Clipping the Apex

Rookie racers, multiple debut winners, epic title battles and 24 Grand Prix weekends across the world's most significant geographical and commercial flashpoints-Formula One's cultural relevance and recreational merit are at an all-time high. For the 2025 season, the stakes are much higher.

- PARTH CHARAN

AT A TIME when Red Bull Racing's on-track dominance seemed to be absolute, a resurgent Lando Norris driving his MCL38 created history by winning the Miami Grand Prix. It was a small leap for racer-kind but a massive one for McLaren, having won its first race since 2021. Monotony of any kind is generally detrimental to a sport's popularity, but for Formula One, with its astronomical costs and historic propensity for technological disparity, it's an albatross. Especially during a year that features a recordbreaking 24 races that all but guarantee dreary repetition.

One of the reasons why the 2024 F1 season managed to flip the script mid-season was thanks to the safeguards put in place to ensure greater parity between teams.

With seven different race winners in one season, it became evident that the cost cap along with the aerodynamic testing restrictions had finally paid off. Ten different drivers made it to the podium last year, with a few coming close to dethroning Verstappen. It was also a masterclass in adaptability, both from drivers and team engineers.

Particularly from McLaren for their timely mechanical intervention that focussed on tyre performance, aerodynamic efficiency and mechanical grip.

Ferrari's three-pronged approach of revised pit wall strategy, aerodynamic fine-tuning and powertrain upgrades scored the team its second-highest number of wins since 2018.

But Formula One's recent return to form cannot be attributed to ingenious number crunching and strategising alone.