The 2024 Formula 1 season provided hope for a 2025 that could be competitive to the very last lap. Max Verstappen still took home his fourth-straight title with relative ease, but he only won two of the final 14 races. If you’ve been off the F1 train because of the lack of a title fight for a bit, this looks primed to be a great chance to get back in.
F1 is always loaded up with storylines – but here is one to watch for each driver on the grid.
Max Verstappen - Red Bull (11th F1 season, 10th with Red Bull, 437 points in 2024)
Is the domination over?
Most people would still rank Verstappen as the best driver in terms of current form on the F1 grid. But even with that, you need a car to hold up to keep you in title form. “only” won twice from the end of June through December (14 races) last season, including 8 finishes off the podium. To compare, he finished off the podium a combined 10 times in his three previous championship seasons. McLaren won the constructor’s championship due in part to Sergio Perez’s poor form, but they’ll continue to face stiff competition from the papaya team, Ferrari and Mercedes, whether Verstappen’s counterpart performs well or not.
Lando Norris - McLaren (7th F1 season, 7th with McLaren, 374 points in 2024)
Can Lando put it all together?
Lando Norris' 2024 season was scrutinized from all angles for the winnable races he missed out on, especially as many believed McLaren had the superior car for a good portion of the season. Norris had his first taste of fighting for a championship – can he cast that aside and battle? Does he even need to battle that much if the McLaren continues to get that much better? With four wins under his belt (four more than he had this time last year), the expectation is he can and should do it.
Charles Leclerc - Ferrari (8th F1 season, 7th with Ferrari, 356 points in 2024)
Can the Ferrari be consistent enough to put Charles in the title fight?
Charles Leclerc finished fourth or better in 18 of 24 races last year, including three wins. The Monaco terrors are behind him, he’s put a second Monza win on the resumé, and the mistakes (team and driver) were much, much fewer last year. It’s clear that Leclerc has the form to win a title, but the Ferrari hasn’t had enough consistent winning pace to put him at the lead of the championship fight since early 2022. And how much will the arrival of Lewis Hamilton affect him? Will Hamilton come out swinging, or will Leclerc benefit from his hefty knowledge of the car?
Oscar Piastri - McLaren (3rd F1 season, 3rd with McLaren, 292 points)
Can Oscar Piestri measure up to Lando Norris?
Oscar Piastri arrived in the sport with quite a bit of noise, including because of his rookie F3 and F2 titles. There’s a lot going in many directions for Piastri this year. He can battle his teammate and establish himself as a threat that he was expected to … or he could be a step behind again (lost the head-to-head vs. Harris 16-8 last year) and begin to raise questions on if he lives up to the hype. And not only that, but if he doesn’t perform early and Harris is in the title fight, he will almost certainly be forced to play the team game rather than fight for himself.
Carlos Sainz, Jr. - Williams (11th F1 season, 1st with Williams, 290 points with Ferrari)
How much can Carlos salvage as he takes a step back from a top level car? Or can he impress?
Carlos Sainz Jr. is the casualty of Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari – not for any lack of performance, but Leclerc is the homegrown star who has outperformed Carlos (albeit not by massive margins season-to-season). So Sainz not only is out of a great car, but he wasn’t able to land a ride at a high-level team. So he settled for Williams, a team Sainz by himself outscored in 2024 by 273 points. Team Principal James Vowles seems to have a vision for success – will there be steps forward this year with its strongest lineup in quite a while, or is the vision solely for 2026, when regulations reset?
George Russell - Mercedes (7th F1 season, 4th with Mercedes, 245 points)
How high is his ceiling now that he’s not compared to Lewis?
It’s unclear if Mercedes has anything in them to put a title-fighting car in George Russell’s hands. Russell arrived at the Silver Arrows right as their domination ended, and his moments have come in flashes when the car hits that perfect window. Russell has been measured up against the sport’s statistical GOAT for his entire Mercedes career and he outscored him two out of three seasons. Valtteri Bottas never really came close to him in five seasons vs. Lewis. So where does he go with a young, inexperienced rookie next to him? Kimi Antonelli comes with quite a bit of hype, but also a lot to prove.
Lewis Hamilton - Ferrari (19th F1 season, 1st with Ferrari, 223 points with Mercedes)
Does Lewis Hamilton still have it? And can he settle in right away?
Lewis Hamilton’s last go-around at Mercedes contained a lot of lows (plenty of defeated, struggling radio messages), but also an unbelievable, story-book emotional win at Silverstone. It’s easy to see that he’s thrilled to start over with a car that has a higher likelihood to bring him his eighth F1 title. But how much of 2024 was the car being below expectations/not to his liking? He now goes up against an increasingly impressive Leclerc, who knows the car, is a star qualifier (after Lewis lost his qualifying head-to-head 15-9 last year). Is he up to it?
Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin (22nd F1 season, 3rd with Aston Martin, 70 points in 2024)
Is it going to keep getting worse?
Fernando Alonso turns 44 this year and is still chasing his third F1 title and first win since 2013. It looked like there was a chance of the streak ending when he nabbed five podiums in the first six races in 2023, but his best finish in 2024 was fifth, and things seemed to get more and more bleak as the year went on, including 10 overall nonpoints finishes. While it’s not clear how much age really plays a factor, it’s clear that the declining Aston Martin is the primary issue. And after Alonso delivered a smile-ear-to-ear “this is a lovely car to drive” message only two years ago, it feels like the team is just hoping they don’t slip even further before the life raft that is car whiz Adrian Newey really gets to impose his vision for the team in 2026.
Pierre Gasly - Alpine (9th F1 season, 3rd with Alpine, 42 points in 2024)
Can Alpine carry momentum forward?
It took 8 races for Pierre Gasly to drag the brutal Alpine to a single point in 2024. But Gasly notched a podium (thanks in part to some rain strategy) and finished off the final four races with three top-seven finishes (he also qualified third in the only race where he didn’t get points, but reliability took him out of the race). Gasly is going to have to do some heavy lifting to try and push the French outfit forward, but there is potentially some hope to go from 6th to 5th in the constructor’s title if Aston Martin falters, and if the car continues to improve, even despite somewhat of a question mark in Gasly’s rookie teammate.
Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber (14th F1 season, 1st season with Sauber, 41 points in 2024 with Haas)
Will the pain of 2025 be worth it?
Nico Hulkenberg went from being out of the sport full-time for three years to landing a spot with Haas for two seasons, beating teammate Kevin Magnussen both times. Now he jumps over to the team that was worst by quite a margin on the grid last season in Sauber. The whole move comes as he prepares to be the German driver on the German Audi team when Sauber rebrands in 2026. Points might not even be on the table, but it’s worth noting that Hulkenberg is a massive upgrade from either side of Sauber’s previous lineup.
Yuki Tsunoda - VCARB (5th F1 season, 5th with VCARB, 30 points in 2024)
Does Yuki Tsunoda take his Red Bull slight personally? Or is this it for him?
Yuki Tsunoda will start another season with the Red Bull B team after another season gone with rumblings for a call-up to Red Bull, ending with him being passed over. This all despite winning the head-to-head 4-2 against new Horner project Liam Lawson, who goes straight up to fight against the world champion while Tsunoda stays put. It might very well be it for Tsunoda if he gets outperformed by rookie Isack Hadjar … or if he handles him well, he probably will get another season at VCARB. A bit of a bleak outlook.
Lance Stroll - Aston Martin (9th F1 season, 5th season with Aston Martin, 24 points in 2024)
What are we even doing here?
The subject of Lance Stroll has been talked about ad nauseum. He’s only there because his filthy rich dad owns the team. He has been handled easily by Fernando - outscored by 46 points last year, and then couldn’t manage a podium in 2023 while Alonso was shining from time to time. There were times where you could say ‘yeah he’s a pay driver BUT… he got a pole in 2020! He puts up a scrappy effort from time-to-time! But we’re years removed from that. He didn’t even try with his little “get to know me” chalkboard this year! He feels checked out at an advanced level.
Esteban Ocon - Haas (9th F1 season, 1st with Haas, 23 points in 2024 with Alpine)
Can Esteban Ocon thrive in a different environment?
Esteban Ocon has found himself in a lot of … interesting dynamics. In a hate-off with Sergio Perez, in a friends to enemies situation with Alonso, paired with his lifelong enemy in Pierre Gasly and then, most recently, in a hate-off with Flavio Briatore, leading to him leaving the team and not even getting to race at the 2024 season finale. Ocon again finds himself in a situation where one wouldn’t expect a massive amount of success, but Haas is seemingly heading in a positive situation. Can he lead the American team (in their final year as the “American team” before Cadillac assumes that role) to a best-of-the-rest situation soon?
Alex Albon - Williams (6th F1 season, 4th with Williams, 12 points in 2024)
So how good is Alex Albon, really?
Alex Albon is an easily likable figure on the grid, and ever since being canned from Red Bull, has been lauded for pulling the Williams to points every now and again. But he’s also had a pretty weak cast alongside him since joining the team. Franco Colapinto jumped in Logan Sargeant’s seat for the latter portion of 2024 and equaled Albon in head-to-head and got in the points more than Albon did (although Albon did overall outscore him). Now Albon has a race-winning, proven teammate – can he meet the moment?
Oliver Bearman - Haas (2nd F1 season [1st full-time], 7 points in 2024 in 1 start with Ferrari, 2 with Haas)
Does Oliver Bearman’s Ferrari race mean he’s ready for F1?
Oliver Bearman jumped in an F1 car three times last season. Once with Ferrari, where he finished seventh, and twice in a Haas, where he pulled in one point in Baku but struggled in the rain-soaked Brazil race. Bearman’s points finish in F2 last year isn’t relevant since he withdrew twice to sub for F1, but while he won three times, he also finished outside the top ten 13 times. He’s got a vastly underrated teammate with experience next to him, too. Will Bearman be ready?
Liam Lawson - Red Bull (3rd F1 season [1st full-time], 4 points in 6 races in 2024 with VCARB)
Can he finally break the Red Bull second seat curse?
Checo, four seasons with Red Bull and he went out literally losing his team the constructor’s championship last year. Albon – struggled. Gasly – struggled. It was 2017 the last time Max Verstappen was outscored by a teammate, and I don’t really think we can expect it this year. I think Liam Lawson fans should be excited if he can just be within a reasonable distance from Verstappen.
Jack Doohan - Alpine (2nd F1 season [1st full-time], 0 points in 1 appearance in 2024 with Alpine)
Will he even survive the season?
It’s no secret, no offense to him, that Jack Doohan’s signing to Alpine isn’t a particularly flashy one. He comes off a year not driving a car, save for the final race, and he was 3rd in a not-particularly star-studded 2023 F2 season. But you’ve got to feel for him, as it’s clear Alpine will toss him aside if he can’t perform quickly – to the tune of rumors that Franco Colapinto could be in by round six. Brutal. Doohan deserves a shot, and even if he doesn’t pan out, it feels like he was placed into a boiling pot before things even started.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes (1st F1 season, placed 6th in 2024 F2 season with Prema)
Is he worth the hype?
F1 fans have been hearing about Andrea Kimi Antonelli before he even got in a single-seater car, that’s how much hype the Italian carried. He skipped F3 and went right to F2 last year, In the end he came out … sixth, winning just twice. To be fair, this is one of the rare times Antonelli didn’t win a title in his entire racing career, but on the other hand, it was an effort that didn’t really scream “ready to pilot for a top four F1 team.” But the cards dealt to Toto Wolff led them to have their very own Max Verstappen experiment – letting a very young kid jump right into the car and learn. He’ll likely be given some time to figure it out, but Bottas is right there as a reserve if necessary…
Isack Hadjar - VCARB (1st F1 season, placed 2nd in 2024 F2 season with Campos)
Could this latest Red Bull junior actually make some noise?
The Red Bull junior program makes up a large part of the grid, and it seems like there are new faces with hopes of getting on one of Red Bull’s two teams every couple of years. Isack Hadjar fell just short of an F2 title last year, a big jump from his first F2 season. No offense to Hadjar, but he’s not a driver that set the world on fire with his efforts – he was decent enough, but the shuffle at the top after Checo was canned left an open spot that made him the only option that made sense. The fiery French driver, though, can certainly silence opinions like that if he can score more than Tsunoda in his debut season.
Gabriel Bortoleto - Sauber (1st F1 season, 2024 F2 champion with Invicta)
Can he show enough to keep himself on the grid?
Gabriel Bortoleto enters F1 as the F2 champion, and the latest driver to win F3 and F2 in back-to-back rookie seasons. Much like some of those former F3/F2 champs (George Russell comes to mind), he’ll have to start off with a pretty terrible car to debut on. The name of the game for the Brazilian is to put up good enough results that he stays in the paddock’s conscious as a driver who “just needs a chance in good machinery” instead of a Zhou or maybe a Giovanazzi who kind of just felt like they were there, but did nothing too impressive.