Ferrari. The sport’s most completed driver becoming a member of its most well-known, profitable staff, and the joy surrounding that transfer will likely be mirrored in how a lot consideration the Italian outfit will obtain within the opening months of the season.
From the skin, it seems to be a match made in heaven. Compelling narratives run all through each component of this partnership. The most evident is championships.
Ferrari has not received the drivers’ title since Hamilton’s rookie 12 months, 2007, or the constructors’ title since 2008. Hamilton nonetheless feels he was robbed of an eighth championship in 2021, an achievement that will have moved him away from Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher for essentially the most in historical past. He now has the prospect to not solely win that eighth title in Ferrari crimson, however he also can emulate Schumacher’s 2000 achievement in ending a protracted and painful drought.
Then there’s the person within the different automobile. Charles Leclerc has been the face of Ferrari since he joined in 2019 and has shouldered the immense strain that comes with driving for Enzo’s iconic squad. In 2024, he lastly ended his Monaco Grand Prix curse and he completed the season because the strongest driver on the grid, successful memorably at Monza after which once more in Austin to assist Ferrari take the constructors’ title battle with McLaren all the way down to the wire. Leclerc regarded like a title contender in 2022 earlier than his and the staff’s season fell aside, and the arrival of Hamilton provides him an ideal alternative to measure himself alongside a person who could nicely retire because the undisputed biggest of all time.
There’s so many questions right here: how will the 2 combine? Expect each qualifying session and race efficiency between them to be micro-analysed because the season unfolds. Can Ferrari lastly win a title? And if that’s the case, will or not it’s Hamilton’s eighth or Leclerc’s first? It guarantees to be an totally charming storyline, nevertheless it performs out.
A large-open title battle
After a routine opening chunk of races, 2024 become one of the crucial unpredictable and open seasons in current reminiscence. Everyone bar Sergio Pérez from the highest 4 groups received a number of occasions throughout the 12 months, with Red Bull’s midseason implosion permitting McLaren and Ferrari to battle for the constructors’ championship till the tip of the 12 months.
Logic dictates that, with a big rule change coming in 2026, developments and upgrades to current automobiles will likely be minimal. Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren and Ferrari all received a race within the ultimate months of final season, with every exhibiting totally different strengths and weaknesses because the schedule continued, which produced an enchanting and unpredictable present week to week.
Max Verstappen stays the person to beat; the Dutchman proved final 12 months that he’s the perfect driver in Formula 1 proper now, together with his immense expertise coming to the fore in Red Bull’s worst moments. McLaren and Ferrari are each focusing on a robust begin to the brand new season, as each took time to get out of the blocks in 2024, and by the point they did, Verstappen had constructed a cushty buffer.
Several drivers appear able to take the battle to Verstappen. McLaren’s Lando Norris has vowed to be taught from the errors that dogged his otherwise-stellar season, whereas teammate Oscar Piastri may be a darkish horse if he makes one other step ahead. George Russell has marked himself out as a man willing to call Verstappen out in the media and can certainly relish the chance to battle wheel-to-wheel on monitor. Ferrari has two drivers who will battle for the title if the automobile is in the fitting place.
It’s all the time not possible to foretell a championship battle earlier than preseason testing, however each metric we have now to measure from final season suggests the 4 high groups will no less than begin the season nearer than they ever have been. If that’s the case, we may very well be handled to one thing particular this 12 months.
Red Bull: a staff imploding?
Red Bull felt like a circus at factors final 12 months, a unending headline generator on and off the monitor. The 12 months began with the Christian Horner misconduct investigation, which finally cleared the team principal, however that appeared to create important splinters behind the scenes. Horner’s rift with Verstappen’s father, Jos, intensified because the 12 months went on, resulting in hypothesis that advisor Helmut Marko would possibly go away; Marko opted not to, cooling studies Verstappen was about to leap ship to Mercedes on the first alternative. Mercedes don’t seem satisfied that the door is shut utterly, although.
It was straightforward in 2024 to color Red Bull as a staff falling aside on the seams: legendary designer Adrian Newey’s departure to Aston Martin was massive information, whereas sporting director Jonathan Wheatley switched over to lead Sauber.
Throughout the 12 months, Red Bull appeared not sure of what to do about its messy driver scenario as Pérez and Daniel Ricciardo each underperformed. Every resolution appeared messy and protracted; the 12 months ended with the staff lastly transferring on from Pérez, changing him on the lead staff with the inexperienced Liam Lawson. That in itself will likely be an enchanting storyline. If Lawson follows the development of teammates collapsing beneath the strain of Verstappen within the different automobile, Red Bull is working out of reputable candidates to place in that seat, with Yuki Tsunoda seemingly set to by no means make the step up.
The coming season may be a return to calmer occasions at Red Bull, however it will likely be a charming scenario if these previous wounds haven’t correctly healed.
Preparing for Cadillac
Formula 1 rounded out the 12 months with the fairly shocking information that it now has an settlement in principal for General Motors to join the grid in 2026 as Cadillac. The staff, now stripped of its apparent hyperlinks to Michael Andretti, has constructed a staff facility close to Silverstone within the U.Ok., though it stays unclear how the staff’s operation will likely be cut up between that base and a number of others in America.
Assuming that will get confirmed, the presence of an eleventh staff on the floor is nice. Not solely is the arrival of GM the identical 12 months as Audi (who’re within the means of taking up Sauber) an enormous coup for F1, it has additionally created the chance for 2 extra drivers on the grid and an enormous quantity of jobs in motor racing as the game’s status continues to develop.
Cadillac is predicted to enter with no less than one American driver. The new staff will inject some life into the motive force market — Ricciardo has already ruled out a return with the team, however minds can shortly change, and his title will undoubtedly stay linked. There’s a extra apparent choice on the market, although. Cadillac would possibly see Pérez as the perfect face of their new operation, given his huge advertising prowess in Mexico and North America.
Beyond drivers, understanding simply how Cadillac’s staff will work — and, crucially, if it may hope to be even remotely aggressive (one thing many within the paddock doubt) — will likely be a key speaking level this 12 months as we get nearer to their debut.
The youth revolution
Formula 1 is experiencing a very outstanding time by way of racing expertise. It has smart previous legends like Hamilton and Fernando Alonso; the golden era of expertise of Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris and Russell; and now an entire new batch of thrilling younger drivers becoming a member of the grid. This season has three “official” rookies and two “unofficial” rookies who’ve a race begin or two to their title however nothing extra.
Mercedes has opted to exchange Hamilton with Italian wonderteen Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who crashed out in his apply look for Mercedes at Monza. The staff expects that the highs may very well be very excessive and the lows may very well be very low, however Toto Wolff has stated he would quite decelerate a quick driver than the rest. Antonelli guarantees to be wildly thrilling.
Then there’s Formula 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber. The Brazilian is a graduate of Alonso’s karting academy and the two-time champion thinks Bortoleto will not be solely the decide of the category of 2024, but in addition a future F1 famous person. High reward, certainly.
Haas driver Oliver Bearman impressed in his super-sub look for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia final 12 months and had a stable debut for Haas later within the 12 months, whereas F1 noticed a glimpse of Alpine’s Jack Doohan when he changed Esteban Ocon on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix final 12 months. After the season, Red Bull confirmed Formula 2 runner-up Isack Hadjar has taken Lawson’s seat at RB, including one other new title into the combo.
With extra groups giving younger expertise the prospect to excel, count on to be listening to much more in regards to the names above — for higher or for worse.
The 2026 rule change: good or dangerous?
Should F1’s on-track spectacle be shut and gripping this season, it’ll solely intensify emotions that the upcoming rule change — which is able to act as a reset button to the aggressive order — is coming at a horrible time. Rule adjustments in earlier a long time had been seen as a great way to shake issues up after a interval of dominance, however the concern is that the 2026 rules can have the other impact, taking the closest aggressive order on the entrance for years and breaking it aside simply as it’s creating box-office viewing.
Perhaps it’s too early to be unfavorable, although. Even if F1 is as shut as many count on (or hope), the game stays assured that the brand new rule change is not going to go down that path. The funds cap, applied by Liberty Media in 2021, has labored as the nice equaliser by way of closing up the aggressive order. That could be the important thing think about stopping the brand new algorithm from creating enormous imbalances in efficiency once more. Expect this subject to drift round all 12 months.
The F1 film
Formula 1 is ready for a groundbreaking 12 months, with the “F1” film starring Brad Pitt due for launch in late June. The movie has been granted unprecedented access to F1 race tracks and amenities, filming on location and generally on the formation lap of precise races. With Hamilton as an govt producer, the movie goals to create essentially the most reasonable racing film of all time. Pitt, who performs comeback race star Sonny Hayes on the little-fancied Apex GP staff, has even been doing a whole lot of the racing scenes himself.
Liberty Media has executed an unimaginable job in the way it has marketed F1, and the film looks like the subsequent logical step within the sport’s wonderful worldwide growth. Expect the film to dominate headlines, particularly within the weeks main as much as its launch and through its run in theatres.
