In theory, the 2025 Formula 1 season should be the closest in recent history, with every team having had years to understand the current regulations.
With a new ruleset being introduced to F1 in 2026, every manufacturer now has to balance how they develop their cars between now and the end of the year.
For the likes of McLaren and Ferrari, they have every reason to concentrate on this year as they have a brilliant chance of winning both championships.
McLaren have made some interesting design choices to try and maintain their advantage and based on pre-season testing, it appears to have worked.
Red Bull will want to help Max Verstappen win a fifth consecutive title and while they didn’t look miles off McLaren, they didn’t have the smoothest three days in Bahrain.
Mercedes are the fourth team that could be in with a chance of winning races, although Alpine and Williams both showed enough potential to be considered outsiders to finish on the podium under the right conditions.
Unfortunately, the rest of the paddock may be in a position where the best they can hope for is the occasional point.
Aston Martin are in a fascinating position right now with 2026 appearing to be the priority for Lawrence Stroll’s team.
According to journalists Ben Anderson and Scott Mitchell-Malm on The Race F1 Podcast, star driver Fernando Alonso has already given his verdict on how this season is going to play out for him and teammate Lance Stroll.
Fernando Alonso has already ‘written off’ 2025 F1 season after Aston Martin struggles in testing
Anderson was asked if he thinks Alonso will want to leave if the team don’t move forward or if he’ll rally ahead of the new car being introduced in 2026.
He replied: “Well that’s absolutely what he’s holding out for. I think to me, Aston [Martin] looked the most lost of the teams in terms of their development and being able to do anything to the car.
“He even said that he felt like the order was going to be basically the same as Abu Dhabi, which for Aston is bad news because that puts them in the bottom three or four teams straight away.
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“They did nothing in the test, there was one all-rightish lap from Stroll on day two where I thought there might be some pace in it, but largely uninspiring.
“Alonso seemed grumpy, I think he’s written off 25 and he’s all about 26. He can’t wait for Newey to get in there and shake things up.
“Maybe Newey can find some low-hanging fruit that they can pick this season.
“But it’s all about getting ready for 26 and then for Alonso that’s probably his last shot, isn’t it? So he’s going to try and go out with a bang.”
Fernando Alonso has delivered worrying message to his camp after driving Aston Martin’s 2025 F1 car
Mitchell-Malm provided more details on Aston Martin’s testing performance and gave an insight into what the £19m-a-year driver told his camp about their newest car.
He said: “If it’s all a bit of a bluff and Aston Martin that have been hiding the most pace of anybody then everybody’s in on it and Alonso is selling it more than [anyone].
“We know what Alonso’s like he likes to play games sometimes, he’s very deliberate with his messaging but he pointed out that there’s no reason for it to be any different to Abu Dhabi last year.
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“There were some whispers on Friday morning that Alonso had already communicated to a couple of people close to him that he wasn’t particularly impressed by the car.
“So, if again that word’s getting out it’s a very well orchestrated leak of something to set an inaccurate narrative so that when they get on the track in Australia actually Aston’s mega and they prove everybody wrong.”
Aston Martin’s 2026 campaign could be Fernando Alonso’s final chance to win F1 championship
Alonso’s contract runs until the end of 2026 when he’ll be 45 years old.
He’s made it clear that it’s unlikely he’ll sign another deal but his motivation may change if Aston Martin are suddenly one of the title challengers next season.
Adrian Newey joined from Red Bull on Monday and it’s clear that he’ll have a deciding influence on next year’s car.
If he can put his stamp on the car quickly – alongside Honda’s arrival as their power unit supplier – then Alonso may have a chance to end his long wait for a Grand Prix victory.
Unfortunately, unless Alonso and Aston Martin were hiding a lot of performance in Bahrain, he’s going to have to wait a little bit longer to stand on the top step of the podium once again.
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