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We're only just over a month and a half away from seeing the 2025 Formula 1 cars in action for the sole pre-season test.
The key decisions that dictate how a team performs will already have been taken, but there's still a huge amount of work to be done to get the car ready for the launch and the first track running, while development continues in the background.
All of the teams will be hard at work before then trying to ensure they start the season with the best foot forward. All the teams will have an idea of what kind of year it thinks it will have, but will only really know come Saturday in Australia.
By then, they will already be well into working out what they need to fix and how they will approach ongoing development of their current cars and the new regulations for 2026.
There are plenty of challenges facing each squad, so let's go team-by-team - in 2024 championship order - and look ahead to what each one needs to improve the most in 2025.
For an extra bit of fun, I've also made a very early tentative prediction of 2025's championship order based on everything we've seen across the last few years and the trajectory of each team.
McLaren
If McLaren keeps doing what it did in the latter part of 2024, which was built on a sound understanding of what these ground effect cars need to go quickly, then it will be the favourite for this year's title.
Improving in slow corners is a target, but you have to be careful that doesn't come at the expense of high-speed stability.
I don't think it will rest on its laurels. It did that when it ran the Honda power unit and it really set McLaren back for quite a few years, and you are only as good as your next result so keeping your head down is critical.
Managing the drivers from day one will also be important. At times in 2024 it made a bit of a mess of that and left too many decisions up to the drivers. It will have learned from it and I would suggest McLaren needs to have a plan in place before race one.
As team boss Andrea Stella has already pointed out, McLaren can't get complacent now it's at the top in F1. The top four is so tight that even a small slip-up can send you from first to fourth in the pecking order.
Red Bull's sudden decline in 2024 is a reminder that even a team with a healthy buffer can soon be in big trouble if the necessary development strides aren't taken.
From my point of view, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri are the most evenly matched pairing on the grid.
Both are fast and still learning, but it will depend on how the start of the season unfolds as to how the relationship builds.
However, I'm sure there will be some mild fireworks at some point during the season and McLaren needs to be there to put out the fire immediately.
Early 2025 prediction: 1st
Ferrari
Ferrari must focus on not taking so long to realise when it's gone down the wrong development route - its mid-season dip cost it a title in 2024 - and just as importantly, it must not make strategy mistakes.
From the outside it seems that when the pressure was on it tended to react differently to when it was just another day in the office. In Las Vegas mistakes were made that didn't go down too well with either driver, and whether you are running first and second or ninth and 1oth the strategy team needs to be simply making decisions to suit the situation. I'm not saying the same decision, but decisions from a cool and clear head.
Even though Ferrari has improved in this area, we heard Carlos Sainz on the radio many times offering suggestions or complaining about strategy calls, so with Lewis Hamilton's arrival, this is something the team must be on top of.
For Charles Leclerc, there won't be the same family team atmosphere that Sainz brought to Ferrari. Yes, they had their battles, but resolved most of them amicably. With Hamilton, a seven-time champion, joining, it could be completely different.
Ferrari has already backed him to the hilt in paying him way more than Leclerc and I think it will do the same - back Hamilton - for the first part of the season at least, which could rile Leclerc.
I think Monaco will be the showdown: both are good there but Leclerc is exceptional.
Early 2025 prediction: 4th
Red Bull
Red Bull must regroup after a bruising season. Development stagnated in 2024 and while there were lots of bits-and-pieces appearing none of them rectified the problem of a lack of consistent balance.
With all the talk that Adrian Newey wasn't being relied upon, 2025 is the time to prove that really is the case.
As he's done since seeing off Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen will lead the team in the way he wants the car, and Liam Lawson will have to live with that and just hope he can come up with the driving style required to bring some big points-scoring results home.
As Verstappen's clear number two, Lawson will have a bit of time to prove he was worthy of the promotion but that will soon wear off.
Red Bull is renowned for expecting results from newbies far earlier than they are ready. If Verstappen has a bad day, Lawson will be expected to be there to pick up the pieces.
Early 2025 prediction: 2nd
Mercedes
The Mercedes still seems to be very ride-height critical, so the working window must be widened with its W16.
That might make the car slower initially but consistency will allow the drivers to give more informative feedback and the engineers to set a more defined development plan.
A more consistent platform will also provide a better launchpad for rookie Kimi Antonelli than 2024's unpredictable W15 would have.
Antonelli is fast but the big thing he needs to learn quickly is that you can only be as fast as the car permits. If he starts throwing the car into the barriers he will lose confidence.
George Russell has done a good job since getting his promotion from Williams to Mercedes. When Hamilton was off the boil in 2024, Russell certainly showed he could lead the team and I am pretty sure he will only grow further in that position in 2025.
Early 2025 prediction: 3rd
Aston Martin
Aston Martin needs to show that it can introduce developments that go in a positive direction.
With Newey coming onboard in early 2025 it will be a bit late for miracles, but the ultimate answer lies in the word 'team' - and getting all these egos pulling in the same direction.
That's not going to be accomplished overnight.
There is no magic bullet. You need to have a design philosophy throughout the company and more importantly the car that allows you to understand what you have and how to move forward.
I don't think Aston Martin has that at the moment and that means that its development direction is a bit of a scattergun approach; you might be lucky and hit something but there are no guarantees.
Early 2025 prediction: 7th
Alpine
The most encouraging thing was what underpinned Alpine's impressive 2024 turnaround.
David Sanchez arrived as technical director in May, put a hold on updates and instead made changes to the development philosophy. That led directly to the big step forward with the major United States Grand Prix upgrade package.
Apply that logic to the 2025 car and Alpine might be looking like a credible works team again (in its final year of being one).
I fear Alpine will struggle as a one-car team for a fair amount of the season. Rookie Jack Doohan is OK, but I don't think he is at the Antonelli level for example.
Gasly and the car came of age at the end of 2024, so if they can continue that upward slope he will be scoring big points and knocking on the door of the podium occasionally - but I wouldn't expect it every race weekend.
Early 2025 prediction: 5th
Haas
It's going to be difficult for Haas to improve much next year on its respectable 2024 position. With a major rule change for 2026 on the horizon and a team with comparatively limited resources, much depends on how and when you switch over your brain power to that new project.
However, the new deal with Toyota will start to have an effect and that could be great news for the work on the 2026 car.
I worry Haas will miss Nico Hulkenberg and his ability to drag that bit extra out of the car. It will miss Kevin Magnussen as well but, because of his inconsistency, not to the same extent as Hulkenberg.
I predict Ollie Bearman will have the upper hand very early in the season and as we know from the past, Esteban Ocon and team-mates are never best buddies.
Early 2025 prediction: 9th
Racing Bulls
I suppose you could say the same management mentality of always questioning the drivers spreads across both of Red Bull's teams but I'd be looking more closely at the development problems that meant Racing Bulls, like Ferrari, lost its way in the middle part of the season after a Spain floor upgrade.
It can't afford a repeat in 2025. Everyone makes mistakes but recognising them quickly and rectifying them is what a team structure should be all about.
Driver-wise, Yuki Tsunoda has to prove that the mothership made the wrong choice. He also has to prove he is faster than new boy Isack Hadjar, who I actually rate fairly highly.
The team was, as it has been for many years, a bit inconsistent. Racing Bulls needs to stabilise that and allow the drivers to get the best out of what they have.
Early 2025 prediction: 8th
Williams
Williams must start this season more organised. It's had a season to get its systems up and running to a level that should make designing, manufacturing and planning more coordinated and efficient to allow it to put more comprehensive development plans in place and achieve them.
The positive is that if it had started 2024 on the weight limit and avoided the crashing problem, then it could have scored a lot more points.
With Sainz now having joined, there can be no such missed opportunities and Williams must do everything it can to reap the benefits of having a race-winning driver at its disposal, one who has been embedded inside an elite team for the last four seasons.
Sainz will also help Alex Albon and allow him to realise when the car is at the correct level.
Williams has a strong driver pairing but that is not a magic bullet for podiums.
I just hope they can work together and build with the team for 2026 when a whole new challenge, due to new regulations, could give the team the opportunity to really move forward - back to where we, the old timers, would like to see Williams competing.
Early 2025 prediction: 6th
Sauber
What's concerning is that the upgrades that gave Sauber that late-season improved performance were originally intended for much earlier in 2024, so something is going wrong there with planning and delivering of upgrades.
That's the first thing it needs to rectify if it's to be a fully functioning works team when Audi properly arrives in 2026.
I think Sauber will score more points in 2025 than it did last year but then I think all of the teams, especially the second half of the pack, will do just that.
Unless a one-off, high-points-scoring lucky race happens, then until the team strengthens it will be stuck where it is.
Early 2025 prediction: 10th
Early 2025 predictions in full
1 McLaren
2 Red Bull
3 Mercedes
4 Ferrari
5 Alpine
6 Williams
7 Aston Martin
8 Racing Bulls
9 Haas
10 Sauber
Do you agree with Gary's predictions? Let us know in the comments below
