McLaren had made significant inroads to improve their car and beat Red Bull to the Constructors title, while Lando Norris was Verstappen’s closest rival on track.
Norris ultimately made too many mistakes, which cost him a chance to win his first Drivers’ Championship, but he will be heading into 2025 knowing his one of the favourites.
Martin Brundle thinks Norris will win the 2025 title after his Abu Dhabi win, although Dutch racing driver Jan Lammers has backed Oscar Piastri to take the crown.
Verstappen is expected to be competitive despite a difficult year for Red Bull as they faced problems with the RB20, but there is another factor that could influence his season.
Le Mans legend Tom Kristensen, who won the 24-hour race nine times in his career, has highlighted how Verstappen’s newfound fatherhood could play a role in how the Dutchman approaches this year in an interview with RacingNews365.nl.
Nico Hulkenberg is currently the only driver with kids on the grid, with Verstappen set to join him later in the year having announced he is expecting a baby with his partner Kelly Piquet last year.
Lewis Hamilton said that he does not believe having kids slows a driver down, while Kristensen thinks Verstappen will make a ‘change’ to his approach, and predicts another thing rivals should be wary of on track.
“His passion for racing will change a bit when he becomes a father, I’m sure of that. But I’m sure there will hopefully be more to his life than just racing when he becomes a father,” said Kristensen.
“I think it does change something for everyone,” Kristensen said when asked if having his own children affects his own career.
“I would say it only makes you stronger. It makes you think to ensure that you manage your time better and optimize this kind of thing.
I don’t think a champion like Max does anything if he’s been in a race car for a few hours less, because he’s been in it more or less every day since he was 13.”
The 2025 season has seen 10 driver transfers compared to none between 2023 and 2024, which was the first time it happened in F1’s 75-year history.
Currently, only McLaren and Aston Martin have kept their driver pairings from 2024 for this season while everyone else has made significant changes.
Most of it was brought on by Lewis Hamilton’s transfer to Ferrari, while Red Bull has also changed their driver lineup after Sergio Perez underperformed.
Many in the F1 paddock also expected Verstappen to make an ‘earthquake’ move to Mercedes before 2025, given he was in line to make a possible early exit from his contract if Helmut Marko was sacked amid the controversy involving team principal Christian Horner at the start of last year.
Now, Mercedes has settled on 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli to replace Hamilton, although George Russell will be the key ‘centre point’ of the 2025 driver market, according to F1 insiders.
