The guidelines for the present 2025 Method 1 season already has one huge tick – McLaren wrapped up the constructors’ championship on the Singapore Grand Prix, tying it up in a fairly bow with its 3-4 on the Marina Bay circuit.
From a monetary standpoint, that is the large one sorted. The drivers’ title comes with rather more status, nevertheless, and the ultimate quarter of the marketing campaign will resolve which one among Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, or Max Verstappen will maintain the trophy at this yr’s FIA prize-giving ceremony in Uzbekistan’s capital metropolis Tashkent. Assuming they’re all historical past buffs, they will be wanting ahead to a day-trip exploring the blue-domed Timurid-era structure…
There’s nonetheless additional rewards to play for throughout the rest of 2025, notably within the constructors’ championship. With a distinction of round $8-9 million in Column B funds, every inserting has its reward.
The caveat is that wind tunnel time and CFD computing capability is diminished, however strive telling the sponsors that you just’d desire to complete decrease down the standings on objective for an additional few hours of simulation time. Each single worker in F1 is a competitor, and desperately desires to complete the yr on a excessive.
Fortunately, loads of key battlegrounds stay to maintain issues fascinating all through the grid – with some set to be extra hotly contested than others.
The battle for second
Key rivals: Mercedes (2nd, 325pts), Ferrari (third, 298pts), Pink Bull (4th, 290pts)
Max Verstappen, Pink Bull Racing, George Russell, Mercedes
Photograph by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Photographs through Getty Photographs
Because it stands, second-placed Mercedes has a 27-point benefit over Ferrari within the constructors’ championship. George Russell‘s win and Andrea Kimi Antonelli‘s fifth in Singapore stretched the hole between the 2 groups, because the Silver Arrows moved again forward of the Prancing Horse after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
After a sequence of middling races and no podium finishes since Belgium, Ferrari seems to be slipping again; its SF-25’s instability has been a recurring drawback and there is a sense among the many two drivers that the crew is failing to take advantage of its probabilities at races. Current inertia and an absence of progress versus Mercedes and Pink Bull has left it in a precarious place; Ferrari has fallen away from Mercedes, and Pink Bull is simply eight factors behind. If Maranello’s most interesting goes to beat both crew to the punch, it must make a breakthrough.
In Pink Bull’s case, its present type has emerged on the proper time. Though successfully working as a one-car crew as Verstappen has scored all however 17 of the crew’s tally, Pink Bull has lately tapped right into a well-obscured vein of efficiency with its RB21; current updates and a renewed strategy to simulation and set-up has allowed it to open its weekends with the automotive working at the next baseline. Much less time has been spent dialling the automotive in by FP1 and FP2, that means that it will probably use these Friday classes for refinements.
Mercedes has additionally carried out nicely in current races, with a Baku podium and the Singapore win, however Austin will present its W16 with a litmus take a look at. The quick, sharp corners on the two current road circuits have mitigated its weak point with rear tyre overheating – even in Singapore’s perishing warmth – and thus the mixed strategy to Austin’s clutch of longer-radius corners ought to provide the crew extra problem in managing the rear tyre temperatures.
The battle for sixth
Key rivals: Racing Bulls (sixth, 72pts), Aston Martin (seventh, 68pts)
Outdoors wager: Sauber (eighth, 55pts)
Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing, Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls Crew
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / LAT Photographs through Getty Photographs
Carlos Sainz’s podium in Azerbaijan arguably put Williams barely too far out of attain, because the Grove squad seeks to annex its greatest constructors’ end since 2017. It might nonetheless be weak, if both Racing Bulls or Aston Martin revenue from combined situations to safe a shock podium end – a la Alpine in Brazil final yr – however Williams’ 30-point benefit should be a contact too steep within the congested midfield battle.
Nonetheless, sixth could be a stable achievement for both Racing Bulls or for Aston. Whereas the VCARB 02 has been the higher all-rounder, Aston Martin has shaken off a ropey begin to contend for a stronger constructors’ inserting. One would possibly argue that Fernando Alonso has collected his share of factors despite the equipment at his disposal, taking advantage of the AMR25’s energy on slower circuits, though has ceaselessly been a lone voice of frustration towards a few of the crew’s technique calls. Lance Stroll has additionally loved sturdy days in opposed situations, however often suffers in races with restricted variance.
In the meantime, Racing Bulls has supplied a platform for Isack Hadjar to exhibit his price to the senior Pink Bull crew, and his podium at Zandvoort encapsulated a powerful efficiency within the Netherlands. If the laconic Frenchman can preserve breaking into Q3 and holds his nerve together with his last qualifying laps, he is able to bagging a number of extra hefty pay days. And, when the automotive is working properly, Liam Lawson may also preserve chipping away on the prime 10 – when he qualifies nicely, he often stays amid the factors, however he is been somewhat hit-or-miss on a Saturday. Sauber can nonetheless have a say within the battle, though it at present sits 17 factors adrift of sixth.
The battle for eighth
Key rivals: Sauber (eighth, 55pts), Haas (46pts)
(Very) exterior wager: Alpine (tenth, 20pts)
Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber, Esteban Ocon, Haas F1 Crew
Photograph by: Andy Hone/ LAT Photographs through Getty Photographs
After a dismal 2024, Sauber has fortunately laid the neon inexperienced shoots of restoration because it seeks to finish its pre-Audi lifespan with a stable season. Its development by the opening third of the yr, by implementing a sequence of flooring updates to widen the C45’s working vary, produced a bountiful harvest of factors (and even a podium) by the European leg of the yr, though it has been a bit extra leisurely out of the blocks post-summer.
Azerbaijan and Singapore weren’t solely worthwhile, however a return to extra typical circuits ought to current a bit extra of a possibility. However Haas can’t be discounted, and the American crew is planning a last replace for Austin with the hopes of snowballing that right into a profitable last run-in. Oliver Bearman seems to have discovered his ft and has been with a sniff of factors on a constant foundation – though lots of his performances have yielded outcomes simply exterior of the highest 10 – whereas Esteban Ocon has struggled for current qualifying type.
If the brand new replace may give Ocon a bit extra confidence on a single lap, then he must be a extra compelling prospect for prime 10 finishes. Sauber, in the meantime, will hope the spectacular Gabriel Bortoleto can resume his occasional forays into Q3 – and drag Nico Hulkenberg into the highest 10 on the grid with him.
Alpine could be stone-dead final within the constructors’ championship and missing hope of difficult for factors, however one can’t neglect its Sao Paulo heroics from final season. The French crew’s 2-3 end, plus a sequence of late-season updates, offered the springboard wanted to catapult it from ninth to sixth in final yr’s constructors’ championship. It was 32 factors behind then-sixth positioned Haas after the Mexico race, so the 35-point hole to Sauber this time round just isn’t solely insurmountable.
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