Nearly a year ago, I made my Predictions for what I thought would be the 2025 Formula 1 Grid! As always, that article seems to go down really well which is always great, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I did any good! As always, I have no idea what I put as I haven’t looked back at it since last February, and the list goes in order from “Most Confident to Least Confident”. One last thing, I got 7/10 last year!
McLaren: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Yeah, there was no way that McLaren were going to look any different in 2025! I said at the time that Lando Norris is McLaren through and through whilst Oscar Piastri is a star in the making, and I think that’s pretty accurate! I mean, both Lando and Oscar took their maiden victories in 2024 and they ultimately helped guide McLaren back to the summit as Constructors’ World Champions! Not much else to add, this was a pretty easy one to get right!
Ferrari: Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton
Predicting Ferrari’s 2025 Driver Lineup may have been even easier than McLaren's, with Lewis Hamilton being announced to join the Scuderia from Mercedes in a blockbuster deal whilst Charles Leclerc was never going to leave, especially as it had already been confirmed that Carlos Sainz was heading out of the exit! Again, simple stuff!
Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo
This isn’t good! Firstly, Max Verstappen was never going to leave Red Bull, and this was at a point in time where we expected Max to win the Championship by a good 250+ points! Secondly, I thought Daniel Ricciardo was going to have a great season at Visa Cash App RB and would replace a struggling Sergio Perez. Now, one of those things happened, but Danny Ric definitely didn’t have a good season with Liam Lawson getting the Red Bull seat for 2025! The biggest worry I have about this is this was my third-most confident Prediction!
Mercedes: George Russell and Fernando Alonso
I’d forgotten about this one! After Lewis Hamilton announced his decision to leave Mercedes, I expected George Russell to take control as the team leader, and that’s very much something that did happen! However, I also was convinced that Fernando Alonso would jump ship from Aston Martin to Mercedes based on both car performance and opportunities. Of course, this didn’t happen, and I certainly wasn’t going to predict Andrea Kimi Antonelli for the second Merc seat!
Haas: Nico Hulkenberg and Oliver Bearman
Ah, so close (yet so far)! I expected Haas to have a pretty terrible 2024 with Nico Hulkenberg outperforming Kevin Magnussen meaning K-Mag would be the one who gets dropped (that did technically happen)! I also saw Oliver Bearman coming in as that just made perfect sense, and that also happened! However, Nico of course didn’t stay with Haas as instead, Esteban Ocon joins the team for 2025! In no world would I have ever Predicted this, but the gutting part about all of this is I said in my article that I came close to put The Hulk at Kick Sauber (that hurts)!
Kick Sauber: Carlos Sainz and Theo Pourchaire
No, no, and no! We’ll start positive with the fact that I predicted Kick Sauber to get rid of both Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu because that did indeed happen! However, the drivers I chose were completely off! I thought Carlos Sainz would go there due to the team becoming Audi in 2026, but that very much didn’t happen whilst I just felt like Sauber should put Theo Pourchaire, but they didn’t so I was completely wrong!
Aston Martin: Lance Stroll and Pierre Gasly
What on earth? Lance Stroll was a shoo-in to stay at Aston Martin for 2025, like it was pretty obvious so there’s not much else to add about Lance, unfortunately! However, my Prediction about Fernando Alonso leaving was wrong, but the fact I had Pierre Gasly to replace him is something else! I expected a bad year for Alpine which would result in Pierre Gasly leaving, but honestly, he was the only one who did stay at Alpine, and he certainly never looked like going to Aston Martin so I have no idea what I was thinking!
Alpine: Esteban Ocon and Victor Martins
These are just awful now! I said that I couldn’t see Esteban Ocon leaving Alpine unless Mercedes wanted him, and in fact, Esteban left Alpine (to go to Haas) without Mercedes wanting him! My theory for Victor Martins was I picked him to win Formula 2 (which definitely didn’t happen), and that’s why Alpine would go with Victor over Jack Doohan! I should’ve just backed Jack!
Visa Cash App RB: Liam Lawson and Ayumu Iwasa
Where’s Yuki? I apparently was very confident about Visa Cash App RB having a whole-new Driver Lineup, with Daniel Ricciardo heading back to Red Bull whilst I said Yuki Tsunoda would potentially take a Reserve role at Aston Martin (What was I thinking?)! In terms of their 2025 Lineup, I expected Liam Lawson to come back and get a full-time seat which did happen, but not for VCARB! I then went with Ayumu Iwasa on the theory that he was going to get well in Super Formula and get a seat at the second team, much like what Lawson and also Pierre Gasly have done in the past! However, this was never on the cards and it was in fact Isack Hadjar who took the second seat!
Williams: Alex Albon and Sergio Perez
And finally, I’m wrong again! To be fair, Alex Albon was correct, even though that kind of felt straightforward as Williams were never going to get rid of him, and it wouldn’t have made much sense for Albon to jump ship. However, then there’s Sergio Perez! My theory with Checo was he would give Williams a lot of much-needed experience heading into a new era, and I felt (and I still feel) that Sergio would still perform very well anywhere other than at Red Bull! Of course, this didn’t come true, but you could make an argument that Williams signing Carlos Sainz was actually a bolder Prediction to make at the time than Perez (which is crazy really)!
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