Turning Into A New Era: What To Expect From The 2025 F1 Season
With so many changes on the grid for the F1 2025 season, is it a sign of a new era in motorsport?
Max Verstappen’s comfortable lead may prevail as he sits more than 80 points in front of McLaren star Lando Norris, but will his commitment to Red Bull see him dominate in the F1 2025 season against all the changes on the grid? Or, will it be his downfall?
With Lewis Hamilton’s historic ninth win at Silverstone, it’s safe to say that the halfway point for the 2024 season has peaked. After 3 consecutive championship losses against Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, it seemed all hope for Lewis to win a record-breaking eighth title was too far from reach.
That is until his unprecedented move to Ferrari flipped the world of F1 on its head.
“What a story — Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari.”
Martin Brundle, Sky Sports
And fans can only expect him to excel next year in red under the lead of the cool-headed Fred Vasseur.
But his shock exit from Mercedes, where he won six of his drivers’ championship titles, isn’t the only change on the grid.
F2 sensation Ollie Bearman will make his official debut appearance for Haas. This comes after his success in Jeddah, placing P7 as a reserve driver for Ferrari.
Through the tricky tight turns of the Jeddah circuit, the then 18-year-old managed to keep ahead of both Norris and Hamilton.
“He did a phenomenal job earlier on this year,” Hamilton said of Bearman’s showing at Jeddah, speaking to F1 news.
Russell and Norris, two of the grids British drivers, seemed to echo Hamilton’s sentiment: “Clearly Ollie’s a great driver. It’s great to see four Brits on the grid, and I think it just goes to show the strength of British motorsport,” said Russell.
“I think he showed in Saudi how good of a job he can do, even under the pressure he was [under] to perform and get so much out of the car in his first weekend, so I’m excited to see him on the grid next year and look forward to racing him,” Norris commented.
The British teenager is set to make a big impact on the grid for the turning point F1 2025 season.
Taking a step back
Haas has seen a few changes over the past few seasons. Despite the consistent efforts by former team principal Guenther Steiner, the team made no significant improvements to their performance.
The F1 grid is brutal; without the funding of the bigger teams, Haas had to push twice as hard to secure the money to make a machine that could compete. Steiner, and his iconic personality seen in ‘Drive To Survive,’ did everything he could to keep up with the sports’ demand.
His sponsors included Russian Oligarch and business tycoon Dimitry Mazepin — his son, Nikita, raced for Haas as a result in the 2021 season alongside Mick Schumacher, son of legendary racer Michael Schumacher.
Just a year later, he would be released from his contract with Haas following Russia’s invasions of Ukraine and the EU sanctions.
The next two seasons became a blur for Gene Haas, and he had to seriously consider how to stay in F1. Indulge Steiner’s fruitless attempts and risk remaining bottom of the barrel, or move into a new era?
Enter Ayao Komatsu.
Komatsu like Steiner joined F1 in 2018 with Haas. As a newer team, they had a lot prove.
They had a good start but over time, the dominance of the top teams became too hard to compete with. Going wheel to wheel without a proper strategy or any security led to a risk of having to pull out altogether.
Remembering these challenges, Gene and Komastu vowed to really focus on performance. As Chief Engineer, the new team principal had knowledge of the ins and outs of a race car that others wouldn’t.
“I’m not trying to be Guenther Steiner,” Komatsu said. “He’s a very different person. He’s got very different strengths and weaknesses to me. Gene knows that, and if Gene wanted Steiner’s replacement in that way, he’d have appointed somebody else.
“I’ll try to be the best version of myself rather than trying to be somebody else.”Ayao Komatsu, The Times
His leadership, completely different from his predecessor, proved successful. This season has seen Haas in seventh position, with three times as many points as Alpine, a team that finished the last season in the midfield.
It’s not that they’ve come out the gates with a perfect car; their drivers, Magnussen and Hulkenberg, have experienced some difficulties. The team began redesigning the car at the end of last year, but they’re hopeful a new change is exactly what’s needed to propel them from the back of the grid forward.
After all, the only way is up.
On the move
The driver lineup hasn’t been as smooth sailing as drivers would have hoped.
Uncertain futures in motorsport aren’t uncommon, especially not on the fast-paced F1 grid.
Only the strongest candidates get a chance to steer the wheel of the exclusive cars, and for some drivers, the last couple of seasons haven’t been at all accommodating.
The Honey Badger and charming Australian Daniel Ricciardo has seemingly always been a part of F1. Fans will remember his glory days as a Red Bull academy driver and watched him grow up to become a fierce competitor in one of the most sought-after seats.
Christian Horner doesn’t hold back on his expectations for his drivers; the Red Bull seat only accommodates those who can tame it.
And for a while, it seems that Ricciardo did. In his first season, he finished third in the championships. Being so close to the top, he pushed himself and thirsted for more.
Unfortunately, his rivalry with teen sensation Max Verstappen divided Red Bull.
He had to decide: stay or go?
Leaving Red Bull was a brave move, but perhaps not the best move. From his departure in 2018, Ricciardo swapped into a few different teams. A couple of unsuccessful seasons at Renault, facing a similar rival situation at McLaren with Norris, to becoming a reserve driver at his old team.
By some luck, he found a seat at Alpha Tauri (now RB), replacing Nyk de Vries in the middle of the 2023 season. Was it the start of a comeback for the eight-time Grand Prix winner?
Coming to halfway through the season, his future at RB alongside Yuki Tsunoda hasn’t been confirmed.
But the biggest shock for a driver with an unconfirmed seat? Carlos Sainz.
The Spaniard, like Ricciardo, has moved around the grid quite a bit in his career. He started off in the Toro Rosso seat, moved to Renault, did a stint at McLaren, before moving to Ferrari, where he’s been since 2020.
With high expectations of himself, Sainz wanted to join a team where he’d have the best chance to win a championship.
Sebastian Vettel once said everyone wants to race in a Ferrari, and he couldn’t be more right.
The team is synonymous with Formula One. Rich in victorious history both on and off the track, many drivers dream of racing in red.
The Spaniard has won three races this year already, yet, despite Sainz’s strong performance with the team over the last four seasons, he’s lost his seat to Hamilton in a move that has shocked the world.
Two big names. Two uncertain futures.
It’s only a matter of time before the news about the lineup updates. Whilst a seat for Ricciardo seems unlikely for next year, speculation on where Sainz will end up continues to consume fans.
Bidding war
For so long, the battle for both drivers and constructors championship had only a couple of contenders: Mercedes and Red Bull.
With four-time championship winner Sebastian Vettel, Christian Horner’s team dominated the grid from 2010–2013. Of course, they did lose to Hamilton and Mercedes up until 2021, but not without a fight.
Success in Formula One lies primarily with the car, and with the skilled mind of Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, the Austrian team continued to push for another era of championship wins with their new star racer, Max Verstappen.
Crowned one of the best engineers in F1 history, Newey has quite a few accomplishments under his belt.
His roles as a race engineer, designer, and aerodynamicist have led him to win 13 championships across three different teams, as well as winning over 200 Grand Prix’s.
Newey’s design of the RB19 is the most successful car in history, having won 21 out of 22 races.
With such an incredible CV under his belt, it’s no wonder that Red Bull would love to keep him, and everyone else wants him to join them.
Just like Sainz, Newey hasn’t announced where he is going next year after revealing that this year, he’s leaving Red Bull.
He’s worked with three teams that still currently sit on the grid; Red Bull, McLaren, and Williams. He’s unlikely to return to either McLaren or Williams, the latter where he was acquitted of manslaughter after Ayrton Senna died in a Newey-designed car in the 1994 San Marino GP.
There has been some speculation as to whether he would join Ferrari or Aston Martin. But only time will tell where one of the greatest minds will end up for the F1 2025 season.
What’s next?
A move up for Haas? Lewis Hamilton with a record-breaking eighth championship win? Aston with a championship winning car?
The current season proves Red Bull isn’t as infallible as they were previously. Their upper-hand in the race may hold them back.
The F1 2025 season will see a lot of changes and for some teams, it means a chance for them to come back stronger than ever, and something for fans to look forward to.
