It’s lights out and away we go for a new season of Formula 1. For those of you who have never watched Formula 1 and always ask your friends who do watch, “What’s the difference between Formula 1 and the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing?” Here’s a brief rundown. 

Formula 1 is a racing series where all the teams create their own cars and race on circuits designed with many turns. In NASCAR, everyone gets the same basic car to start with; it’s what’s called a stock car series, and they all race on an oval shaped track. Formula 1 has ten teams with two drivers who race throughout the world. To determine where everyone starts for each race, Formula 1 has a qualifying period where each driver tries to set their fastest possible lap. The line-up is set corresponding to how fast the racer goes in qualifying, with first being the fastest at qualifying. This is why for a team to truly excel, they must be capable of speed over one lap, and they must have consistency over longer distances such as a 70-lap race. All ten teams race for the driver's championship, which is awarded to the best driver, and the team championship, which is given to the best team.

Last season, Max Verstappen took his fourth consecutive drivers' championship win. The McLaren squad, with drivers Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris, won the team championship. Shocking driver changes happened in almost every team, and a whopping 30% of all drivers will be rookies this season.

This past off-season has been one to remember. Heading into the break, most drivers were out of a contract, leading to a mess of driver moves and rookie debuts. The most exciting transfer was the greatest driver of all time going to the greatest team. Lewis Hamilton uniting with Ferrari should usher in a new wave of dominance, and while the pairing of the greats should be able to fight for wins and the championship, the team to beat is still McLaren.

Having won the team championship last year, McLaren has kept both of their drivers. They were the stars of pre-season testing in Bahrain, where all the teams can run their cars in a low-stakes environment before the season starts. Pre-season testing gives all the teams a chance to prove themselves or figure out where they went wrong when they built their cars. While the McLaren squad wasn’t the fastest over one lap, they dominated in the long tests that mimicked a full race. Testing showed many changes, with some teams copying their more competitive rivals and others arriving with genius developments sure to skyrocket their team in rankings from the previous year. 

The Williams squad seems to be the team with the best improvements following their recent signing of the ex-Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz. With Lewis Hamilton taking his place at Ferrari, Sainz left for the rapidly improving team and set the fastest lap of the pre-season. While Williams is struggling to match the consistency of the top teams over long distances, they seem poised to make a fight for a top-five spot in the constructors championship this year. It would be a big step up from their ninth place win in 2024.

The biggest disappointment of testing seems to be Sauber. For the third year in a row, they will likely end up in the bottom two of ten teams. With the rookie Gabriel Bortoleto joining veteran Nico Hulkenberg, it seems that at the season's end, they will have to go back to the drawing board once more. 

Having covered the biggest winners, losers and surprises, it's time for the oddest pre-season testing results. This designation goes to Red Bull, who, as in previous years, have said there is a lot of work to be done on the car following a below par performance in testing. Nearly every year in which they have claimed to be disappointed in the car, they have fought for or won the championship, leading many to believe that this year, they are again lying about the true abilities of their car. Team Red Bull will be taking Max Verstappen and rookie Liam Lawson  this year in their quest for a fifth straight championship either in the drivers or team championship.

Another rookie looking to make a splash is the wonderkid Kimi Antonelli. The Mercedes rookie has been touted since his karting days as the next big thing, and this year is his chance to prove it. He has the weighty task of replacing Lewis Hamilton, but many think he can succeed. He will be supported by a greatly improved car and an incredibly fast teammate in George Russel after last year's mediocrity.

The Aston Martin team has also stayed with the same driver lineup. This is not shocking to anyone considering they have one of the greatest drivers of all time, Fernando Alonso — and the owner's son, Lance Stroll. They should have a middle-of-the-pack season, fighting for the top ten in most races.

The three teams probably slotting into seventh, eighth and ninth places at the end of the season are Haas, the Red Bull’s junior team Racing Bulls and the French squad Alpine. Haas seems to be rebuilding with a rookie driver and team boss. The Racing Bulls are, as always, the little siblings trying to claim a seat at the adult table and could make a fight this year with their new driver pairing. Thankfully for Alpine, the only way is up in terms of driver pairings. Last year, they had two drivers who had hated each other's guts for years in Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. The rookie Jack Doohan, who they’ve brought in to partner with Gasly, isn’t going to single-handedly salvage this burning wreck of a team, so it seems they will also be in for a rough season. In short, it would seem that these three teams are again consigned to mediocrity.

While these predictions may seem set in stone, it should be an incredibly exhilarating season with twists and turns (no pun intended) to really shake things up.