Since the infamous title battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in 2021, the past few seasons in F1 have been somewhat of a predictable story. Red Bull Racing’s dominance and Verstappen’s consistent wins have been the overarching narrative ever since the regulation changes in 2022. Although the way Verstappen dominates the field deserves recognition, fans have been eager to see a more exciting season with different drivers contending for the World Drivers’ Championship. The 2025 season seems to be shaping up to be just that: multiple drivers looking to challenge Verstappen, different teams getting their upgrades right, and new faces on the grid trying to prove themselves.
McLaren has two good drivers, and they arguably have the fastest car this year to bring the title fight to Verstappen. From the 2022 season, which started with a disappointingly slow car, to the end of the 2024 season, which saw them hold off Ferrari in the final race to take home the World Constructors’ Championship, they finally have a chance to add a World Drivers’ Championship to their trophy cabinet this year.
Their drivers are Lando Norris, in his sixth season driving for McLaren, and Oscar Piastri, who joined the team in 2023. Since joining the team as a 19-year-old, Norris has had to mature in his personality and role in the team, overcoming his inexperience and stepping into the role of senior driver. Piastri, on the other hand, has maintained a cool head ever since coming into the sport and has demonstrated remarkable drive and focus. Norris has put his faith in the team and stuck with them through and through, and has been emerging as their number one driver over the past few years while beating the more experienced Daniel Ricciardo and the then-new-to-F1 Piastri as teammates. He took his long-awaited first race win in the 2024 Miami Grand Prix and has won four more races since. Piastri’s remarkable maturity for a new driver has also paid off. In the first race of the 2025 season, he spun in the wet weather at his home Australian Grand Prix and ended up stuck in the grass. He then proceeded to overcome a seemingly insurmountable deficit and finish in the top 10, a huge effort that stood out to fans across the world. The team must now face the difficult decision of which of its two drivers it should prioritize in difficult strategy decisions, an issue that teams with two good drivers often face.
Beyond the excitement of a resurgent McLaren gunning for their second Constructors’ Championship in a row is the spectacle of the formerly dominant Red Bull Racing producing a car that isn’t as well engineered as the car of the frontrunning McLaren. Since they won their first Constructors’ Championship in eight years in 2022, Red Bull has had the dominant car. In 2023, they won a staggering 21 out of 22 Grand Prix. Last season, they started facing stiff competition from McLaren, whose steady car improvement caught up with Red Bull’s stagnating pace. McLaren would win the Constructors’ Championship in 2024, but Red Bull’s Verstappen claimed his fourth World Drivers’ Championship. This year, however, McLaren has capitalized on their improvements, and Red Bull has fallen further behind.
The driver to beat remains Verstappen. Ever since he joined the sport as a 17-year-old in 2015, he’s been consistently ranked as one of the best drivers on the grid. In 2021, he ascended to the top of the racing world when he won a hotly contested championship battle with Lewis Hamilton. Since then, he has dominated the Driver’s Championship. Last year, he won his fourth title in a row, despite Red Bull arguably having the inferior car towards the end of the season. This year, he has pulled out remarkable performances to remain close to the top of the standings. In the Japanese Grand Prix, he achieved a qualifying lap so fast that both supporters and opponents called it one of the most brilliant laps they had ever seen; the lap netted him pole position for the race — pole position being the driver that starts the race at the front of the pack — which he skillfully converted into a victory in the race itself.
While Verstappen has remained indomitable — head and shoulders ahead of even the closest of opponents — the same can’t be said for the individuals who have occupied the seat next to him. In F1, a driver’s teammate is also their biggest competitor. It’s hard to measure the relative strength between drivers, as performances are heavily impacted by the strength of the cars that they drive. Teammates, however, have the same machinery beneath them; as such, beating one’s teammate is the surest sign of superiority in the sport. Verstappen’s recent teammates have lagged far behind, consistently underperforming the expectations set for them by fans and Red Bull. Last season, Sergio Pérez occupied the second Red Bull seat, and often struggled to outperform drivers in cars far slower than his. This year, Pérez was replaced by Kiwi Liam Lawson. Lawson was promoted from the Red Bull sister team, Racing Bulls, after just six races. In the main team, he floundered quickly; in the Chinese Grand Prix, for instance, he qualified last, while his teammate sat in fourth. Lawson was dropped after only three races, and he was demoted back to Racing Bulls. Yuki Tsunoda, who has been at Racing Bulls since 2021, was called up to the main outfit. Tsunoda has fared better than Lawson, but is yet to get close to Verstappen’s race-winning pace.
No discussion of F1 is complete without Ferrari. The Prancing Horse, as the team is known, has been in F1 since the very beginning — the only team to have competed in every season. The team is also the most successful in the sport’s history, taking home the most championships, wins, and pole positions. This year, Lewis Hamilton made his debut with the Prancing Horse. Hamilton is the most successful driver in the sport, winning seven World Championships, 105 races, 104 pole positions, and a litany of other records. He achieved much of this success with the Mercedes team, and their 12-year-long partnership is the single most successful pairing ever. When he announced that he would be ending their partnership with Mercedes last year and join Ferrari instead, it sent shockwaves through the sport. The single most successful driver would join the single most successful team. Sporting his new red colors, Hamilton has already won the Chinese Grand Prix Sprint Race as part of Ferrari — a shorter version of the main race. Despite this success, he has not yet been able to consistently match the pace of his Monégasque teammate Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari is not the only historic team with a new driver line-up. Williams was, for many years, the last remaining family-run team in the sport. As F1 became increasingly expensive, they found it difficult to compete with the automotive giants Mercedes, McLaren, Ferrari, and the energy drink conglomerate-backed Red Bull. This year, they have a line-up of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz. The latter was pushed out of Ferrari to make way for Hamilton. The Williams team has made large improvements over the past several years, after the Williams family sold the team to outside investors. The team has now gotten both of its drivers into the top 10 spots at two Grand Prix this year, bringing them up to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. Every team this season has also scored points, which didn’t happen last year, a testament to the unusually competitive year fans have enjoyed.
There are six drivers this year racing for their first full season in Formula One, all of them having made their way there through the feeder series FIA Formula 2. While it’s not uncommon to see changes in driver lineups happen during the “silly season,” six whole new faces on the grid (out of 20 total) is a novelty in recent memory. The rookie drivers have shown talent and proven themselves capable of delivering — Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleo won F3 and F2 in consecutive years with Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar finishing a place behind him in F2, and Haas’ Ollie Bearman scored points on his F1 debut when he replaced Carlos Sainz in his Ferrari at the 2023 Saudi Arabia Grand Prix — but their inexperience has shown when placed under the pressure of performing as full time F1 drivers.
There are now 19 Grand Prix weekends left in the season, each filled with its own unique challenges, uncertainties, drama, and racing. Legendary commentator Murry Walker was fond of saying “anything happens in Grand Prix racing, and it usually does.” One thing, however, is certain: it’s a great season to be a F1 fan, and an even better one to start watching the sport, in all its 200 mph glory.
