Vulnerable Verstappen, worthy Norris, new-look Hamilton: as the plot of a fresh Formula One season begins to simmer, here’s what to look out for Premium

Excitement builds for the 2025 F1 season as Red Bull faces challenges, McLaren rises, and Hamilton joins Ferrari.

Just a year ago, before the 2024 Formula One season started, there was a sense of trepidation about where the sport was heading. Red Bull had come off a sensational season, winning 21 of 22 races, and fears of one team dominating F1 for the foreseeable future felt very real.

However, things changed dramatically in the space of six months. Although Max Verstappen still managed to clinch his fourth straight drivers’ crown, he was made to work hard for it. McLaren became a force to reckon with, displacing Red Bull from its perch, and claimed the constructors’ title for the first time since 1998.

As a result, the 2025 season has sparked a lot of excitement. It is a landmark year for the most prestigious motor-racing series on the planet — the 75th anniversary of the championship, which started in 1950 with the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Ahead of this weekend’s season-opener in Melbourne, The Hindu looks at some key plotlines that could define the year.

Last year, when Verstappen won seven of the first 10 races, he would hardly have foreseen the need to mine every last reserve of his talent to seal his fourth title. The Red Bull was a tricky car and needed someone of Verstappen’s calibre to extract performance from it. 

As long as it enjoyed a significant advantage over its rivals, the inherent weakness in the machinery was manageable. But once the others — mainly McLaren — stepped up, Red Bull stood exposed. And after McLaren became the front-runner, Lando Norris began to make it something of a title fight even as Verstappen’s frustration grew. 

Parting ways with technical wizard Adrian Newey, the architect of Red Bull’s success since joining the outfit in 2006, made the season trickier for the team. Newey has since revealed that the engineering group failed to heed his warnings about the weakness in the car. The design genius was an important reason Verstappen had signed a long-term deal until 2028.