Bold F1 predictions for 2025: Norris, Piastri fight for world championship

The Formula One off-season is in full swing, which means we're at the point when diehard fans are desperately seeking old highlights on YouTube or running yet another sim season in F1 24 (we might be speaking from personal experience).

That makes now the perfect time to play prognosticator, let our imaginations run wild and offer some bold predictions for next season.

Now, these aren't your run-of-the-mill season predictions. Max Verstappen winning a fifth consecutive drivers' title? McLaren repeating as constructors' champion? Esteban Ocon receiving a five-second penalty? A tad boring and in the case of Ocon, inevitable. These are bold predictions.

Without further ado, here are five bold F1 predictions for 2025.

Norris, Piastri battle for the world championship

What a difference a year can make: Our bold prediction for 2024 was Lando Norris earning his first career win. Norris proceeded to win four times as McLaren returned to the top of the F1 mountain to capture the constructors' championship for the first time since 1998.

Considering McLaren ended the year at peak performance and is one of only two teams to retain both of its drivers for next year (Aston Martin being the other one), repeating as constructors' champion should be in the cards. Pulling off the double and taking the drivers' title as well is the next step, but will it be Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri? Wouldn't it be something if both drivers were fighting for the championship?

Norris made huge strides this year finishing runner-up to Verstappen. The 25-year-old British driver claimed a spot on the podium 13 times and earned pole position eight times. Norris' inability to convert wins from pole position was becoming a meme unto itself, however, he dispelled that with dominant victories in the Netherlands, Singapore and the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

Verstappen ran away at the start of the season with seven wins through the first 10 races but a dip in form allowed Norris to chip away at the deficit. Although Norris ran out of time to close the gap, he outscored Verstappen during the back half of the season 203 points to 182.

There was no sophomore slump for Piastri as he improved from ninth in his rookie year to fourth in the standings. Piastri earned his first two GP victories and finished on the podium a total of eight times. The 23-year-old from Australia also became the fourth driver in F1 history to complete every lap in a single season.

Qualifying was the big difference between the two McLaren drivers. Norris out-qualified Piastri 20-4 during the season, setting him up for success. Experience says Norris holds the edge, but don't underestimate Piastri. Team orders, aka "papaya rules," favoured Norris down the stretch, but it's fair game to start 2025.

Hopefully, for McLaren's sake, it doesn't turn into Lewis Hamilton vs. Fernando Alonso circa 2007, where both drivers end up hurting each other in the championship chase and lose out to another rival. Oh, and no Spygate redux either.

Hamilton's Ferrari dream becomes a nightmare

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari should be an iconic pairing between the winningest driver and the winningest team. What could possibly go wrong?

"We are checking."

"What do you think about Plan D, question?"

"Box. Box. Stay out! Stay out!"

"Charles is faster than you."

Oh, it could go horribly wrong: Chaotic pit stops, fumbling team orders, inventing new and interesting ways to lose races. It's the Ferrari way.

Perhaps Ferrari smartens up and Hamilton wins his record eighth world championship one day, but there's going to be growing pains during year one of this legendary partnership.

Life will also be miserable for his teammate. Charles Leclerc probably thought he cemented his status as the team's star when he put pen to paper and re-signed with Ferrari just days before Hamilton's shocking announcement. The two will surely clash and you should also expect to see sparks fly among their fanbases online. As long as their dogs Roscoe and Leo get along, there's hope.

Lawson gives Verstappen a run for his money

We’ve seen this scenario play out before: A less-experienced driver gets promoted from the Red Bull B-team to pair with Max Verstappen … and struggles. 

Although Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon have turned into fine F1 drivers, neither could keep pace with Verstappen on the main Red Bull team.

That could end up being the case for Liam Lawson as well. The 21-year-old from New Zealand has competed in only 11 races for sibling team RB (now known as Racing Bulls) but got the callup for 2025 after Red Bull cut ties with Sergio Perez.

What if Lawson flourishes? Lawson has shown an aggressive side on the track — shades of Verstappen — going wheel-to-wheel with Perez during the Mexico City Grand Prix in October. If he brings that intensity to Red Bull, Verstappen may have his hands full.

Antonelli gets his first win at age 18

Believe the Kimi Antonelli hype because Mercedes sure does. The team fast-tracked its prodigy through the junior ranks, skipping F3 this year to compete in F2, where he picked up a pair of wins and finished sixth in the standings.

Hamilton opting out of his contract to join Ferrari sort of did Mercedes a favour as team boss Toto Wolff didn't have to worry about losing his star prospect to a rival. (There's probably an alternate timeline where Hamilton stays with Mercedes and Red Bull poaches Antonelli for its B-team.)

We won't go as far as to say Antonelli will break Verstappen's record as the youngest race winner (18 years and 228 days, for those counting), as that would require him to win within the first three events of the season. That's a bit too bold, so let's say he earns a victory before his 19th birthday on Aug. 25.

Now, just to spite us, watch Antonelli win the Dutch Grand Prix six days later on Aug. 31.

Bonus not-so-bold Mercedes prediction: There will be another Summer of George — with George Russell picking up a win or two — if only so we can continue to make that Seinfeld reference.

A team outside the top four wins a race

Seven drivers earned multiple race wins this year, which was quite an accomplishment, but all seven drivers were from the top four teams in the standings. The closest we came to an upset was Alpine finishing second and third during the slip 'n' slide called the Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Not since Ocon won the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix with Alpine has a team outside the top four claimed a victory. We're due for another.

You'd think with Alpine being mentioned twice already, we'd go with them but there's another team to consider.

Adrian Newey helped design championship-winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull and now takes his talents to Aston Martin. We can think of 30 million pounds of reasons (per year for five years, reportedly) why Newey would be keen to continue that success with Aston Martin.

The team showed promise in 2023 with Alonso finishing on the podium eight times, but the 43-year-old ended up no higher than fifth this year. With Newey on board, that should boost Alonso's fortunes.

Besides, who doesn't want to see Alonso grab his first win in over a decade?