PARIS (AFP) – The 2025 Formula One season has all the makings of a white-knuckle 24-race celebration to mark 75 years since the inaugural seven-race championship in 1950, while Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari provides an intriguing storyline.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen appears to have his work cut out to seal a fifth straight title with Lando Norris poised to knock the Dutchman off his perch.
Hamilton said his move from Mercedes to Ferrari has given him a new lease of life.
Here AFP Sport looks at five talking points before the season gets underway in Australia on Sunday:
FIFTH TITLE FOR VERSTAPPEN
Seventy-five years after Giuseppe Farina claimed the first F1 world championship at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, Verstappen embarks on the 2025 season in pursuit of a fifth successive title, a feat only achieved once before, by Michael Schumacher.
If he succeeds it will cement the Dutchman’s place as a titan of the sport.
He hoovered up seven of the first 10 races in his rampaging Red Bull last year, before a 10-race winless run as McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari ran riot. But Verstappen had the last word, fighting back to win in Brazil and clinch title number four with two races to spare.
McLaren prised the constructors championship away from Red Bull to seal their long road back to the F1 summit.
The tough task facing Verstappen is underlined by the betting, which has him as only second favourite behind Norris for the 2025 crown.
CAN HAMILTON MAKE FERRARI MAGIC?
Hamilton is convinced he can help Ferrari win a first drivers’ championship since 2007 after the seven-time world champion made the move to Italy.
At 40, the Briton seems full of youthful enthusiasm for the new challenge.
“The passion here is like nothing you’ve ever seen. They’ve got absolutely every ingredient they need to win a world championship and it’s just about putting all the pieces together,” he said.
A LIST OF 2025 ROOKIES
An Italian teenager who only passed his driving test in January is among the six-strong 2025 rookie intake.
Kimi Antonelli is an exciting 18-year-old who uses the nickname of his uncle who was a fan of Ferrari’s last world champion, Finn Kimi Raikkonen. He takes Hamilton’s seat alongside George Russell at Mercedes.
“I really want to make my own story” insists last year’s multiple Formula 2 winner, brushing off suggestions he is the seven-time world champion’s ‘replacement’ at the Silver Arrows.
Kiwi Liam Lawson, a ‘veteran’ of 11 grands prix already, makes his fully fledged debut as Verstappen’s new wingman at Red Bull.
Ferrari’s British academy driver Ollie Bearman was thrown into the F1 deep end when he was called up as a last-minute replacement for Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Grand Prix last year.
