After one of the most intriguing offseasons in recent memory, Formula One racing is back.
The season begins on Sunday in Australia with changes aplenty, but the dominance of defending champion Max Verstappen still looms large over the grid.
Here’s everything you need to know about the 2025 F1 season.
How to watch
The new season begins in Australia for the first time since 2019 and will conclude in Abu Dhabi in December.
The schedule remains at 24 races – the most ever in a single F1 season – with the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix pushed back in the calendar during Ramadan.
Fans in the US can watch all the action on ESPN, while Sky Sports broadcasts races for viewers in the UK.
To see a full list of the F1’s broadcasters, click here.
New faces, new places
As is commonplace between F1 seasons, there have been plenty of driver changes. The most headline-grabbing move has been seven-time world drivers’ champion Lewis Hamilton leaving Mercedes and joining Ferrari.
Hamilton shocked the sport last year when it was announced he would be joining the Italian outfit this season, replacing Carlos Sainz and ending his 12 successful years at Mercedes.
The 40-year-old will now join Charles Leclerc in wearing the famous red of Ferrari as the team looks for its first drivers’ world title since 2007.
Hamilton has become one of F1’s biggest names since making his debut in 2007 and his arrival at Maranello was met with the appropriate fanfare.
The Brit’s photo on his first official day at Ferrari has become the most liked F1 Instagram post of all-time. He posed for a series of photos dressed in a black suit next to a Ferrari F40 supercar with the iconic converted farmhouse of the team’s founder, Enzo Ferrari, in the background.
Hamilton told CNN Sports ahead of the new season that the switch of teams was the “challenge that I really needed” to reinvigorate his driving career.
“When I was making the decision, I knew it would be big. Did I know just how big? ‘How long is a piece of string?’” he said. “It’s been the most exciting couple of months that I can remember having.
“It’s been a big, big step and exciting … Every day’s been something completely new and the challenge that I’m having is something that I really needed. I know I’m exactly where I’m meant to be right this moment.”
Fans in Australia will have the first opportunity to see Hamilton competitively race in the Ferrari red as he and Leclerc look to restore the team back to the top of the F1 perch.
And on the eve of the opening race in Australia, Hamilton expressed his excitement to get going, saying his emotions mirror those he felt ahead of his rookie season almost 20 years ago.
“I think just, always through the years, the pressure that I’ve put on myself has always been 10 times higher than any other pressure that can be put upon me,” he told reporters on Thursday at the driver’s press conference ahead of the Australian Grand Prix. “I’ve not joined this team and been made to feel any pressure.
“I have an expectation for myself, I know what I can bring, I know what I can deliver, and I know what it’s going to take to do that. It’s just getting your head down and working away. I come with a very open mind coming into this weekend.
“It’s (also) a different way of working… the whole team works completely differently. You’re looking at things from a different perspective, which makes it exciting and challenging. This is definitely the most exciting period of my life, so I’m really just enjoying it.”
Five in a row?
If Hamilton and Leclerc are to challenge for the world title, they will have to supplant Verstappen from the top.
The Dutch driver is the four-time reigning drivers’ world champion and is aiming for his fifth successive title in 2025.
Although Verstappen and Red Bull are the team to beat at the moment, their start to 2025 hasn’t been smooth sailing.
The Dutchman finished second fastest during preseason testing in Bahrain, but admitted Red Bull has “still a bit of work to do” to reach the heights the team has set recently.