Verstappen won a fourth consecutive world title last year
As F1 prepares for a potentially enthralling new season, we discuss rookies, Hamilton at Ferrari and more
Race fans always savour the sweet sense of anticipation at this time of year, with everything all ahead of us.
But perhaps there’s an extra shot of expectation this time around because, on paper and before a wheel has turned in anger, we might just be in for the most open and competitive Formula 1 season in more than a decade. Genuinely.
Based on form last year and heading into the final season of a fully mature ruleset, there’s every reason to be optimistic that at least eight drivers from four teams could be in with a shout at winning races – and half a dozen of them will be backing themselves to challenge for the world championship.
So, Max Verstappen to make it five in a row at Red Bull? He’s driving for what ended up officially as the third-best team in 2024 after its alarming mid-season fall from grace and four-month win drought.
Was it really a coincidence the decline occurred as technical chief Adrian Newey uncoupled himself for an eventual move to Aston Martin? In Red Bull’s last season with Honda power, questions linger about whether this is an empire in decline or technical strength in depth can reverse the narrative.
McLaren won its first constructors’ title in 26 years last term, so will Lando Norris now step up for the drivers’ crown after his impressive 2024 breakthrough? Team-mate Oscar Piastri might well have something to say about that if he can qualify more consistently.
Then there’s George Russell, incontrovertibly and for the first time team leader at Mercedes-AMG. What about the guy at Ferrari who so many consider to be the fastest of all over one lap, Charles Leclerc?
And then there’s his team-mate – his new team-mate. The one all eyes will be on when the clock ticks down to first practice in Australia.
Sir Lewis Hamilton is a Ferrari driver. Seven times a world champion, 105 times a grand prix winner, all achieved with Mercedes power. Now, having just turned 40, he has taken a leap of faith to join an overseas team for the first time – and the most illustrious of them all.
Facing Leclerc, 13 years younger and in the prime of his life. Plus the voracious Italian media. Not to mention the rabid tifosi, who turned out in thousands to witness his first laps of Fiorano in January.
Of course, there are millions of reasons why Hamilton has signed for Ferrari – 100 million per year, if you believe some reports. But the pressure is off the scale. Still, he can handle it.
And the prize sits there, looking right at him: a record eighth world title. Some believe by moral rights it’s his already, that a race director breaking the FIA’s own rules on a whim amounted to night-time robbery back in 2021.
That sense of injustice still fuels Hamilton, and his chance of gaining retribution looked increasingly like a long shot if he stayed at Mercedes, after three seasons of mostly frustrating toil under these aerodynamic regulations.
But why Ferrari? Well, first, because it’s Ferrari. Few can resist Maranello, even 37 years after Enzo’s death. Yes, there’s the money. But there’s also the prestige, the challenge, that old red magic. We can take it as read, too, that Hamilton is fully pumped for what he faces.
He was convinced by his old Formula 3 and GP2 boss Frédéric Vasseur, for the past two years the good-humoured, disarmingly effective team principal at Ferrari.
The Frenchman has quietly rubbed away at Ferrari’s crusty old blame culture, reduced the chaos and created a sense of methodical calm last seen during Ross Brawn’s watch back in the Michael Schumacher years.
For a man with a record 104 pole positions, it’s strange to suggest that Hamilton has lost his qualifying edge. But in their last year together, Russell comprehensively outperformed him on Saturdays.
There was little wrong with most of Hamilton’s race performances, though, even at a team he knew he was leaving (see Silverstone, Las Vegas and the last one in Abu Dhabi).
Yes, he can still conjure at least a portion of the old magic, even in this generation of F1 car, which his driving style has never quite gelled with.
But will it be enough? Yes – if Vasseur delivers on his part of the bargain, Hamilton unlocks what he needs from the new car and gets the slightest sniff of that eighth title.
The best come alive when they know they have a chance. If that occurs, what happens next could be spectacular.
However it turns out, you’re not going to want to miss this. For the first time in a long while, we can’t take our eyes off F1.
