The 2025 Formula 1 constructors’ championship could very well go down to the wire like it did last season.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix played host to yet another championship decider with McLaren and Ferrari who were both searching for their first titles in more than a decade.
Lando Norris produced one of the best performances of his career to get McLaren over the line, despite being joined by Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc on the podium.
Leclerc produced an epic performance in Abu Dhabi, and the spin suffered by Oscar Piastri after colliding with Max Verstappen almost cost the Woking-based team their first constructors’ championship since 1998.
The nature of Formula 1 is that as soon as the celebrations ended after the season finale, with McLaren’s team flown to Bahrain to celebrate their win, attention immediately turned to 2025.
In fact, many of McLaren and Ferrari’s personnel would have been working on this year’s car for some time. The same way work is well underway to prepare for F1 new regulations in 2026.
Unless Red Bull or Mercedes take impressive steps forward, or another team on the grid stuns the rest of the paddock, Ferrari and McLaren will be the favourites at the start of 2025.
Former designer and journalist Gary Anderson has now seen both of the team’s 2025 designs.
Speaking on The Race F1 Podcast, he gave his verdict on which team have taken more risks with their final car of his generation.
Gary Anders thinks McLaren have taken ‘bigger steps’ with their 2025 F1 car than Ferrari
Anderson was asked which out of the 2025 McLaren and Ferrari he ‘particularly liked the look of’ ahead of the other and said: “Well, the one thing I would say is that McLaren have, I suppose you could say, taken risks in my opinion with how far they’ve exploited the longitudinal suspension geometry.
“Using braking and accelerating to try to control the aero platform of the car.
“And my biggest worry with that is that from my experience, it’s one of these that is so difficult to simulate. It’s about driver feel, it’s about how the driver is affected by it all.
“So, I think on the track, if McLaren don’t have problems, then I think McLaren have taken bigger steps than Ferrari.
READ MORE: All you need to know about McLaren F1 Team from team principal to engine
“That said, if McLaren do have problems, then Ferrari have played safe I suppose you might call it.
“I think they’ll still be together battling quite closely and that’s what I want to see. And I want to see Red Bull join the club, Mercedes join the club, [and] perhaps even Alpine join the club.
“We want a competitive season. It’s the end of these rules, there’s going to be a separation of this grid in 2026 for sure because of the rule change for them because it’s quite big.
“So, this year’s the fourth year of ground effect rules as we know them and I would love to see a season where we have no idea who’s going to win the championship until the last couple of races.”
Ferrari will hope Lewis Hamilton trump card gives them the advantage over McLaren
The difference between McLaren and Ferrari at the end of last season was just 14 points, which considering Andrea Stella’s team ended the campaign with a tally of 666 shows how tight it was.
McLaren have made some bold design choices and while there is risk attached to that, Stella and his team have been conservative with their update packages over the past two years to avoid shooting themselves in the foot.
Ferrari have updated their suspension package but Anderson points out, that their new car is leaning slightly on the conservative side which isn’t a surprise given how far into this set of regulations the sport is.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory
While the cars are different from last year, the other big change is Lewis Hamilton’s arrival in place of Sainz.
Hamilton is more motivated than ever after signing for Ferrari and while his 2024 campaign didn’t stand out, he should be an upgrade on the impressive Spaniard.
That might make all the difference but fans won’t know until the Australian Grand Prix – or even a few races after that – which design team nailed their 2025 car.
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