F1 2025 driver line-up preview: Charles Leclerc to outshine Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari
Excitement and anticipation are building ahead of the 2025 F1 season, with Lewis Hamilton’s headline-hogging move to Ferrari sending fans into a frenzy.
The former Mercedes man will be stepping into the famous Rosso Corsa of the Tifosi and will be aiming to challenge Charles Leclerc for top-dog status in the team.
Defending champion Max Verstappen also has a new team-mate at Red Bull Racing following the departure of Sergio Perez - and the arrival of Liam Lawson.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Christian Willis takes a look into some of F1’s new driver line-ups and makes early predictions for the upcoming 2025 season.
Ferrari: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc
The most anticipated driving pairing in decades, Lewis Hamilton the seven-time world champion joins Ferrari to race alongside Charles Leclerc for the 2025 season and beyond.
Lewis Hamilton
This has been a move destined to happen for years. In June 2022 Hamilton stated that ‘it would be nice to drive for Ferrari’ during his career two years prior to the announcement.
This will be the third team Hamilton has raced for, after having successful stints at McLaren and Mercedes.
The question for the 39-year-old is if he can rediscover his old form that led him to world championship glory.
Last season was deemed as one to forget for Hamilton by his immaculate standards. It was full of highs and lows not only for Hamilton but Mercedes as a whole.
The team achieved four victories, with race weekends such as Silverstone, Spa and Las Vegas being the highlights.
However, they struggled on many race weekends including Saudi Arabia, Australia and China, as the team eventually finished fourth in the Constructors Championship.
Hamilton’s commanding victory at Silverstone was a shining light in an otherwise subpar campaign, losing out to his teammate George Russell in both the qualifying and race head-to-head.
He finished a career-low P7 in the drivers’ championship on 223 points.
The saving grace for Ferrari however is that he’s Lewis Hamilton, one of the greatest drivers to grace the sport. And if Ferrari can give him the car to compete for victories, you’d be silly to bet against him to deliver the Prancing Horse’s first title in over a decade.
Charles Leclerc
For Charles Leclerc, his 2024 season again proved how talented a driver the Monegasque is.
Key highlights included a home win at Monaco, breaking the duct that eluded him for many years, as well as an Italian Grand Prix victory where he fended off a late pursuit from Oscar Piastri to secure his second win of the season.
He outperformed his team-mate Carlos Sainz in both qualifying and the races, finishing the season P3 in the drivers’ championship on 340 points, narrowly missing out on P2 to McLaren’s Lando Norris.
PREDICTION: Charles Leclerc
To predict who will come out on top is incredibly tough to call.
To doubt a seven-time champion is borderline crazy but as Leclerc has been in Ferrari red since 2019 and is the man in form, I believe he will have the upper hand in a season he’ll be hoping to win his first World Championship.
READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc: A new dynamic for Ferrari’s championship aspirations
Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson
The current world champion, Max Verstappen is now alongside a fifth different driver of his Red Bull career; Liam Lawson.
Lawson was promoted from VCARB after two successful short stints in the team, replacing the departing Sergio Perez and chosen over the more experienced Yuki Tsunoda.
Max Verstappen
2024 was a year of maximisation for Verstappen as it was the first season since 2021 where the Red Bull car wasn’t consistently the best on the grid.
Verstappen won four of the first five races of the season looking like the dominant force that cruised through the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
However, the Red Bull team then struggled to upgrade the car any further, especially in comparison to rivals McLaren and Ferrari.
He then went on a ten-race win drought, his longest since 2020.
The silver lining in the dark cloud was that he still managed to consistently score valuable points on race weekends he wasn’t fighting for victories, limiting the point loss to championship rival Lando Norris.
The Dutchman’s best performance of the season came in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where due to an unfortunate red flag, he started P17 on the grid for Sunday’s race.
Thanks to changeable weather, safety cars and some brilliant overtakes, he won the race by 19 seconds, cementing his status as the best driver on the grid and the eventual winner of the championship.
Liam Lawson
Lawson replaced Daniel Ricciardo for the last six races of the 2024 season.
Despite getting outqualified and outscored by his team-mate over these races, he managed to convince boss Christian Horner of his higher ceiling compared to his Japanese counterpart.
Key moments included his battle with Fernando Alonso at the US Grand Prix where he switched back on the faster Aston Martin to take back the position in the Sprint Race.
This angered the Spaniard who thought Lawson squeezed him in the process - perhaps a demonstration of the ruthlessness that Horner is seeking from a Red Bull driver, describing the Kiwi as ‘a seasoned campaigner.’
This line-up in fact has history from the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix, where Lawson outqualified Max Verstappen on a rare off week for the formidable 2023 Red Bull car.
The New Zeelander finished that race in ninth, scoring points for the first time in F1 as well as becoming the second AlphaTauri driver that year to score points as Nyck De Vries failed to.
PREDICTION: Max Verstappen
It’s a bit unfair to predict this matchup with a four-time world champion up against a 22-year-old in his first full season of F1.
However, Verstappen’s record against teammates post Ricciardo speaks for itself, as the Dutchman is 84-9 in races and 91-9 in qualifying.
Instead, Horner’s goal for Liam is “to get as close as he can and bag as many points as he can, so we don’t have a 285-point deficit between the cars”.
The Red Bull team hope Lawson won’t have the same fate as former junior team drivers Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon had when up against Verstappen and can prove himself worthy to compete at the top of the grid.
Mercedes: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli
For Mercedes, 2025 is the first season in 13 that Lewis Hamilton won’t be lining up on the grid as a Silver Arrow.
Replacing him would be near impossible, as he helped deliver six drivers and eight constructors championships for the team over his tenure.
They have therefore decided to invest in youth, calling up Kimi Antonelli from their junior team to race alongside George Russell for the upcoming season.
George Russell
In his fourth season as a Mercedes driver, Russell hopes to finally have the car to consistently fight for wins and the World Championship.
When he got the call-up from Williams in 2022, he must’ve thought he would be fighting for World Championships, as Mercedes had won practically every title for much of the last decade.
However, as new regulations were introduced in the 2022 season, Mercedes’ innovative zero side pod design failed miserably, causing severe porpoising, low straight-line speed and delays in progress for much of his three seasons at the team.
Despite these setbacks, Russell has performed admirably, picking up three race victories, consistent podiums and scored more points than Hamilton in two of the three seasons they had as teammates.
In 2024, George Russell finished sixth in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of his team-mate and only behind the superior Verstappen, McLaren and Ferrari drivers.
The Brit claimed two wins in Austria and Las Vegas, the latter being in impressive fashion as he led from start to finish.
Another marquee performance was in Spa when after deciding to stay out on a one-stop strategy, he defended remarkably from his teammate Lewis Hamilton to claim victory, which was later rescinded as his car was underweight.
Kimi Antonelli
The 18-year-old Italian has taken the motorsport world by storm.
He won his first title at the 2022 Italian F4 championship with Prema and has since won various other Formula Regional championships and the FIA Motorsport Games with Italy before getting the call-up to F2 with Prema in 2024.
Despite Prema struggling to adapt to the new ground effect regulations, Antonelli delivered some eye-catching performances. Most notable was his maiden sprint race win at Silverstone.
After three safety cars, a red flag and torrential rain, the Italian won the race by 8.6 seconds, demonstrating his wet weather driving skill to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
He finished his rookie F2 season sixth in the standing with two wins, three podiums, four fastest laps and 113 points.
PREDICTION: George Russell
The experience of George Russell will see him finish above Antonelli as the senior driver in the 2025 season.
This will be a transition year for the Italian to settle into a different car, team and not to mention, the pressure that F1 poses.
He will likely make mistakes in his rookie year, but all Wolff hopes for is that he will be prepared for the 2026 season where a change of regulations could see Mercedes challenge for a World Championship again.
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Williams: Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz
2024 was a season of unrest, and disappointment, ultimately ending with crashes for the Williams team who finished ninth in the Constructors Standings.
The arrival of Franco Colapinto brought a light spark at the end of a dismal season as he showcased his potential for all of the grid to see.
2025, however, will be a year of intrigue for Williams fans as the team convinced Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz to join their project amidst interest from Sauber and Alpine.
This move was seen as a surprise to many in the F1 community, as moving from a team second in the Constructors Standings to ninth would be seen as a huge downgrade for a driver capable of fighting for race victories and podiums.
Nevertheless, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the potential Williams have with James Vowles at the helm, as the team jumped from last to seventh in the 2023 Constructors Championship in his first season as Team Principal.
Carlos Sainz
Sainz’s last year with Ferrari was the perfect advert for consistency, something Williams have been seeking for their drivers.
Sainz finished seventh or above in every race he finished, winning two races, recording nine podiums and finishing fifth in the Drivers’ Championship.
His performances in Australia and Mexico, particularly, overtaking Verstappen in the opening stages of both races for these race victories, showcased his ability to fight wheel to wheel against any driver on the grid.
Williams will be hoping he can replicate this in blue and white to secure precious points looking ahead to the regulation changes in 2026, where they will hope to capitalise on a potential mix-up in the grid standings.
Alex Albon
The last season from Albon could be seen as a step back for the Thai driver from his impressive 2023 season.
He finished in the points on four occasions at Monaco, Silverstone, Monza and Azerbaijan, outscoring both Colapinto and Logan Sargent during his time as their team-mates.
However, he became a lot more error-prone than he was in 2023, making contact with Tsunoda at the start of the Mexican GP, losing the car at turn 1 in qualifying for the Brazilian GP and crashing in practice sessions in Australia and Mexico.
Albon will hope he can rediscover his old form, as he’ll be compared against a much tougher teammate in Sainz than the previous team-mates he’s had at Williams.
PREDICTION: Carlos Sainz
While Albon is a strong driver who has years of experience with the team under his belt, Carlos Sainz is a world-class driver in the sport, who has successfully adapted to every team he’s been a part of.
This level of performance alongside the motivation to prove himself, having been replaced at Ferrari, will give him an edge over Albon over the course of the season.
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