F1 fans are excited about this year’s season. Here’s everything you need to know from cars to drivers for the 2025 F1 season.
The driver lineups will have a big impact on this season. Half of the drivers’ contracts ended in 2024, which means that only 7 drivers are staying on their teams. Here are some important changes for this year’s lineups.
Being out of Ferrari, Carlos Sainz signed a two-year contract for Williams Racing. This change will bring a lot of expertise to the team. “Carlos brings not just experience and performance, but also a fierce drive to extract every millisecond out of the team and car; the fit is perfect,” said Team principal James Vowls.
After 12 years with Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton moved to Ferrari and joined Charles Leclerc. The move of Hamilton left the second Mercedes seat available and after a lot of thinking, Andrea Kimi Antonelli will take the seat.
Max Verstappen, last year’s F1 world champion, is staying and is not close to leaving Red Bull Racing. He will be joined by the rookie, Liam Lawson, whose F1 career started two years earlier in the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix.
The new season also brings new regulations in the F1. This season, the FIA’s World Motor Sport Council, removed the best lap time point. This extra point was given to the driver who did the fastest lap while finishing in the top 10 in a Grand Prix.
Even though the council did not say the change was for a particular reason, a lot of F1 fans think it’s because of the Singapore Grand Prix, where the bonus point wasn’t granted, because the driver didn’t finish in the top 10. This created frustration in the team and even if it’s a small point, it could’ve changed the leaderboard. “I think it gave a lot. There were races where, especially if the championship is pretty tight between teams, between drivers, that could really make a difference. You’re talking about 24 points a season,” said Sergio Perez, a former F1 racer.
For this year, the calendar changed to create a better geographical flow for the races. Starting off with the Australian Grand Prix and ending with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, this season’s races will go to 5 out of the 7 continents.“Once again, we’ll visit 24 incredible venues around the world, delivering top class racing, hospitality, and entertainment, which will be enjoyed by millions of fans worldwide.” said Stefano Domenicali, the F1 CEO and President.
Six sprints will be held this season, with Qatar, Shanghai, Spa, Austin, Sao Paulo and Miami all hosting one. Sprints are a 100km dash to the finish line. There are no pit stops, unless the car is in drastic need of repairs, and lasts 30 minutes. The small races give 8 points when finishing in first place.
Cars also are at the core of the new regulations. Their performances are closely related to the new regulations and the drivers. For this year, the cars will be mainly remaining the same as last season except for small changes. The main difference will be the revised hybrid power units. This will make the car more efficient while being better for ecology.
Those changes are small compared to what’s coming in 2026. In fact, this season marks the end of the current generation of cars that were introduced in 2022. Also, the race car’s aerodynamics will be completely changed. This will modify the way the vehicle reacts on the tracks and give smaller teams a chance to rise up.
