Although Bernie Ecclestone says the F1 2025 championship is “open”, the former F1 supremo believes Max Verstappen “will” still make it five from five ahead of McLaren and Ferrari.

As for the Ferrari battle, he’s leaning more towards Charles Leclerc than Lewis Hamilton for that one.

Bernie Ecclestone sets out his F1 2025 predictions

After two years of near domination, Red Bull winning a whopping 21 of 2023’s 22 races, Max Verstappen and his team were made to work for the World title last season as Red Bull’s rivals narrowed the on-track deficit in the ground-effect era.

While the Dutchman recovered from a 10-race winless streak, his longest since 2020, to win the Drivers’ Championship title ahead of Lando Norris, McLaren clinched a first Constructors’ crown since 1998.

Such was the level of competition that Red Bull only won nine of the 24 races as McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes all enjoyed multiple successes. The Milton Keynes squad dropped to third in the teams’ standings as Ferrari also surged ahead.

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This season is expected to be even closer with four teams; Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes, fighting for both championship titles.

McLaren, number-crunchers and rival teams claim, have the advantage going into the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with the Woking team reportedly two or even three-tenths up in race trim during pre-season testing.

“McLaren, if you look at the test results, already has a head start,” declared Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko. “That was the case in both the short and long runs.

“The current favourite is clearly McLaren.”

George Russell concurred: “I think McLaren are going to be pretty strong. Lando says they’ve found a lot over the winter and he’s looking pretty confident.”

But while Ecclestone agrees that McLaren are in the mix, that’s not the team he’d like to see win the F1 2025 World title.

“You’d have to obviously think McLaren and I’d like to see Ferrari win,” the 92-year-old told Reuters.

And if a Ferrari driver were to win, well, the former F1 supremo reckons Charles Leclerc could have the edge over Lewis Hamilton as he does not foresee Ferrari forsaking their long-time driver in favour of the seven-time World Champion.

“He’s been there all the way through so they are hardly going to dump him for Lewis,” Ecclestone said of the Monegasque driver. “I’m not saying Lewis isn’t possible, just that they will not stop looking after and hoping Leclerc’s going to get the job done.”

But, and here it comes, when all is said and done, Bernie believes the F1 2025 Drivers’ Championship title “will” go to Verstappen – if the RB21 can do the job.

“I’m pleased in lots of ways that it (the championship) is open in the way that it is, and it’s good,” Ecclestone said. “I still think Max will win.

“There’s no reason why he shouldn’t. If he’s got the equipment, obviously there’d be no discussion about him. It would be a definite. If the car’s up to it, he’ll get the job done.”

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