Reason to root for each F1 driver, questions for every team

Less than seven days from now, the long, cold offseason will be behind us, and the 2025 Formula 1 season will be underway. Free Practice 1 from the Australian Grand Prix begins at 9:30 p.m. ET on Thursday (stream live on ESPN+), giving us our first glimpse at all ten teams’ true performance.

Last month’s preseason test in Bahrain provided clues, but it won’t be until 20 F1 machines rip around Melbourne’s Albert Park before we truly know whether McLaren will be the class of the field once again.

Until then, though, there’s plenty of time to study up on the teams and drivers that make up this season’s grid. So, ESPN’s Laurence Edmondson and Nate Saunders pull back the curtain on the competitors, providing a reason to root for all 20 drivers and the biggest issue facing each of the 10 teams.

McLaren

Many a team principal has described McLaren’s current scenario as “a nice problem to have,” but things could still get messy if the car is as quick as it looks. The team emerged from preseason testing with the strongest package, and in Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri has two drivers ready to fight for the world championship.

It all seems so perfect — until they start racing over the same piece of racetrack.

F1 history suggests such a situation is both a blessing and a curse. In 2007, McLaren struggled to juggle the balance of power between reigning champion Fernando Alonso and superstar rookie Lewis Hamilton, leading to a near-cataclysmic scenario for the team and both drivers missing out on the title by a single point.

Last year McLaren found itself in awkward positions at the Hungarian and Italian Grands Prix before agreeing to give Norris priority to bolster his slim title hopes. This year the two drivers start on an equal footing, meaning McLaren will need clear rules of engagement to prevent internal squabbling.

Lando Norris | 4

Age: 25
Nationality: Great Britain
Grand prix starts: 128
Grand prix wins: 4
2024 championship position: 2nd
Best championship position: 2nd (2024)

Reason to root for them: For the first time in his career, Norris enters a season as F1 title favourite. No more plucky underdog status, no more waiting for McLaren to catch up — this is his moment. Despite a four-win 2024, he’s still got his doubters. What better way to make them eat their words than by living up to the bookies’ billing?

Oscar Piastri | 81

Age: 23
Nationality: Australia
Grand prix starts: 46
Grand prix wins: 2
2024 championship position: 4th
Best championship position: 4th (2024)

Reason to root for them: McLaren’s “papaya rules” took a hit last year when Piastri made it clear he won’t play No. 2 — he’s got a lot of manager Mark Webber in him. Many in the paddock, and some at McLaren, think his ceiling is even higher than Norris’. His Baku win showed glimpses of that potential. With McLaren building a title contender, Piastri has a real shot to flip the script and prove he’s not just a guy — he’s the guy.

Ferrari

Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has been the biggest story of the offseason by some margin. The sport’s most successful driver joining forces with the most successful team deserves a certain degree of fanfare, but it also comes with a great deal of expectation.

So far, Hamilton appears to be fitting well into his new environment, but no one has really talked about what happens if things don’t go to plan. In Charles Leclerc, he faces a very fast teammate with six years of Ferrari experience — arguably the toughest environment Hamilton has landed in since he was matched with Alonso at McLaren in his rookie season.

The key for Hamilton and Ferrari will be to level out the inevitable ups and downs early in the season and focus on what the seven-time champion needs from the car to fight at the very front. With so much media and fan attention, though, that’s easier said that done.

Charles Leclerc | 16

Age: 27
Nationality: Monaco
Grand prix starts: 149
Grand prix wins: 8
2024 championship position: 3rd
Best championship position: 2nd (2022)

Reason to root for them: Dubbed Il Predestinato (“The Predestined”) by the Italian media, Leclerc has carried the weight of being Ferrari’s leading man with mixed success. Arguably F1’s best qualifier, he now has the ultimate benchmark in Hamilton to prove he’s world champion material. If destiny is written in the stars, Leclerc is ready to claim his.

Lewis Hamilton | 44

Age: 40
Nationality: Great Britain
Grand prix starts: 356
Grand prix wins: 105
2024 championship position: 7th
Best championship position: 1st (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)

Reason to root for them: Where to start? Hamilton and Ferrari is the ultimate dream pairing. The seven-time world champion arrives in Maranello revitalised, chasing a tantalising dream: an unprecedented eighth title, ending Ferrari’s drought in the process. If he pulls it off, there will be no more debates. He’ll be the greatest to ever do it, and he’ll be a tifosi legend to boot.

Red Bull

Over the course of 2024, Red Bull went from being an all-conquering winning machine to a team on the back foot. Max Verstappen continued to coax exceptional performances out of the car, such as his win in Brazil, but the team’s performances were trending in the wrong direction from the Miami Grand Prix onwards.

The loss of Adrian Newey to Aston Martin was another significant blow, and one that will be felt in full force with the development of the car this year — not to mention preparations for an all-new formula in 2026.

Testing suggested many of the car’s less desirable handling traits have been carried over from last year, which will make Liam Lawson‘s task of keeping up with Verstappen all the more difficult. It would be foolish to rule Red Bull out of championship contention at this stage of the year, but this is the weakest the team has looked so far in the 2020s.

Max Verstappen | 1

Age: 27
Nationality: Netherlands
Grand prix starts: 209
Grand prix wins: 63
2024 championship position: 1st
Best championship position: 1st (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

Reason to root for them: We’re witnessing greatness in real time. After dominating early, Verstappen dragged a faltering Red Bull to the 2024 title, proving that even when the car isn’t perfect, he is. Betting against him often feels like betting against the sun rising, like when he turned in one of F1’s great drives to win in the Interlagos rain from 14th on the grid. If you want to watch a GOAT candidate being built in real time, the reigning four-time world champion is your guy.

Liam Lawson | 30

Age: 23
Nationality: New Zealand
Grand prix starts: 11
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: 21st
Best championship position: 20th (2023)

Reason to root for them: He’s Liam Lawson — get out of his way! The Kiwi’s aggressive racing style inspired a viral social media song, and he now finds himself in the most daunting job in F1: Verstappen’s teammate. As often is the case alongside the Dutchman, it’s sink-or-swim time, a compelling story to follow through the year, with high-stakes consequences.

Mercedes

Mercedes’ preseason testing appeared to go well, with many observers believing the W16 was the second-fastest car behind the McLaren. What’s more, rookie driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli is delivering on the promise he has shown throughout his junior career while George Russell remains a solid and capable team leader.

After so many years with Hamilton at its centre, though, the team does feel a little less relevant going into 2025. For sponsors and marketing purposes, no other driver on the grid has the same draw as Hamilton, and while life without him might be calmer, Mercedes is without the unique selling point that made it so special for the past 12 seasons.

It’s an issue that will be best addressed with strong results on track, but there’s no denying the X-factor has been diminished at Mercedes and, what’s worse, has emerged at a rival team.

George Russell | 63

Age: 27
Nationality: Great Britain
Grand prix starts: 128
Grand prix wins: 3
2024 championship position: 6th
Best championship position: 4th (2022)

Reason to root for them: Last year, Russell proved he’s ready to take the fight to Verstappen — at least in the media. Now, he looks mentally ready to do it on track, too. If his race craft matches his punchy quotes, and Mercedes deliver a quick car, this could be the season that defines his career, especially now he’s team leader and out of Hamilton’s shadow.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 12

Age: 18
Nationality: Italy
Grand prix starts: 0
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: N/A
Best championship position: N/A

Reason to root for them: The 18-year-old Italian wonderkid who opted for the Mercedes career path over Ferrari, Antonelli now finds himself replacing a legend. It’s going to be a rollercoaster, as last year’s Monza practice crash hinted, but if team boss Toto Wolff is right, Antonelli’s highs should far outweigh the lows. If you’re picking Antonelli to root for this year, strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

Aston Martin

With Newey’s drawing board installed in the second-most-spacious office (after owner Lawrence Stroll’s) at Aston Martin’s brand-new factory, there are very few excuses left for a lack of performance. Of course, it’ll take time for Newey’s magic to permeate the corridors at Silverstone and ultimately crystalise in lap time, but all the pieces are now in place for the emergence of an F1 team superteam.

The natural focus will be to start 2026 as a frontrunner rather than chase a lost cause in 2025, but in order to do so, all the systems and processes need to be in place for the team to fire on all cylinders. Stroll has invested a huge amount of money in Aston Martin over the past few years and he is a man who expects results.

Fernando Alonso | 14

Age: 43
Nationality: Spain
Grand prix starts: 404
Grand prix wins: 32
2024 championship position: 9th
Best championship position: 1st (2005, 2006)

Reason to root for them: If William Shakespeare wrote about Formula 1, Alonso would be his leading man. The sport’s ultimate “what if” tale, the Spanish driver should have at least five titles to his name. He should have 60-plus race wins. He’s always had the talent, he’s not always had the temperament, the decision-making or the machinery. On his day, though, there still may be no one better.

Lance Stroll | 18

Age: 26
Nationality: Canada
Grand prix starts: 167
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: 13th
Best championship position: 10th (2023)

Reason to root for them: Rooting for Stroll is the ultimate act of rebellion, like unironically wearing a Smiths shirt. In an age of mega talent across the grid, Stroll, whose father owns his race team, can sometimes stand out like a sore thumb. He’s shown flashes of real brilliance through his career but they’ve been just that — flashes. Root for him if you think the haters are just jealous of the billionaire’s son.

Alpine

Alpine’s biggest issue heading into the 2025 season is one entirely of its own making.

After announcing its 2025 driver lineup of Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan midway through 2024, it then decided to add Williams substitute sensation Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver at the start of this year. That has led to rampant speculation that Doohan’s time as a race driver is limited (possibly to as few as five races), while the team has gone seeking South American sponsors to cash in on Colapinto-mania.

Clearly some sort of plan is in place for Colapinto to drive for the team, but with Alpine’s management reluctant to speak about it in public, speculation has ended up filling in the gaps. The situation is far from ideal for Doohan, who heads to his home in Australia with twice the pressure he would have expected to have ahead of his rookie season.

Pierre Gasly | 10

Age: 29
Nationality: France
Grand prix starts: 154
Grand prix wins: 1
2024 championship position: 10th
Best championship position: 7th (2019)

Reason to root for them: One of the best drivers in the midfield, Gasly has firmly established himself as Alpine’s leader. As Brazil 2024 proved, give him the slightest opportunity and he’ll seize it. If Alpine deliver anything remotely competitive, don’t be surprised if he’s the one dragging it to results it has no business achieving.

Jack Doohan | 7

Age: 22
Nationality: Australia
Grand prix starts: 1
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: 24th
Best championship position: 24th (2024)

Reason to root for them: Poor Doohan — son of motorcycle legend Mick — already has a target on his back, with Colapinto lurking in the wings. But the best way to silence the doubters and end the swirl of speculative headlines? By smashing that narrative to pieces on track this year. That in itself is a compelling reason to want Doohan to thrive.

Haas

Haas defied expectations in 2024 after emerging as a semi-regular contender for points at the front of F1’s tightly packed midfield. Keeping that up in 2025 will be tough, not least because Alpine and Williams appear to have upped their games coming into the new season.

Haas remains the smallest team on the grid and has some baked-in limitations, such as having its main headquarters in Banbury, United Kingdom and its design office in Maranello, Italy. An overhaul of its trackside engineering staff and two new drivers could also take some time to gel, meaning the team’s 2024 strength of capitalising on opportunities and maximising results might be lacking early in the year.

On the plus side, Haas now has the funding to make full use of the budget cap without owner Gene Haas reaching into his own pocket, which speaks to the progress the team has made in recent years.

Esteban Ocon | 31

Age: 28
Nationality: France
Grand prix starts: 156
Grand prix wins: 1
2024 championship position: 14th
Best championship position: 8th (2017, 2022)

Reason to root for them: Once touted as a future world champion, Ocon’s career has been anything but straightforward. A race winner with Alpine in 2021, his time there ended acrimoniously last season. Haas boss Ayao Komatsu calls him a steal for F1’s smallest team, Ocon just needs to prove he’s still as good as he’s been billed. Don’t be surprised if he does.

Oliver Bearman | 87

Age: 19
Nationality: Great Britain
Grand prix starts: 3
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: 18th
Best championship position: 18th (2024)

Reason to root for them: A Ferrari academy product, the calm and collected Bearman is a ten-year F1 veteran trapped in a 19-year-old’s body. His super-sub cameo for Ferrari in Saudi was spectacular, and while another Englishman has taken over full-time duties in red for now, Bearman’s future looks bright. This kid could be something special.

Racing Bulls

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls, VCARB, RB, Racing Bulls, AlphaTauri, Toro Rosso … Depending on when you started watching F1 (or what mood you’re in on any given day), any of the above are acceptable names for Red Bull’s second F1 team.

Racing Bulls, as ESPN intends to call it this year, made fun of its lack of identity during F1’s launch event at London’s O2 Arena, but the question remains over what exactly the team can achieve both in the short- and long term.

Lead driver Yuki Tsunoda is a case in point. Now entering his fifth season in F1, he has been passed over for promotion at Red Bull again and again, and appears to face an uncertain future beyond the end of 2025. In contrast, Lawson was fast-tracked through the team over the past two years, but even that has resulted in a messy arrival at senior team Red Bull with just 11 races of experience to his name.

Yuki Tsunoda | 22

Age: 24
Nationality: Japan
Grand prix starts: 90
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: 12th
Best championship position: 12th (2024)

Reason to root for them: Tsunoda is one of the grid’s most exciting drivers, and the only people who seem unconvinced are Red Bull. Despite his talent and form, the team has repeatedly passed him over for a senior seat, leaving him stuck in F1 purgatory. Tsunoda is more than just quick, though; he’s a foodie, a fashionista, and a reformed radio menace. A rare mix of talent and personality, Tsunoda is one of those athletes that is impossible to root against.

Isack Hadjar | 6

Age: 20
Nationality: France
Grand prix starts: 0
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: N/A
Best championship position: N/A

Reason to root for them: The wildcard of the 2025 grid, Hadjar’s elevation came after the dust settled on Sergio Pérez’s exit and Lawson’s promotion. A fiery character with a history of colourful radio outbursts in the junior ranks, the Frenchman could quickly become one of the grid’s more combustible figures. And really, who doesn’t love a little chaos?

Williams

James Vowles’ mission since becoming Williams team principal at the start of 2023 has been clear: target the 2026 regulation change. Although results didn’t show it last year, the team made significant progress behind the scenes and there’s a belief that it will start to bear fruit as early as this season.

Williams showed promise in preseason testing in Bahrain, but there’s still huge pressure growing on the team to make a significant step in 2026. It’s a pressure Vowles seems to welcome and one he believes the team is capable of handling. A misstep in the design of next year’s car and failure to make a leap up the order, though, could undermine the good work and investment back at Grove.

Carlos Sainz | 55

Age: 30
Nationality: Spain
Grand prix starts: 208
Grand prix wins: 4
2024 championship position: 5th
Best championship position: 5th (2021, 2022, 2024)

Reason to root for them: Sainz has always raced with a chip on his shoulder. Somehow, he always ends up with something to prove, even when he’s proved it time and time again. After establishing himself as a race winner at Ferrari, he was cast aside for Hamilton. Now, he’s out to remind the grid why he should never have been overlooked.

Alex Albon | 23

Age: 28
Nationality: Thailand
Grand prix starts: 105
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: 16th
Best championship position: 7th (2020)

Reason to root for them: Williams’ old reliable, Albon has been the team’s brightest spark through some tough seasons, consistently punching above his car’s weight. Like his new teammate, he deserves better than what F1 has dealt him, but his reinvention since Red Bull cast him adrift in 2020 has been remarkable. If resilience is what you admire, Albon is an easy driver to root for.

Sauber

As things stand, Sauber does not look ready to become an Audi works team in 2026. The German automaker has already lowered its expectations for its arrival next year, but Sauber’s current position at the back of the field would be somewhat embarrassing for the hierarchy in Ingolstadt, Germany if it carries through to the start of F1’s new era.

Former Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto is the man in charge of turning things around at Hinwill, and will no doubt make sacrifices this year if it helps bolster the team’s position in 2026. Expect another season at the back of the field unless drivers Nico Hülkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto can muster something extra special.

Nico Hülkenberg | 27

Age: 37
Nationality: Germany
Grand prix starts: 230
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: 11th
Best championship position: 7th (2018)

Reason to root for them: Once left to pasture on the F1 scrapheap, Hülkenberg has fought his way back — first as a pandemic super-sub, then as Haas’ leading man in 2023 and 2024. His career never quite matched early expectations, but his revival has been one of the grid’s best feel-good stories of late.

Gabriel Bortoleto | 5

Age: 20
Nationality: Brazil
Grand prix starts: 0
Grand prix wins: 0
2024 championship position: N/A
Best championship position: N/A

Reason to root for them: Last on this list, but by no means least, Bortoleto is a name to remember. The Brazilian’s rookie season might be shaped by an uncompetitive Sauber, but many believe the Formula 2 champion is a superstar in the making. A graduate of Alonso’s karting academy, he’s a young talent worth hitching your wagon to early.