The 2025 Formula 1 season is promised by many to be one of the most exciting seasons the sport has ever seen. A seemingly level playing field makes the possibility of winning a Grand Prix anyone’s reality – and so too the World Drivers’ Championship.
If it is to live up to that promise, the opening Grands Prix did not disappoint. With crashes, disqualifications, and battles right to the finish line, here is how the opening fortnight unfolded at the Australian and Chinese Grands Prix.
Wet Weather Chaos:
The Australian Grand Prix will likely go down as one of the most thrilling season-openers in Formula 1 history. While the risk of rain was obvious before the weekend had even begun, nothing could have prepared the drivers, teams, and audience for the chaos that occurred.
Lando Norris achieved his first pole position of the season, building off of last season’s momentum. Starting right next to him was McLaren teammate and home hero Oscar Piastri, with reigning four-time champion Max Verstappen in third.
Sunday’s conditions in Melbourne were incredibly treacherous, with other racing series F3 and F2 races cancelled or shortened due to the rain. Still, F1 went on. On the formation lap, rookie Isack Hadjar spun into the barriers and was forced to retire before his first race could even go underway. Understandably heartbroken, it was Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony, that took the time to console the newcomer in a heartwarming exchange.
Norris maintained the lead through the first slippery lap, while Verstappen pipped Piastri for second, only to be caught behind a safety car after Aussie rookie Jack Doohan crashed. Under the safety car, Carlos Sainz found the barriers too. The rain was catching both newcomers and experienced drivers out.
Norris led again and Piastri capitalised off a rare mistake from Verstappen to re-inherit second position. This made for an enticing chase between Piastri and Norris before veteran and two-time champion Fernando Alonso was also caught out by the conditions and crashed, causing a second safety car.
Most pitted for slick tyres as conditions were drying, and the top three remained the same. However, the chaos would re-emerge soon after.
A heavy rain shower fell across the circuit only a few laps after the drivers had pitted for slicks. All of a sudden, mayhem unfolded: Norris, being the first to catch the rain, slid off the track and into the gravel before rejoining the track; Piastri followed him in almost a picture-perfect copy – however, when the Aussie attempted to rejoin the track, he slid off dramatically and was beached on the grass. His hopes of a victory in front of his home crowd were immediately dashed, though he managed to resume the race, eventually finishing ninth.
Norris pitted immediately for intermediate tyres, with Verstappen following suit two laps later, and Norris led the race again after a series of wet-weather overtakes, Verstappen close behind him. Another safety car was deployed as rookies Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto spun off the wet track.
In the final few laps, Verstappen chased Norris down to the wire, with Norris beating his rival by only 0.895 seconds. It was an impressive victory for the Brit in a race that threw everything at him.
It was a spectacular Grand Prix, with 6 DNFs, 3 safety cars, and chaos all throughout. Norris’s victory means that he leads the Championship for the first time in his career, breaking Verstappen’s streak of 1,029 days of leading the Championship. More importantly, it sets up a thrilling year where it looks like last season’s title contenders are ready to battle for the title once more.
Ferrari Highs, Ferrari Lows:
When it was announced last January that 7-time champion Lewis Hamilton would be moving to the most successful team in the sport, all the world could talk about was Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari, partnering Charles Leclerc in what Hamilton dubbed ‘the strongest pairing Formula 1 has probably ever had’.
Their strength as teammates and drivers, however, is being put to the test by Ferrari themselves. The Australian Grand Prix saw the pair finish P8 and P10 after a disastrous pitwall decision left them out on slick tyres to try contend with the rain, only to eventually bring both cars in for wet-weather tyres after they had already lost tens of seconds in the wet conditions. ‘We just missed a big opportunity there’, Hamilton told his pitwall.
With the lows of the previous weekend, Ferrari surely could not do worse in Shanghai – and at the start of the weekend, it seemed that way. On Friday, Hamilton secured his first pole position as a Ferrari driver for the Sprint race, with Leclerc only a few positions behind him. Hamilton converted this pole into a Sprint victory on Saturday and Leclerc finished fifth. The pair combined for 12 points, already out-scoring their previous weekend’s result before the main race had even begun.
Having qualified 5th and 6th for the Grand Prix, Ferrari had an opportunity to challenge for a podium-finish. On the opening lap, however, the teammates banged wheels, leaving Leclerc with front-wing damage that somehow made him quicker. In the end, they finished 5th and 6th, simply not having the pace they did the previous day.
In a shock announcement after the Grand Prix, Leclerc and Hamilton were both disqualified from the race, along with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly. Leclerc’s car was found to be 1 kg underweight, while Hamilton’s car saw excessive wear on the skid-block. This double disqualification means Leclerc and Hamilton are the first Ferrari teammates to be disqualified from the same race. The pair find themselves ninth and tenth in the Drivers’ Championship standings, with Ferrari joint-fifth with Williams.
Ferrari fans will be thankful for the two-week break from racing, if only to avoid further heartbreak.
McLaren Dominance?:
In both the Australian Grand Prix and the Chinese Grand Prix, the winners wore papaya.
Norris achieved pole position in Melbourne, with McLaren teammate starting right alongside him, and won. In Shanghai, Piastri took his first-ever pole position, and it took an immaculate lap from Mercedes’s George Russell to split Norris and Piastri and prevent another front-row lockout. Piastri was in full control of the race and took his first win of the season. Norris, on the other hand, had a much more stressful race with his brakes failing in the final stint of the race, which he later admitted was his ‘worst nightmare’. Having overtaken Russell earlier and built an eight-second gap, that gap dropped to a mere 1.4 seconds within the final two laps, but Norris nursed the car home to cement the 50th McLaren 1-2 finish.
With one win and pole position apiece, it is likely that we will see Norris and Piastri fighting for the Championship this year, alongside other drivers. The McLaren is clearly the strongest car – but not by much, as evidenced by Ferrari and Hamilton’s performance in the Sprint. What is clear is that, should this trend continue, the McLaren teammates fighting each other for a Championship is sure to bring drama, team orders, and fierce racing.
Rookie Roundup:
The 2025 F1 grid welcomed six rookies to the grid: Isack Hadjar, Kimi Antonelli, Oliver Bearman, Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson. This makes it an exciting contrast to last year where there were no rookies.
So, how have they performed?
The Australian Grand Prix was a tough one for the rookies to contend with. Bearman particularly suffered in practice and qualifying, crashing in the first practice. In the third session, he beached his car in the gravel. His woes continued into qualifying as he suffered gearbox issues, meaning he could not post a lap and ultimately started last for the race. Despite finishing last in the Grand Prix, he can be satisfied with finishing at all considering the tricky conditions. In China, a strong drive with impressive overtaking saw Bearman start p17 and finish p8, scoring his first points of the season.
Doohan is another rookie that struggled in Australia, crashing out on the first lap. His misfortunes continued into China as he left the weekend with four penalty points, 2 for colliding with Bortoleto in the Sprint and another 2 for pushing Hadjar off the track in the main race. Here’s to hoping he can turn his fortunes during the upcoming triple-header.
Hadjar, after crashing on the formation lap of his maiden Grand Prix, had a better weekend in China. He qualified seventh, ahead of his Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda, and finished the race just out of the points, in 11th. This encouraging weekend shows Hadjar’s ability to turn results after a heartbreaking Australian Grand Prix.
Antontelli, unlike the other rookies, shone brightest in Australia. After qualifying 16th, the Italian prevailed in the tricky conditions and astoundingly finished fourth, becoming the second-youngest driver in F1 history to score points behind Verstappen. Antonelli had a quieter race in China, starting and finishing the Grand Prix in p8. His steady performances throughout the fortnight places him fifth in the Drivers’ Championship.
Bortoleto has had a quiet start to the season. After crashing in the Australian Grand Prix, he finished 14th in China. The Brazilian will look to score his first points of the season during the triple-header.
Lawson is the most experienced of all the rookies, having participated in 11 Grands Prix before 2025. Regardless, this season is his first full-season as a driver, partnering four-time champion Verstappen in Red Bull. Lawson’s opening two weekends will be ones he’ll want to forget. He qualified 18th for the Australian Grand Prix and crashed out of the tricky race. In China, he qualified last for both the Sprint and the main race, eventually finishing 14th and 12th in the races respectively. Lawson’s wait for his first Championship points of the season continues, but with the pressure of Red Bull breathing down his neck, his seat is at risk.
Looking Forwards:
A triple-header is coming up, with back-to-back Grands Prix in Japan, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as the season heads towards a more manageable timezone for those of us in the UK.
The season is long and many things will change over the next 22 races, but for now, this is how the top-5 of the standings look:
World Drivers’ Championship:
Lando Norris: 44
Max Verstappen: 36
George Russell: 35
Oscar Piastri:34
Kimi Antonelli: 22
World Constructors’ Championship:
Mclaren: 78
Mercedes: 57
Red Bull: 36
Williams: 17
Ferrari: 17
