By Staff Reporter
The 2025 Formula One season has all the makings of a highly competitive 24-race celebration to mark 75 years since the inaugural seven-race championship in 1950.
Lewis Hamilton’s highly publicised move to Ferrari has been the key off-season storyline. The star British driver says his move from Mercedes to Ferrari has given him a new lease on life.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen appears to have his work cut out to seal a fifth straight drivers title with Lando Norris of McLaren poised to knock the Dutchman off his perch.
Here are the key talking points before the 2025 F1 season gets under way in Australia on Sunday:
Can Max win title number five?
Seventy-five years after Giuseppe Farina claimed the first F1 world championship at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, Verstappen embarks on the 2025 season in pursuit of a fifth successive title, a feat achieved only once before, by Michael Schumacher, from 2000 until 2004.
If he succeeds, it will cement the Dutchman’s place as a titan of the sport.
He hoovered up seven of the first 10 races in his rampaging Red Bull season last year before enduring a 10-race winless run as McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari closed the championship points gap.
But Verstappen had the last word, fighting back to win in Brazil and clinch title number four with two races to spare.
McLaren prised the F1 constructors championship away from Red Bull – an award determined by the total points accumulated by the team’s two drivers over a season – for the first time since 1998.
The tough task facing Verstappen is underlined by the betting, which has him as only the second favourite behind Norris (who ended last season 63 points behind) for the 2025 drivers crown.
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris reacts.
Four-time reigning world champion Max Verstappen, left, starts the season as second favourite to Lando Norris in the race for the 2025 F1 drivers title [File: Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images]
Can Hamilton return Ferrari to the glory days?
Hamilton is convinced he can help Ferrari win its first drivers championship since 2007 after the seven-time world champion made the move to Italy.
