The 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship promises to be a thriller for a number of reasons. Considering Lewis Hamilton’s blockbuster move to Ferrari and a competitive field that is expected to be as tight as it was last year, it might be the hardest season to call in years.
While teams like McLaren and Ferrari look like the early front-runners, the likes of Mercedes and Red Bull have all the ingredients to make it a four-way fight for the championship. Moreover, teams in the midfield are expected to be closer than they have been in the last three years.
With the pre-season testing in full swing at the Bahrain International Circuit at the time of writing, with just over a month remaining ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, here we take you through a few things we think could happen in 2025.
Williams to punch higher up the field
The midfield is expected to be tight this season, so it’s hard to say whether Williams will move up in the standings, though they can be expected to score at more races and amass more points than last year.
One of the main reasons for this will be Carlos Sainz, who is a substantial improvement on the likes of Nicolas Latifi, Logan Sargeant, and Franco Colapinto. Without any doubt, Sainz and Alex Albon is a phenomenal pairing for a team that finished ninth last time around, which alone is cause for optimism.
Last year, all three Williams drivers had multiple DNFs. Sainz, on that front, should be steadier and reduce the problem of funds being diverted from development to producing spare parts, something that hampered Williams throughout 2024.
The 2025 car is definitely an improvement over last year’s and will also have a rear suspension more advanced by two years (they ran the 2023 Mercedes gearbox and rear suspension last season). While team principal James Vowles can be expected to focus mostly on 2026 and the new regulations, the 2025 Williams challenger should help the team be much more competitive in the midfield.
Verstappen won’t win a fifth consecutive title
For a team that came close to nearly pulling off a clean sweep of wins in 2023, Red Bull lost their way rather alarmingly with the tricky RB20 last year. Although Max Verstappen was near faultless as he consolidated his fast start to secure a fourth consecutive Drivers’ title. With McLaren and Ferrari’s evident advantage on Red Bull, it’s unlikely he makes it five this year.
It would be foolish to write off Verstappen and Red Bull before the season gets underway. Without the genius of Adrian Newey for the first time in 20 years, however, Red Bull face a daunting challenge to reclaim their throne now that the momentum has swung to McLaren and the resurgent Ferrari.
Leclerc will “do a Prost” to McLaren
Back in 1986, Alain Prost swooped in and “stole” the World Title as Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet squabbled in the faster Williams car. Such a scenario is ripe for repetition, but this time McLaren find themselves on the other end of the equation.
The early favourite for the Drivers’ Championship appears to be Lando Norris, who will have learned a lot from his error-strewn breakthrough season last year. The trouble is, his teammate Oscar Piastri is also in the mix, and underneath his outwardly laid-back persona lies a ruthless streak reminiscent of Max Verstappen.
While both Norris and Piastri are well-rounded operators, their natural competitive instincts make McLaren a potential time bomb waiting for a spark. It feels inevitable they’ll implode at some point.
This makes Charles Leclerc a likelier candidate for the Drivers’ title, assuming Ferrari pick up where they left off last year: Leclerc and Ferrari scored more points than anyone else from the Dutch Grand Prix onward.
Antonelli and Lawson to score podiums
For all the doubts hanging over Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, one thing that doesn’t appear to be in doubt is his pace. As long as Mercedes can provide him with a competitive car, podium finishes should be a realistic target for the 18-year-old.
The bigger question is whether more is achievable. The Italian driver’s rookie status will give him some grace period, though one hardly gets much time to acclimatise to life in F1, especially with a top side.
Liam Lawson, on the other hand, replaces Sergio Pérez at Red Bull as Verstappen’s teammate. Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko has already stated the Kiwi driver shouldn’t be expected to match the Dutchman, so the expectation for Lawson seems to be to settle quickly and start scoring consistently to aid the team’s Constructors’ campaign.
From what we’ve seen so far, Lawson has the self-belief and resilience to compete alongside one of the greatest drivers of all time. Thus, podiums should be a realistic expectation, which Lawson will back himself to match.
Fernando Alonso will score multiple podiums
The 2024 season was a real disappointment for Fernando Alonso. The two-time World Champion entered the season with lots of optimism after a season that had resulted in eight podiums, instead he found himself with an unpredictable Aston Martin car that never really looked capable of bringing home any silverware.
Given the kind of money Aston Martin owner Lawrence Stroll is pumping into the side, with the new-look management team headed by former Mercedes boss Andy Cowell and featuring Ferrari’s Enrico Cardile and design genius Adrian Newey, the Silverstone outfit should step it up this year. While contending for race wins or even podiums regularly will be a big ask, if they give Fernando a worthy car, challenging for podiums will be realistic in the right conditions.
Ferrari will win the Constructors’ Championship
Ferrari stepped it up big time last year. Led by Frédéric Vasseur—in only his second year in the job—the Scuderia started off strongly before recovering from a mid-season blip to emerge as arguably the best team in the final few races of last season.
It wasn’t quite enough to secure the championship, but their five wins and four poles proved Ferrari had what it takes to get the job done.
Their season-long charge, which saw then finish just 14 points shy of the Constructors’ title, was fine reward for a team who were prepared to take more risks and seemed to be successfully eradicating a culture of fear that has held them back for so long.
With Charles Leclerc operating at his highest-ever level and the arrival of seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, who will be itching to prove he’s still got what it takes to not just win more races but win a record eighth Drivers’ title, Ferrari have at their hands a devastating combination that could help them take the Constructors’ crown back to Maranello for the first time since 2008.
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