A new home for Lewis Hamilton and can anyone stop Max Verstappen? Everything you need to know about the 2025 F1 season
By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — After one of the most intriguing offseasons in recent memory, Formula One racing is back.
The season begins on Sunday in Australia with changes aplenty, but the dominance of defending champion Max Verstappen still looms large over the grid.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2025 F1 season.
How to watch
The new season begins in Australia for the first time since 2019 and will conclude in Abu Dhabi in December.
The schedule remains at 24 races – the most ever in a single F1 season – with the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix pushed back in the calendar during Ramadan.
Fans in the US can watch all the action on ESPN, while Sky Sports broadcasts races for viewers in the UK.
To see a full list of the F1’s broadcasters, click here.
New faces, new places
As is commonplace between F1 seasons, there have been plenty of driver changes. The most headline-grabbing move has been seven-time world drivers’ champion Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes and joining Ferrari.
Hamilton shocked the sport last year when it was announced he would be joining the Italian outfit this season, replacing Carlos Sainz and ending his 12 successful years at Mercedes.
The 40-year-old will now join Charles Leclerc in wearing the famous red of Ferrari as the team looks for its first drivers’ world title since 2007.
Hamilton has become one of F1’s biggest names since making his debut in 2007 and his arrival at Maranello was met with the appropriate fanfare.
The Brit’s photo on his first official day at Ferrari has become the most liked F1 Instagram post of all-time. He posed for a series of photos dressed in a black suit next to a Ferrari F40 supercar with the iconic converted farmhouse of the team’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, in the background.
Hamilton told CNN Sports ahead of the new season that the switch of teams was the “challenge that I really needed” to reinvigorate his driving career.
“When I was making the decision, I knew it would be big. Did I know just how big? ‘How long is a piece of string?’” he said. “It’s been the most exciting couple of months that I can remember having.
“It’s been a big, big step and exciting … Every day’s been something completely new and the challenge that I’m having is something that I really needed. I know I’m exactly where I’m meant to be right this moment.”
Fans in Australia will have the first opportunity to see Hamilton competitively race in the Ferrari red as he and Leclerc look to restore the team back to the top of the F1 perch.
And on the eve of the opening race in Australia, Hamilton expressed his excitement to get going, saying his emotions mirror those he felt ahead of his rookie season almost 20 years ago.
“I think just, always through the years, the pressure that I’ve put on myself has always been 10 times higher than any other pressure that can be put upon me,” he told reporters on Thursday at the driver’s press conference ahead of the Australian Grand Prix. “I’ve not joined this team and been made to feel any pressure.
“I have an expectation for myself, I know what I can bring, I know what I can deliver, and I know what it’s going to take to do that. It’s just getting your head down and working away. I come with a very open mind coming into this weekend.
“It’s (also) a different way of working… the whole team works completely differently. You’re looking at things from a different perspective, which makes it exciting and challenging. This is definitely the most exciting period of my life, so I’m really just enjoying it.”
Five in a row?
If Hamilton and Leclerc are to challenge for the world title, they will have to supplant Verstappen from the top.
The Dutch driver is the four-time reigning drivers’ world champion and is aiming for his fifth successive title in 2025.
Although Verstappen and Red Bull are the team to beat at the moment, their start to 2025 hasn’t been smooth sailing.
The Dutchman finished second fastest during preseason testing in Bahrain, but admitted Red Bull has “still a bit of work to do” to reach the heights the team has set recently.
Verstappen’s teammate last year, Sergio Pérez, has been replaced by Liam Lawson this season, with the New Zealand driver set to make his full-time F1 debut in 2025.
In the drizzly conditions in Bahrain, Lawson said he was fighting “a few teething gremlins” with his car as he sought to adjust to life alongside Verstappen.
Despite eventually coming away with the drivers’ championship, the whole Red Bull team endured a controversial 2024 season in large part due to accusations of inappropriate behavior leveled against team principal Christian Horner.
Horner was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing and repeatedly denied the allegations. But at F1’s London car launch in March, Horner and Verstappen were booed by the fans in attendance.
The topic has featured on the latest “Drive to Survive” Netflix documentary, which released earlier this month, though Red Bull will be hoping they can let the driving do the talking once the season gets underway.
One step further?
One team which is looking to improve on an impressive 2024 is McLaren.
The Woking-based team won the constructors’ championship last year and have two of the most promising drivers donning the famous orange outfits in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Both were two of the fastest in preseason testing in Bahrain and the general positive feeling around the team has led to many predicting an improvement this year from McLaren.
Mercedes driver George Russell said the McLaren car looked “by far the strongest” in Bahrain, while Norris himself admitted that the team has “no excuses” in its chase for both championships in 2025.
“I think this year we’ve got nothing left to hide behind,” Norris – who finished second behind Verstappen in the drivers’ championship standings – said in February. “We proved last year that we’ve got everything we need and everything it takes to fight at the top and be the best.
“If we’re not at the beginning of the season then we’re just not good enough, but that’s certainly not how we’re thinking of things. I think we both, as drivers, proved a lot last year in ourselves and in each other of what we’re capable of doing. When we do have a car that’s capable of fighting for wins and championships, we’re able to maximize it.
“We’d both say we’re ready, and excited for the challenge. We’ve got the whole team behind us. … We’re quietly confident.”
Other driver changes
Outside of Hamilton’s blockbuster move and Lawson slotting in at Red Bull, there will be lots of other drivers wearing different colors in 2025.
Sainz, after being replaced by Hamilton at Ferrari, moved to Williams, and the spot at Mercedes vacated by Hamilton was filled by 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Elsewhere, both Haas and Sauber have two new drivers: Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman now take the wheel at Haas, while Sauber’s cars will be driven by Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hülkenberg.
Jack Doohan and Isack Hadjar are two of the five full-time debutants in 2025, joining Alpine and Racing Bulls respectively.
Technical changes
Before the 2024 season, there was a dramatic overhaul in the F1 regulations. And while there haven’t been as many significant changes this time around, there have been some slight tweaks to try to make it a more engaging proposition.
One of the main changes is the removal of the point earned for the driver who sets the fastest lap time.
Previously, a driver who finished in the top 10 could earn an additional point by setting the fastest lap of the race. Although it could lead to late drama with drivers often pushing near the end of a race to decrease their lap time, it also resulted in drivers outside the top 10 getting the accolade despite being not being able to get any points for it.
As a result, organizers have decided to scrap the fastest lap time point while the rest of the scoring system remains unchanged.
F1 is also increasing its commitment to bringing through the next generation of drivers by doubling the amount of time on the track allowed for rookies.
Since 2022, drivers who have participated in no more than two F1 races in their careers have been able to drive each of a team’s two cars during the first practice of a race weekend – once in each of their cars, so twice in a full season.
But from this season, those drivers can now drive each car twice, meaning the available time on track for rookies doubles to four and provides them invaluable time at the top level.
For a full list of the major changes implemented in 2025, click here.
Full 2025 schedule
Australian Grand Prix – March 16
Chinese Grand Prix – March 23
Japanese Grand Prix – April 6
Bahrain Grand Prix – April 13
Saudi Arabian Grand Prix – April 20
Miami Grand Prix – May 4
Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – May 18
Monaco Grand Prix – May 25
Spanish Grand Prix – June 1
Canadian Grand Prix – June 15
Austrian Grand Prix – June 29
British Grand Prix – July 6
Belgian Grand Prix – July 27
Hungarian Grand Prix – August 3
Dutch Grand Prix – August 31
Italian Grand Prix – September 7
Azerbaijan Grand Prix – September 21
Singapore Grand Prix – October 5
United States Grand Prix – October 19
Mexico Grand Prix – October 26
Brazil Grand Prix – November 9
Las Vegas Grand Prix – November 22
Qatar Grand Prix – November 30
Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – December 7
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