Finlay McSporran
Published: 13:53, 18th July 2025
Next weeks Belgian Grand Prix will be the 13th race of the year, and marks the beginning of the second half of the season.
In this article we will look at our biggest takeaways from the season so far.
A Real Title Fight
F1 hasn’t seen a proper fight for the drivers championship since the infamous 2021 season between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton.
It looked like we were in for another in 2022 between Charles Leclerc and Verstappen, but Ferrari’s pace dropped off over time, as Redbull became the dominant force in F1. And whilst that domination stagnated last year, McLaren’s Lando Norris was ultimately too far back to make himself a real threat for the title.
But things are different this year, as Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri, now has two seasons of F1 experience under his belt, and is now looking to challenge Norris’s position as the number one man at McLaren. The team also has an extremely fast car this year, having won nine out of the twelve races so far this season.
With a car that’s in a league of it’s own, and two number one drivers, it looks like the 2025 F1 season will be an inter-team-battle for the drivers title.
In many ways, it’s a lot like Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s fight for the drivers title in 2016. Two friends turned rivals once the opportunity of being the Formula one world champion presented itself.
Like that 2016 season, the McLaren drivers have already came together on track, when Norris crashed out of the Canadian Grand Prix while trying to pass his teammate.
It’s often said that having two number one drivers is a good problem for an F1 team principal, but a it’s problem nonetheless. McLaren’s TP, Andrea Stella, will have to be careful to avoid the same problems that Mercedes faced in 2016, as the was a bitter rivalry within the team, between Hamilton’s side of the garage and Rosberg’s side.
It’s likely that this title battle will go down to the wire, as it did in 2016, but the question is: Can McLaren survive it?
Redbull in Crisis
Redbull’s second driver problems certainly aren’t unique to this season. Ever since Daniel Riccardo left the team in 2018, Redbull have struggled to find a suitable replacement. They initially brought in Pierre Gasly, who was Replaced by Alex Albon, who was then Replaced by Sergio Perez, as all three struggled to keep up with Verstappen.
But their problems with the second car have reached a new low this season. Liam Lawson was replaced after just two races, having failed to score a single point. His replacement Yuki Tsunoda hasn’t faired much better, scoring seven points in ten races. In that time Verstappen has scored 165 points and currently sits third in the drivers standings behind the two mighty McLarens.
The qualifying gap between Verstappen and his teammates has remained mostly the same over the last few years, regardless of the driver. However the field is much closer together now in terms of performance, which has brutally exposed the extent of Redbulls second car problems. In fact, without Max, Redbull would be plumb last in the constructors standings right now. Plumb. Last.
That’s an extraordinary decline in form for a team that has won two constructors and four drivers titles in the last four years. Amazingly, however, that’s not even the biggest problem facing them right now.
Amongst an exodus in key personnel, declining performance and controversies off track, Max Verstappen has continued doing what he does best – win races. It seems as if he is the only thing holding the team together right now, but even he might have had enough.
Over the last few months there has been increasing speculation over a potential move to Mercedes for Verstappen, with Toto Wolf making clear his intensions of signing the four time world champion. As mentioned above, Redbull would be last in the standings if it weren’t for Verstappens performances keeping the team afloat, so they would understandably do everything in their power to maintain their biggest asset.
And they did, last week when they fired team principal Christian Horner, who had been in charge of the Milton Keynes outfit since their entry into F1 in 2005. Whilst an exact reason was not given for his sacking, it can be assumed that Redbulls drop-off in form coupled with the accusations of sexual harassment last year played a factor.
But the reason to sack Horner there and then might have been a last-ditch effort to try and keep Max at the team. Max’s father, Jos, has been a critic of Horner throughout the years, and so a Redbull team without him might be more appealing to the Verstappens.
Whatever the reason, it’s certainly not a good look for the team, and there situation only seems to be getting worse. With both titles this year seemingly out of reach, attention at Redbull will be switching over to the new regulations coming next year. This will see them develop their own power units for the first time, and there are a lot of concerns over how effective they will actually be.
A Big Surprise
Expectations were very low coming into the season for the Sauber F1 team. Having finished a distant 10th and last in the standings last year with just four points, they were the laughing stock of the F1 world.
Their 2025 season got off to a great start however, with a P7 finish in the opening race, bagging them six points which was already more than their total from last year. The team continued to gain momentum, introducing multiple upgrades that helped them score even more points which brought their total to 26 by round 12 at Silverstone.
In what has to be the highlight of the season so far, Nico Hulkenberg took his Sauber to an epic third place during a tricky wet race. This was the teams first podium since Kamui Kobayashi finished third in the 20212 Japanese Grand Prix.
But this result was more about the man behind the wheel. Hulkenberg had always been a reliable driver but didn’t have a big headline result to show for it in his 239 Grand Prix starts, until now.
With that P3 also came 15 points for Sauber, which sees them rise to sixth in the standings with 41 points, an incredible achievement considering where they were just one year ago.
This is also the last season of the Sauber F1 team, before they’re fully taken over by the Audi works team next year. In fact, Audi are probably more happy than anyone about Sauber’s recent performances, as the German car giant has reportedly spent hundreds of millions of dollars on it’s F1 project.
Things are looking much better now for Audi than they were just a few months ago. Before the season began, it looked for all the world that they were taking control of F1’s worst team, but that certainly isn’t the case now.
Reflecting on the Rookies
Six drivers made their full-time F1 debut at this years season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and one of them is already gone.
Alpine’s Jack Doohan was sacked by the Enstone-based team after just six races, failing to score a single point in that time. He was replaced by another rookie in Franco Colapinto, who hasn’t faired much better. Colapinto looks to be on borrowed time at Alpine, as the they desperately search for a way off the bottom of the standings. It’s a sad ending for both drivers who, after a promising career in the junior formulas, found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The same could also be said for Liam Lawson. After impressing at RB in two separate stints across 2023 and 2024, he was promoted to the senior team ahead of this season. But, as mentioned earlier, that second Redbull seat has proven rather problematic. Better drivers have tried. Better drivers have failed. A dnf in the opening race and a P12 finish in the second (whilst his teammate Verstappen was challenging for podiums in the same car) was enough for Redbull to give him the axe after just two races.
Lawson was demoted back to the junior team and, overtime, his results did improve. A P8 finish in Monaco and a six place in Austria is no mean feat, however his results have often been overshadowed by his teammate, another rookie who we will get too shortly.
Expectations were high for Kimi Antionelli and Oliver Bearman coming into this season, and it’s fair to say that they have lived up to the hype. While they haven’t quite matched the points tally of their more experienced teammates, they’ve both shown signs of brilliance, with Antonelli’s pole position for the Miami sprint race and podium in Canada being the standout results among the rookies.
Another driver who’s impressed is Gabriel Bortoleto. The Brazilian has been having a quietly good first season at Sauber, with his qualifying head-to-head against Hulkenberg currently at 7-7 (including sprints), just 0.029 seconds slower on average. Such a close margin in one lap pace against one of F1’s best qualifiers is an incredible feat for a rookie, and while the race pace isn’t quite there yet, there’s no question over Bortoleto’s raw speed.
But the biggest surprise among the rookies has to be Isack Hadjar.
Crashing out on the formation lap of your first Grand Prix is probably the worst possible way to start a Formula 1 career. But Hadjar results since then have been nothing short of spectacular. He’s demolished Lawson 8-2 in qualifying during their time as teammates and scored points on five occasions so far. With Tsunoda struggling at Redbull, it seems only a matter of time until Hadjar is promoted (if you can even call it that) to the senior team.
Off Track Developments
One of the biggest stories away from the track this season has been the upcoming FIA presidential election, which will take place on the 12 of December. Current president, Mohamed Ben Sulayem’s time in charge has been divisive to put it mildly. Looking to challenge him will be American Tim Mayer, a former F1 steward and someone who has held senior roles in US motorsport. Mayer describe MBS four years in charge as a “reign of terror”, but he’s got big job to do if he wants to win this, as MBS still has a lot of support from FIA members, and is the early favourite to win the election.
New F1 team Cadillac continues it’s preparations ahead of their debut next year. It’s rumoured that the team has signed a contract with Sergio Perez to drive for them, however they’re still yet to decide on a second driver, though this hasn’t been confirmed. They’re apparently split over going for another experienced driver, such as Valtteri Bottas, or a younger driver such as Paul Aron or Mick Schumacher. There also reportedly not interested in having an American driver anymore, meaning the chances of seeing someone like Colton Herta in F1 are slim.
Finally, F1 The Movie launched in June to mostly positive reviews, with viewers praising its authentic depiction of the sport. The film was a commercial success, earning $399.5million globally, and helped to promote Formula 1 as a brand to new audiences. The film did earn some criticism however, mostly for it’s depiction of women and the fact that main character Sonny Hayes, played by 61-year-old Brad Pitt, would be very old for an F1 driver.
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