As Formula 1 2025 draws ever closer, speculation will end and racing will begin, and the words of the great Murray Walker spring to mind: “You can cut the atmosphere with a cricket stump.”
Motorsport Week discusses what promises to be five big topics with ‘lights out’ just three days away.
For the first time since 2019, the Albert Park Circuit is playing host to the first round, which it has done on several occasions since making its first appearance on the calendar in 1996.
In doing so, it has made it a location known for giving drivers, teams and fans the chance to finally see who is where and an indication of how the campaign will play out.
With this season promising to be one the closest for a long time, this is most certainly not an exception.
Will McLaren deliver on pre-season promise?
From the Miami Grand Prix onwards last year, McLaren picked up the baton of momentum and carried it all the way through to the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi, claiming its first Constructors’ Championship in 26 years.
Max Verstappen’s early season dominance condemned the Woking squad’s drivers – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – to being empty-handed, but the Brit and the Australian are seemingly in a prime position to being a first-time Drivers’ Champion this time around.
The label of ‘favourites’ comes with the responsibility of carrying it through, and McLaren’s projected race pace in pre-season testing in Bahrain seems to give it a good chance of also carrying its momentum and trajectory from last year into this.
Its potential Achilles’ heel is the fact that, whilst both men took four and two wins respectively last year, this could be their first firm chance of battling for a championship.
Norris fluffed his lines on occasion last year when he was in a position to chip away at Verstappen’s lead, and the lack of experience of fighting at the very front regularly could come in to play.
Waiting in the wings are potentially Verstappen and Red Bull – should the team be able to find more pace – and Ferrari, who are boasting the most experienced driver when it comes to fighting for titles in Lewis Hamilton.
If the team and drivers use the early rounds as an audition and pass the screen test with wins, then the sky’s the limit, and will turn from blue to papaya.
Hamilton’s long-awaited Ferrari F1 debut
It’s been over a year since we learned that one of the most successful and decorated F1 drivers of all-time was pairing up with a team dripping in the same level of prestige.
We’ve had a Godfather-style pose at Fiorano, Italian lessons and now a tech-aided cameo in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but it’s finally here: Lewis Hamilton’s debut for Ferrari.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, the demeanour Hamilton is exuding now compared to that of his post-2021 Mercedes era is a far different one.
No glumness, no self-effacing comments of being “not fast anymore,” and with right-hand-woman Angela Cullen back at his side, Hamilton appears happy and content, and above all, conveying the excitement of a child on Christmas morning.
One could speculate that he is aware that the SF-25 may be capable of delivering him wins on a more regular basis again, or that purely, a fresh challenge is just the tonic he needs to reinvigorate him, a word he used at the F1 75 launch a month ago.
How will the F1 rookie quintet fare?
For the first time in F1 history, the first race of 2024 boasted the exact same grid as that which ended the 2023 season.
But 2025 brings about a vibe of a university freshers’ week, with five rookies lining up on the grid, either for the first time ever, or as a now-permanent driver.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli takes Hamilton’s seat at Mercedes, with his 2022 Formula 2 team-mate Oliver Bearman taking a spot at Haas, having impressed for the American outfit and Ferrari in outings last year.
The man who left them all trailing in F2 last year, Gabriel Bortoleto, joins Sauber, with the series runner-up Isack Hadjar being given the vacant seat at Racing Bulls alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
And lastly, but by no means least, the man who is perhaps the one with the biggest microscope placed over him – Jack Doohan, who has been left to constantly waft away speculation about the future of his time at Alpine like a man frantically shooing wasps at a picnic.
The son of motorcycle racing legend Mick, Doohan will hopefully be able to channel his partisan crowd in Melbourne to give him a much-needed boost to show the team’s ruthless executive director, Flavio Briatore, that he is worthy of the seat, with Franco Colapinto lurking in his shadow.
If the Mercedes machine can propel George Russell back to the front of the grid again, Antonelli’s raw speed could see him through, especially under the watchful eyes of Toto Wolff and reserve driver Valtteri Bottas, who will both be guiding him.
If Sauber can make its final year before transitioning to Audi a good one, then Bortoleto will surely be able to give his veteran team-mate Nico Hulkenberg a run for his money.
Bearman has already shown his fellow drivers what he is capable of, having scored points in his debut race last year, stepping-in for Carlos Sainz in Jeddah, and following it up with another top-10 finish in Baku for his new team.
Is Lawson the answer to Red Bull’s second driver conundrum?
Early indications point towards this F1 season being difficult for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen seemingly needing to use every ounce of strength to keep his fingers tightly gripping hold of his Drivers’ Championship.
This year, he has a new team-mate, his fifth overall as a Red Bull driver, in the shape of Kiwi Liam Lawson.
Having impressed in his outings for Racing Bulls in 2023 and stepping back into the team last year after the unceremonious dumping of Daniel Ricciardo, Lawson has been deemed to have the minerals to be the man who lines up alongside the Dutchman.
Ricciardo was the first partner to fall in prior to 2019, with Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon following out of the door next. Stability seemed to arrive in the form of Sergio Perez in 2021, who played the perfect foil to Verstappen, right up until last year.
As the RB20 began to become less bulletproof, Perez’s form fell off a cliff, and after months of speculation, he was also out, with Lawson seemingly waiting in the wings from the moment he passed Ricciardo in the corridors.
Lawson has already stated that the team will design its challengers to cater to Verstappen’s own driving style, and if he is to succeed, he will need to adopt it and quickly, otherwise, he will begin to feel Christian Horner and Helmut Marko breathing down his neck.
Was Williams’ testing pace genuine?
There appears to be an air of excitement around Williams this year, perhaps the most it has had since the days of its eponymous founder and leader, Sir Frank, was present in the garage.
With James Vowels’ reputation as an F1 Team Principal growing all the time, and with Carlos Sainz now joining to partner Albon, its apparent pace in Bahrain is giving more reason to be confident.
Many speculated that what the team showed over the three days of pre-season running could make them able to even be able to keep Red Bull in sight, but having only recently seen one of its cars nearby when a blue flag is shown to let it lap them, it might be an over-confident prediction.
However, both drivers have experience and talent, and with the stability Vowels has brought to the outfit in the post-Williams family ownership, 2025 might be the year it starts to make headway towards where many feel it belongs – at the front of the grid.
READ MORE – Get to know the five F1 rookies ahead of the Australian GP
