The New Formula 1 Season

In just four weeks time, we will have the mouthwatering prospect of the Formula 1 class of 2025 lining up on the Albert Park grid in Melbourne, Australia, for the opening race of another 24 Grand Prix-long season, with six Sprint events being held along the way too. What is particularly exciting about this new campaign is that we will have a brilliant opportunity to see whether a posse of outstandingly quick, but very young drivers can take the fight to those in the mid-part of their careers and also to the veteran Fernando Alonso and Sir Lewis Hamilton, who are now 43 and 40 respectively and old enough to be the fathers of some of those lining up alongside them. Of course this will also be Hamilton’s eagerly awaited race debut in Ferrari red after 12 years with Mercedes and six before that with McLaren.

Bring it on. I may be entering my 28th year as a motorsport reporter, but I genuinely feel more excited than ever about the start of the forthcoming new Formula 1 season...

An F1 driver’s primary target is always to quickly establish the upper hand within his team by showing that he is both faster and more consistent than the occupant of the other car, as this is the only direct comparison within the sport with both drivers being in essentially the same car. These intra-team and, at times, rather unsavoury battles on a personal level have nevertheless often been fascinating to observe, and they bring back memories of the likes of Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet at Williams, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna at McLaren, plus subsequently Alonso and a young Hamilton at the same team, while never forgetting Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes too, where the gloves often came off.

As a result, there is so much to look forward to about F1 2025, despite this year’s cars being very similar to the 2024 ground effect ones, before the major new regulations arrive with effect from 2026.

Turning to the individual teams, it is highly likely that last season’s Constructors’ champion, McLaren, will retain its competitiveness near the front of the grid, assisted by its strong driver pairing of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. They are very closely matched, though, and, with both wanting to be seen as the team leader and a future world champion, there is again potential for some conflict along the way and a need for team orders to be applied and respected.

The arrival of young Antonelli in F1 is generating a real buzz, as he has the potential to be a future star.

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari surprised both Mercedes and the entire F1 world after he had given the impression he wanted to see out his career with the Brackley-based outfit, but the challenge of racing for the iconic Ferrari team after his worst-ever F1 season in 2024 will surely have rejuvenated him. His new teammate, the Monégasque Charles ‘Chuck’ Leclerc, is already well established within the Scuderia and is very keen to outpace the far more highly paid incoming seven-time champion and prove a point. Regardless of everything else that will happen throughout this new season, this intra-team battle alone will be gripping to follow.

In the Red Bull camp, Max Verstappen will without a doubt again be a class act after having to fight hard to achieve a fourth consecutive drivers’ title last year in an inferior car, and the big question will be whether the departure of design guru Adrian Newey to Aston Martin will have weakened the outfit on the technical front. Liam Lawson is a likeable and, at times, feisty young driver from New Zealand, and he will surely at least contribute more points for the team than the departed Sergio Pérez did if he does not have the pace to challenge Verstappen.

At Mercedes, George Russell is a quality driver who has grown nicely into his team leader role, and it will be intriguing to see how 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli fares as Hamilton’s replacement. Mercedes’ Toto Wolff had planned to retain Hamilton for a further year before introducing the teenage Italian in 2026, but Hamilton’s unexpected departure has forced him to risk bringing him in 12 months earlier than intended. The arrival of young Antonelli in F1 is generating a real buzz, as he has the potential to be a future star. However, there is also a risk that things may not proceed as planned. At least the team has its former race driver, Valtteri Bottas, available as a reserve pedaller if required after being dropped by Sauber at the end of last season.

Aston Martin’s Lawrence Stroll and the incoming Newey well know that their 2025 car needs to be better than its predecessor and that there are serious question marks about the pace of Stroll Senior’s son Lance and also Alonso’s age, with a mega money bid to gain the services of Verstappen from Red Bull still a potential future development.

The experienced French driver, Pierre Gasly, was a solid performer for Alpine during the last campaign and should offer more of the same this season. The Australian Jack Doohan has replaced the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon but will have to really prove his value to the team without delay if he isn’t to face being replaced by new reserve driver Franco Colapinto, who was acquired from Williams recently for a significant fee.

Ocon’s teammate at Haas will be the 19-year-old British driver, Oliver ‘Ollie’ Bearman, who is a Ferrari protégé and is about to start his first full season after three impressive cameo appearances last year. Both will be determined to outpace each other, and the Japanese team principal, Ayao Komatsu, has already indicated that he will be giving them strict instructions about their conduct towards each other while battling on track.

The diminutive Japanese driver, Yuki Tsunoda, missed out on a promotion from RB (now known as Racing Bulls) to the senior Red Bull team when Lawson proved to be the preferred choice to replace Pérez for this season and will be joined at Racing Bulls by rookie pedaller, Isack Hadjar, who is just 20 years old and is French/Algerian. Hadjar was already a Red Bull reserve driver and finished second in last year’s F2 Championship.

The highly talented but unfortunate Carlos Sainz was unceremoniously dropped by Ferrari at the end of last season to make way for the incoming Hamilton, and his drive for this season with the Williams team has to be seen as a clear demotion and a waste of his undoubted skills. However, it does set up a fascinating pairing at Williams of Sainz with the Thai/British Alex Albon. If the latter can perform well against his new Spanish teammate, that can only help his status and career prospects, while Sainz will be very motivated to show those teams higher up the grid that they should have offered him a drive and will want to make it clear to Ferrari’s senior management that they were wrong to replace him with Hamilton.

The highly talented but unfortunate Carlos Sainz was unceremoniously dropped by Ferrari at the end of last season to make way for the incoming Hamilton...

This leaves the longstanding Swiss-based Sauber operation, who will probably still be F1’s backmarkers again this season despite the arrival of the experienced Nico Hülkenberg from Haas and the introduction of Brazil’s young Gabriel Bortoleto, who was last year’s F2 champion. The team is now fully owned by Audi and will join the 2026 grid under that name, which is a potential marketing dream but must also be a serious worry for both financial and performance-related reasons.

In short, everywhere you look throughout the forthcoming season, there will be so much to savour, and, as always, there will be winners and losers plus heroes and zeros. Bring it on. I may be entering my 28th year as a motorsport reporter, but I genuinely feel more excited than ever about the start of the forthcoming new Formula 1 season for so many reasons, and I hope you will enjoy it with me.