The 2025 Formula 1 season is set to be fascinating as all 10 manufacturers have to balance this year’s expectations and the challenges of next season.
The 2025 grid has been confirmed and among the established stars of Formula 1, there’s a handful of rookies looking to make a good impression.
Many teams decided this year was the perfect time to introduce these new drivers because F1 will be introducing new regulations in 2026 that could completely change the hierarchy in the paddock.
Therefore, these rookies, such as Andrea Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes and Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber, have a year to get up to speed before they’re expected to challenge further up the grid next year when every manufacturer is expecting to be more competitive.
For 2024’s top four teams, this year certainly isn’t a write-off with each of their drivers expecting to be challenging for race wins and potentially even the championship.
The rest of the grid, however, may see this year very differently, with three F1 teams already concentrating the majority of their resources on 2026’s car.
The constructor that appears to be caught in the middle of all of this are Aston Martin.
They finished as the best of the rest in 2024 but took clear steps backwards compared to their competitiveness the year before.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll will understand how important 2026 is to the £1.6bn-valued team, but the vast amount of investment made by Lawrence Stroll means that they shouldn’t ever be settling for a place in the sport’s midfield.
Aston Martin expected to perform ‘very badly’ in 2025 season, Fernando Alonso ‘quite angry’
Journalist Piergiuseppe Donadoni was initially talking on the Autoracer livestream about Alpine’s new car before going on to talk about their potential rivals this season and said: “They confirmed to me that it [this year’s chassis] is an evolution of the previous one.
“I still haven’t understood if it was due to the crash test, let’s put it that way, if it’s totally new and perhaps it is, or just a chassis from last year that if you remember, has been lightened compared to the start of the championship, modified in certain areas where a crash test is not needed.
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“Alpine would seem to be aiming a bit more on 2026. Aston Martin, I don’t know about you, but they speak very badly of it in the sense that they don’t expect it [the car to be competitive].
“Fernando was quite angry when he saw the car and Racing Bulls, it is always a bit of a question mark, will they take that many components from last year’s Red Bull?
“But we know that last year’s Red Bull was anything but easy to drive.”
Fernando Alonso running out of time to achieve his elusive third F1 world championship
While Lance Stroll can afford to be patient and see how competitive Aston Martin’s 2026 car is, Alonso will know that he can’t keep racing forever.
He’s spent too many seasons in Formula 1 trying to extract the maximum potential out of average cars and considering he’ll turn 44 halfway through this season, there’s a real possibility that his current contract is his last.
Therefore, it’s understandable why Alonso might be ‘quite angry’ as Donadoni suggests with the situation he finds himself in.
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When he first joined the team going into 2023, Alonso was regularly challenging for podiums but the regression he’s experienced will be very worrying.
Aston Martin are pinning all of their hopes on the arrival of Adrian Newey, Honda and several other key staff with 2026 as their main focus.
If that doesn’t work out, then Alonso’s F1 career will come to an end 20 years after he won his last championship with Renault.
