A Max Verstappen meltdown or more Merce🌄des misery?

Our experts have been trying to predic💜t the major storyline in 2025 that will rock the Formula 1 paddock.

Lewis Hamilt💎on’s switch to Ferrari, plus the battle for the fastest car between Red Bull and McLaren, have shaken up the sport.

But which whisper will turn into reality? Which smooth relationship could suddenly exp🍎lode?

mahbx.com writers predict the drama that will unfold this season…

Lewis Larkam: Max Ver🌃stappen’s relationship wi⛦th Red Bull and how the team copes with the loss of key personnel and increased competition.

We saw the first real cracks appear at Red Bull last seas🌸on amid𓆉 scandal, political turmoil and on-track performance struggles - all of which frustrated Verstappen and left him considering his future.

While Red Bull and Verstappen somewhat weathered the storm and won the drivers’ title, it will be fascinating to see how ꦰthings unfold in 2025 and whether the team completely implodes, or can bounce back from a toug🍸h year.

There is also huge pressure on Red Bu🤪ll’s new powertrains division to get their first in-house engine right for the all-important 2026 rules overhaul.

Red Bull’s performan🍷ce, or lack of it, will ultima꧅tely be key to Verstappen’s future as Mercedes continue to circle with interest.

Connor McDonagh: With the im👍pending 2026 regulations coming into play, the timing of when teams abandon their hopes in 2025 to fully fo🍃cus on next year will be an interesting one.

We saw in 2008 when Ferrari and McLaren remained in ti🥃tle contention up until the final race and thus focused on that season, pu💙tting them on the back foot for the new regulations in 2009.

In th☂at same season, BMW abandoned any hopes of the title with Robert Kubica in 2008 by switching their focus onto the new rules - but they still started the following year wel🐎l behind the leading teams so that gamble didn’t pay off.

Lewis Duncan: Mercedes has taken a big punt on promoting An🌄drea Kimi Antonelli to an F1 seat so soo🍃n in his racing career.

This will either go o🌜ne of two ways: Kimi Antonelli will prove to be a generational talent rookie, or hideously struggle as it becomes clear that his promotion came too soon.

The 2023 Formula Regional European Champion was rushed into Formula 2 for 2024, in which he managed two victories - though one was๊ a reversed-grid sprint - and was a consistent top six contender💝 on his way to sixth in the standings.

He did also beat h𝓀ighly rated Prema team-mate Oliver Bearman, who joins Haas in 2025, in the standings. Though Bearman was beset by bad luck 🌱through campaign which was twice interrupted by F1 call-ups.

Mercedes will do what it can to keep pressure off him, but his every move will be scrutinised. And if it doesn’t work out, some serious questions will be asked of Mercedes senior management, not least when there were some good names on the cu🦩rrent grid up for grabs.