The 2025 Formula 1 season delivered a dramatic spectacle, featuring five new drivers and significant changes within leading teams, most notably a high-profile driver switch. Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari marked one of the most anticipated moments in the sport’s history.
The battle for the championship saw drivers from McLaren and experienced racer Max Verstappen as frontrunners, even with Verstappen piloting a less competitive car. The current driver lineup is relatively stable, but the regulations have undergone substantial changes.
Why is this season considered a turning point in Formula 1? How will Ferrari and defending champion Lando Norris perform? And who will ultimately be crowned world champion? These are the key questions heading into the new season.
A New Era Begins
This isn’t simply an evolution; it’s a complete revolution for Formula 1. After years of relative stability, nearly every aspect of the sport is changing. New hybrid engines, with half their power supplied by batteries, are being introduced. The popular DRS (Drag Reduction System), used for overtaking on straights, has been eliminated after 15 years.
The cars themselves will be significantly smaller and lighter, with officials hoping this will lead to more overtaking maneuvers and exciting races. Numerous other changes are also in effect. As those involved say, forget everything from last year – everyone is starting from scratch.
“It will be a big fight, with the entire grid learning to operate with the new era of regulations. The 2025 season was fairly stable, but even then, the teams that were fast changed from time to time. Grab those performance fluctuations and multiply them by four or five – that’s exactly what you’ll see this year,” said Lawrence Mekies, head of Red Bull.
The fact that McLaren had the strongest car for the past two years is now irrelevant for the upcoming season.
A Potentially Strong Ferrari
2007 was the last time Ferrari won the drivers’ championship. When Kimi Räikkönen delighted the Italian fans and followed up on Michael Schumacher’s five titles, no one in Maranello anticipated a 19-year drought. And in recent years, considerable struggles.
This year could be different. The iconic red car impressed in pre-season testing with its technical features and consistent improvement. Experts agree that the oldest team enters the season with the second-best car on the grid, trailing only Mercedes.
Charles Leclerc is expected to benefit from the improved car, showing impressive speed during testing in Bahrain. Fans will also be watching the performance of Lewis Hamilton.
The seven-time world champion had a difficult debut season with the new team and experienced what was arguably the worst year of his career. At one point, his frustration reached a level where he stated he was clearly useless and the team should replace him. He is now hoping for better days.
The record holder also set a negative record last year, becoming the Ferrari driver with the highest number of races entered without a podium finish.
Will the pairing of the most successful driver of all time and the most famous team finally make sense?
A New Face in a Hot Seat
Looking for stability and job security? The position of second driver at Red Bull is not for you. Several drivers have learned this the hard way.
“Being Max Verstappen’s teammate is the worst job in Formula 1,” said Sergio Pérez bluntly. He lasted a record four years with the team before his contract was terminated due to poor performance. His predecessors and successors often didn’t last a year.
Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon, Liam Lawson, and Yuki Tsunoda – all could write books about what it’s like to be in an extremely ambitious team where everything logically revolves around the most talented driver on the grid.
2026 F1 Starting Grid
McLaren: Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes: Andrea Kimi Antonelli, George Russell
Williams: Alexander Albon, Carlos Sainz Jr.
Alpine: Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto
Red Bull: Max Verstappen, Isack Hadjar
Racing Bulls: Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad
Haas: Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman
Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll
Audi: Gabriel Bortoleto, Nico Hülkenberg
Cadillac: Sergio Pérez, Valtteri Bottas
Now stepping into a challenging position is Isack Hadjar. The young Frenchman, nicknamed “Petit Prost,” had a successful debut season with the Racing Bulls team, finishing twelfth in the championship. Now he faces a much more demanding task. His mission will be to be fast and help Verstappen.
And to start, to last in the seat for the entire season. Beyond the rule changes (and therefore a fresh start for everyone), it may also work in his favor that former team principal Christian Horner and advisor Helmut Marko, who weren’t afraid to change Max’s teammates, are no longer in leadership positions.
Will Piastri Challenge the Champion?
They won both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. Yet, in the eyes of the public, they didn’t leave the 2025 season as complete winners. Absurd? For McLaren, it’s a reality. Due to the team’s poor tactical decisions and a publicly declared desire to let both drivers fight for the title until the last lap, the unthinkable almost happened.
While it looked for a long time that only an intervention from above could prevent McLaren from winning the championship, the papaya-colored team fumbled for so long that Max Verstappen nearly caught up with them in an objectively weaker Red Bull.
however, it worked out, and Lando Norris secured his first title. Oscar Piastri, who was more successful of the two drivers for most of the season, experienced a poor end to the season, and the loss of form cost him the championship. Four years of experience that the older driver had at his disposal ultimately made the difference.
Will the traditionally strong team recover? It remains to be seen. The regulatory changes don’t necessarily favor McLaren, which gradually worked its way up from a mid-field team to the strongest car on the grid in the previous era. Now they are starting over, and at least at the beginning of the season, the car is not competing with Mercedes, and Ferrari.
It will be interesting to watch the battle between Norris and Piastri on the track and the dynamics of their relationship. As the Drive to Survive series shows, they entered the 2025 season as great friends, often joking and complementing each other. But when the season progressed and the fight for the title heated up, the warmth faded somewhat.
If the 24-year-old Piastri builds on his strong performance last season and avoids a longer slump in form, he could challenge the reigning champion. He has the talent to do so.
A New Champion?
A British driver in a Mercedes car becoming world champion. Nothing new, Formula 1 has seen that six times before. But this time it’s not Lewis Hamilton. George Russell is the biggest favorite heading into this season.
Between 2014 and 2021, no team was more dominant. But after the controversial race in Abu Dhabi, where Verstappen snatched the record title from Hamilton, the situation changed and Red Bull took the reins. According to pre-season tests, however, , as in the past, Mercedes has best adapted to the rule changes.
According to competitors, Mercedes allegedly used a gray area in the regulations to extract more power from its power unit than others. The International Automobile Federation will investigate, but according to team boss Toto Wolff, everything is perfectly fine. The Silver Arrows are going into the season with a well-functioning and fast car.
“The way the car behaves on the track corresponds to what we see in the simulator. That’s something we haven’t experienced since 2021,” Russell said succinctly.
The former champion of the GP3 and F2 junior series has long been considered a great talent. Even with the terrible Williams car, he delivered respectable performances. Now, at 27, he is a seasoned veteran and, with Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, is clearly the number one driver for his team. “I feel 100% ready to fight for the world championship,” he declared.
To successfully battle for the title, it’s helpful to have both cars high in the standings – the young Italian won’t be much help from eighth place. Will Mercedes fulfill expectations?
The first answers will arrive at the race in Australia.
