Mercedes director shares bold 'more than the four' prediction for the 2025 F1 season

Mercedes director James Allison feels that the 2025 F1 season is going to be fiercely fought and it won't be a surprise to him if more than 4 teams win races. We are heading into the 2025 season on the back of a very competitive and unpredictable 2024.

The season started with Red Bull dominant as ever but after McLaren brought its first major upgrade in Miami, things turned on its head. We did not have the same scenario of just one car dominating the field as the top 4 teams including Mercedes were very close to each other in terms of performance.

Going into every race weekend, it became very hard to predict who was going to win. There were 7 different race winners over the season with all of them winning multiple races. Both Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton also made their impact as both won 2 races each.

Going into the 2025 F1 season, the regulations are more or less the same and hence the teams are expected to close up even more. This is also something that Mercedes technical director James Allison agrees with. Talking about the season ahead, he said,

“It will be a fiercely fought championship from the off. At this stage of the regulations, the cars are converging in terms of performance. There will be multiple winners, and it’s possible that we will see even more teams than the four that scored victories last year taking to the top step of the podium.”

Toto Wolff echoed Allison's claims as he said,

“It is going to be a highly competitive season. We saw last year just how close the field was. You couldn’t say race-to-race who would be at the front, and I expect this year to be even closer. We will have to be at our very best if we want to challenge for championships this season.”

Mercedes on finding the balance between 2025 and 2026

Allison also addressed the critical question of how all teams are going to approach 2025 as the major regulations change in 2026 is knocking at the door. The Mercedes technical director said that the team was excited by the prospect of a complete reset and the challenge of balancing things out between the two seasons. He said,

“It’s one of the largest regulation changes in the sport’s history. Every team must decide where to spend their resource to both compete on track this year and set themselves up for 2026 and beyond. We’re excited for that challenge and working hand in hand between Brackley and Brixworth to be as competitive as we can be this year and build for success next year.”

Mercedes finished the 2024 F1 season in P4, the lowest it has since the Turbo-Hybrid era. It would be interesting to see what the future holds for the team as 2025 could potentially offer an opportunity for the team to secure a strong result.