F1 2025: The Drivers, Part 3
It's the final countdown!
Welcome to 2025 F1 Season!
We have only three teams left to discuss, so let’s jump right in as the clock ticks down to lights out in Melbourne!
Red Bull
Red Bull dominated both the World Drivers' Championship and the Constructors’ Champion … championship in both 2022 and 2023 and many people, myself included, expected 2024 to be another boring Red Bull/Max Verstappen yawnfest.
Max was so dominant in 2023 that he barely appeared in any race coverage, he was usually so far out in front.
2024 looked like it might be a repeat, but some strange things started to happen. First, McLaren made some engineering changes which saw them progressively sneak up on Red Bull, while at the same time Red Bull’s number 2 driver, Sergio Perez, progressively forgot how to drive.
While all that was going on, Red Bull suddenly had a monumental fracture open up, which depending on who you believe, was either just an internal investigation running its course, or a plot by Red Bull advisor and all-round wet blanket, Helmut Marko, and the Verstappen family, to topple long-standing Red Bull team principal, Christian Horner.
Helmut Marko is known for several things: Chewing up and spitting out young drivers as they come up through the Red Bull Junior Team, and for publicly saying incredibly disparaging things about any driver who isn’t Max Verstappen.
Christian Horner, on the other hand, is known for being married to Ginger Spice, and being an insufferable twat on Drive to Survive.
So what happened last year? Let’s hand it over to Wikipedia:
On 5 February 2024, Red Bull confirmed that Horner was facing an investigation following allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague. The complaint, which Red Bull stated it was taking "extremely seriously", was conducted by an external lawyer. Horner was cleared of all wrongdoing on 28 February, maintaining his roles at Red Bull Racing. The specific nature of the allegations were not officially disclosed and the report remained confidential. The case is not closed yet. In January 2026 a labour judge will hear the case. In the meantime there are "reporting restrictions" ordered by the court in the UK.
Things got really murky, with suggestions that the allegations had been brought to the media’s attention by an internal faction who were unhappy with Horner as team principal and wanted him gone.
Jos Verstappen, Max’s psychotic father, and former F1 driver of much lesser talent than his son, has been very publicly critical of Horner over the years and give how close the Verstappen family are with Helmut Marko, many believed they might been the shady internal faction.
At this stage, who knows, but between McLaren’s improvements, Perez’s faltering performance and all this drama, Max’s dominance started to falter and fans around the world cheered as actual competition returned to the sport.
As we discussed previously, Perez was dumped by Red Bull at the end of last season, and Red Bull’s drivers for 2025 are:
Who are these dudes?
Let’s start with Max. Max won his first World Drivers' Championship in 2021 under contentious circumstances on the last lap of the last race of the year, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It’s worth clicking that link and heading over to Wikipedia to read about the race, but basically, Max and Lewis Hamilton entered the race on equal points, and had Lewis Hamilton won, he would have broken Michael Schumacher’s record for the number of World Drivers' Championships and, in my opinion, retired (more on that later!).
Instead it kicked off the whole drama which led to Lewis leaving Mercedes for Ferrari this year, and Max winning two more World Drivers' Championships in a row.
Max was bred by his father to be a driving machine and he is a single-minded, vicious competitor, yet he’s also oddly detached from the sport when not in a car, and has said on multiple occasions that he doesn’t see himself having a long racing career. Max no longer seems happy at Red Bull and I think that unless they have a return to form this year and absolutely dominate the early races, we’re going to see a lot more internal conflict and plenty of photos of Max cosying up to other team principals, all of whom would love to buy him out of his current contract.
Liam Lawson is an interesting one. If you look at the history of Max’s teammates, Max usually breaks them, but Lawson has a personality which is closer to Max than any of his previous number 2 drivers, which I think could make for either a really menacing team, or total combustion, with not much in-between.
Lawson technically counts as a rookie this year, because while he did plenty of racing last year, he didn’t complete a full season, but his experience does put him ahead of the rookie pack for sure.
Who is the number 1 driver?
Max. There is not a single driver on the grid who would be given preferential treatment above Max at the moment, regardless of who he raced for.
Ferrari
The prancing horse is an excellent logo for the Ferrari Formula 1 team. Much like a prancing horse, the team strategy is flighty, unpredictable and prone to biting [itself in the butt].
Over the years, there have been so many moments where Ferrari should’ve won races, or whole championships, when someone on the team has made the decision to switch the tires mid-race from mediums to marshmallows, or something equally bizarre, and while everyone else scratches their heads, they’ll do the same thing the next race like maybe a decision becomes less idiotic the more you do it.
That said, everyone also loves Ferrari because they’re Ferrari. No-one would hate to see Ferrari win a championship and most drivers would still get a kick out of donning the famous red racing suits. This year, the two drivers doing so are:
Who are these dudes?
Let’s start with Charles Marc Hervé Perceval Leclerc, the only born-and-bred Monégasque driver on the grid, though plenty of other drivers live in Monaco for tax purposes.
Charles has the distinction of competing in the era of Max Verstappen’s dominance, in a team that makes crazy decisions, which means it’s a little difficult to get a handle on Charles’ actual skills.
As of this very minute, Charles has eight race wins, 26 pole positions, 10 fastest laps, 43 podiums in Formula 1, and has finished in the top five in driver standings for the past three seasons. This is an excellent list of achievements, and you would think he would be discussed as a World Drivers' Championship contender more often than he is.
He can certainly choke on occasion, but then he can also perform really well when his car and team strategy are working against him. He just feels like the right driver at the wrong time, and I can’t see him winning a championship in the current grid.
Sir Lewis Hamilton has been racing in F1 since 2007 and is a complex character. He is the first Black driver to compete in F1, he had most definitely faced racism within the sport and its fans. He is the only driver to have levelled Michael Schumacher’s record of seven World Drivers' Championships and is without a doubt an excellent driver. He can also be a bit of a dick. Like Max, Lewis’ number 2 drivers throughout the years have basically been expected to be incredibly competitive … except against Lewis. If you are his number 2 driver and he’s behind you, you’re expected to move out of his way. If you’re his number two driver and you’re behind him and faster than him, he will not let you pass, even under team orders. Your job is to beat everyone on the track besides Lewis.
He also whinges a lot on the team radio.
I’m going to take a tiny detour into the world of the Condé Nast magazine empire for a second. I promise it will make sense.
Going into the 2021 season, Lewis was driving for Mercedes and was expected to win his eighth World Drivers' Championship. I think he would’ve retired at that point. The man has a lot of interests outside of F1, including fashion and film production. and while he definitely wants the record, I also don’t think he wants to leave Schumacher’s in the dust, I think having the record by one would’ve looked sportsmanlike and satisfied Lewis’ desire to be the best of the best.
One thing that makes me almost sure retirement was on the cards was that Lewis was on the cover of the September issue of Vanity Fair in 2022.
So what, you ask? Well, September is the biggest month in magazines. There’s a whole documentary about it.
Who was on the cover of the September 2022 issue of Vogue? Serena Williams.
Why was she on the cover? She was announcing her retirement.
Who owns both Vogue and Vanity Fair? Condé Nast.
Yes, Lewis might’ve still raced in 2022, but he would’ve known Max and Red Bull were about to enter their era of dominance, and he, and a lot of other people, assumed he’d have the record under his belt, so Condé Nast would have the incredible coup of having two sporting superstars announce their retirement on the covers of two of their biggest selling magazines in the biggest month for magazines.
Instead, Lewis lost the 2021 Championship on the last lap of the last race of the year, and hasn’t been able to win once since, which is why we now have Lewis racing for Ferrari four years later, Ferrari being the only option open to him that he saw as a viable option to compete with Red Bull … except that Red Bull has now been surpassed by McLaren, and Lewis is now competing against two really strong teams, with Mercedes on his heels.
I don’t think Lewis will win the Championship this year, or any other, to be honest, and I have no idea how long he will keep trying. I hope for his legacy he retires before he stops being an attractive option for teams.
Who is the number 1 driver?
An interesting one. I would say Charles, unless Lewis has a chance at the Championship, in which case Ferrari will throw everything behind Lewis, and Charles might even be willing to step aside and defend for a legend of the sport.
McLaren
Finally, we end with last year’s Constructors’ Champion … championship winner, McLaren!
I began to enjoy McLaren in their Daniel Ricciardo era and have maintained my fondness of them ever since. I try not to have any favourites in this sport to avoid heartbreak, but unfortunately they signed Oscar Piastri, who is without a doubt my favourite driver, so I guess I just have to accept I’m a McLaren fan.
The 2025 drivers for McLaren are:
Who are these dudes?
Okay! This team is interesting.
Lando Norris has been driving for McLaren since 2019 and was paired with Daniel Ricciardo for a number of years. Now, I love me some Daniel, because I’m human, but I don’t think he was a great teammate for Norris. Yes, they produced some of the most fun social media content in the history of F1, but there was definitely a level of maturity lacking (no, I can’t believe I’m criticising them for immaturity either), and Norris is a talented driver, who didn’t have a teammate pushing him.
Since he’s been paired with Norris, he’s grown up, both in the way he presents himself publicly and how he races.
When Daniel got dumped for fellow Australian, Oscar Piastri, I was piastri-ed off to begin with, and I took it out on Oscar, telling anyone who would listen that Oscar needed media training because he had the personality of a cardboard cut out, but I was very, very wrong. Oscar is so much fun to watch, he will push his car hard, he will attack, he barely uses the team radio because he’s so focused, he has the most dry sense of humour and is completely unflappable.
Oscar Piastri will win a World Drivers' Championship.
Who is the number 1 driver?
McLaren might be the only team on the grid without a preferred driver. While team principal, Zak Brown has been singing the praises of Lando recently, it could all just be to balance out the fact that they just extended Piastri’s contract by a number of years.
I think McLaren will back whichever driver pulls ahead first and that for the first half of the season, they’ll manage it race-by-race.
I think the biggest challenge for McLaren this year will be managing the relationship between Lando and Oscar, and holding the team together for a few seasons of dominance, because I could see Lando itching to leave if he dosen’t feel like he’s getting the attention he wants.
I guess the difficulty is that every driver places more importance on the Drivers’ Championship, rather than the constructors’ trophy, and it would be disappointing to see the team split before they reach their potential.
And there we have it! Now you have all you need to have strong opinions on the 2025 Formula 1 season, 30-ish minutes before the season kicks off in Melbourne!
I wouldn’t put money on it, but I would like to see McLaren win the Constructors’ Champion … championship and Oscar Piastri take out the Drivers’ Championship.