Gary Anderson's verdict on every F1 team's 2025 performance
The Season in Review: A Tale of Two Halves
When it comes to reviewing a long, hard Formula 1 season fairly, you must avoid falling into the trap of the final part of the year being so fresh in your memory. It's the points scored over all 24 events, sprint races and all, that matter, so to avoid that recency bias, it's important to remember that the numbers don’t lie and allow you to see the real shape of the season for the 10 teams.
To put some structure into the season, I’ve looked at each team in constructors’ championship order in terms of their performance across four six-race blocks. This makes it possible to see how development progressed independent of the swings caused by track characteristics.
1st - McLaren: A RemARKable Turnaround
When these ground effect regulations were introduced in 2022, McLaren could barely do a lap trouble-free in testing in Bahrain and went on to finish fifth in the championship with just 159 points.
What followed was a remarkable turnaround; fourth in 2023 with 302 points, first with 666 points in 2024 and this year first again, this time with 833 points. This shows what’s possible if you take the time to understand what the car needs within a set of regulations to be consistently fast.
Yes, the McLaren MCL39 was slightly better at some circuits than others, but its definition of ‘bad’ was far beyond what most teams could dream of at their best. The car was particularly good at keeping rear tyre temperatures under control, although overtaking was always difficult, given it had plenty of downforce and therefore was one of the cars carrying more drag.
Lando Norris made an interesting comment when asked why he didn’t back off more near the end of the race after taking a safe third-place finish in Abu Dhabi, saying the car becomes harder to drive if you back off too much. This comes from the level of anti-dive, anti-lift and pro-squat McLaren uses. If you don’t load the car up correctly on the brakes and throttle, it is easier to lock a wheel or make a mistake.
If McLaren can build on this success during this next regulation cycle, then it really could be back to the heyday of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna doing battle. With Norris and Oscar Piastri, McLaren continues with its philosophy of not having a number one and number two driver, which is great to see.
2nd - Mercedes: Struggles and Setbacks
Mercedes must have felt a little deflated at the start of the year after the departure of Lewis Hamilton, who the team was built around. But with George Russell stepping up to the mark, it was soon business as usual.
The ground effect regulations have exposed the weaknesses of this once-dominant team in terms of both its aerodynamic and mechanical understanding. Its simulation tools don’t seem to be leading it to the necessary answers needed to get back on top. Team principal Toto Wolff has described it as a process of peeling back the layers as it works through problems, but Mercedes simply has not done this fast enough for a team with its resources and know-how.
This is where Mercedes must focus. If the tools you use don’t give the correct answers, you need to look more deeply at the reasons why. These tools are essential to focus your car’s development direction and without them, you are blindly going from one (hopefully) miracle cure to another.
We saw that problem on track this year with the rear suspension upgrade introduced at Imola. This was then taken off for two races, then put back on, then eventually abandoned for good, making the car more difficult to drive is ok as long as there is a reward in lap otherwise it just leads to more mistakes.
In Las Vegas last year, and in Montreal and Singapore this year, Mercedes was dominant, but at other circuits it was fighting for best of the rest. I’m not convinced to this day that those in the team really understand what the difference was.
3rd - Red Bull: A Tale of Two Halves
Red Bull was a one-car team this year, just as it was for most of last year. That stopped it from finishing second, or even pushing McLaren for the constructors’ title.
The first quarter of the season wasn’t bad, with Verstappen scoring 99 points to Piastri’s 131. Then came developments that took it in the wrong direction, with complaints about disconnected balance a regular occurrence. Changes post-Silverstone and a more engineering-led development path brought it back into contention.
In the final quarter of the season, Verstappen managed 148 points to Norris’s 109. But for the question marks about the power unit, you’d say Red Bull would go into 2026 full of confidence after that recovery, even though the problems with what it called “disconnected balance” were never completely eliminated.
It’s never as simple as pointing to the change in team principal from Christian Horner to Laurent Mekies, but there was unquestionably a refocusing of efforts that finally unlocked car performance and got the best out of the technical team.
Some will say Red Bull was the only top team to keep developing until late in the season and that is true. However, when you are having problems plotting your development path you need to look closely at why. If you can identify that, it puts you in a better position with more confidence in what you are doing for the changes coming for ‘26.
4th Ferrari: A Season of Turmoil
Ferrari endured a season of turmoil. The rumours in the Italian media about Fred Vasseur being sacked and big boss John Elkann firing a warning shot at the drivers and their lack of performance mean it’s difficult for those in Ferrari not to keep looking over their shoulders to see how far away the knife is.
This was about as demotivating as it could be and it really disrupted the direction of travel. Yes, Ferrari stopped development early to focus on 2026, but sometimes you need to prove to yourself that you understand why you are struggling. If you can do that, you move forward with more confidence as opposed to just making the same mistakes again.
The car was very difficult to drive and had to run low to produce the downforce. This led to Ferrari having to lift and coast at the end of straights to reduce the downforce and prevent the car being pushed lower, generating greater plank wear. That’s no way to go racing.
Ferrari wasn’t able to rectify this problem despite introducing a modified rear suspension package for the Belgian Grand Prix in the middle of the season. When you have these problems, you need to rectify them to show you’ve really understood the problem. Ferrari didn’t do that, which is a concern.
5th - Williams: Progress and Promise
We finally started to see the fruits of the rebuilding process that team principal James Vowles has been talking about for the past three years. Williams has been transformed from a team that not so long ago couldn’t get a car ready for the start of pre-season testing into one that finished fifth in the championship with two podiums. That’s real progress, but the next step is the big one.
With teams now having in the region of a thousand people to keep pointing in the same direction, the systems you have in place need to work efficiently. At the touch of a button, you need to be able to trace a part and where it stands in design, manufacturing or in the active parts pool. You need to take a similar approach with your staff, and this is an area Williams has clearly improved significantly.
The season hasn’t been an easy one. Williams had its ups and downs but so did all the others, although Williams swung between being up there snapping at the heels of the frontrunners to struggling outside the points. For quite a few years, it seemed to have a very efficient car on fast circuits but now a better all-rounder.
That is what you need for the selection of circuits that currently make up the season, rather than being too dependent on the circuit configuration - and there’s still more progress to be made on this score for Williams. Right through to the end of the season, corners with combination braking/turning entries proved difficult.
Finishing fifth in the constructors’ championship is a decent payday, but mixing it with the big four is a whole new dimension. Williams stopped development of the 2025 car early to concentrate on 2026, so with the new regulations coming into play next year, it will be a good test of where Williams really stands in its process of recovery.
6th - Racing Bulls: A B-Team in Disguise
Racing Bulls became more of a Red Bull B-team in 2025. It uses as much of Red Bull’s mechanical components as possible, including the 2024-specification suspension and gearbox, which reduces the headcount required to design and manufacture everything that makes up an F1 car.
It still must create its own aerodynamic concept and the Racing Bulls package seems to have a wider working window than sister team Red Bull. It doesn’t have the ultimate downforce, but as a team that was initially set up to bring on rookies, that is exactly what you need. The VCARB 02 was a consistently good car in the midfield, easy to set up and giving the drivers confidence, with Hadjar in particular rising to the occasion, having been given his chance.
7th - Aston Martin: A Slippery Slope
It may still be early days, but finishing seventh in the constructors’ championship was a disappointment for a team of Aston Martin’s ambition. Like many teams, it never seemed to find that sweet spot in the performance of the car. It was either up or down and it never stabilised in its performance, struggling on tracks where aerodynamic efficiency and straightline speed are key. In situations like that, it’s difficult to know what direction to take with development. It also points to questionable simulation tools, which doesn’t inspire confidence for next year.
Aston Martin has been on a slippery slope over the past couple of seasons, this is shown by the constant leadership changes. Adrian Newey is now head honcho and also takes over as team principal next year, but his focus must be entirely on engineering and car performance.
He has made changes and redirected the team’s focus onto what he believes matters and made personnel changes on the design and development side. He has control so has to prove that he can add to the combined total of 26 world championships won by his cars. I just hope he hasn’t spread himself too thinly by taking over as team principal too.
8th - Haas: A Season of Highs and Lows
This was a season of highs and lows. Ayao Komatsu’s second year as team principal started badly with bouncing problems in the high-speed corners in Australia, with a hastily-put-together floor upgrade introduced for the third race at Suzuka leading to a big improvement. That shows good understanding of the car, because it was put into production before it had even been tried in the windtunnel, that shows that ‘gut feel’ still has a place in today’s technically-driven F1.
There were further significant upgrades at Silverstone and Austin as Haas pushed development deeper into the season than many of its rivals in the midfield. That meant it was strong in the final part of the season, with Ollie Bearman’s fourth place in Mexico matching the team’s best result.
9th - Sauber: The End of an Era
This was the end of the era for Sauber, with the name disappearing from the grid for the first time since the team first appeared in 1993. Nothing really changed for its last season, most of the season was spent in the midfield with Nico Hulkenberg’s third place at Silverstone the moment of glory.
The numbers speak for themselves. Like the majority of teams, Sauber was up and down in terms of performance. I always say it’s better to be stable and recognise where you really stand rather than have the odd good weekend of glory, which can just confuse you. What was encouraging was that after a bad start, a series of floor upgrades introduced from the Spanish Grand Prix onwards made the car more aerodynamically consistent.
Next year, the name above the door is changing. It’s all going to be about Audi and how it blends into F1. In reality, the only difference will be the power unit supplier. Audi has been working on it for a few years and with its experience in other formulas, especially the World Endurance Championship, it might just get it right the first time. As for the chassis side of things, I’m not sure much will change. The drivers are the same, but as a full works team, there’s nowhere to hide.
10th - Alpine: Lost in the Fog
There is not much to say about Alpine. It was consistently bad and the driver change from Jack Doohan to Franco Colapinto didn’t help matters. The team seems lost in the fog and has no idea which way to turn both technically and managerially.
Next year is a big year. Changing from the Renault engine to Mercedes takes another excuse away from the team. The revolving door management doesn’t inspire confidence. The only reason for any optimism is that Alpine made the decision to focus on 2026 development early and devoted as much, if not more, of its aerodynamic testing resources to next year’s car than any other team.
However, it didn’t prove in ‘25 that it understood its problems, so there’s no guarantee that it has the know-how to make the most of that investment.
Looking Ahead: A New Year, New Opportunities
For all 10 teams - and newcomer Cadillac - next year is a whole new opportunity with new chassis and PU regulations. There are so many questions to answer and everyone will be hoping an underdog can bite at one or more of the big teams.
Can Newey turn Aston Martin into a frontrunner? Will Audi’s power unit be the talk of the town? Will Hamilton finally feel at home in Ferrari, or will that team fall apart? Lots of questions and no answers yet, which is what makes F1 so enjoyable.
Have a good Christmas and New Year. By the time you have worked off that Christmas feast, we will be bringing you some answers to those questions. - Gary Anderson
