Thousands of rabid F1 fans will descend upon the Albert Park Race Circuit this coming weekend to kick off the 2025 season.
And 2025 is already looking like one with the history books. With a few fresh-faced rookies on the grid and new title contenders entering the fight, fans are in for an exciting season.
While preseason testing gave us a glimpse at the drivers and their new rides, only qualifying and the big race on Sunday will tell the whole story.
Despite losing out in the Drivers’ Championship, McLaren closed the performance gap to Red Bull Racing, winning their first Constructors’ in over 20 years. While the title fight wasn’t quite as close as people made it out to be in 2024, any of the top drivers have a shot this year.
One of those drivers in with a shot is Lando Norris. After five seasons with McLaren, Norris picked up his maiden F1 win in Miami last year. And he didn’t stop. With Red Bull and Max Verstappen suffering a rare lapse in performance, Norris slowly chipped away at the reigning world champ’s points lead. But even with the fastest car on the grid, Verstappen still plucked the Drivers’ title from Norris’ grasp, albeit with some difficulty. With the new regulations kick in in 2026 and everyone starting from scratch once again, Lando needs to make this season count. But having the fastest car on the grid simply isn’t enough to bring home the championship. Does Norris have what it takes to go the distance? Only time will tell.
And Norris doesn’t have to look far for opposition either. In the garage over sits Australian phenom Oscar Piastri.
With just a couple seasons under his belt, Piastri has quickly made a name for himself.
Like Norris, Piastri also picked up his first grand prix win last year: and in quite spectacular fashion too. But as controversial as Hungry was, Piastri proved it wasn’t a fluke a few weeks later in Azerbaijan. Despite his calm and reserved demeanor, Piastri is anything but on the race track. Willing to do whatever it takes come race day, Piastri mounted numerous attacks on his far more experienced teammate last year. Consistent, determined, and all-around faultless, Piastri is one to watch this season.
After four tremendously successful years, Max Verstappen could be in for a tricky 2025. While he did pick up his 4th championship last year, it wasn’t without a fight. Having enjoyed relative ease from 2022 to 2023, Verstappen had to really work for it in 2024. McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes all closed up on Red Bull, with any one of their drivers capable of winning on Sunday. Having won a number of races earlier on in the season, Verstappen created a comfortable gap between him and the rest of the field. But as the season wore on, that cushion lost a few of its feathers. While Verstappen did get away scott-free, Red Bull were certainly put on notice, with McLaren beating them to the Constructors’. With legendary engineer, designer, and aerodynamicist Adrian Newey jumping ship to Aston Martin, Red Bull doesn’t look as strong as it once was. With a cabinet of championships behind him, Newey is one of F1’s most sought after people. But even then, Verstappen did pick up his first Drivers’ Championship in the second best car.
One of the drivers to win a race last season was Lewis Hamilton. After a few lack lustre seasons, the 7-time world champ retook motorsport’s top step, delivering an emotional race win at Silverstone. All eyes will be on Lewis as he makes his debut for Ferrari in Melbourne. Hamilton sent the F1 world into raptures last season after he announced his switch to the prancing horses for 2025. Hamilton and Mercedes dominated F1 between 2014 and 2020, picking up six Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships. The partnership saw Hamilton smash record after record and equal Michael Schumacher’s seven world titles. So his switch to Ferrari is interesting for many reason. The constructor’s championship win came with Kimi Raikkonen in 2007, almost 20 years ago. To say it’s been an agonising couple of decades for Ferrari is an understatement. While they’ve come close a number of times with Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari have fallen short every time. But we’ve seen a marked improvement from Ferrari over the past few years, particularly last season, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz picking up five race wins. While he is, statistically speaking, the greatest F1 driver ever, nothing is assured, even for Hamilton. Can he capture lightning and bring Ferrari their 17th championship? That’s one for the F1 gods.
