The Debate: Who will win the 2025 Formula 1 Drivers' Championship?

Following a breathtaking 2024 season in which Max Verstappen was crowned world champion for a fourth successive year, the 2025 Formula 1 campaign promises to serve up an enthralling title battle.

The marked improvement of McLaren and Ferrari saw Red Bull's dominance deteriorate as the six-time champions relinquished their constructors' crown, while a total of seven different race winners typified the competitiveness of 2024.

The odds anticipate a changing of the guard with Verstappen second in the betting behind Lando Norris, while the likes of Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton and Oscar Piastri are all single price figures to come out on top.

Ahead of a fascinating season, the bet365 News team share who they think will win the 2025 F1 Drivers' Championship.

One, two, three, four, FIVE – Max Verstappen will equal Michael Schumacher’s record.

George Wood

You can’t debate the winner of the 2025 F1 World Championship without including the man who has won the last four titles.

The RB20 may have seen a decline in the second half of the 2024 season, but the ability of Max Verstappen certainly did not.

Valiantly holding off competition from Lando Norris, whose McLaren was up to a second faster per lap than the Red Bull by the end of the season, the Dutchman won arguably the most impressive of his four world titles last year. Proving that he can extract every inch of performance from a car, even when the going gets tough.

If you think that Verstappen and Red Bull will have sat back and enjoyed the achievement, then you are wrong.

Max will no doubt have spent the off season and testing period demanding answers as to why the RB20 lost so much ground to the McLarens and Ferraris chasing him.

Besides, drivers don’t always need to have the fastest car to win a world title, think back to Fernando Alonso driving the fourth fastest car on the grid in 2012.

In Liam Lawson, Verstappen has a team mate that should provide him a bit more support, occupying his contenders throughout races by battling fiercely with them in ways that Sergio Perez could not last season.

Lawson will also understand that he is the second driver in the team, who will have to make sacrifices to aid Verstappen’s push for a fifth championship.

At Ferrari, you have to assume that Leclerc won’t always be happy to bow down to the needs of Lewis Hamilton, while McLaren struggled with their driver dynamic massively as Norris fought for the title last time out.

While it is certainly set to be a dogfight for the title this year, Verstappen has prevailed in the last two competitive seasons, seeing off Hamilton and Norris through incredible race craft, fearlessness and occasionally the dark arts.

Put simply, he is not afraid to get his elbows out in races when other drivers are.

You just don’t bet against ruthless winners like him.

The era of Max Verstappen is finished and the time of Lando Norris is upon us.

Darren Durber

Britain’s Lando Norris is the clear favourite to claim the 2025 F1 Drivers' Championship, and his team McLaren are the favourites to reclaim the Constructors' Championship this season.

Norris’ time has come, he is driving the fastest car on the track and he has a clean slate to attack Red Bull and Verstappen.

Red Bull’s diminishing performances saw the reigning world champion pick up just two wins in his last 14 races, an incredible fall from grace for a team and driver so used to dominating Formula One.

In truth, Norris perhaps should have won the drivers title last season after McLaren’s mid-season upgrades in Miami delivered in style.

In the proceeding months, and despite the significant points gap, Norris became the hunter and Verstappen the hunted. The Dutchman used his experience and guile to limp home ahead of the Brit, but don’t expect a repeat performance in 2025.

There is no evidence to back the Dutchman turning the momentum against Norris and McLaren, especially after pre-season testing.

The fastest car wins on the Formula One grid and that car belongs to McLaren.

Furthermore, despite the ongoing coyness of the McLaren paddock, Lando Norris is their lead driver. Whether they choose to admit that now or later in the season, Oscar Piastri will eventually be told to play second fiddle, giving Norris a clear run at the title.

The only other legitimate challengers to Norris and McLaren are Ferrari, a team who last won the Constructors Championship over 17 years ago and whose drivers have won a combined 10 races between them in the last three seasons.

Ferrari haven't seriously threatened the Drivers' Championship in over a decade and their move to sign 40-year-old veteran Lewis Hamilton doesn't look likely to change that.

Fred Vasseur's nostalgia driven capture of the aging former world champion feels similar to Cristiano Ronaldo returning to Manchester United, and it's hard not to expect the same dissatisfying outcome.

The ever-changing tide of power in Formula One has shifted again. The era of Verstappen dominance is over and McLaren are the heirs to the throne.

Lando Norris will win his debut Drivers' Championship this season, and it likely won’t even be close.

It's fate that Lewis Hamilton will win an eighth world title in a Ferrari.

Jaquob Crooke

Lewis Hamilton finds himself in a race against time if he is to secure a record eighth world title.

Fortunately for him, Ferrari have taken lessons from Dr Emmett Brown and appear to have provided the Briton with a machine capable of defying the laws of physics.

It’s the partnership we’ve all dreamt of; one of the world’s most recognisable athletes merging with the sport’s most fabled team.

Such a notable collaboration doesn’t guarantee success but Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari may just be the move he needed to reinvigorate a career which had been in danger of concluding in underwhelming fashion.

Hamilton’s form at the end of 2024 was bleak, especially by his impeccable standards. But there was enough evidence from the previous campaign to suggest with the right car beneath him, Formula 1’s most decorated driver can sustain a charge for the title.

The emotional win at Silverstone, the domineering drive at Spa-Francorchamps and the late attack on his former teammate George Russell at Yas Marina were all indicative of that.

His qualifying performances have been concerning for quite some time and Hamilton knows all too well that his pace over one lap must improve, especially when you’re competing against a driver of Charles Leclerc’s calibre on the other side of the garage.

Yet there were countless occasions where Hamilton showcased his immense race pace, churning out consistently fast laps and using his experience to sift through the field.

This era of ground effect cars have been Hamilton’s kryptonite but with Ferrari doing their utmost to mitigate those difficulties, the Briton’s transition with the Maranello giants has been seamless.

While Ferrari narrowly missed out on the constructors’ championship, their form over the final third of the 2024 season indicated they will be pushing for major honours on both fronts this campaign.

McLaren look to be the team to beat. Red Bull are no longer the indomitable force they once were, although Max Verstappen will still have his sights fixated on a fifth successive title. Mercedes are improving but it remains to be seen whether they pose a serious threat.

The hopeless romantic is screaming inside of me. For pure vibes and an insane amount of aura, Hamilton will be celebrating an eighth world title in Ferrari red come December.

Amidst all the hype surrounding Lewis Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari, the championship-winning credentials of his new teammate Charles Leclerc appear to be going under the radar.

James Wilson

Putting the glamour of Hamilton’s transfer to one side for a second, and applying a pragmatic lens of evaluation, the Brit will face an almighty task to finish number one in his own team never mind the entire grid.

In Monte Carlo-born Leclerc, Ferrari already possess a world-class driver capable of toppling challengers in the form of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Arguably the fastest driver in the sport over a single lap, recording 26 pole positions in his career, Leclerc has the speed to allow this formidable Ferrari to fly in 2025.

The critical point is this: if you believe the Ferrari to be the strongest car on the circuit in 2025, then Leclerc is the driver to place your faith in.

The Monegasque’s 13 podium finishes in 2024 – level with the much-fancied Norris and one below world champion Verstappen – underlines the level he has been operating at.

When you compare this to Hamilton’s tally of five podiums, not to mention the 133-point gap between the pair in last season’s standings, and it’s clear who Ferrari’s main man should be in 2025.

In 40-year-old former champion Hamilton, Ferrari have gambled on a ‘what if?’ contender, in Leclerc they have a driver who is already on the cusp of the glory they so dearly crave.

Leclerc is a competitor in his prime who could even use his teammate’s arrival to his advantage – studying his every move at close quarters to apply the final percentage factors needed to turn him into the champion he is destined to become.