There’s no chance of Formula 1 heading into driver transfer dullness for next season. In 2024, for the first time ever, the same drivers that completed the previous campaign lined up in the same seats for the season opener. For 2025, we already know that won’t happen.
Lewis Hamilton’s debut in Ferrari red tops the bill, but there is now set to be significant switching elsewhere too, with 11 other drivers facing an expiry of their current deals at the end of 2024. Add in the shock instability at Red Bull and the very real possibility that Max Verstappen could leave before his contract expires in 2028, and the 2025 silly season is instead seriously interesting. Thanks to Hamilton’s move, it’s unfurling at a surprisingly early stage too.
“The driver market has exploded in April,” Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said at this month’s Japanese Grand Prix. “And normally no one talks in April…”
Here then, with many more twists still expected, is how things stand at each squad with openings, plus how their individual needs thread through the pictures for the many drivers seeking settled F1 futures.
RED BULL
Options aplenty, but uncertainty abounds
F1 is now two rounds on from the Saudi Arabian GP, where the tantalising possibility of Verstappen dramatically walking out on the team post-2024 reached a particular fever pitch. The intense focus on Red Bull’s management war in the aftermath of the scrutiny into Christian Horner’s behaviour – and how that extends into Verstappen’s future – has since cooled. But this is largely down to the two subsequent rounds being flyaway events, where news naturally filters out less, with many paddock regulars (such as Verstappen’s father, Jos) absent.
The background chat Autosport heard at Suzuka suggests that this is merely the calm between storms, which could yet deliver a shock Red Bull driver change. After all, the outcomes of the FIA probe into the Horner situation and the appeal against Red Bull clearing him are yet to be heard. Simply put, the potential for major upheaval
