Opportunity beckons for top F1 stars in 2025 - but will they take it?
FINAL CORNER, CHEQUERED FLAG: The 2025 Championship battle could prove a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of F1's prime athletes
There is understandably a lot of excitement surrounding what F1 might look like in 2025, but there is also be a sense of opportunity for the sport’s brightest talent.
From 2010 to 2024, only four men have won a world driver’s championship, with Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen accounting for all but one of those. All of Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc will be waking up this January believing that they can finally add their name to this list.
McLaren won their first constructor’s title of the 21st Century in 2024, which very few people would have predicted 12 months ago. Ferrari coming second only further emphasises how surprising the last season turned out to be, especially after Red Bull had so dominated the opening five races.
Mercedes also earned multiple wins, even if their inconsistency race-to-race meant they ultimately finished a distant fourth in the standings. George Russell might not be so optimistic about a title charge in 2025, but the rapid changes we’ve seen over the last 12 months means he can’t be written off until rubber meets the road.
Of course, Verstappen and Hamilton have not simply vanished, and they should be big players in the upcoming championship fight. However, a change of scenery for the Brit as he moves to Ferrari leaves a lot of question marks over his ability to compete at the front immediately, as does his underwhelming performance in his final year with Mercedes. Meanwhile, Red Bull’s collapse in form means it’s far from guaranteed that Verstappen will be in the mix throughout the next 12 months.
The prospect of a multi-team title fight in 2025 will have fans drooling, especially as the opportunity to see Norris, Piastri, Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen and even potentially Russell go wheel-to-wheel over 24 races could be a once in a generation-level season ahead of us.
But, while we look to the present with excitement, 2025 is also a year where we will get a great glimpse at the future of this sport. There will be several drivers experiencing their first full year in F1. This serves as a warning to the top stars that their time in the sun won’t last forever. They will all want to avoid having their careers overshadowed by generational talent. Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and Kevin Magnussen were all touted as championship-contending material at some point or another, but they were all unable to live up to that under the dominance of Hamilton at Mercedes.
The generation of drivers spearheaded by Ricciardo was lost to that eight-year run of constructors titles at Brackley, with Hamilton winning six, Nico Rosberg winning one and Verstappen clinching his first crown in 2021, with the Dutchman coming from the next crop of young stars.
Leclerc, Norris and Russell were all expected to compete for championships against Verstappen, but now Russell is already set to experience the next generation coming through with the goal of supplanting them. Kimi Antonelli will have a lot of pressure on his shoulders when he debuts for Mercedes at the age of just 18 this year, but you don’t get a move like that in F1 without having the talent to back that it up. It’s difficult to expect the Italian to do too much in his rookie year, but it will be quite the story to see how he shapes up against the new team leader at Mercedes.
If Red Bull’s drop-off in form will continue into 2025, then the chances of a new champion being crowned will only increase. Hamilton will have his own say about that, as he eyes an eighth championship, but Leclerc’s impressive 2024 should give him confidence that he can take on the soon-to-be 40-year-old. And McLaren’s championship-winning pace means it’s hard to look past Norris, or even potentially Piastri, as title favourites going into the new season.
It’s impossible to suggest the pecking order in Abu Dhabi last December will be the exact same in Australia in March, so it’s still far too soon to make any concrete championship predictions. But a new champion is certainly something that’s on the cards in 2025.
These drivers must strike given that opportunity, as it may never come again. Just ask Ricciardo, who as recently as 2020 would’ve likely claimed that his ambition was to win a title at some point in his career. Five years later and he’s not even on the grid. With Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto, Oliver Bearman, Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan and Liam Lawson all coming through this year for their first full years in F1, the future is on our doorstep.
Norris, Russell and Leclerc are at the very top of their game, and Piastri will have no excuses himself now coming into his third year in the sport. If they fail to strike in 2025, they may never get the opportunity to do so again.
Driver Power Rankings - Abu Dhabi
Leclerc and Hamilton had the flashiest races in Abu Dhabi, but Norris controlled from the front very well despite being under an immense amount of pressure with the championship.
Pierre Gasly similarly brought home the result Alpine needed in their battle with Haas, while Fernando Alonso gained some respectability for Aston Martin’s otherwise dismal end of the year.
Driver Power Rankings - 2024 season
Verstappen earned potentially his best F1 championship to date in 2024, brilliantly fending off the charge of Norris, even if his tactics weren’t always to my liking (see: Mexico).
Leclerc had the edge over Norris last season for me because of his ultra consistency on Sundays, earning wins in COTA and Monza that he’d previously been criticised for not being able to achieve.
Piastri also came under a lot of criticism in 2024 when compared to Norris, but it should be remembered that this is only his second season in the sport, and he still took home two victories en route to fourth in the championship, while the more experienced Sainz had disappointing periods of form in his own right.
Russell could make an argument for supplanting both given how high his highs were for Mercedes, particularly in comparison to Hamilton, but his lows remained quite low.
Alonso didn’t hit the same heights as 2023, and he did have some unusually poor weekends by his standards this season, but he is performing at a high level, regardless of his age.
Meanwhile, Hulkenberg also enjoyed a great year for Haas, and Gasly’s last-season surge earned him a place in the top 10.
But Hamilton only barely earns a top 10 finish, with this being potentially the worst year of his career, with only 2011 coming close. The highs of Silverstone and Spa keep him in the top 10, but he’ll need to do better in 2025 to stop Leclerc at Ferrari.
Race Rating - Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi hasn’t had the best track record in its time in F1, particularly suffering due to often being held after both championships have been decided.
That wasn’t the case this time around, and the constructors battle between Ferrari and McLaren did give this one an edge, especially after Piastri and Verstappen’s first lap tangle.
It remained entertaining throughout from there, with plenty of action to keep things tense right to the end. 3/5.
Race Rankings
All in all, 2024 was a fun year even if the championship battle was always just out of arm’s reach. We had plenty of great races, and I’m sure anyone reading this will have their disagreements with this top 10 from the year.
Brazil and Britain will be popular favourites, but Baku was just tremendous and earned my #1. Seeing the top three battle for the lead for that long was thrilling, and made for a very tense finish.
Happy new year to everyone reading this!
Time for an extended break from the newsletter while we await pre-season testing. I might pop back in again if there’s any big news items or inspiration strikes, but I likely won’t write anything here again until March!