The 2025 Formula 1 season begins in mid-March, and the teams are focused. They compete for points that determine the FIA Formula 1 World Driver’s and Constructor’s Championships. While winning is a shared goal, each team has unique challenges. Understanding those differences can clarify why the teams make certain decisions throughout the year.
Events are speeding up before the 2025 FIA Formula 1 World Championship starts. The Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on March 14 to 16 is the first race of the 2025 F1 Season, but before the 10 F1 teams head to Australia, other events have filled their calendars.
On February 18, all 10 teams revealed their 2025 race car liveries at a first-ever season launch event at the O2 Arena in London. On February 26 to 28, drivers piloted their 2025 cars for the first time in pre-season testing in Bahrain.
Even closer to the season, Netflix dropped its Formula 1: Drive to Survive Season 7 (on March 7), just in time for binge-watching the week before the race in Melbourne.
Why Formula 1 team challenges differ
Every F1 team in the elite motorsport has manifold issues and concerns, but there are some significant breakouts.
Past seasons’ performance sets up a team to compete within a group. This year’s top teams include McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes. Battling in the midfield is often as dramatic as in the top spots, so look for Aston Martin, Alpine, Haas, and the Red Bull’s junior team, Racing Bulls, to be particularly eager to finish higher than others in the group.
Last season’s points totals clustered with four top teams, four in the mid-range, and two teams, Williams and Kick Sauber, with very few points on their boards. The pressures in the various leadership strata are real.
For fans and media commentators, drivers are a focal point. Conversations and commentary for the 2025 season will focus on drivers who switched teams from 2024 (in one case, famously), on driver teammate chemistry, and the six rookie drivers. A few driver changes will likely occur mid-season, but at the beginning, every team is talking up its current driver mix.
The 2025 season differs from the past in that 2026 will significantly change F1 race car chassis and power unit regulations. The cars will be smaller, run on 100% carbon-neutral fuel, and get a more significant proportion of their power from electric motors than their combustion engines.
The significant changes in the season to come may motivate some of the current drivers to give it their best shot in 2025 and then retire. In 2025, only two teams, McLaren and Aston Martin, return with the same drivers; every other team changed at least one driver. The 2026 season may see an even more significant turnover.
F1 team challenges for the 2025 season
The following current F1 teams are organized in the order in which they finished in the 2024 World Constructor’s Championship.
McLaren (666 Championship points in 2024)
McLaren scored big money in 2024 when they won the Constructors’ Championship, thanks to drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who were second and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship competition. McLaren is only one of two teams to have the same drivers for 2025 as in 2024, which helps because they’re dealing with known drivers but also because they’re such good drivers. If McLaren can continue to have one of the fastest cars on the grid, the biggest issue may be having two drivers who are both Grand Prix winners.
In 2024, Norris had a better chance to beat Max Verstappen for the Championship (he didn’t), so Piastri was ordered to let Norris prevail at crucial times. For 2025, McLaren has already stated that both drivers can go for it. Perhaps as the season unfolds, if one of the two drivers pulls ahead in points, McLaren will issue team rules to favor that driver.
Ferrari (652 Championship points in 2024)
Ferrari had the fastest car in some 2024 races. Last year, Charles Leclerc was the primary driver, with Carlos Sainz an impressive second driver. Ferrari’s second-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship came because, like McLaren, Ferrari had two strong drivers, Leclerc and Sainz, who finished third and fifth, respectively, in the Drivers’ Championship. But this year, the team driver mix has changed.
Seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton announced before the 2024 season that he would end his relationship with Mercedes at the end of 2025 to drive for Ferrari. So Sainz is gone (to the F1 Williams team), and LeClerc’s role as the lead driver is not the same.
Red Bull (589 Championship points in 2024)
You have to know Red Bull is going into the 2025 season hungry. After winning the Constructors’ Championship in 2022 and 2023, Red Bull was in third position in 2024, despite Max Verstappen winning his fourth consecutive driver’s crown.
Finding a strong teammate for Verstappen is an ongoing challenge for Red Bull, and perhaps Liam Lawson can score significant points for the team. Lawson joined the Racing Bulls team (then called RB) mid-season when he replaced veteran Daniel Ricciardo.
Red Bull didn’t have the fastest cars in 2024, and the issues worsened as the season ran on. Verstappen’s otherworldly driving skills, most notably in the Brazilian Grand Prix with pouring rain, kept him high enough in the points to continue his reign.
Red Bull also said goodbye to designer Adrian Newey at the end of 2024. Many attributed much of Red Bull’s success to Newey’s race cars. Newey had been with Red Bull for nearly 20 years and has moved to Aston Martin as Managing Technical Partner.
Mercedes (468 Championship points in 2024)
Lewis Hamilton’s February 2024 preseason announcement of his departure to drive for Ferrari in 2025 came as a shock to Mercedes, which has struggled to have competitive cars to allow Hamilton to score his eighth World Championship. Returning Mercedes driver George Russell finished the season in sixth position, ahead of Hamilton’s seventh-place tally.
Russell is now the lead driver, and Principal and CEO Toto Wolff is enthusiastic about newcomer Kimi Antonelli in the second seat. Antonelli was recruited into the Mercedes program in 2024, moving directly into F2 racing rather than starting in F3.
Veteran driver Valterri Bottas, who left Kick Sauber at the end of 2024 after scoring zero points all season, has joined Mercedes as a relief driver, which may be seen as an insurance move in case Antonelli has a tough start.
Mercedes’s struggles with running competitive race cars were lightened in the second half of the 2024 season, with Russell and Hamilton reporting better performance. It will be interesting to see if Mercedes starts 2025 with cars fast enough to compete with McLaren and Ferrari.
Aston Martin (94 Championship points in 2024)
Aston Martin is the second team with the same returning driver roster, including the indomitable Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, who finished 2024 in 9th and 13th position, respectively. Two-time World Champion Alonso has competed in over 400 Grand Prix races, which is a record. Stroll, the son of Aston Martin CEO Laurance Stroll, is a solid driver who finished 13th in the Driver’s Championship in 2024.
Aston Martin is one of the strong mid-field teams with higher aspirations this season. It will be interesting to see if Adrian Newey can help the team make significant advances, especially since he only started his position with Aston Martin in January.
Alpine (65 Championship points in 2024)
BWT Alpine’s drivers this season are Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan. Gasly is returning for his third season with Alpine, where he had a surprise third-place win in Brazil just behind his then-teammate Esteban Ocon, who came in second. Doohan has been in Alpine’s development program since 2022 and an Alpine reserve driver since 2023. Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes joined the team midway through last season.
Haas (58 Championship points in 2024)
Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman are new to Haas this year. Ocon drove for BWT Alpine last year, scoring a second-position finish behind Max Verstappen at the rain-soaked Brazilian Grand Prix. Bearman subbed for Carlos Sainz in 2024 when the Ferrari driver missed one race due to an emergency appendectomy. Bearman also drove for Haas in late 2024 when he covered for Kevin Magnussen when Magnussen had to skip one race due to penalty points.
Haas is one of the mid-range teams competing with Alpine, Aston Martin, and Racing Bulls.
Racing Bulls (46 Championship points in 2024)
Yuki Tsunoda returns to drive for the Racing Bulls for his fifth season. Isack Hadjar, who had been part of Red Bull’s training program, joins Racing Bulls to take the seat vacated by Liam Lawson with the latter’s move to the Red Bull season team.
The Racing Bulls, the junior of the two Red Bulls’ teams, is based in Italy. Often viewed as an advanced training ground for the senior Red Bull Racing team, Racing Bulls changes its team name and drivers more often than other teams.
Williams (17 Championship points in 2024)
One of the historically powerful F1 teams, Williams has struggled to regain its former competitiveness. Returning driver Alexander Albon started in F1 in 2019, racing for Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) and Red Bull Racing. Albon has driven for Willams since 2022, and this year is joined by ex-Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz, who is a proven Grand Prix winner.
Albon scored 12 points in 2024, 16th in the Drivers’ Championship. Sainz, who ended 2024 with Ferrari in fifth position with 290 points, may be able to help both Williams and Albon.
Kick Sauber (4 Championship points in 2024)
Kick Sauber was not competitive in 2024, with 4 points scored by the departing driver Zhou Guanyu. Veteran driver Valtteri Bottas was also dropped by Kick Sauber (soon picked up as a reserve driver for Mercedes).
Both drivers are new for Kick Sauber this year. Nico Hulkenberg had a solid year with Hass in 2024, finishing 11th in points with 41. Newcomer Gabriel Bortoleto was in McLaren’s driver development program, but McLaren released him to drive for Kick Sauber this year. Bortoleto had winning seasons in F3 in 2023 and F2 in 2024, finishing first in each. With drivers accustomed to strong performances, Kick Sauber may see better results in 2025.
Kick Sauber will become an Audi works team in 2026, so this season is a transition year.
