McLaren’s 2025 Start: Red Bull Repeat or Missed Chance?

Johnny Herbert analyzes whether McLaren can replicate Red Bull’s dominant 2024 start and emerge as a true title contender this season.

Herbert weighs in on McLaren’s chances of replicating Red Bull’s dominant 2024 start and whether they can sustain a title challenge.

Can a team replicate Red Bull’s dominant start to the 2024 season in 2025? If so, which outfit could achieve it? That remains difficult to imagine, as a Sky F1 analyst explains.

“Do I expect any team in particular to start as strongly as Red Bull and Max Verstappen did last year? Probably not,” said former Formula 1 driver Johnny Herbert.

“I would expect it to be McLaren, but I remember the start of last year—they finished the previous season quite strong, yet they couldn’t carry that momentum forward.”

“That’s why Max and Red Bull ultimately won the championship. They started very, very strong, even though their mid-season was weaker. But it didn’t matter because they had already built a significant points advantage, and McLaren was chasing them.”

The Briton believes McLaren’s drivers will battle each other, though he would like to see Hamilton on top: “I think Lewis Hamilton winning the championship this year would be the perfect scenario. But I’ll tell you, the team that has deserved it in recent years is McLaren. It will be tough for Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri to go head-to-head.”

Herbert doesn’t entirely rule out a Red Bull-style scenario in 2024: “It would be great to see McLaren start strong and then sustain that momentum, building on what they have achieved over the past two years.”

In his view, the logical outcome of the McLaren-Ferrari battle would see the Woking team crowned, though a Scuderia title would also be positive for Formula 1: “Yes, I think Ferrari winning the championship would be great for the sport.”

“But for me, it would be good to see McLaren win again. Like Ferrari, they have been around for so long and have enjoyed success for many years. But we haven’t seen that recently, much like Ferrari.”

Juan Pablo Montoya, meanwhile, believes McLaren won’t wait more than half a season before issuing team orders: “Lando Norris did a great job building momentum last season, as I really thought Oscar Piastri was going to get the upper hand on him.”

“Piastri also needs to step up this season. If he manages to put enough pressure on Norris, it will be interesting to see how their partnership develops.”

“McLaren must tell both drivers at the start of the season, ‘We are 100% equal, there will be no bias, we want both cars to perform, but we will focus and give opportunities to whoever is leading the championship.’ McLaren will make a decision on priority after 10 races, I’d say. That should provide a good indication of who will be in the title fight.”