You might be thinking that the title of this column has something to do with Formula 1, which has a huge championship coming up in 2025. Maybe so, but more on that later.
The ‘super season’ I’m talking about isn’t actually 2025. It’s bigger than that, but is We’re just getting started.
I can’t claim to be the one who solved this problem either. A team member (team coordinator) was needed to emphasize this. The same goes for planning, logistics, and the thought process of how to run a race team.
Assuming the 2026 calendar follows the same rough schedule as the previous two years and runs from March to December, there are currently only a few weeks left before the F1 cars will likely run each month for 23 months.
That’s because the 2025 test is scheduled for February, with the final race scheduled for December 7 (and followed by a postseason test), and the first test for 2026 is tentatively expected to take place in late January. This follows the same schedule as the major technical regulation changes from 2014, when pre-season testing took place in Jerez from 28 to 31 January to allow for early power unit evaluations.
Even though that opening test ends in February, the drastic change in regulations has allowed teams to use their 2021 cars to test their predecessor cars (TPCs), which will run in 2022. Given similar circumstances in 2026, this year’s cars could still be in operation in January next year.
This highlights what the key challenges are facing all teams with the new car, as they grapple with new aerodynamics as well as new powertrain rules. Although it’s not as complex as the 2014 changes, it still represents a significant change given that it’s the first new engine since the hybrid was introduced a decade ago.
So they now face having to juggle the delivery of new cars for the upcoming season, ongoing upgrades throughout 2025, design development for 2026 (aerodynamic work can only begin on January 1 this year) and running the TPC. With mule car testing if required by the FIA.
This may all sound relatively similar to what teams have been able to do in the past through large-scale testing programs, but they are now restricted in many areas by cost caps and heading into another 24-race season.
And this season looks set to be more competitive than any season in recent history.
As I acknowledged in my ‘2025 Wishlist’, how this year will unfold on the ground is actually a source of anxiety for me. It was a noticeably more competitive season with several teams participating since last year’s Miami Grand Prix. An unprecedented number of 1-2 finishes, with four different constructors and seven winners all taking multiple wins, saw Max Verstappen’s blistering start push him away from the chasing pack.
But the pack had its biggest weakness in the form of Mercedes. As a team, we’ve come a long way at the beginning of the year, and while we’ve had some extremely competitive weekends, we’ve also had some as bad as we’ve had at the start of the year. Unlike McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull, this car couldn’t arrive at any given track with any real confidence that it would battle the other cars, but at least it had a high point to try and learn from.
For a team like Aston Martin, a disappointing start to 2025 could mean a very quick turnaround to preparations for 2026. Steven Tee/Motorsport Images
So the added knowledge, and a full off-season to produce new cars that can capitalize on this understanding, could push Mercedes into the top three more regularly.
It could be argued that Ferrari were the most consistently strong team until the end of the season. Charles Leclerc has scored the most points of any single driver since the summer break, while the team itself is seven points ahead of McLaren over the same period. But mid-season errors can be costly and represent a key area that needs to be addressed this year.
McLaren have been in better form since Miami, despite the title coming while they were clearly still in learning mode. So there’s definitely room for improvement there too, and we’ve seen Red Bull bounce back from some of the most surprising circumstances of the season around Monza and Baku. To be competitive again in the final round.
So Mercedes has the most headroom, but they can all do better, and in a perfect world all four teams would do so, leading to a championship that one of the four teams and one of the seven drivers can win (Red Bull (if acknowledged) Liam Lawson’s role is to act as second fiddle to Max Verstappen.
The anxiety I mentioned earlier is what will happen if 2025 is not achieved. This is the case when one of the four teams makes the progress described above, but none of the other teams make the progress, and there is a clear leader early on, as there was in the beginning. Last season.
If so, the influence of the ‘super season’ may be fully exerted. Not starting the year with a realistic chance of fighting for a championship makes it unlikely the team will continue development on the 2025 car for long.
The same goes for the midfield. It’s much more likely that a team will write off next year, as their potential returns are limited to taking advantage of 2026. Assuming the top four remains a clear top four – which it probably will. Watch out as a small gap across the field allows 5th to join the party. The rest then typically end up fighting for 9th and 10th place every weekend.
But don’t worry. I am not pessimistic. Nor do I necessarily expect the above to happen. Because it’s very rare that an entire field feels like it has the potential for big results.
In the final round of 2024, eight of the ten teams were within 0.609 seconds of pole position, including Stake Sauber, which made great progress during the year and was represented in Q3. One of the other two teams, RB, qualified 11th and 12th, more than 0.4 seconds off the fastest Q2 time.
Wins and podiums may be unrealistic for most, but small gains can move a team a long way in a highly competitive field. This makes the upcoming season more attractive for all ten builders, as they know that significant progress can be achieved.
This is set to be a huge year in terms of competitiveness, but even more so when Audi and Cadillac join the race to upend the status quo as the sport transitions to new regulations.
Get ready. Super Season is going to be a fun time.
