The last time I bothered with one of my season reviews was 2020. I didn't realise it had been that long, but I do recall I didn't write one in 2021 after the charade that was the final race in Abu Dhabi, where Lewis was cheated out of an 8th world championship. Now you may think that I have only come back to this as it's the first season that Max Verstappen hasn't won the title, but you would be wrong. I haven't written one since 2020 as I'm a lazy sod.
So here we go with 2025. How would I sum up this F1 season? TLDW, is the acronym that springs to mind. For those of you not "down wid da kids", like me, that means too long, didn't watch. There appears to be a rush from sports administrators to keep increasing the number of events. F1 is now up to 24 races, football now has Club World Cup, which few could be bothered with, and the football World Cup Finals has now been extended to 48 teams, which will give us the excitement of Cape Verde (where?) versus Saudi Arabia. I bet there will be a huge neutral TV audience for that one. I can only assume this is a combination of greed and arrogance on the part of those who run different sports, and a belief that "more is more" regardless of the quality. How appropriate would it be if Temu turn up as one of the main sponsors of the Football World Cup.
Back to F1 and 2025. We have a new World Champion! What looked mid-season to be a romp home for Oscar Piastri turned in to a tight three way battle by seasons end with Lando Norris eventually winning out. The environment at McLaren reminded me the situation Carlos Reutemann found himself in at Williams in 1981. Carlos was the best driver with a chance to win the title that year, but the team (or Frank and Patrick Head) really wanted Alan Jones to win, and conspired to hand the title to Nelson Piquet at Brabham. McLaren in 2025 nearly did the same with Max Verstappen and Red Bull. I'm sure Zak Brown has his reasons for favouring Lando over Oscar, but I'm not sure I can fathom it. Maybe he's a huge Star Wars fan? It does make his protestations about both drivers having equal equipment and opportunity ring very hollow as he trots them out after each race, where Lando has clearly been given the better chances to win.
Just on Star Wars, who the heck names their child after a fictional character in a 70's sci-fi film? It puts me in mind of David Bowie calling his son Zowie, or Frank Zappa christening his first born Moon Unit. I suppose we only have to look at "Jenson" Button and "Senna" Procter, to realise that pretty anything goes when it come to giving Christian names to people nowadays. Bah, It wasn't like that when I was a boy!
So, to the driver of the season, Max Emilian Verstappen. The McLaren was clearly the best car at the start of the season, but Max managed to spoil the party, winning at Suzuka and Imola in the early races whilst his team mates where nowhere in the same car. One has to assume the car was built to suit Max's driving style, but when you have a generational talent in the cockpit, isn't that what you do? The surprising thing was just how poor first, Lawson, and then Tsunoda were. Neither of these driver is a slouch, but neither of them could get close to the Dutchman. I wonder how Isack Hajdar will perform next season. It will also be the first Red Bull car with the design not led by Adrian Newey since 2007, and they will have new Ford funded engines. It will be fascinating to see how Red Bull perform.
Back to our new World Champion. Many F1 drivers are arrogant, self centred, egotist. Many grow out of this when they have been in the sport for a period of time and realise they are not quite as good as they thought, or they mellow as they achieve the success their ego craves. Look at Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton. The exception to this is, of course, my mate Fernando Alonso, who is still as full of his own piss and importance as he was when he started in the sport back in in 1953. Anyway, why do I mention this? Of the recent cohort of F1 drivers to make it into top teams and win races, most have fallen in the arrogant, self centred category. George Russell and Charles Le Clerc, as examples. Lando, meanwhile, appeared to be quite self effacing and surprised at the successes he has achieved. I have a horribly feeling that this young man will now "revert to type" and become an arrogant toss pot, like some many of his predecessors as those who will promote the new World Champion blow smoke up his... I hope not.
Meanwhile, his teammate who has all the personality of a microwave, appears to have had the fight beaten out of him by the team and must be looking elsewhere come 2027 as clearly the people at the top at McLaren either don't like him or don't rate him as being as saleable as Lando. Here's my prediction. Max to Mercedes in 2027, and Oscar to Red Bull.
What else happened in 2025? Lewis went to Ferrari with a huge fanfare. And he won the Sprint Race (more on them later) in China. What a great move we all thought, Lewis back in with a chance of race wins. Oh dear. Ferrari simply went down the bog in 2025, and you could see the motivation drain from Lewis at each interview. There didn't seem to be any rapport between him and his engineer. Ferrari have broken many a great driver over the years. How sad that now appear to working on breaking the greatest of all time.
Back to my opening comment about the TLDW. 24 races is too much, and to then intersperse these with joke Sprint races at some events simply makes it too much for even the most ardent fan to try and keep up with. This year, as a fan of nearly 50 year's standing, I didn't bother to watch any part of three race weekends, not even bothering with the highlights, despite them sitting on my Sky Box waiting for me to view them. I had time to watch them, perhaps not live as I have usually done, but I had no motivation. Those that run F1 need to realise that often less is more, but the company now running the sport seem hell bent on milking every last dollar they can from it, so we will end up with more races of lower quality and predictable results. Money has always talked in F1, but it don't sing and dance and it don't walk (thank you Neil Diamond).
For 2026 I suspect I will watch the majority of the races, but unlike many previous seasons I won't be making sure I put a race weekend ahead of other events. And its the big 6-0 for me in 2026. My wife asked me what I would like to do as my birthday falls on the usual weekend of the Monaco GP (although not in 2026). We are going to Spa to watch the 6 Hour WEC race. I suspect it will be much more honest, enjoyable, and I will see more racing than I would at any F1 event.
So here we go with 2025. How would I sum up this F1 season? TLDW, is the acronym that springs to mind. For those of you not "down wid da kids", like me, that means too long, didn't watch. There appears to be a rush from sports administrators to keep increasing the number of events. F1 is now up to 24 races, football now has Club World Cup, which few could be bothered with, and the football World Cup Finals has now been extended to 48 teams, which will give us the excitement of Cape Verde (where?) versus Saudi Arabia. I bet there will be a huge neutral TV audience for that one. I can only assume this is a combination of greed and arrogance on the part of those who run different sports, and a belief that "more is more" regardless of the quality. How appropriate would it be if Temu turn up as one of the main sponsors of the Football World Cup.
Back to F1 and 2025. We have a new World Champion! What looked mid-season to be a romp home for Oscar Piastri turned in to a tight three way battle by seasons end with Lando Norris eventually winning out. The environment at McLaren reminded me the situation Carlos Reutemann found himself in at Williams in 1981. Carlos was the best driver with a chance to win the title that year, but the team (or Frank and Patrick Head) really wanted Alan Jones to win, and conspired to hand the title to Nelson Piquet at Brabham. McLaren in 2025 nearly did the same with Max Verstappen and Red Bull. I'm sure Zak Brown has his reasons for favouring Lando over Oscar, but I'm not sure I can fathom it. Maybe he's a huge Star Wars fan? It does make his protestations about both drivers having equal equipment and opportunity ring very hollow as he trots them out after each race, where Lando has clearly been given the better chances to win.
Just on Star Wars, who the heck names their child after a fictional character in a 70's sci-fi film? It puts me in mind of David Bowie calling his son Zowie, or Frank Zappa christening his first born Moon Unit. I suppose we only have to look at "Jenson" Button and "Senna" Procter, to realise that pretty anything goes when it come to giving Christian names to people nowadays. Bah, It wasn't like that when I was a boy!
So, to the driver of the season, Max Emilian Verstappen. The McLaren was clearly the best car at the start of the season, but Max managed to spoil the party, winning at Suzuka and Imola in the early races whilst his team mates where nowhere in the same car. One has to assume the car was built to suit Max's driving style, but when you have a generational talent in the cockpit, isn't that what you do? The surprising thing was just how poor first, Lawson, and then Tsunoda were. Neither of these driver is a slouch, but neither of them could get close to the Dutchman. I wonder how Isack Hajdar will perform next season. It will also be the first Red Bull car with the design not led by Adrian Newey since 2007, and they will have new Ford funded engines. It will be fascinating to see how Red Bull perform.
Back to our new World Champion. Many F1 drivers are arrogant, self centred, egotist. Many grow out of this when they have been in the sport for a period of time and realise they are not quite as good as they thought, or they mellow as they achieve the success their ego craves. Look at Jenson Button or Lewis Hamilton. The exception to this is, of course, my mate Fernando Alonso, who is still as full of his own piss and importance as he was when he started in the sport back in in 1953. Anyway, why do I mention this? Of the recent cohort of F1 drivers to make it into top teams and win races, most have fallen in the arrogant, self centred category. George Russell and Charles Le Clerc, as examples. Lando, meanwhile, appeared to be quite self effacing and surprised at the successes he has achieved. I have a horribly feeling that this young man will now "revert to type" and become an arrogant toss pot, like some many of his predecessors as those who will promote the new World Champion blow smoke up his... I hope not.
Meanwhile, his teammate who has all the personality of a microwave, appears to have had the fight beaten out of him by the team and must be looking elsewhere come 2027 as clearly the people at the top at McLaren either don't like him or don't rate him as being as saleable as Lando. Here's my prediction. Max to Mercedes in 2027, and Oscar to Red Bull.
What else happened in 2025? Lewis went to Ferrari with a huge fanfare. And he won the Sprint Race (more on them later) in China. What a great move we all thought, Lewis back in with a chance of race wins. Oh dear. Ferrari simply went down the bog in 2025, and you could see the motivation drain from Lewis at each interview. There didn't seem to be any rapport between him and his engineer. Ferrari have broken many a great driver over the years. How sad that now appear to working on breaking the greatest of all time.
Back to my opening comment about the TLDW. 24 races is too much, and to then intersperse these with joke Sprint races at some events simply makes it too much for even the most ardent fan to try and keep up with. This year, as a fan of nearly 50 year's standing, I didn't bother to watch any part of three race weekends, not even bothering with the highlights, despite them sitting on my Sky Box waiting for me to view them. I had time to watch them, perhaps not live as I have usually done, but I had no motivation. Those that run F1 need to realise that often less is more, but the company now running the sport seem hell bent on milking every last dollar they can from it, so we will end up with more races of lower quality and predictable results. Money has always talked in F1, but it don't sing and dance and it don't walk (thank you Neil Diamond).
For 2026 I suspect I will watch the majority of the races, but unlike many previous seasons I won't be making sure I put a race weekend ahead of other events. And its the big 6-0 for me in 2026. My wife asked me what I would like to do as my birthday falls on the usual weekend of the Monaco GP (although not in 2026). We are going to Spa to watch the 6 Hour WEC race. I suspect it will be much more honest, enjoyable, and I will see more racing than I would at any F1 event.
