Storylines for the 2025 season

The 2024 season was full of storylines, drama and action. After a Max Verstappen and Red Bull dominance in 2023, it was a pleasant refresh to follow along an eventful season with races you couldn’t predict the winner of. Afterall, that is the beauty of sports. The suspense of watching a match or race without the knowledge of who is going to win or what hurdles they have to cross to get there. The 2024 season gave us just that.

As we approach the next season, there are still specks of the last season that have the fans on their toes questioning the outcome of the many storylines developing. Here are my top questionable thoughts for the coming season:

1)        Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc

When Lewis Hamilton announced his departure from Mercedes to join Ferrari, it was breaking news all over the sports world and left every F1 fan with their mouths dropped open. When the images were posted in his Italian suit, outside Enzo Ferrari’s house with the beautiful F40, it gained a whopping 50million likes on Instagram reminding us of his powerful presence in the formula one world. When the videos emerged of the fans cheering him on outside the Maranello factory and on the bridge of the Ferrari testing track, it was a beautiful and reassuring sight to see the 7-time world champion being welcomed to the passionate fandom.

Without a doubt, the duo of Lewis Hamilton alongside the already loved Charles Leclerc, is a power team. But with both drivers being ‘number one’ drivers, how will they work together to win the next championship? Will the passion of the tifosi along with his dream to drive for Ferrari fuel Hamilton to win more races and possibly even another championship? Will both their thirsts to win end up in clashes on and off the track? Will Charles Leclerc dominate as he did with Sebastian Vettel? There are so many directions in which this could go, and it is thrilling to think about the possibilities. 

2)        Jack Doohan vs Franco Colapinto

The announcement of Jack Doohan’s seat into the Alpine team was expected and deserved. The driver has been a part of the Alpine academy since 2022 (previously a part of the Red Bull Junior Team) and was their reserve driver for 2023 and 2024. He shockingly made his debut on the track in Abu Dhabi 2024 and did as he was expected to do alongside his new teammate Pierre Gasly. However, there seems to be some bad luck in the Alpine air with the drivers they choose to promote to their F1 seat because Doohan’s seat appears to be at risk before the new season has even started.

Franco Colapinto did everything he needed to do and more when he replaced driver Logan Sargeant in the William’s seat. He started out as a surprising announcement with fans not really knowing too much about his abilities but soon made a statement with his skills on the track and won the hearts of many fans with his not so media trained answers. He is young and refreshing and full of potential. It was indeed a shame to see him leave the grid at the end of the season without a seat, but he was soon announced as the reserve driver for Alpine … along with Ryo Hirakawa and Paul Aron.   

It then emerged, with reports from multiple sources, that Jack Doohan’s contract is only for 5 of the season’s races and that when testing comes around in Bahrain, eyes will closely be assessing the times of both drivers. There is of course no confirmation from Alpine of this duel between the two drivers for the seat, but with Alpine’s history of handling drivers, it isn’t so hard to believe this fumble either. Did they sign Jack Doohan too early and regret they didn’t wait it out for Franco Colapinto?

3)        The Rookies.

Kimi Antonelli for Mercedes, Jack Doohan for Alpine, Liam Lawson for Red Bull, Isack Hadjar for RB (Racing Bulls), Gabriele Bortoleto for Sauber and Ollie Bearman for Haas. There are 6 new rookies on the formula one grid for the coming season.

 Liam Lawson served half a season in 2024 when replacing the much loved Australian Daniel Ricciardo after the Singaporean Grand prix, however 2025 will be his first full season. Ollie Bearman also proved his abilities in Formula one when he replaced Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari during the Saudi Arabian Grand prix and Kevin Magnussen in the Haas in Baku and Sao Paulo. Gabriele Bortoleto and Isack Hadjar fought for the f2 championship all the way till the last race in Abu Dhabi resulting in Bortoleto taking the F2 crown after Hadjar’s engine stalled at the start race. Mercedes team principle vouched for the driver Kimi Antonelli ever since the announcement of Lewis Hamilton’s departure. The team principle went through great lengths to get Kimi into the Mercedes seat next to George Russel for the 2025 season, hyping up his speed and skills despite his age. Jack Doohan was promoted into the F1 seat from the Alpine academy however it seems that he needs to prove himself the most out of all the rookies with the Alpine CEO’s close eyes on Franco Colapinto.

All the rookies have proved that they deserve a seat in formula one however this narrative can change as soon as they drive out onto the tracks. Will they be able to live up to the hype created around them as there seems to be much more expectation of the rookies this year than ever before. It will be no surprise when mistakes are made from these 6 drivers which adds an excitement to the sport that is needed from spectators from an entertainment point of view and will this shake up the playing field?

4)        The drivers’ championship fight

The moment Max Verstappen controversially won his first championship, he went on to prove exactly why he deserved to be called a world champion. He broke records after records and has gone on to win 2 more championships to add to his very impressive resume. However, the 2024 season was a refreshing season to watch because for more than one race of the season, there was a pinch of hope of a championship fight. The media took full advantage of this highlighting how there was more than 1 driver able to win the championship. As the season went on, drivers names slowly got dropped from the list and we were left with Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Even if this narrative was a stretch, that excitement of what if… was exciting and it leads us into the 2025 season with hope of more uncertainty of who the next drivers champion will be.

The team championship is of course the most important, but the drivers’ championship is a fight of pride and as athletes, it is a crown that the drivers can take full pride in having.

With McLaren and Ferrari being the favourites to win the team championships this season, does this mean that the fight is between Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton? Verstappen has proved multiple times however in 2024 that even without the best car, he is still capable of bringing a fight to the front of the grid. Will Hamilton find redemption in winning his 8th championship? That is after all his ultimate motivation for moving to a team with a stronger car. Or will we see a new championship winner in Norris, Leclerc and Piastri? The beauty is that this could play out any way this season.

5)       The FIA president

The FIA president has been making headlines right, left and center. These headlines however are causing major backlash from the formula one fans, many criticising the way in which the FIA president is treating the sport and many wishing for him to be replaced.

His latest controversial statement being that it may be possible to ‘delay’ or ‘shut down’ the radios of live communication during the races. Just weeks before, the FIA also introduced new regulations banning the use of swear words and/or ‘any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury’ to the FIA. The punishment being race bans, suspension or hefty fines.

The FIA president has been adamant to prove his authority in the sport but has yet to earn the respect needed from the drivers and fans. It is interesting to see how this tension will resolve.

There are many more more stories to follow such as how will the red bull team redeem themselves after a reshuffle of drivers? Will Adrian Newey bring some of his magic to the Aston Martin car? Will Tsunoda leave the Red Bull pool and find a seat elsewhere? Is it a good or bad thing that Ferrari have made so many changes in the coming car?

We will just have to watch and see.