What we'd like to see in 2025: predictions for F1, MotoGP and more

At the start of another year, with weeks to go until most racing series turn a wheel in anger, anything can seem possible.

January 2025 is no different, as a flurry of rookie competitors and fresh line-ups bring the prospect of new heroes, unpredictable outcomes and thrilling battles.

We can only hope, which is what we have asked our expert contributors to do. Here are their 2025 predictions that they would most like to see realised.

Mark Hughes: an eight-way F1 scrap

I’d like to see the top four teams produce cars which are pretty much as fast as each other and to then see a flat-out scrap between the eight drivers through the year. May the best man win. I’d like to see the tyres capable of being pushed hard without drivers having to manage their temperatures. I’d like to see anyone challenged to a ‘yield or we crash’ threat (no matter who employs it) to respond by having the crash. So that the message gets through that this style of racing will fail every time.

Mat Oxley: Liberty to rescue KTM

Here’s my big prediction for 2025: a Ducati will win the MotoGP world championship. There you go – the awesome powers of Mystic Mat.

But bigger things are afoot this year. Who will own MotoGP? How many factories will be on the grid?

If the European Commission decides that ownership of F1, MotoGP and World Superbike constitutes a monopoly, Liberty Media’s attempted takeover of global motorcycle racing will be over. This is what happened when CVC Capital Partners briefly owned F1 and MotoGP in 2006  – CVC had to sell one of its motor sport properties, so it sold MotoGP.

If Liberty’s purchase of Dorna does fall through, the terms of the deal state that Liberty will have to pay Dorna £100 million in compensation. Which, the way I look at it, solves the KTM nightmare: Dorna can invest that £100 million in keeping those four RC16s on the grid.

Or at least invest a chunk of that money into establishing the project as an independent venture outside KTM, perhaps alongside Red Bull and another brand attracted by Lewis Hamilton’s rumoured interest.

James Elson: Aston Martin leads the way at Le Mans

Though many predict F1 2025 will be the most competitive season yet, the same could be said for most top motor sports series.

Dakar will garner more attention than ever, as it kicks off the season on January 3 with Dacia’s Sébastien Loeb and Nasser Al-Attiyah taking on Ford’s Carlos Sainz Sr as well as the might of Toyota.

Aston Martin’s hypercar joins a bumper WEC field, 66 years since its last overall Le Mans win – and the British marque could win straight away.

IndyCar’s young guns – Palou, Herta and O’Ward – will take over the championship, putting them in pole position for Cadillac’s F1 project.

Doug Nye: Exotic classics to become a rarer sight

To make predictions is always to put one’s head in a noose. However, I expect the coming year to see tightening scrutineering standards in Historic racing, top-line race organisers becoming even more choosy in detail terms, yet maybe lenient towards racing replicas of stupendous exotics. Why? Because otherwise events would be robbed of the spectacle of such cars in action since the real ones have become just too valuable to risk.

In Formula 1 the budget cap will bite some top teams hard – McLaren most, then Ferrari, then Red Bull. Will Sir Lewis score a maiden Ferrari win? I’d love to see it, but I won’t hold my breath. Leclerc’s determined he won’t! Will Verstappen indulge himself in reflex on-track thuggery? Highly probable. Which of the newbies will prove worthy of his F1 ride? Liam Lawson looks sufficiently feisty. And on a personal note will I remain interested enough to be glued to each GP, regardless of the dispiriting play-mat painted circuits on which this devalued currency run? I hesitate to predict I will.

Adam Cooper: Hamilton returns to the championship fight

How Lewis Hamilton fares at Scuderia Ferrari will be an ongoing story in 2025. In the wake of his qualifying struggles with the quirky W15 last season it’s easy to suggest that he’s lost his edge over one lap, and he’s coming up against a tough benchmark given that Charles Leclerc is in his seventh year with the team. However, I’m confident that Hamilton will be right on it, and that switching camps will supercharge his motivation and ultimately prove to be a genius move. If the car is good enough it will put him in the title fight.

Chris Medland: An F1 battle without the distraction of 2026

The only thing I want to see in 2025 is a competitive battle for both championships from the very start. Everything appears to be set up for that, and the top four teams from last season all are expecting an absolute classic, but if one of them manages to start the season with an advantage there’s a risk it could become less competitive as attentions turn to 2026. So to make sure that doesn’t happen, I just want at least two – any two – teams to be fighting it out for wins from the word go. As long as that happens, it should be epic.

Cambridge Kisby: Antonelli the new Hamilton

It’s hard not to get excited about the prospect of Kimi Antonelli in a Mercedes. The blisteringly quick Italian briefly lit up the timesheets in his FP1 debut at Monza earlier this year; was just a tenth slower than George Russell in post-season testing; and showed high promise in a private test at Imola.

If Mercedes figures out how to make its car consistently quick in 2025, instead of just on the odd occasion, you could see Antonelli and his natural ability upsetting the apple cart, winning multiple races and besting his well established team-mate in the drivers’ standings, emulating the rookie success of his predecessor, Lewis Hamilton,

F1 history has a strange way of repeating itself.