2025 F1 General Discussion Thread

dulpit

The king is dead, long live the king.

With the 2024 season done and dusted and lots of chatter now about drivers and how they will perform for the 2025 season, thought it would be no harm to start a 2025 season thread.

Go!

mickdw

4 teams with 7 or 8 drivers capable of winning races. Should be very interesting.

rameire

Dates.

PsychoPete

So it was actually true about the drivers leaving seats empty beside Max for Russell at the drivers dinner

https://youtu.be/KRbT9IsFICM?si=pXaPalaWX-WJ4k6g

Harika

Isack Hadjar is the chosen last one.

https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12433/13276573/isack-hadjar-red-bull-junior-joins-racing-bulls-as-f1-2025-grid-line-up-completed-for-new-season

PsychoPete

The 2025 grid is now complete

Harika

Ferrari the strongest lineup with Bortoleto the most promising and underrated rookie. He won F2 in first season what brings him to good company of Piastri, Leclerc (Norris runner up), Russell.

PsychoPete

Great to see young drivers getting an opportunity, I think Hulk and Bortoleto will be in for a long year in that Sauber. Williams is an interesting one, they've a great line up and hopefully they've a good car too

Jordan 199

I'm hoping Alpine will have a stronger season.

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122976923#Comment_122976923

Predications with no real information:

• Verstappen will hammer Lawson.
• Leclerc and Hamilton will be close.
• Lando will beat Oscar, but it'll be close (hope I'm wrong here).
• Sainz is going to show up Albon (unfortunately, because I like Albon).
• Hulkenberg will beat Bortoleto, but it'll be close.
• Russell will beat Antonelli well, but Antonelli will show promise for the future.
• Gasly will spank Doohan (and Doohan will be a candidate to be replaced).
• Tsunoda will demolish Hadjar and Hadjar will be 1 and done.
• Ocon will be made look average against Bearman.
• Stroll will continue to be terrible, but will still have a seat for 2026. Alonso will look promising towards end of season and we can all get excited that he might win a race in 2026 in an Adrian Newey car.

Barrett

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122977289#Comment_122977289

Agreed with almost everything, not sure if Hadjar will last the full season and Lawson can keep his Red Bull seat till the end of the season.

PsychoPete

It's crazy that Alonso now races against 7 drivers that weren't born when he made his debut

AMKC

Should be an exciting year. Great to see so many new young drivers in F1.

muckwarrior

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122976954#Comment_122976954

Hulk is a good yardstick for him. Solid if unspectacular driver. I'd expect a talented rookie to be matching him by the end of the season.

Hijpo

Its all about talent now given how much is locked in before 2026 regs.

Who has the most adaptable car to suit the difference in circuits and which driver lineup can adjust to suit the car setup.

Frank Bullitt

Can see Max and Red Bull being a bit better after getting on top of the car issues towards the end of last year.

Piastri should be stronger, he struggled with tyre life at points in 24. Him and Norris are quite even so I’d expect a bit more fireworks.

Leclerc will beat Hamilton, although Hamilton will do better at Ferrari over Merc of the last 3 years.

Russell will still be the world champion of being a moanbag.

Barrett

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122977927#Comment_122977927

Yes, it will be an exciting year with these rookies and also there would be a very close compeittion among the top teams.

rameire

Family decided to invest in an F1 team this year.

dulpit

This is a fascinating contemporary video about Giles Villeneuve:

https://youtu.be/nMrSSpH07tY?si=kDTWgAtL2HcrtCtZ

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122993097#Comment_122993097

Got the exact same one for Christmas too. The equivalent of the 2024 Ferrari is releasing at the start of march which I’m eyeing up.

Jordan 199

Happy New Year all!

Hijpo

Happy new year all, best wishes for 2025

dulpit

It's race year...

AMKC

Happy New Year to all here.

AMKC

The GOAT is 56 today,

https://www.threads.net/@f1/post/DEXN4qpNcUe?xmt=AQGzGjb_cqoxwGpKjQh9umVmenfyD3VpBRLELlXOMqz2YA

Barrett

I think these two will do great together. What's your opinion?

CMOTDibbler

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123017790#Comment_123017790

Don't know enough about him to have an opinion. But it's going to be a big change for both of them, especially Hamilton who's had the same engineer (Bono) for 12 years.

thefa

The Race had 8 reporters rank the 2025 driver pairings with the same scoring system as F1.

Seems to be a clear 1 & 2 whereas 3-5 are tight. Doesn’t look like there’s a lot of faith in Lawson.

NinjaTruncs

Crazy how the Merc's team has gotten weaker yet they rate them stronger. It seems they are rating potential over experience.

Granted Lawson doesn't have much experience but Kimi has effectively none, sure Kimi might be better, but they are saying the difference between Kimi and Lawson is greater than the difference between a four time world champion and someone who binned it behind a safety car.

The logic they used to down play Hadjar and Bortoletto doesn't seem to apply to Antonelli and Bearman.

I wonder what the common factor is for the latter two…

dulpit

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123025471#Comment_123025471

I think they had Mercedes as number 1 last year, so they are dropping them.

For me I reckon I'd go with:

1. Mclaren
2. Ferrari (Hamilton might surprise me though, in which case they'd go back up to 1st)
3. Williams (I think they'll be fire in midfield, assuming the car works)
4. Mercedes (I don't think Russell is as good a team leader, and Kimi is v. young)
5. Red Bull (Solely on Max. Lawson might be good but he might equally crumble like everyone else who's been up against Max)
6. Sauber (Hulk is excellent, Bortoletto could be great)
7. Aston Martin (Stroll drags them down)
8. Haas (Ocon doesn't seem like a good team mate and Bearman could cause him trouble. If they work together though, could be great)
9. Alpine (Will poor Doohan last the season?)
10. Racing Bulls (I'm not a big fan of Yuki, Red Bull clearly aren't either. And you'd worry about Hadjar…)

Barrett

Formula 1 has announced that the luxury watch brand TAG Heuer will be Formula 1's official timekeeper once again in F1 2025. F1 is embarking on a 10-year partnership with LVMH, which boasts TAG Heuer as part of its portfolio.