The end of the Formula One season saw more twists and turns than that of the race track. The introduction of six new rookies along with a polarizing driver change which was finalized with a suspenseful final race that would determine the constructors champion down to just a few points.

At the end of the season and the beginning of the off-season, we saw many drivers say farewell to the grid and many say hello. These hellos included six new rookie drivers, which is the most the grid has seen since 2010. These new rookies include Andrea Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), Liam Lawson (Red Bull), Oliver Bearman (Haas), Isaac Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Gabriele Bortoleto (Kick Sauber), and Jack Doohan (Alpine). Liam Lawson has seen experience in the past two Formula One seasons after taking over for Daniel Ricciardo when he was injured in the 2023 season and when he formally departed in the 2024 season. Oliver Bearman has also had some experience in Formula One in this past season when he filled in for Carlos Sainz due to emergency surgery and for Kevin Magnussen when he was suspended for a race weekend. However, despite these short stints in Formula One, all six of these drivers will be complete rookies. This brings both challenges and excitement for the sport with the chance for six young and upcoming talents to have a shot at making their dreams a reality, and also the weight of possible mistakes as they enter the highest level of Formula Racing. With the youngest rookie being Andrea Kimi Antonelli at only eighteen years old, I can’t wait to see what these six drivers’ futures hold.

The future of the second Red Bull Formula One seat has been speculated on since last season. There have been articles theorizing who people thought it would be given to. Would Daniel Ricciardo reclaim the seat he left in 2018 or would it be given to Yuki Tsunoda after multiple years with their junior Formula One team? However, once Ricciardo (who has been Tsunoda’s teammate for the past two years) was officially replaced by Liam Lawson before the Austin grand prix, it was clear that he would not take over the second seat. It was down to Lawson and Tsunoda. Yet, once the checkered flag was raised, there had not been a formal announcement. We knew that they would have driver tests and see how each one performed in the car before making their decision. Now, to be clear, I believed and still believe that Yuki Tsunoda deserved to be in the Red Bull seat. He has proved himself over the last four seasons and I feel that he deserved to be given the opportunity. However, that is not what happened. Just a few short days later, Red Bull announced that Liam Lawson would be driving alongside Max Verstappen. Now there have been speculations that Tsunoda was not given the seat due to his relation with Honda. Honda has been supporting Tsunoda since he was a part of the Honda Formula Dream Project back in Formula 4. Honda has been Red Bull’s engine supplier for quite some time despite leaving and then returning to Red Bull in 2022. However, it was confirmed that Honda would be officially leaving Red Bull to power the engines of the Aston Martin team come 2026. This makes many believe that Tsunoda could be making a shift to become the second driver of the Aston Martin team and why Red Bull passed over him for what in my opinion was a very well deserved promotion.

Throughout the past season, the race for the World Driver Championship sped up between Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Norris had started to slowly catch up to Verstappen over the 24 weekend calendar and fans were excited to see who would come out on top. When Verstappen had a never before seen drive in Brazil to bring him back from 17 all the way up to first it was clear that the World Drivers Championship would just be out of Norris’s grasp. This is when we all turned to look at the Constructors Championship. McLaren looked to be set up for their first Constructors win since 1998, but their season rival Ferrari was not going to go down without a fight. However, when the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix grid was set and Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri took 1st and 2nd place it seemed almost impossible that Ferrari would be able to make up the 21 points. Yet this is when disaster for the McLaren team struck. Piastri spun around the first corner and had a collision with Max Verstappen which earned Verstappen a ten second penalty. This crash did not take Piastri out of the race completely but it did push him all the way down into the back of the grid. It became clear that as Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc moved into 2nd and 3rd position that it was on Lando Norris to finish the race in pole position to secure his team the win. And that is exactly what he did. Norris led the race from the beginning and set a fast race pace that opened up a gap between him and the rest of the grid that no one had a chance of closing. This was crucial for his team and ended up being what secured him the win.

The youngest driver pairing on the grid, one of whom was not even born before his team won their last constructors are the two who ended Red Bull’s two year supremacy. Norris was heard speaking to his team that “Next year’s going to be my year, too,” and as a McLaren fan I can’t wait to see what the team does next.