F1 News: Insider Teases Three-Way Battle in 2025 - 'Dethrone Red Bull'
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The 2025 Formula 1 season is shaping up to be a much closer competition, according to F1 insider and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley. He suggests that the emerging enhancements at McLaren and Ferrari might challenge Red Bull's recent dominance.
McLaren and Ferrari have both pushed through substantial upgrades to their vehicles. McLaren, in particular, introduced ten upgrades to the MCL38 for the Miami Grand Prix which saw Lando Norris celebrate his maiden Formula One win. McLaren will now be bringing the upgrades to Norris's teammate Oscar Piastri's car for this coming weekend in Emilia Romagna. Ferrari is also set to introduce significant upgrades this weekend.
During an interview with OLBG, Priestly commented:
"McLaren and Ferrari are on their way back to the top of F1. Red Bull are still there, what happened in Miami is a blip for them, I'm sure. But the upgrades for McLaren in Miami made a big difference, one of the big things they'll be confident about is that the factory, wind tunnel and CFD are working very well. McLaren can continue to upgrade their car and get the same level of performance they see in the testing, on the track. It's a big deal.
"The next set of upgrades will deliver what they expect. It could be McLaren or Ferrari to dethrone Red Bull and Max Verstappen, but we could easily see a great three-way battle next season before the regulations change in 2026."
Red Bull and Max Verstappen have dominated the ground-effect era so far, with the Dutch driver winning 19 out of the 22 Grands Prix last year and Red Bull winning all but one. Ferrari was the only non-Red Bull team in 2023 to win a race last year with Carlos Sainz's Singapore GP victory and in the first six races of 2024, only Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren have won races.