2025 Formula One: Hamilton’s Ferrari debut in Melbourne, Verstappen-Norris

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The 2025 Formula One season has all the makings of a highly competitive 24-race celebration to mark 75 years since the inaugural seven-race championship in 1950.

Lewis Hamilton’s highly publicised move to Ferrari has been the key off-season storyline. The star British driver says his move from Mercedes to Ferrari has given him a new lease on life.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen appears to have his work cut out to seal a fifth straight drivers title with Lando Norris of McLaren poised to knock the Dutchman off his perch.

Here are the key talking points before the 2025 F1 season gets under way in Australia on Sunday:

Can Max win title number five?

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 achieved only once before, by Michael Schumacher, from 2000 until 2004.

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 season last year before enduring a 10-race winless run as McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari closed the championship points gap.

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 F1 constructors championship away from Red Bull – an award determined by the total points accumulated by the team’s two drivers over a season – for the first time since 1998.

The tough task facing Verstappen is underlined by the betting, which has him as only the second favourite behind Norris (who ended last season 63 points behind) for the 2025 drivers crown.

Can Hamilton return Ferrari to the glory days?

Hamilton is convinced he can help Ferrari win its 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.

The battle of the 2025 rookies

An Italian teenager who passed his driving test only in January is among the six-strong 2025 rookie intake.

Kimi Antonelli is an exciting 18-year-old who takes Hamilton’s seat alongside George Russell at Mercedes.

“I really want to make my own story,” last year’s multiple Formula 2 winner said, brushing off suggestions he is the seven-time world champion’s “replacement” at the Silver Arrows.

New Zealand’s Liam Lawson, who replaced Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull in 2024 and has already raced in 11 Grand Prix, makes his full-fledged debut as Verstappen’s new wingman at Red Bull.

Ferrari’s British academy driver Ollie Bearman joins the Haas team while Brazil has a presence on the grid for the first time in five years in F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber.

Australia’s Jack Doohan will be hoping to enjoy even a small slice of his legendary father Mick’s success on two wheels in MotoGP as he graduates from reserve driver to become Pierre Gasly’s teammate at Alpine.

Last but not least is Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, the 20-year-old French-Algerian who narrowly missed out to Bortoleto for the F2 title.

FIA in drivers’ crosshairs

In the volatile, unpredictable, high-octane bubble that is F1, one thing seems assured in 2025: renewed tension between the governing body and the drivers, notably over the FIA’s crackdown on swearing.

Top drivers Verstappen and Charles Leclerc fell foul of the rules in 2024 for using profanities at an F1 news conference.

The guidelines were strengthened in January, triggering an indignant response from drivers, who took a swipe at FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

“We urge the FIA president to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise,” they wrote, adding: “Our members are adults. They do not need to be given instructions via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewellery or underpants.”

Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen react.

From Australia to Abu Dhabi

Australia hosts the first of the 24 races next weekend, and the race in Bahrain has been moved to April as Ramadan runs throughout March. In addition, there will be six sprint races held at six of the 24 venues: Shanghai, Miami, Belgium, Austin, Sao Paulo and Qatar.

The FIA is trying to liven up the jewel in the calendar – Monaco – where overtaking is nigh on impossible, imposing a mandatory two-pit-stop strategy.

The traditional three-week summer break comes in August, and the F1 circus pitches up in the desert of Abu Dhabi for the season finale on December 7.

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali said “2025 will be a special year as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the FIA Formula One World Championship, and it’s that legacy and experience that allows us to deliver such a strong calendar.”

Testing times

The times from three days of preseason testing in Bahrain last month did not reveal much about the form of the top-ranked teams.

With fuel loads unknown and team set-ups kept under wraps, it was hard if not impossible to pinpoint the winners and losers.

Russell’s Mercedes was top of the pile on the last day. Carlos Sainz’s Williams topped the times on the middle day, and Norris’s McLaren took the first day honours.

Ferrari were bang in the thick of it, and Verstappen will have been pleased with his showing on the final day.

The main takeaway from testing is that the bulk of the teams look closely matched, prompting McLaren CEO Zak Brown to predict: “I can see it being super competitive. Last year, four teams won multiple races. This year, I could see that being even more. I’m more excited than nervous.”