Early spring is an exciting time for many sports. There are some huge meetings in the world of horse racing, the football season is hotting up, the first major of the golf season is just around the corner, after the Players Championship in March, and the Six Nations in rugby coming to the boil. For those who prefer their sporting excitement fuelled by petrol, it is, of course, the time when the new F1 season gets underway.
Teams have been working relentlessly behind the scenes to improve their cars over the winter. Formula 1 is one of the most technical, scientific sports around, if not the most, and precision engineering to eke out that extra 0.1% can make the difference between success and failure.
However, ahead of the first race of the season, which takes place on the 16th of March in Melbourne, Australia, things have now moved up a gear. The 26th of February saw the first day of official pre-season testing, giving fans the first chance to have a look at where the respective teams are.
That said, it is foolhardy to read much into what takes place in these sessions. History has shown us that what happens in these laps is rarely any real indicator of what will happen when the lights go out at the Albert Park Circuit in just over two weeks. Teams do not have to reveal much about the performance of their cars, what they are testing, the fuel load and various other factors that can impact the times the drivers put out.
However, the first testing session marks, in a sense, the beginning of the season, and so now seems the perfect time to look ahead to what we can expect in the months ahead.
Australian Grand Prix Kicks Thing Off
The post you’ve all been waiting for…
MELBOURNE IS OFFICIALLY THE NEXT #F1 RACE! 🇦🇺#AusGP pic.twitter.com/vTnNPBCIpk
— F1 Australian Grand Prix (@ausgrandprix) December 10, 2024
Since the race moved to Melbourne in 1996, the Australian Grand Prix has generally, though not always, been the sport’s curtain-raising event. However, this will be the first time it has been the first Grand Prix of the season since 2019. Back then, Lewis Hamilton was on pole but it was Valtteri Bottas, his Mercedes teammate, who won the race.
Much has changed since then, with 35-year-old Bottas now a reserve driver at Mercedes and Hamilton, the granddad of the grid at 40, about to begin his career as a Ferrari driver. What hasn’t changed is the brilliant circuit at Melbourne, which is assuming first-race duties due to Ramadan (in recent years the first two races have been held in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, with Australia third).
Things will get started on the 14th of March at 12.30 local time, with the first practice session, with more practice later that afternoon and then on the 15th at 12.30. Qualifying takes place between 16.00 and 17.00 (Melbourne time) on the 15th with the race due to commence at 15.00 on the 16th of March. That will be a nice early start for those in the UK, so set your alarms for just before 4 am on Sunday morning if you want to catch the start of the race!
Who Will Win?
Ahead of the first Grand Prix it is unclear who will be the dominant force in the early stages of the season. That is reflected by the odds for the win in Melbourne, with five drivers priced between odds of 11/4 and 9/1, as below:
- Lando Norris – 11/4
- Max Verstappen – 3/1
- Charles Leclerc – 4/1
- Lewis Hamilton – 13/2
- Oscar Piastri – 9/1
The big day is less than three weeks away, but that will seem like an eternity for eager fans, desperate to see how their favourite drivers get on.
How Many Races Are There in 2025?
There are 24 Grands Prix for fans to savour this season, as there were last year, with the races quite evenly spread between the opener in Australia and the finale in Abu Dhabi, as has been the norm since 2009. The race at the Yas Marina Circuit is on the 7th of December and the only real break from the action will come, as usual, during the summer.
The Hungarian Grand Prix takes place on the 3rd of August and is the 14th Grand Prix of the year. The 15th GP is not until the end of the month, when the Dutch Grand Prix will take place on the 31st of August. There is also something of a gap between race 12, at Silverstone on the 6th of July, and the Belgian Grand Prix, at Spa, on the 27th.
What Has Changed?
Change is the one constant in life and certainly in F1. It is beyond the scope of this feature to detail the various technical changes that will be brought in, covering things like the minimum driver/car weight, cooling systems to be deployed in extremely high temperatures, alterations to DRS regulations and a range of other things.
But in terms of really big changes, we have already mentioned the biggest of the lot: Hamilton’s switch to Ferrari. Outbound Ferrari man Carlos Sainz joins Williams, with Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli being the man to replace Hamilton at Mercedes. Nico Hulkenberg goes from Haas to Sauber and Liam Lawson, a Kiwi, becomes Max Verstappen’s new number two at Red Bull.
Who Will Win the Title?
Verstappen ultimately won the Drivers’ Championship easily enough last year but Lando Norris finished strongly and was second. That Norris’ McLaren team won the Constructors’ Championship, with Aussie Oscar Piastri also performing well, suggests that the 25-year-old Bristolian might be the one to watch this year.
For what little it is worth, Norris was the fastest on the first day of testing but the more telling signs are how good he, and McLaren, were looking at the end of last season. However, the latter half of the 2024 season was one of the most open periods of racing we have seen in F1 for some time. Verstappen utterly dominated the first half of the campaign, winning seven of the first 10 races.
Things got a little less predictable in the final 11 races, which saw seven different drivers take the chequered flag, with nobody winning more than the three that Norris did in that time. Fans will hope that is a sign of what is to come, and the bookies certainly can’t decide who will win. The odds for the Drivers’ Championship are similar to those for Melbourne, in as much as at least five drivers are thought to have a serious chance.
Norris is the favourite but there is virtually nothing between him, Verstappen and Leclerc, with Hamilton only a little further back. In terms of the Constructors’ battle, McLaren and Ferrari should be the two slugging it out, but Red Bull could also challenge. It promises to be one hell of a season!