Nailed Some, Face-Planted On Others: Revisiting Some Bold 2025 Formula 1 Predictions

The 2025 Formula 1 season is officially in the books, and McLaren's Lando Norris is the 2025 World Drivers Champion after an intense race in Abu Dhabi.

Congratulations to him, and congrats to McLaren on a dominant Constructors' Championship run.

Now that we know how the entire year panned out, I always like to look back on my predictions from just before the season got underway.

READ: ANA DE ARMAS STEALS THE SHOW WAVING THE CHECKERED FLAG ON THE F1 SEASON

Some will make you wonder if I even watched F1 before making them, while others will have you wondering if I have some kind of motorsport clairvoyance.

We have a lot to get to, so let's dig in…

I didn't predict Niko Hulkeberg's stunning podium at Silvertone, but then again, who did? (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

Sauber

Prediction: Hulkenberg Makes Q3 By The Summer Break

We’re starting with a swing and a miss on my part. But at least I knew Sauber's swan song would be a good season.

Hulkenberg did make it to Q3, but not until Brazil, which was well after the summer break; however, his teammate, Gabriel Bortoletto, managed to crack into the top 10 before the break.

But, while we missed that prediction, Hulkenberg still had one of the best moments of the year when he finally made it on the podium for the first time in his career after an incredible race at the British Grand Prix.

What a year it was for Sauber, and I think they’ll be happy with that as the team morphs into Audi to 2026 and beyond.

Williams 

Prediction: P6

Technically a miss, but only because I wasn’t optimistic enough!

I had a feeling they were in for a good year. They had an upward trajectory, and the Alex Albon-Carlos Sainz driver combo seemed like it had potential.

What do you know? It did!

Thanks to a pair of podiums from newcomer Sainz, Williams had a phenomenal year that saw them come home in P5.

Williams just needs a little more consistency if they want to hang with the top 4 teams, who were all well clear of them in the standings.

That said, Williams is the clear top dog in the midfield.

Alright, so I got this one very wrong. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Racing Bulls

Prediction: Breakout Season For Yuki

This was wrong in a few different dimensions. It was like 3-dimensionally wrong.

Yuki wasn’t at Racing Bulls long this season, getting the call up to Red Bull to replace Liam Lawson just two Grand Prix and a Sprint Race into the season.

But once he got to Red Bull, it was a disappointment. Sure, the car was bad for a chunk of the year, but even after it improved, Tsunoda failed to score on a lot of weekends.

So not only was it not a breakout season, it was possibly an F1 swan song for Yuki, who will be a reserve driver at Red Bull next season.

Meanwhile, Racing Bulls had a strong season with what sure looked like a really solid car. Lawson handled the move back to RB well, but the standout was rookie Isack Hadjar. He was stellar after a crushing disappointment in Australia to start the season, even snagging a podium at Zandvoort.

He’ll move up to Red Bull next season, and one of the stories of the year will be how he fares alongside Max Verstappen.

Haas

Prediction: Esteban Ocon Burns Another Bridge

Nope.

But this is one I’m fine with missing because Ocon had a good first season alongside Ollie Bearman.

Bearman led him in the standings 41-38 and got most of the attention, but it was a true team effort from Haas to come home in P8, within sight of P7 and even P6.

The only US team on the grid (until next year) is on an upward trajectory, but I’ll be interested to see how they handle the new regulations.

They had a solid 2022, the last time the regulations underwent a big change, but that was after writing off and suffering through the 2021 season to focus on the new car.

They didn’t do that this year, and hopefully they can carry their momentum over to 2026.

Alpine

Prediction: Gasly Sneaks Onto Podium

This had to be one of my most optimistic predictions because boy, this wasn’t even close.

It was a brutal season for the French, Endstone-based team that started with Jack Doohan getting the hook in favor of Franco Colapinto just a few races into the season.

Was it the right call? That’s up for debate; Colapinto tied Doohan on points with 0.

Gasly scored all of the team’s 22 points and did it with a bad car that has a weak Renault in the back of it.

Alpine is switching to Mercedes engines next season, and that should be a big help if they can get a handle on the aerodynamic aspects of the new regulations.

Aston Martin

Prediction: Big Step Back

Saw this one coming…

Aston Martin came home in P7 this year after a solid P5 the year before.

Fernando Alonso still had moments of brilliance that show why he is still a force to be reckoned with, but Lance Stroll…

Look, Lance has his moments, but they’re just too few and far between. This is a team with championship aspirations that will be led by F1 design legend Adrian Newey starting next season. However, they’ll never sniff a championship if they're not scoring with both cars.

Sure, it’s tough when Lance has battled injuries, and his old man signs the checks, but at some point, they need to put capable drivers in both cars.

I don’t know why they wasted the final years of Fernando Alonso’s career without taking a swing at a better driver to partner with him.

Wait. I do know why…

Aston Martin’s 2026 hopes hinge on Newey and company nailing the new regulations and giving Alonso and, more importantly, Stroll a very driver-friendly rocket ship.

Otherwise, expect them to be in this part of the standings next season.

Mercedes: Andrea Kimi Antonelli On The Podium By Monaco

Missed it by that much…

Kimi Antonelli, the highly-touted replacement for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, made it on the podium for the first time in Canada.

That was two races after Monaco.

So, I was close on that one.

Overall, it was a solid season for Mercedes, who finished P2 in the standings, while George Russell finished P4 on the drivers' side, with Kimi coming home in P7.

Would they have liked to have had Kimi up the order a little more? Obviously, this is F1, not a birthday party at the karting track.

But considering the immense pressure and the giant shoes to fill, there was always going to be a learning curve for someone jumping to the pinnacle of motorsport so young. I think looking back, Mercedes will take this season, so long as Antonelli cleans things up a bit in his sophomore campaign.

Red Bull

Prediction: Liam Lawson Wins A Grand Prix

Considering I muffed my Yuki/Racing Bulls prediction badly as I did, I think we all knew the Red Bull prediction was going to follow suit, and, boy, did it ever.

Poor Liam Lawson never really got a fair shake, but I still don't think he should've been in that seat to begin with. Yuki should've had it from the start of the season.

It was mismanagement on Red Bull's part, and it disrupted two drivers' seasons from the jump.

That said, Lawson did a nice job and got about as much out of a very solid Racing Bulls car as his teammate, Isack Hadjar, who will jump to Red Bull this season.

Of course, this year some massive leadership changes, with Christian Horner getting fired and Dr. Helmut Marko following him out the door at the end of the year. I think they need that, though. Things really turned around when the highly respected Laurent Mekies took over as team boss, and that was without a doubt a factor in the team putting Max Verstappen in a position to challenge for the title, thanks to a stellar run from the summer break on.

Red Bull will be one of the most interesting teams to watch in 2026. They've had so much change within the team, and now they've got these new regulations. I think it's going to be a sink-or-swim situation for them in 2026. 

They'll either be upfront fighting for wins every weekend or nowhere.

No in-between.

Lewis Hamilton's first season in Ferrari red was a lot tougher than anyone expected. (Photo by Jayce Illman/Getty Images)

Ferrari 

Prediction: Lewis Beats Charles In The Standings

Lewis Hamilton's first season at Ferrari was not the fairytale he was probably hoping for. Despite a Sprint Race win in China — the second race weekend of the season — it was tough sledding for the Scuderia and especially Hamilton as the season went on.

Leclerc made sporadic appearances on the podium throughout the year, which helped him beat Hamilton soundly, 242-156.

The troubling thing is that they finished over 50 points behind a Red Bull team that really only scored with one car for the bulk of the season.

This wasn't helped by the fact that in the final few races, Hamilton's qualifying pace was virtually non-existent.

Whereas this may not be the best time for a regulation shakeup for Red Bull, I think it is for Ferrari. It'll help them forget such a brutally tough 2025 campaign and let everyone within the team start from a blank slate.

Assuming they cook up a good power unit — and they usually do — I think Ferrari should be able to hang toward the front of the pack and win on select weekends.

There will be a lot riding on 2026 as Hamilton's future with the team may hinge on it, and that could be the case for team boss Fred Vasseur, too.

Lando Norris came out victorious in a thrilling season-long title battle between himself, teammate Oscar Piastri, and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.   (Photo by Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

McLaren

Prediction: Lando Is the World Champ, But Has To Fight Oscar For It

Looks like I hit this nail on the head!

Sure, I didn't expect Lando's closest competitor to be Max Verstappen, but Oscar was right there until the end.

This season is wild to dissect. There are so many moments that, had they panned out even slightly differently, could've changed the entire championship picture.

I mean, in the first race, Piastri got caught out by rain and lost a possible win in the process. Had he kept it together there, he would've won the title.

There are so many of those moments, for him, Norris, and Verstappen, it's really insane.

This season will only make both McLaren boys better. I think Norris just got a major jolt of confidence now that he has "World Champion" in front of his name and the No. 1 on his car. But I think Oscar will have an insane amount of drive next season after getting a taste of a title run.

Again, those pesky regulations are coming into play, and McLaren will want to make sure they're on top of them, just like they were in the last couple of seasons of these ground effect regulations.

Unless they beat themselves or someone else on the grid brings a massive innovation to the grid, I expect the team in papaya to be up front again next season.

Cadillac Lineup

Prediction: Colton Herta and Valtteri Bottas

Ugh. So close…

My bonus prediction had to do with Cadillac's debut driver line-up, and I was half right.

Valtteri Bottas will be in one car, but Sergio Perez will be in the other.

That is 1,000% the best lineup they could've picked. Herta was always floating around, but it was quickly apparent once the IndyCar season got underway that he probably wasn't going to have the super license points to get the ride.

But, I was still kind of right, because Herta will be a test driver for Cadillac and will compete in F2 next season in hopes of getting those super license points.

Cadillac will be one of the most fun teams to watch in ‘26. They have one of the best driver lineups on paper, and because of the way regulation changes shake up the running order, I don’t think it's crazy to think they could be a solid midfield team. Especially if the Ferrari engine they're plunking in the back of their car really brings it.

….

Well, that's it for the 2025 Formula 1 season!

Thanks for following along with me, and I can't wait to start seeing some 2026 cars ahead of what is sure to be a wild season.