The 2024 Formula 1 season is history, time for an outlook on the coming year: RTL reporter Felix Görner looks at several potential flashpoints in the premier class of motorsport in his sport.de column. According to him, one thing is certain: it will bang!
The Formula 1 rockets for 2025 are so colorful, so flashy, so varied: it will be a Formula 1 fireworks display next year that we have not seen in this form for over ten years.
We are seeing a performance density that currently prohibits even Formula 1’s rocket scientists from saying how the season will end. The new sporting ingredient in Formula 1 is unpredictability. Not knowing how a race will end. Betting on a winner or a podium. All of this is so exciting that, like Bolle, you can look forward to the start of the season in March.
With this year’s level of performance, the stable regulations ensure that there will most likely be four teams and therefore eight cars fighting for the world championship.
Formula 1: Can soon-to-be dad Verstappen be beaten?
Let’s start with the four-time world champion and dad Max Verstappen in April. He is and remains my favorite because the question over this season will be: Who will beat the outstanding driver of his time? That’s the big headline for 2025.
The ingredients are like this: A four-time world champion and Kelly Piquet, the daughter of a three-time world champion, become parents. Helmut Marko has us in exclusive sport.deInterview revealed that Verstappen is usually three tenths faster than the rest of the world. If you become a father, you also lose three tenths in Formula 1. So Helmut Marko believes that Max Verstappen will still be further ahead. (The complete interview with Helmut Marko opens in the video above instead of the article image.)
That’s some interesting math that’s going on there. I don’t think Verstappen will be three tenths of a second slower. But that he may still develop further as a person. It will be exciting to see whether he will also start as a father with the same willingness to take risks, with the same passion, with the same brutal consistency that has distinguished him. There are such and such examples.
It is perhaps the competition’s hope that Verstappen will soften on the race track. Helmut Marko says: No, even if the child came on a weekend, he would race. This is almost like how Michael Schumacher acted in family matters that were highly relevant. He then preferred Formula 1 and Max Verstappen will probably react that way too.
Felix Görner has been an RTL reporter and Formula 1 expert for years
In any case, he doesn’t have a parental leave clause in his contract. So that’s not a good sign for the competition.
There will be a clash between Verstappen and Russell
After Verstappen we have his new teammate Liam Lawson. That’s a kind of rock biter, a kind of nutcracker – but he’s slower than Max Verstappen. Helmut Marko also told us: Yuki Tsunoda is actually the faster of the two, but the more impulsive driver. And Lawson is the more consistent one.
He is a classic wingman, but due to his consistency he will probably bring more points for the team.
As far as the duels on the track are concerned, the Verstappen/Russell duo will be particularly interesting. This is suitable for a crime thriller. ‘Because they don’t know what they’re doing’ the next time they meet.
The two have a personal antipathy that can be carried into the sport and thus onto the track. And which can therefore lead to crashes. The two of them are very unlike each other, we noticed that this season. And that hasn’t been resolved.
Bitter Formula 1 duel at McLaren
Another big question will be: Who at McLaren can paint a 1 on their racing overalls? This is a duel that will immediately cause a stir in the first race in Melbourne.
Because Oscar Piastri is a cool, mentally strong man who has had a season with which he will approach the team: Now it’s payback time, I drove for Lando Norris and now we’re turning the tables.
That means: If he beats Norris in the first qualifying, in the first race, then McLaren is guaranteed to have a number one problem and a bitter duel within the team – which will of course be fascinating for us outsiders, but will be a tough test for the team itself.
Piastri is not built in such a way that he will say: I don’t care. Rather, it is to be expected that it will bang.
Maranello gunpowder in the Ferrari warehouse
There is just as much Maranello gunpowder in the combination of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. On paper, Leclerc will be the better qualifier, but in the race it will definitely be the more consistent Hamilton.
We know: Hamilton has wings to rise, but they always fall apart when he doesn’t have the right car to compete with from the start. Hamilton will drive his season based on the quality of his car.
If the car is good, if Hamilton drives a red goddess, then anything is possible – even an attack on King Max. The goal of the eighth title is still buzzing around in my head. Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari: It will be a feast for the eyes to see him in the Red Empire. It will electrify the world and I’m excited to see how Leclerc will deal with it. There is also crash potential.
Formula 1: Three question marks at Mercedes
At Mercedes there is still the big unknown, the man with the three question marks: Kimi Antonelli.
The first question mark: How will he act in this duel? The second: How does he get along with this car? We saw in Monza: he was the fastest in three corners, and then in the fourth he was the fastest on the wall.
The third question mark will be: Can he cope with the pressure of having to constantly collect points in a Silver Arrow for the team world championship? After all, his predecessor was none other than Lewis Hamilton. That will be the greenhorn’s ultimate task.
Hülkenberg puts Bortoleto in the shade
There is so much potential for conflict and so much racing within the top teams that if you had a crystal ball you would only see fog. Even the greatest experts have no insight.
In my opinion, it is impossible that someone developed the Über-Auto in the winter. There are simply far too few options for this within the regulations. There will be no uber-car in 2025, that’s for sure for me. The vehicle concepts will be very similar, some will be copied from McLaren, some from Mercedes. Nevertheless, the base of blue, red, silver and papaya is similar.
That still leaves our German ‘Hulk’ Nico Hülkenberg. It will be exciting to see how he gets the Audi box rolling last year without the big label. My prediction is: He will clearly surpass Gabriel Bortoleto. Bortoleto will know what a German Hulk hammer is. It’s an interesting constellation, but one that will have a clear outcome for me.
Unfortunately, Adrian Newey won’t be able to unpack his wing over a struggling Aston Martin until the summer. Unfortunately, that is too late for 2025. However, I assume that Newey will put everything in place early on for 2026 and thus for the start of the new regulations.
Then Aston Martin’s attack will come a thousand percent. Because Adrian Newey then set up his drawing board again and had his notebook ready to write down flashes of inspiration.
These are my ingredients for the 2025 season. It will pop and crackle. The fuses are laid in many places within the teams. We can then watch these Formula 1 fireworks together.
Source: www.sport.de
