George Russell beat Lewis Hamilton in two of their three seasons together at Mercedes and predicts Charles Leclerc will give the seven-time champion a tough time as well

"How is Charles Leclerc dealing with what feels like an extended coronation of Lewis Hamilton as king of Maranello, of Ferrari?"

Meanwhile, for 2025, Pirelli's F1 boss Mario Isola unveiled a new 'super soft' C6 compound to debut this year. "We want to be a bit more aggressive with the choice of compounds and offer the combination C4, C5 and C6 on several weekends," he told Auto Motor und Sport, moving beyond the prior softest C5.

No places left to hide…it’s time for our F1 2025 predictions! We’ve polished off our crystal balls for what promises to be one of the most exciting (and closest!) F1 seasons we could ever witness. Let’s get stuck in.

Lewis Hamilton has backed FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem’s calls for F1 to return to V10 engines.

George Russell wrapped up Formula One's third and final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain with Mercedes on top after he went faster than reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the closing minutes on Friday.