Ahead of the 2025 season, expectations were sky high that this could potentially be a year in which all four of the top teams ended up contending for the crown. We had seven different winners last year and it felt like the convergence of the performance you tend to find at the end of the regulation cycle could create an all-time classic.
Typically the performance of the leader of the pack tends to plateau somewhat while others close the gap. But at an admittedly early stage of the season, that’s not what we’re seeing: McLaren has defied expectations by taking a step forward while Mercedes and George Russell seem to have found a consistency so conspicuous by its absence last year. Meanwhile Ferrari, which appeared to be carrying a lot of momentum at the end of 2024, and Red Bull have gone the other way, apparently lacking a stable base on which to build.
Can Mercedes and Ferrari close the gap to McLaren? On current form the early signs point instead towards an inter-team battle between the two drivers in papaya with Max Verstappen looming over their shoulders, should anyone be in danger of forgetting just how good he is, even in a clearly less than usually competitive Red Bull. In an earlier story, I declared Lando Norris as title favourite based on his form over the second half of 2024, but Oscar Piastri seems to have taken another step forward over the winter so I’m now transferring my bet to the Australian side of the garage. It’s one of the joys of a column like this: these are my opinions and I can change them if I choose!
