It’s been a busy first half of the 2025 Formulation 1 season, with driver adjustments, on-track clashes, breakthrough outcomes and off-track dramas all that includes. Because the summer time break takes maintain, F1.com runs by way of 5 of the craziest storylines from the 12 months to this point – and the way all of them took place…
Crimson Bull’s seat swap after two races
Liam Lawson achieved a childhood dream when he was promoted to Crimson Bull Racing for 2025, taking Sergio Perez’s place alongside Max Verstappen after impressing throughout stand-in spells with their sister crew – however the New Zealander could be out of the seat simply weeks later.
Following Q1 exits and no-scores on the first two rounds of the marketing campaign in Australia and China, Crimson Bull made the decision to ship Lawson straight again to Racing Bulls for the Japanese Grand Prix and past, with Yuki Tsunoda going the opposite approach.
Some backed Crimson Bull’s determination, whereas others sympathised with Lawson’s scenario, significantly given his compromised pre-season, the very fact he had been racing at new venues, and the well-documented problem of driving latest Crimson Bull automobiles.
“I wanted time, and I wasn’t given it,” Lawson instructed F1.com in an unique interview final month, taking a second to mirror on his whirlwind few months.
Whereas Lawson nonetheless has a seat, one driver who misplaced theirs altogether is Jack Doohan – the Australian beginning the 12 months at Alpine however being dropped after six races in favour of 2024 Williams super-sub Franco Colapinto.
Oakes and Horner vacate their roles
Doohan went from Alpine race driver again to a reserve after Might’s Miami Grand Prix weekend, which additionally marked the ultimate occasion for crew boss Ollie Oakes.
Oakes, who had joined the Enstone-based operation in July 2024, resigned with fast impact a few days post-race – Alpine Government Advisor Flavio Briatore noting that “the explanations usually are not associated to the crew and are of a private nature”.
A few months later, one other managerial reshuffle would ship shockwaves by way of the paddock, with Crimson Bull confirming that long-time CEO and Workforce Principal Christian Horner had been changed by Racing Bulls’ Laurent Mekies halfway by way of the season.
Horner, who began out as a driver earlier than transitioning to a crew boss position in Formulation 3000, led Crimson Bull Racing into their first F1 season again in 2005 – turning into the game’s youngest crew boss within the course of at simply 31 years of age.
“It’s been a privilege being a part of and main this epic crew and I’m so pleased with our collective accomplishments,” wrote Horner in a social media put up, earlier than Crimson Bull started their new period on the Belgian Grand Prix.
Verstappen and Russell’s personal ‘foolish season’
Horner’s dismissal got here amid loads of hypothesis over the way forward for reigning four-time World Champion Max Verstappen, who solely confirmed he will probably be racing for Crimson Bull in 2026 – when new rules come into play – final outing in Hungary.
Regardless of holding a contract by way of 2028, Verstappen had been linked with a shock transfer away given Crimson Bull’s fluctuating type, a a lot talked about efficiency clause, and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff overtly displaying his curiosity within the Dutchman.
That in flip raised questions over the futures of Silver Arrows pair George Russell and rookie Kimi Antonelli, who’re each out of contract on the finish of 2025. “Clearly [if] you’ve a Russell/Verstappen line-up, that’s Prost/Senna I assume, no?” Wolff mentioned, pointing to his “far-fetched” concepts.
With Verstappen verbally pledging his fast future to Crimson Bull, Russell and Antonelli look set to proceed at Mercedes by way of 2026 – Wolff heading into the break saying “I need to stick with Kimi and George because it stands”.
This, in fact, performed out following Russell and Verstappen’s squabble in the direction of the tip of the 2024 season, and both aspect of their controversial conflict at this 12 months’s Spanish Grand Prix, which yielded an apology from the latter.
Hulkenberg’s maiden F1 podium end
This 12 months’s British Grand Prix not solely introduced a primary residence win for Lando Norris, but additionally a shock and very talked-about maiden F1 podium end for Nico Hulkenberg – the German reaching the podium in his 239th begin.
Hulkenberg had already made a behavior of charging up the order together with his new crew Kick Sauber, going from seventeenth to seventh throughout a rain-hit 2025 opener in Australia, from fifteenth to fifth in Spain and from twentieth to ninth in Austria.
Silverstone, although, introduced new race-day heights, as Hulkenberg bounced again from one other tough Qualifying session to brilliantly work his approach by way of the midfield, get into the factors after which the top-three locations amid moist/dry circumstances.
The longer the race went on, the extra onlookers began to consider that Hulkenberg would lastly break his podium duck and, regardless of intense strain from Lewis Hamilton, he held agency to comply with the McLarens of Norris and Oscar Piastri residence.
“It’s been a very long time coming, hasn’t it?” Hulkenberg smiled after taking the chequered flag, shouting over the radio with satisfaction and starting to course of what had simply occurred. “I at all times knew we now have it in us, and I’ve it in me someplace.”
Hamilton’s ‘change driver’ feedback
The ultimate second on our record got here simply earlier than the summer time break, when 2025 Ferrari signing Hamilton responded to a disappointing Q2 exit on the Hungaroring – every week on from his Q1 elimination in Belgium – with some significantly self-critical remarks.
“I’m ineffective, completely ineffective,” he sighed to broadcasters, after crew mate Charles Leclerc grabbed pole place. “The crew, they haven’t any downside – you’ve seen the automobile is on pole. So, they in all probability want to alter driver.”
Put to Hamilton that his “ineffective” self-assessment can’t be the case, given an F1 CV that contains a record-equalling seven world titles and extra poles and wins than anybody else, he replied: “It clearly is. I drove terribly.”
Hamilton completed the place he began on race day, crossing the road in a lapped twelfth place, after which the Briton doubled down on his frustrations and commented that he was “trying ahead to going away” for the summer time.
How Hamilton and Ferrari progress from right here stays to be seen, with Hamilton including “there’s rather a lot occurring within the background that’s not nice”, however it was a weekend that triggered headlines throughout the globe – and past the world of F1.
