IGNITION
Will Lando Norris and McLaren lead the way as the F1 pack kicks its season off in Australia?
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McLaren in pole position but F1 2025 promises much
Anticipation for the 2025 Formula 1 campaign has been building since it became clear in the second half of last season that the hitherto dominant Red Bull team was beatable – by McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Or perhaps even earlier, when Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari was confirmed at the start of 2024.
Now we’ve had some on-track action that indicates those storylines do indeed have plenty of mileage. As Alex Kalinauckas shows in our in-depth Bahrain testing analysis on page 24, McLaren probably does have a small advantage, but Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari aren’t far behind, which is encouraging as teams head to Melbourne for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix this week. As in many close championship battles, the results could well be dictated by individual track characteristics, in-season development and nailing the details on the day. Could we have the first non-Red Bull/Mercedes champion since Jenson Button in 2009 (or Hamilton in 2008, if we regard Brawn as the embryonic Mercedes operation)?
While there are hopes that F1 will at least match the seven different winners it had in 2024, there are other stories to look out for. Carlos Sainz topped the testing times in his new Williams and, though it would be delusional to suggest he will be a consistent frontrunner in 2025, the confidence emanating from the Spaniard is clear in this month’s interview (p36). And how his replacement will get on at Ferrari is the focus of Roberto Chinchero’s piece on Hamilton versus Charles Leclerc (p42).
We also have our traditional technical overview from Jake Boxall-Legge, who looks at the likely key design battlegrounds in the final year of the current regulations (p32), plus a teamby-team guide courtesy of Stuart Codling (p49).
The story of Ferrari’s F1 breakthrough, as its 375 defeated the 159 of Enzo’s former employer Alfa Romeo, is the subject of
‘Now that was a rivalry’ (p72), while our team of F1 journalists round out a look to the season ahead by picking who they think will be the 2025 world champion (p84). Make a note of the answers and see how wrong they are in nine months’ time…
The rising hopefuls in the F2 pack will also get their seasons going in Australia. Stephen Lickorish talks to Alex Dunne to find out why the Irishman is expecting to have a much better season in F2 than he did in F3, plus hears from a team boss who has worked with both Lando Norris and Red Bull’s F2 talent Arvid Lindblad (p93).
The search for the next female stars of motorsport continues, both on track and on the rally stage. Susie Wolff talks to Rebecca Clancy about the development and future of the F1 Academy (p94) in our Single Seaters section, while Tom Howard introduces Claire Schonborn – the inaugural winner of the World Rally Championship’s Beyond Rally Women’s Driver Development Programme (p118).
Like the WRC, the World Endurance Championship has already got under way, with a 10-hour thrash in Qatar. Gary Watkins was there and he explains how Ferrari took a dominant 1-2-3 in our debrief on p102, as well as hearing from a chatty Kevin Magnussen about the Dane’s switch from F1 to BMW’s Hypercar programme (p108).
While BMW’s loss of four-time champion Colin Turkington is a blow to British Touring Car fans (p127), the pain is mitigated a little by the news of triple title winner Gordon Shedden’s return with Toyota, which leads our Touring Car section. Marcus Simmons also catches up with another tin-top talent, James Thompson, two decades on from Thommo’s fierce BTCC duels with Yvan Muller (p128). Our BTCC preview will appear in next month’s issue, out on 10 April.
The UK racing season is now upon us and we pick out the things we’re looking forward to most in 2025, ranging from British GT and GB3 contests to historic extravaganzas and celebrations, in our 15-page National section, which starts on p132.
Kevin Turner Chief Editor kevin.turner@autosport.com
4 AUTOSPORT.COM APRIL 2025
