Expectations are high for an exciting Formula One season

NEW YORK – The 2025 Formula One season could be one of the best in a generation. Almost half the field of 20 drivers heading into the season opener in Australia can dream of title glory.

This is based on the results of the 2024 championship – an unexpectedly close season where Red Bull initially dominated, before McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes finished strong.

These four teams and seven of their eight drivers shared all the victories from the 24 races last season. They were the highest totals for race-winning teams and drivers since the 2021 and 2012 seasons respectively.

But as the 2025 campaign gets under way, the new season could even be better than the last.

“This season should be epic and even closer,” said Zak Brown, McLaren’s chief executive.

“Every race last year, while the top four teams were always at the front, there always seemed to be someone that was able to disrupt.

“So, I expect that to be happening again. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were more than four teams that won this time.”

But it is not just at the front of the field where the 2025 season is expected to be tight.

The six teams with slower cars were also evenly split last year. In the end, they all scored points, and Sauber made their car faster at the end of the year, despite finishing last in the constructors’ standings.

In the first qualifying session for the 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi in December, the time gap between the fastest of the 20 cars (Charles Leclerc of Ferrari) and the slowest (Jack Doohan of Alpine) was just 0.803 of a seconds. At the season opener in Bahrain in March, the Q1 time gap between fastest and slowest cars was 1.039 seconds.

The lack of rule changes on car designs that teams have to work around in 2025 is one factor that could result in even closer racing. This reduces the likelihood that any team will find a breakthrough part to make their cars considerably faster.

“Every year regulations don’t change, it gets closer and closer – that’s just the way it’s always worked,” McLaren’s Lando Norris said.

“It already got pretty close at the end of last year, and you already started to see the middle pack, which is most of the grid apart from the top-four teams, catching up and getting closer.

“I expect that to be even more the case this season.”

But not everyone is getting carried away.

Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who beat Norris for the 2024 drivers’ title, said “It’s good for the sport if it’s exciting” but emphasised how the teams tend to mask the true performance of their cars before the first race each year.

“You can speculate about it, but it’s just a waste of energy to think about that yet,” he said following pre-season testing.

Pierre Gasly of Alpine agreed with Verstappen.

“Deep inside me, I hope the field is extremely tight,” he said.

“But I don’t want to be disappointed if we come to Australia and suddenly we have rival teams flying.”

But he predicted, because of the combination of how 2024 ended and the car design stability, that “on paper, it will be one of those seasons” where margins would be very small among the teams.

If this does prove true, there is the potential that Formula One will get a year-long title battle between for the first time since 2021.

Although Ferrari battled Red Bull at the start of 2022 and McLaren and other teams pressured Red Bull late in 2024, the last time two teams were evenly matched from start to finish was in 2021.

That year, it was Red Bull versus Mercedes, led by Lewis Hamilton.

But, if four teams or more do engage for the 2025 title, it will be the most competitive championship battle since 2010, when Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren were the contenders. Four drivers from these three teams were in the title running heading into the final race.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel ultimately triumphed.

Norris added: “You’re probably going to have this season with winners that aren’t top-four teams, that aren’t McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull. Which is good for Formula One.”

But George Russell of Mercedes insisted that “when you look at how dominant McLaren were in the second half of last year, without doubt they’re the favourites going into this year”.

That is because McLaren won five of the final 12 races in 2024, the most of any team, and beat Ferrari and Red Bull to the constructors’ championship.

“I still expect McLaren to be right at the forefront,” he said.
NYTIMES