Formula 1’s relentless start to the season, featuring five races in six weeks, has had frenetic feel.
One weekend separated the doubleheader that started the campaign and the triple just completed, with five flyaway rounds in the Pacific and Middle East — Australia, China, Japan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia — already in the books. Now the series movies in the other direction of world timezones, with a week off before and after the Miami Grand Prix, the first standalone race of the 2025 season.
The likes of new championship leader Oscar Piastri, reigning champion Max Verstappen and Williams duo Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon have been thriving in this early-season sprint. There are several more, however, who will be grateful to have a brief let-up in the schedule.
Lando Norris | McLaren
This is the obvious one. Norris needs to change the whole feel around his season, and he needs to do it fast.
The Englishman started the season in line with his billing as preseason favorite: pole position and victory in Australia, holding on through a chaotic, topsy-turvy race in the rain to win. It felt like a statement performance. Since then, though, it’s felt like the wheels have fallen off his title bid. He’s been error prone, he’s been down on himself and even a little down on the car.
Leaving the triple header, he and Piastri now have the same amount of career wins — five apiece — and Norris is in danger of his Australian teammate running away with it. So what better place to turn things around than where Norris picked up the first of those 12 months ago?
The change in mindset at McLaren now it is the title favorite has been clear to see. Norris told Dutch TV on Sunday night that he will not repeat his pre-Miami trip to Amsterdam from last year, where videos of him DJing on a boat with Martin Garrix went viral just seven days before he claimed his maiden F1 victory at the circuit that snakes around Hard Rock Stadium.
“I’m fighting for a championship, I can’t afford to do these things,” Norris told ViaPlay on Sunday. “I’ve gotta go back home and train. As much as I would like a little drink, I’ve not drunk all year and I’m proud of that.”
It might seem fairly insignificant, but the importance of a week away from the noise associated with being an F1 title contender in a poor patch of form cannot be overstated. Norris must make it count. It’s too early to label him a driver in crisis; despite how bad he’s looked relative to Piastri lately, he’s still only 10 points behind, with 19 races to go. But something has to change quickly, otherwise Norris’ inability to seize the biggest opportunity of his Formula 1 career will be stuck to him like glue.
Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari
It took six weeks, but the air from Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is well and truly out of the bag. Coming into the season it was excitement on overdrive, but even a sprint win in China has done little to keep that hype train moving, as reality quickly set in. Saudi Arabia was another flat weekend; Hamilton was nowhere pace wise, while teammate Charles Leclerc took the team’s first grand prix podium of the season.
When asked by Sky Sports if he felt comfortable with the car during the race, Hamilton replied: “There wasn’t one second.” He added: “Well clearly the car is capable of being P3, so … Charles did a great job today, so I can’t blame the car.”
It’s not a new mindset for Hamilton. He was particularly hard on himself at points during his last three seasons at Mercedes and, like a lot of sporting greats, has always particularly struggled to deal with moments when things have not been clicking. And his current lack of click — something he still could not explain on Sunday night — with the Ferrari continues to be the storyline on his side of the garage.
Ferrari are not panicking yet. Beyond the Shanghai sprint, there was the middle stint in Bahrain, where Hamilton said he felt truly at one with his red Ferrari for the first time. Without the safety car that recalibrated everyone’s strategies, Ferrari might have had one or both cars challenging for a podium. Team boss Frédéric Vasseur pointed to both examples when explaining why he is not concerned about Hamilton’s slow start. Clearly when Hamilton and the car gel, good things are possible.
Hamilton is not a big fan of the Miami circuit, but with a trip to Imola, Ferrari heartland, the next race up, it would be a timely moment to get on the same page with his new car.
Jack Doohan | Alpine
It’s difficult to make sense of the Doohan situation. For weeks leading into the start of the season, reports suggested Alpine reserve Franco Colapinto would replace Doohan in time for the Miami Grand Prix. That speculation cooled somewhat, with The Race reporting the Australian now has until the summer break.
Alpine has been frustrated at the media because of the continuing rumor mill, but team boss Oliver Oakes has never given a clear answer on whether Doohan will see out the season, so it has been a rather pointless and self-inflicted distraction the team has created. Doohan has found himself in the middle of that, and its fair to wonder how much that has affected his form early in the year. Doohan’s name naturally is in the spotlight, regardless of whether a late driver swap materializes. Williams clearly loaned Colapinto to the team with an understanding or belief that he would get some race experience at some point in 2025.
The chatter around Colapinto has been intriguing, too. When Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson swapped seats in the days after China, the Argentine’s name came up again. Outlets in his home country reported that Red Bull was set to drop Lawson entirely and sign Colapinto to the junior team, a scenario that multiple sources told ESPN was never even explored by Red Bull. The appearance of Colapinto’s name in those reports has made it difficult to trust some of the chatter coming from his camp, and his status as Doohan’s eventual replacement seems less certain now than it was a month ago, even though many in the paddock assume some kind of deal exists for later in the year.
That’s all good news for Doohan, who deserves more time to prove his worth in F1. Alpine has been quick to stress how impressed it has been with him at points, but it’s hardly been a glowing start. Several things have worked against him, beyond the early collection of crashes. One is that Alpine’s car has also not lived up to preseason promise so far. Two is the high benchmark of teammate Pierre Gasly, whose seven points are the difference between the team being ninth and last in the championship. Third is how well other rookies — Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman, especially — have done early in the year.
Assuming Doohan gets the chance to race in Miami, it’s more than most thought he would get just a few weeks ago. He needs to use it as a platform to change the narrative about the lingering expiry date on his F1 career.
Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsundoa | Racing Bulls and Red Bull
There have been three consecutive race weekends since Lawson was replaced by Tsunoda at Red Bull, and Red Bull has good reason to feel positive about the decision.
Tsunoda’s pace has been encouraging. His Saudi tangle with Gasly was unfortunate, a classic opening-lap crash, and ruined what had been an encouraging starting position. Down the pit lane, Lawson has appeared to get a good handle on his Racing Bulls car, although he’s been out-performed by Hadjar so far — understandably, given the nature of his return to the team without any testing.
Hadjar has seen Lawson make a quick improvement in the past 21 days. Speaking after Sunday’s race, the French rookie said: “This weekend [Lawson] was really, really fast. In qualifying, he made the most of the car. He’s definitely getting stronger now, definitely pushing me just like Yuki was pushing me as well.”
Racing Bulls boss Laurent Mekies has also said Lawson readjusted to the swap quicker than the team thought he might. The Kiwi was unlucky to get a 10-second penalty in Jeddah but looked to be in the best shape since returning to the junior team.
As for Tsunoda, he’s clearly handling the car and the role as Verstappen’s teammate better than Lawson did in the opening two races. It’s been a whirlwind for Tsunoda and Lawson, and both have a chance now to step back and take some stock of where they are.
Aston Martin
A team to finish this list. Lawrence Stroll’s outfit is absolutely nowhere at the minute.
Clearly there’s a lot of focus on 2026, which new managing technical partner Adrian Newey is predominantly focused on, but it’s still been stark to see how off the pace the British Racing Green cars have been. Three pointless races during the triple header have stung, especially after Lance Stroll opened the team’s account in the opening two rounds. Most surprisingly is that Fernando Alonso is one of four drivers with a zero next to his name in the championship table — the other three are rookies.
Also on the 2026 focus, the same is true of every other team on the grid. While Aston Martin is switching to an exclusive Honda deal, Red Bull is also juggling its 2025 challenger with a brand-new engine project for 2026. Perhaps more reassuringly for Lawrence Stroll is that the other two teams making major changes for next season — Sauber, set to be taken over by Audi, and Alpine, which will become a Mercedes customer next season — have also had fairly anonymous starts, but F1 is a results business and throwing in the towel is never a good look.
Seeing is believing. Aston Martin has talked a lot about transforming into a championship contender in the near future, but at the moment, the operation all seems to be performing a little below its capabilities.
Source: espn.com