It’s a brand new yr and there’s a brand new Method 1 season forward of us. Right here’s what’s modified in F1’s seventy fifth anniversary season.
Drivers and groups
No drivers modified locations between the earlier two seasons, so maybe it was inevitable that the 2025 season would see important upheaval. Positive sufficient, solely two groups – Aston Martin and McLaren – head into the brand new season with the identical driver line-up as they began the final one.
Six drivers will begin their first full seasons this yr. Essentially the most skilled of these is Liam Lawson, who has already began 11 grands prix over the earlier two years, and now has the unenviable process of going up towards Max Verstappen at Pink Bull.
Two others have additionally made their F1 debuts already. Certainly, Oliver Bearman has pushed for 2 totally different groups, impressing when he completed within the high 10 when he first turned out for Ferrari final yr, and attaining the distinctive feat of scoring factors with two totally different groups in his first two races when he returned for Haas. Jack Doohan additionally bought his first race beneath his belt in Abu Dhabi.
Three others, in the meantime, will make their grand prix debuts. Method 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto, who will make his debut for Sauber, hasn’t even appeared in an official F1 observe session but. Lawson’s alternative Isack Hadjar has, 4 instances, whereas Andrea Kimi Antonelli turned out twice for Mercedes final yr.
He has the most important sneakers to fill of anybody, as Mercedes picked their upcoming star to exchange Lewis Hamilton. The seven-times champion and winner of 105 grands prix is a Ferrari man now, and can face up towards Charles Leclerc, now in his seventh yr as a Ferrari driver.
Hamilton’s transfer despatched Carlos Sainz Jnr to Williams. Sauber lured Nico Hulkenberg to hitch them for the second time in his profession, whereas Haas have cleared home and picked Esteban Ocon to associate Bearman.
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So with half the seats having modified fingers within the final 12 months, the grid of 2025 could have a recent new look. Six of those that lined up for the primary race of final yr – Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, Kevin Magnussen, Logan Sargeant and Zhou Guanyu – have all moved on.
One of many groups has additionally had a change of identify: Pink Bull’s second workforce was formally referred to as RB final yr, and although they mentioned on the time this was not an abbreviation for his or her firm identify ‘Racing Bulls’, they’ve entered beneath that identify this yr.
Calendar
The state of flux on the F1 grid just isn’t mirrored on the schedule, as the identical 24 rounds as final yr will happen once more. Nonetheless there are some notable variations.
Australia is because of maintain the season-opening race for the primary time since 2019. It was scheduled to take action in 2020, however the race was cancelled by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Final yr’s season-opener, Bahrain, is the fourth spherical this yr, to be adopted once more by Saudi Arabia. F1 has moved the Chinese language and Japanese rounds to the second and third rounds respectively on the calendar.
There can be six dash rounds once more however for the primary time because the format was launched, none of them will happen in Austria. The Belgian Grand Prix will host a dash race once more, because it final did in 2023.
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However whereas this yr’s calendar is unchanged, F1 has already confirmed one new occasion for subsequent yr. A brand new avenue observe in Madrid will host the Spanish Grand Prix, although the Circuit de Catalunya additionally has a contract to carry a race in 2026.
There’s one different notable change deliberate for the yr forward. F1 will host a particular new launch occasion in London known as F1 75 Stay, the place groups will current their new driver line-ups together with the new-look liveries for 2025.
Guidelines
An enormous change is coming in 2026, when F1 will overhaul its chassis and engine laws collectively for the primary time in 12 years. Till then that is the final hurrah for the new-style ‘floor impact’ automobiles which have delivered some, however not all, of what was promised.
The sphere has undoubtedly closed up, which produced some badly-needed unpredictability final yr after Pink Bull’s annihilation of their rivals in 2023. However the precise racing stays depressingly reliant on the gimmick of DRS to engineer overtaking. That’s unlikely to vary in a yr when the technical laws are largely untouched.
One important change has materialised on the sporting aspect. 5 years after trumpeting the choice to reintroduce the bonus level for quickest lap, F1 is quietly dropping it with out a phrase of rationalization. It’s certainly no coincidence the choice got here to mild quickly after Pink Bull’s second workforce was accused of utilizing Ricciardo to assist Verstappen by taking the bonus level away from Lando Norris.
Over to you
Are you planning to go to an F1 race this yr? Will you be going to F1 75 Stay? Tell us within the feedback.
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