Ten teams putting it all on the line. Twenty drivers pushing it to the limit and beyond. This is the pinnacle of motorsport.

“Formula 1 seemed like another world, a bit like for someone doing acting classes at school, a Hollywood blockbuster seems like something you see on your television, or in movie theaters, rather than a reality,” said David Coulthard, a thirteen time grand prix winner, and a current Formula 1 commentator, who kindly consented to be interviewed by me. And another world it is. Since 1950, Formula 1 has captivated viewers across the globe. No matter how many changes have been enforced by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), the heart of the sport remains unchanged. However, backlash to these new regulations is to be expected. 

With the introduction of the lifesaving HALO device around the cockpit, drivers and viewers alike complained about the obstructed views. With the end of ‘Grid Girls’ to head off the start of the race, there were disagreements over whether this was erasure of women in Formula 1, or a step towards equality for women in motorsport. However, as months pass, and younger generations involve themselves, new regulations become the norm, forgone traditions become forgotten, and the sport finds no love lost. 

With the end of the 2024 season, much excitement and dread is brewing amongst fans as the changes for the upcoming season loom over us. Since the final race in Abu Dhabi last year, huge changes have been announced, team principals and drivers alike packing up and heading home from the paddock. Driver swaps, additions to the grid, and team changes threaten to change the face of the grid as we know it. Rising Formula 2 stars are drawing the attention of the masses. As competition rises and existing drivers begin to falter, what are we to expect from the youth talent? All that we know today is that the inaugural race in Australia is guaranteed to look different in 2025.

This season has been one of twists and turns, DNFs and podiums, exciting introductions and heart-wrenching goodbyes. Keep in mind, as we enter Formula 1’s winter break, it is more than expected for there to be new announcements between now and the start of preseason testing in February 2025; the paddock doesn’t take a vacation. For veterans and new fans alike, it’s important to be prepared for what we’re driving into for 2025, and as of Abu Dhabi, these are the headlines.

Lewis Hamilton off to the Scuderia

Perhaps the most anticipated change for the 2025 season is the one that has had the Tifosi singing ‘Forza Ferrari’ from the rooftops, and that is Lewis Hamilton’s switch from Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team to Scuderia Ferrari. 

On February 1st, 2024, the news dropped, and the grid was flipped upside down. Carlos Sainz was dropped from Ferrari and was then free to be signed to a new team. Hamilton’s departure meant a coveted seat on Mercedes opened up, and with this, the driver market became a frenzy. The man who built the modern age of Formula 1, whose career defining moments have all been shared with the German team, is leaving it all behind for the iconic red of Ferrari. 

Signed at the end of the 2012 season, Hamilton began his journey with Mercedes at Albert Park in Australia in 2013. Together, they embarked on the journey that is becoming a seven-time world champion; six championships, 105 race wins, 201 podiums, and competing in 352 grand prix. Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes broke records together. He has taken the most race wins, as well as the most race wins with the same constructor. He is tied, with none other than Micheal Schumacher himself, for most world championships won. Hamilton also holds the title for most wins at a single circuit, taken at his home race of Silverstone.

A major question floating around this massive move is motive. There are rumors in the paddock that Mercedes wasn’t willing to deliver the multi-year contract that Hamilton wanted. When Ferrari approached Hamilton with a three season contract, he may have weighed this over remaining with Mercedes.

It is important to remember that most of what happens in this sport is not personal. Rivalries on track don’t always extend beyond just that. Team changes don’t always mean the dissolution of relationships between drivers and the team as a whole.

Ferrari is a historic team. Every fan, no matter what team they support, knows this. It’s a fact that is learned from the first days of watching the sport. Every driver wants to win a world championship with Ferrari. The premier team is often a lifelong dream, and it’s one that very few are able to achieve. So many great drivers have raced in red: Micheal Schumacher, Nikki Lauda, Gilles Villeneuve, Juan Manuel Fangio, Kimi Raikkonen, and Alain Prost to name a few fan favorites. To race for the heart and soul of Italy is one of the greatest accomplishments that a Formula 1 driver can achieve in their career. 

This switch to Ferrari is one that bids farewell to the team he has called home for twelve years, but at the same time, it ushers in an exciting new chapter, not only in Hamilton’s life, but also for Ferrari and Mercedes. Formula 1 is all about the change and exchange of talent. In 2025, Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will suit up for the Scuderia in order to fight for Ferrari’s first championship title since 2008.

The Man Who Makes Rocket Ships Leaves Red Bull

Amidst an already difficult year, it was announced that the man behind championship winning cars has decided to leave Red Bull Racing behind him. Adrian Newey is set to join team principal Lawrence Stroll at Aston Martin in 2025. 

Red Bull’s performance has also faltered. After rising victorious from the ashes of the battle ground that was the 2021 season, Red Bull dominated the past two years, Max Verstappen bringing in win after win for the Austrian team. It looked to be the same for the 2024 season. He won in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari won his home race of Monaco, in a Ferrari two-one.When Lando Norris of McLaren took his victory in Miami, the toss up for champion truly began. Red Bull is no longer in a position of total preeminence. They have only won eight out of the 21 races that have taken place, the final in this list being Max Verstappen’s recent masterclass in Brazil. Going from P17 to P1 in the 69 lap, red flag ridden, rainy race, they have reminded the world that they are a world champion team for a reason. 

On Saturday November 23rd, 2024, during the Las Vegas night race, Max Verstappen was crowned champion, his fourth consecutive championship win. He clinched the title coming in P5, only one place in from of Lando Norris, who he needed to out perform in order to win. However, while Max Verstappen may have secured in his first place victory, McLaren took the constructors championship win in Abu Dhabi with 666 points. 

Adrian Newey’s departure from the team created a storm of speculation. Initially, he had not announced where he was headed, if anywhere at all. Reports of offers from McLaren, Ferrari, and Aston Martin were circulating, sending shockwaves through the paddocks. As a Red Bull fan myself, the news came as a shock, and a huge disappointment, as it did for many fans around the world. On September 10th, 2024, the announcement was made that a contract for 5 years at a mind-blowing £30 million a year would be signed between Newey and Aston Martin. This is equivalent to just under 200 million U.S. dollars in total. Newey’s ingenious designs leaving Red Bull throw into question whether they will be able to recover as a team in the 2025 season. 

Street Circuits on the Rise

The iconic race in Monte Carlo has remained for decades the most coveted win in Formula 1. Its sharp narrow corners, short straights, and demand for high attention to technicality has made it a star. What allows it to be so exacting is the fact that it’s a street circuit. This season, we have eight street circuits out of 24 total races, making up a whole third. 

“The barriers don’t move, so you can’t dip a wheel off of the track onto the grass. If you dip a wheel, you hit a barrier, so therefore, dipping a wheel is not an option,” said Coulthard, diving into the magic that are the street circuits. The grace that the gravel and grass allow drivers on a regular track is nowhere near a street circuit. There is no room for correction, no room for mistakes, and no room for overthinking. There is no room for error. Every decision made within a thousandth of a second must be the right one. These streets are not designed for a Formula 1 car. The tarmac, the painted lines, the view-blocking buildings — all of these elements come together to create a race that could not be found under any other circumstance. These races are incredibly taxing, but they are some of the best racing you will ever see happens on these city streets, and for this reason, they are supremely popular. 

Just last season in 2023, Las Vegas held its inaugural race, where drivers flew down the strip and between casinos. In 2026, another street circuit is set to be added to the calendar. The Spanish Grand Prix is being relocated, moving from Barcelona, at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, to the historic streets of Madrid. This will tip the scales even further, and it will be nine out of 24 races taking place in the city streets. 

These races bring the action to the people. Fans lean out of windows or stand on balconies in their homes to catch a glimpse of the cars whizzing past down below. While the personal preference between the two types of races fans and drivers hold alike can cause some contention, it is undeniable that street racing is a massive part of Formula 1s future. 

New Talent, Driver Swaps, and Team Changes Galore

The grid will become a very different place in the next two years. Danish driver Kevin Magnussen has announced his retirement from the sport, and with his teammate Niko Hulkenbergs switch to Kick Sauber in 2025, and later the incoming team of Audi in 2026, Haas will have an entirely new driver set, with driver Esteban Ocon and rookie Oliver Bearman. 

Along with Audi, set to join in the 2026 season is General Motors, bringing Andretti-GM/Cadillac to the Formula 1 paddock. General Motors has already conquered NASCAR, Indianapolis 500, and NHRA Drag Racing; they are icons in the world of motorsport. This addition has been in the works for a while, officially since October of 2023, when the FIA approved the bid for entry on a technical standpoint. Later, in January of 2024, they were rejected the possibility of GM joining for the 2025 season. After the FIA reached a commercial assessment, approving GM as viable for entry, almost two years after the initial proceedings, on November 25th, 2024, it was announced that they would be the 11th team on the grid. This marks a huge change for Formula 1, as the last time there were over 10 teams in competition was in 2016, making it almost ten years since 22 drivers have stepped foot on the grid all together. There has been concern surrounding the dilution of team profits from some existing teams, but also much excitement surrounding the new development. It also brings into question what new talent will drive for GM, whether it will be current drivers looking for a change, or new drivers joining Formula 1.

The revival of Williams is imminent with the arrival of Carlos Sainz. After years of being pushed to the back of the grid in qualifying and the races themselves, the British team is starting to greatly improve. Their current driver Alexander Albon, who will be Carlos Sainz’ teammate, is moving fluidly with the car, scoring points, and pushing the team up in standing. With Sainz by their side, they could potentially have a major breakthrough next season. 

“Talent will only get you so far, but talent and commitment take you to the top,” Coulthard said.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is the rookie signed to Mercedes for the 2025 season. Replacing Lewis Hamilton is arguably one of the most nerve wracking positions to be put in as a driver. At only 18 years old, Antonelli has a wildly impressive career. A member of the Mercedes Junior Team since 2018, he skipped Formula 3 entirely, and moved straight to Formula 2 this year. He currently stands at 6th place with 113 points. 

The team that just secured a historic two-three podium win at Brazil this past October 2024 is ready for fresh talent too. Jack Doohan is set to race alongside Pierre Gasly at Alpine for the 2025 season. The man from Australia is currently a reserve driver for the team he is set to join, beginning this position following his third place final in the 2023 Formula 2 championship. On Monday, December 2nd, 2024, right after the weekend in Qatar, it was announced that Esteban Ocon will be leaving Alpine before the race in Abu Dhabi. This allows Doohan to get a full Formula 1 race weekend of experience in before his first official season start.

Excitingly, on November 6th, 2024, Kick Sauber (also known as Stake) announced Brazilian driver Gabriel Bortoleto to be their second driver for the 2025 season, alongside veteran driver Niko Hulkenberg. A member of the McLaren driver development program, Bortoleto, racing for Invicta, currently leads the Formula 2 championship with 169.5 points, a 4.5 point lead. The dynamic of a rookie and an experienced driver is going to be put to the test next season, with Stake, Mercedes, Alpine, and Haas all choosing to enlist new talent in their second seats. 

Formula 1 has seen many rookie drivers come and go, because making it in this sport boils down to the numbers. If you have what it takes, you keep your contract. If you don’t, you get cut. There is no room for patience in a sport where the win comes down to the thousandth of a second. Antonelli’s career in F1 will start September of 2025 in Australia, and there are nothing but high hopes and excitement held at the prospect of watching his racing journey begin. 

The development of youth talent has become more and more important, to teams and viewers alike, as the grid becomes more and more competitive. These rookie drivers who compete against champions like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, talent like Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, in a sport as complex as Formula 1, must be some of the bravest athletes of this generation. 

Women on the Track

Pit girls are out, and female racing drivers are in. Formula 1 is undeniably a male dominated sport. For young women watching the Sunday affair, a glimpse of a woman in the analyst’s chair, or a commentator such as Laura Winters or Ruth Buscombe, are the only hopes for representation. 

This is not to say there has never been female participation in the sport. Trailblazing women like Lella Lombardi, who was the only woman in all of history to score points in a Grand Prix, have begun to break down the barriers women face in motorsport. However, since 1992 when Giovanna Amati competed in three Formula 3000 races, there hasn’t been a woman in a grand prix event. 

Luckily, Formula 1 and independent racing companies are working to combat this discrepancy.

The Formula 1 Academy is a racing series designed to support female drivers on the road to their racing career. Much like in Formulas 2 and 3, F1 Academy teams work alongside Formula 1 teams to help prepare their drivers for the future. This increased attention to inclusivity in motorsport shines a light on the path being forged for women to excel in the culture. “There’s no doubt that women have the physical attributes if they train properly” said Coulthard. Along with being an expert on Formula 1 from both the cockpit and the pit lane, David Coulthard is a founder of More Than Equal, an organization set to bolster female participation in Formula 1. 

“More Than Equal is taking a science-based approach to identify young female talent, girls in karting, and to give them the Lewis Hamilton or Max Verstappen treatment, which means they are supported through those teenage years, these sort of foundational years …our goal is to find the first female World Champion,” Coulthard said.

“But what we are not is tokenism and sponsors, we are creating the programs for them, but the thing that never lies is the stopwatch. If you can’t do the lap time, you’re in the wrong sport… You’ve got to know what you’re good at,” he said. These outlets dedicated to supporting women, and creating a space in which they are equally as motivated to succeed in Formula 1 is integral to the development of the sport. Formula 1 is not a sport in which genetics determine the win. Champions are the product of intense training, dedication, and the love of the game. 

There is no doubt that in the years to come, women have a chance to start taking places on the grid in the higher Formula competitions.

The Disappearance of the Fastest Lap Point

Before every grand prix the whole team meticulously goes over strategy. The drivers with their engineers, the pit crew, the analysts, the reserve drivers, and the team principal all discuss every contingency, every possible action that they can take to maximize their points. In Formula 1, a single point could be the difference between millions of dollars in revenue. One of these points since 2019 has been the “Fastest Lap Point.” This point is exactly what it sounds like; it is awarded to drivers who complete the fastest lap of the grand prix. This could be completed on the first lap, or on the last, as long as it is not outdone by any other driver on the grid. The only other specification is that the driver receiving the point must remain within the top ten drivers in the race standing. 

Introduced in the hopes of upping the ante for drivers scrapping for points, it has become a toss up point over the past few years. Notably, in 2023, George Russel of Mercedes repeatedly took a pit stop, switched to soft tires, and snagged the fastest lap point at the very end of the grand prix. 

The fastest lap point remains in play until the eighth of December of 2024 in Abu Dhabi. When the new season begins in Australia, the little purple clock against the leaderboard will no longer remain. The fastest lap point leaving the track will definitely change the team strategies, as now 24 potential points will be wiped from the board, almost as many as a driver receives for coming in first place.

Model Specifications

“For 2026 there’s a lot of uncertainty, and inevitably this happens whenever there’s a regulation change” said Coulthard.

In terms of physical car regulations, the FIA is redefining the guidelines for how every team must construct their race winning machines. These changes won’t be instituted until the 2026 season, so that gives the teams another year to design their updated cars. The wheelbase has been reduced to a maximum of 3400 millimeters, the width to 1900 millimeters, and the weight to 768 kilograms. 

Now, let’s break this down.

The wheelbase of the car makes up the distance between the front and rear axles of the vehicle. In even simpler terms, it’s just the distance between the center of the front wheel, and the center of the back wheel. Currently, the maximum wheelbase is 3600 millimeters. Being shaved down by 200 millimeters will, unbelievably, make a huge impact on racing. It is just objectively true that a longer wheelbase offers better traction. 

The pros of this longer wheelbase include stability, improved aerodynamics, and to no surprise, slightly more downforce. However, its shorter counterpart is more agile, turning the corners becomes more fluid, a simpler move. Historically, we’ve seen a trend of wheelbases expanding, in the past twenty years, we’ve seen an increase of around 600 millimeters, so to shrink it back down isn’t exposing teams to an entirely new length of car. 

Similarly, the new regulations surrounding the width of the car and the wheel sizes will make for a much more efficient, elegant vehicle on track. 

All of these changes are not only creating a different racing experience, but they are working together in order to make the cars lighter. The new maximum weight for these cars will be 768 Kilograms, 30 Kg less than todays. Granted, this doesn’t include fuel, as that can add about 100 kilos if a car is filled to maximum capacity. This decrease in bulk weight on track will make for much more streamlined, tight races, in which the car will continue to be pushed to its limits. 

These changes are also bound to impact every driver differently. There is no uniform way to drive. There are formulas, and mathematically proven paths to follow to achieve the highest performance, but the fact remains that everyone looks at the road ahead differently. 

“I found it a kind of scientific joining of the dots. You know there’s a breaking point, and if you do that successfully and not too late, there’s an apex you want to get to, and if you hit that apex, there’s a natural point where you can start to put on the power, and there’s an amount of track you can use, and that’s completed the corner. So I think I was a very much like a ‘tick the box’ kind of driver, where I imagine, and I don’t know this, but I imagine Kimi Raikkonen or Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton, really anyone, maybe these guys don’t see the corner as a series of joining dots. They just see the corner, you know…maybe to them, it’s just one beautiful thing that is there to be tackled,” said Coulthard. 

These changes, being as technical as they are, will create a period of adjustment for every driver. Each car is an instrument, perfectly fitted to the driver inside it. Thus every time the machine is tuned or remodeled, the way it is played changes too. 

The many changes that will appear over the next two seasons have created a buzz about the world of Formula 1. There truly is no way to know how any driver will perform under the new circumstances, nor who will take home the championship title. This suspense is the icing on the cake for the sport. Every season is a whole new era, and every race begins with endless possibilities. Until that checkered flag is waved, nothing is established. 

For the fans, there is no better way to put it than in David Coulthard’s own words: “As long as the racings good and there’s entertainment, we as fans will love it. But I can’t possibly know exactly what it’s going to look like and feel like — until we get to that point.”

The many changes that will appear over the next two seasons have created a buzz about the world of Formula 1. There truly is no way to know how any driver will perform under the new circumstances, nor who will take home the championship title. This suspense is the icing on the cake for the sport. Every season is a whole new era, and every race begins with endless possibilities. Until that checkered flag is waved, nothing is established.