A new Formula 1 season with a host of changes inevitably means some uncomfortable situations are on the way.
Here are 10 potentially awkward questions that should be answered in 2025.
What if Leclerc smashes Hamilton at Ferrari?
Charles Leclerc versus Lewis Hamilton is the most fascinating of all the team-mate battles in F1 2025. It pits F1's most successful driver ever against the guy many consider to be currently the quickest driver over a single lap.
Hamilton is coming off the back of his first season being comprehensively outqualified by an F1 team-mate. George Russell finished 19-5 up in the head-to-head, with an average pace advantage of 0.170 seconds.
The picture is muddied somewhat by Hamilton's long and painful Mercedes farewell, racing effectively as a 'lame duck' within that team. But 2024 also amplified some of his particular struggles with this generation of F1 car - and particularly the lack of 'pitch' in the front end under braking now the suspension has to be configured to keep the aero platform ultra low and stable.
The flexible front wings F1's top teams are now using to help balance their cars between high and low speeds - by effectively taking the front wing out of ground effect at high speed - allows a further drop in ride height, which means even less pitch, further reducing Hamilton's capacity to aggressively maximise the heavy braking zones, which has been the hallmark of his success until now.
Perhaps the Ferrari, with its inherently softer suspension and benign characteristics at low speeds, will help Hamilton. Perhaps also he will be galvanised by the chance to start afresh.
But he will still need to step up against an incredibly quick opponent who knows Ferrari inside out and has had no trouble whatsoever adapting himself to ground effect F1.
Leclerc also has an underrated capacity for tyre management, particularly on front-limited circuits, which theoretically reduces Hamilton's capacity to hit back at Leclerc over race stints in the way he so often did against Russell.
It's difficult to see any weaknesses for Hamilton to exploit, so the onus will be on Hamilton being the absolute best version of himself. Even then, it might not be enough. And if Leclerc definitively wins this battle then it may signal the beginning of the end of one of the greatest F1 careers there's ever been. - Ben Anderson
What if the Red Bull empire continues to crumble?
Red Bull may have weathered the storm of its early season civil war last year to deliver a fourth drivers' championship for Max Verstappen, but it is under no illusions that it has to do better in 2025.
Its dip to third place in the constructors' championship shows that its rivals have caught up on track, and it is coming off the back of some other challenges too.
Sergio Perez did not deliver what he needed to and has been replaced, it lost its tech guru Adrian Newey, and sporting director Jonathan Wheatley is preparing for his new future at Audi.
For now, Red Bull is keeping a brave face on everything. It has faith it understood and addressed where it went wrong with the RB20, that Liam Lawson can deliver from the off, and that a staff restructuring around the departures will not have a big impact on its performances.
However, there is no wiggle room for error. It cannot stumble into the new season on the back foot, especially as it's pretty obvious that Verstappen's presence will always be dependent on Red Bull having the fastest car. Lose him, and its future becomes incredibly difficult.
This is why success on track is critical because there will be no second chance on any front - even beyond its star driver. If Lawson does not deliver, then there is no obvious fallback option; and if the RB21 has not addressed the deficiencies of its predecessor then there is no scope for a rethink or a lengthy development fix.
The new 2026 rules are looming fast and require a lot of attention and, against that backdrop, Red Bull is also facing perhaps the biggest challenge in its F1 history as it becomes a works team. That switch to running its own engine will add a layer of extra complications despite the opportunities its new path offers.
Get this year wrong then it is hard to see an immediate bounce back for Red Bull - especially if that's enough to prompt Verstappen to seek new pastures.
But as the squad showed during some extremely difficult moments last year, it can be at its most dangerous when its back is against the wall. - Jon Noble
Can Aston prove it's worthy of Newey?
This is a hugely exciting year for Aston Martin. And a defining one. The arrivals of Enrico Cardile and then Adrian Newey lend arguably F1's most ambitious project its biggest boost in human firepower yet - but the team is mired in midfield mediocrity.
Though Aston Martin finished fifth last year, it ended the season worse than that. A lot worse. Fernando Alonso would still scrounge up points where he could but there's a strong case to be made that Aston Martin had the eighth-fastest car on average in the final part of the year - and there were times it was outright slowest.
In the decline that followed its shock surge to the front at the start of 2023, there has been little evidence, if any, to suggest Aston Martin can effectively develop its car in-season.
That's the first thing it needs to prove this year. Because that'll be a sign its mega technical structure - already restructured by CEO/new team boss Andy Cowell earlier this month - is starting to function properly.
This is critical to getting the most out of Newey, but it's not a one-way street. Newey could help point Aston Martin in crucial new directions when he joins a few months into the year. Maybe he can unlock some short-term gains too?
Whatever happens, this is a vital year leading into 2026. There are some very impatient people in this project, Lawrence Stroll and Alonso chief among them, but the reality is that next year there will be no excuses and even these two demanding individuals recognise that.
This year will set the foundations, though. And if there's any hint of someone, or something, undermining the potential of this project, there will surely be zero tolerance for it. - Scott Mitchell-Malm
Will controversy over Red Bull's second team reignite?
This became something of a pet topic for McLaren CEO Zak Brown in late-2023 and early-2024, as he repeatedly lobbied for F1 to intervene to prevent single ownership of multiple teams.
Then 2024 happened, McLaren got wrapped up in a successful title battle with Red Bull's main team, F1 itself got a bit distracted by the Andretti/Cadillac new team 'expanding the franchises' saga, and the noise around this subject faded somewhat.
But in the meantime Racing Bulls took on the latest version of its parent team's suspension in Las Vegas in an ultimately failed bid to beat Alpine and Haas to sixth in the 2024 constructors' championship.
There wasn't any real fuss made at the time of that happening, but it's a further example of that team aligning yet closer with Red Bull technically, while claiming to be a team that is trying to forge its own independent identity.
As the grid likely converges further ahead of major rule changes in 2026, expect the noise around Racing Bulls to increase again - especially if Red Bull's second team regularly starts to interlope on the top eight positions in any given race. - BA
Can Audi turn its new team around in time?
Audi had three seasons to sharpen and strengthen Sauber after announcing it was taking control in October 2022. What seemed an ideal run-up has so far been squandered with results regressing, its unstable leadership, and Carlos Sainz shunning its big-money overtures in favour of joining Williams a dire indictment of the project.
There is still time and last season's catastrophe at least ended on a modest high with late-season upgrades allowing Zhou Guanyu to prevent a pointless season with eight place in Qatar. This year, it has an all-new driver line-up in Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, new team principal Wheatley arriving in April, and Sauber will produce its first car conceived entirely under the technical directorship of James Key. This must result in an uptick.
Sauber is bolstering its facilities and human resources at its Hinwil base, but slower than Audi would have liked. Its horizon for success has already been extended, with its initial, and optimistic, target of fighting for wins in 2028 pushed back by an indeterminate amount. To have any chance of getting to the front before well into the 2030s, it needs to improve - and fast.
Another year of inertia would be unacceptable. It's essential that the small number of positives of last season are built upon and the many negatives eliminated if Audi is to avoid being desperately undercooked for its official arrival next year. Doing so successfully can only mean it becomes a credible midfielder, which is the minimum that's acceptable as a staging post for Audi. - Edd Straw
Can McLaren handle having two drivers in title contention?
McLaren flirted with a big problem last year, and was fortunate, in a way, that Oscar Piastri's season suddenly entered a low ebb after his Azerbaijan win, and Lando Norris more convincingly reasserted himself as de facto team leader.
Piastri's general qualifying form, with Norris conclusively the quicker driver, means Piastri needs to take a step this year to prove he can be outright fast enough - and won't just be restricted to opportunistic victories.
But the flashpoints in Hungary and Italy, where Piastri proved himself more robust and Norris was a little naĂŻve, plus the run-ins Norris had with Max Verstappen, raised a doubt over whether Norris was ruthless enough. Wrapped up in that was also the fact McLaren was extremely reluctant to interfere with its drivers - and was a bit too vague when it did impose team orders.
Assuming both drivers can get in the mix, which is still yet to be proven, McLaren will have a tough situation to handle. This is the line-up that's most likely to have both drivers on the same level straight away, taking points off each other, fighting for whatever big result the car's capable of. And if Norris and Piastri do maximise their potential, they'll start to be more highly coveted by rivals as well.
When asked, McLaren's senior figures will inevitably describe the situation in one way: "It's a good problem to have." But it'll be a problem nonetheless. - SMM
Will an F1/FIA war erupt?
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's regime really wants you to believe that all is well at his FIA. That there is no personnel crisis, no rift between him and F1's drivers, no question mark over its capacity to regulate or its commitment to transparent governance.
While some will say this is just part of a smear campaign - maybe even Ben Sulayem himself given his claims that he's been "convicted" by British media - the fact is that after a period of relative stability on the surface, the cracks between Ben Sulayem's regime and F1 are growing again.
There are plenty of examples: the drip-feed of high-profile exits, the reaction to scrutiny of the president or the FIA, the obvious clashes with drivers (and the quite extraordinary public slapdown Ben Sulayem tried to issue in response, which only escalated matters).
Tensions feel greater than at any point since early in Ben Sulayem's presidency, when ironically he was inheriting a mess rather than causing it - and there was open talk from high-level F1 personnel about whether the championship needed to go it alone, and find another body to regulate it.
The prospect of an F1/FIA split gradually faded, but the two sides always felt on the brink of war (especially when Ben Sulayem waded into commercial matters or F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali talked about rule changes).
There's been an uneasy truce for a while. But if Ben Sulayem continues on his 2024 trajectory, this could come to a head in 2025. - SMM
Will Alpine sack its own F1 protege mid-season?
Renault/Alpine doesn't have the best record of promoting its junior talent in the last decade.
Oscar Piastri was going to be the exception but his contract was fumbled so badly that McLaren embarrassed Alpine and swept Piastri out from underneath it.
It felt like Jack Doohan was going to be a course correction: an Alpine junior since 2022 who became an integral part of the team with critically important simulator work throughout 2024 that earned him a race seat for 2025.
But even before he'd make his surprise early Alpine debut in Abu Dhabi last December his future was in doubt, something confirmed by Alpine signing Franco Colapinto on a multi-year deal in January 2025.
You don't hand a deal like that to a driver who isn't going to end up racing one of your cars soon - and Doohan's contract would allow such a swap early in the season.
Back in Enstone with the Team đź‘Š pic.twitter.com/YDT6TBNt5B
— BWT Alpine Formula One Team (@AlpineF1Team) January 27, 2025
And that creates an uncomfortable scenario where it feels like the first promoted Alpine Academy driver is on borrowed time before his rookie season has even started. - Josh Suttill
Will Mercedes have to drop one of its drivers?
Mercedes' flirtation with Verstappen amid Red Bull's early troubles played out in public last year but ultimately did not get very far.
However, should Verstappen endure more troubles with the RB21, or face some early warning signs about Red Bull's 2026 engine plans, then you can anticipate Mercedes' interest in pulling off a coup to be piqued once again.
Because however much Mercedes has talked about Andrea Kimi Antonelli and George Russell being part of the family and its long-term line-up, no team in its right mind would turn down the prospect of getting hold of Verstappen were he to put himself on the market.
And that would open up some intriguing decisions back at Brackley about exactly what it should do.
Last year, the Verstappen interest was totally logical because Mercedes had a vacancy due to the departing Hamilton, and it wanted to take its time before committing to Antonelli.
However, any renewal of discussions this season would take place in a very different scenario because both Russell and Antonelli are part of the furniture - and together they deliver that perfect combination of youth and experience.
But F1 is a ruthless business, and there is often little room for sentimentality when it comes to slotting in the best drivers available - especially if someone like Verstappen is on offer.
So who would be most at risk?
The answer could be obvious down the road if Antonelli does not deliver the consistent points-scoring and race-winning form that Mercedes believes he can. Parking him somewhere else would be easy too if there is run of incidents that makes the squad feel he needs to gain experience in another car.
But what if Antonelli turns out to be the superstar that Mercedes is convinced he is?
Then the debate will be over Russell and whether he has what it takes to deliver world titles. Or is fighting Verstappen always going to be much worse than having him in your own car?
Do not think for a second though that this driver market dynamic is all in Mercedes' hands, though, because Russell could become quite an important player in the market during 2025.
Would Red Bull even swoop for him if it felt that it was going to lose Verstappen, as he is potentially the best race-winning prospect available if it needed someone suitable to slot in? Intriguing times ahead. - JN
Will Sainz end Albon's post-Red Bull revival?
You could argue that how Sainz readapts to life in F1's midfield will be the biggest question of 2025 at Williams.
But Sainz is well prepared, he's going into the season expecting to be firmly in the midfield at best, and took every chance to savour his race-winning Ferrari in late-2024.
The spotlight instead might be on his new team-mate.
Colapinto's stunning start to his stand-in Williams stint already raised uncomfortable questions for Alex Albon in the latter half of 2024 as he faced a competitive team-mate for the first time at Williams.
While the pressure from Colapinto ultimately waned as his form dropped, Sainz is going to give Albon that pressure all season long.
That can be a good thing. If Albon can match or beat Sainz he'll prove he's at the level of a multiple-race winner who has previously held his own against Charles Leclerc and (less-rounded versions of) Lando Norris and Max Verstappen.
That would complete his post-Red Bull revival and prove he's worthy of having frontrunning machinery again.
But wilt against Sainz and all the credit he's been banking since 2022 will be lost. - JS
