2025 F1 Bold Predictions

The 2025 F1 season is upon us! With that, myself and Matthew Harper wanted to bring you some predictions for this upcoming F1 season, and Matthew (who starts us off with the first two) comes in swinging with his midfield prediction!

There is so much up in the air this season. Lewis is actually in a Ferrari. Carlos Sainz gives Williams the most overpowered midfield driver pairing. Adrian Newey has begun working at Aston Martin and will be hard at work developing next-year's car. We have multiple rookies coming in, with one going to a top-end team. It's an exciting time for F1 so let's get going!

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Mercedes are McLaren’s main rival

Forming a prediction based on three days of winter testing is a foolish thing to do, but Mercedes did look very good in Bahrain. Both drivers seemed very comfortable in the car, and Russell was adamant that everything felt positive and much better than in previous years. On top of this, rookie Kimi Antonelli did a race simulation at the same time as Leclerc and basically matched his pace.

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Williams lead the midfield

Williams certainly weren’t getting carried away by setting the fastest time of winter testing courtesy of Carlos Sainz, but it’s clear to see they’re in a much stronger position than last year’s pretty disastrous winter. The car looked decent across the three days in the hands of both drivers and the evidence suggests Williams will be battling it out for the best of the midfield with Alpine. If that’s the case, then it’s a big step up for the team that finished 9th in the constructors championship last year.

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No one loses a seat

Usually, the drivers who are most at risk of losing their seat are the newbies. But let’s examine this. First off, we’re getting a regulation change next year. Unless the teams want to bring in a driver for a few races because they are in a close enough championship fight, why bring in a driver when the car is going to be completely different next year? Second, the incoming rookies are drivers with a lot of promise. Kimi Antonelli is the Mercedes golden child. Bortoleto carries the hopes of Sauber/Audi after winning F2. Red Bull doesn’t have much of anyone behind Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson, and unless they swap Yuki for Lawson at some point (unlikely). Bearman has shown promise. If anyone, Jack Doohan has the most to lose with Colapinto behind him in reserve, but he’d have to pull a Sargeant or De Vries type of stint to lose his spot, and even Sargeant lasted a year and a half.

And then you have the veterans. There’s no Perez or Ricciardo on the hot seat. You could make an argument that Ocon could be the veteran who could lose his seat, but I find that unlikely. Haas needs a veteran option on the team. All that said, I’d be surprised if anyone lost their seat this year.

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We get 8 different pole sitters in 2025, with one NOT from a top four team

In 2024, we have five drivers sitting on pole at some point: Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, George Russell, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz. I think the top four teams are going to be in a very close battle this year. I think it’s not hard to imagine Max, Lando, George, and Charles repeating. I also think it’s about time Lewis Hamilton returns to pole position, and that Oscar Piastri gets in on the action. That’s six drivers right there, and we have yet to bring up the likes of Antonelli, Lawson, Fernando Alonso, or a dark horse in Carlos Sainz in his Williams.

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