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The 2025 F1 season is now almost knocking on the doorsteps, with just weeks until we get into the season of car launches. While the winter break is a good time for many to just relax and unwind, the teams and key personnel are still in the factory, toiling away and trying to build better machinery for the upcoming season.
As the season inches closer, the F1 teams tend to have their targets in place already. Ahead of the new season, what is the one major pre-season target for every team? Let's take a look.
McLaren
It has to be the title once again. McLaren has toiled hard for more than two decades to get to this position as the team has gradually established a very strong foundation with two brilliant drivers that complement each other.
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The team should have a strong car in 2025 and when that happens, it should build on the foundations and results that it laid down in 2024 and defend what should be another closely contested battle for the title.
Ferrari
For the Italian team, the 2025 F1 season is the one where it cannot have any more excuses. Fred Vasseur joined the team in 2023 and now there have been two years where the team has had the time to gel together and build up a cohesive group that knows what it is doing.
The team has been in the top 3 since 2021 and if 2024 showed something then it was the fact that the squad is ready to take the next step. This season, the team has to target the championship and that's something that should be non-negotiable.
Red Bull
It's hard to pinpoint what Red Bull's approach is going to be this season. The team has picked a second driver with the hope of him being just within 3 tenths of Max Verstappen. With that approach, one could win the drivers' championship, but the constructors championship might be a bit tough as not everything is optimized for both drivers securing the best possible result.
For Red Bull, 2025 would be all about consolidation, the team has lost a chunk of personnel and this season is all about regrouping and putting itself in contention to be the benchmark in F1 once again.
Mercedes
2025 for Mercedes is all about taking that next step and finding that belief within the team. There's a common theme with the German unit where the ground effect era has not seen the squad produce cars that it has the utmost understanding of.
This season is all about gaining that understanding and building on it. James Allison is not someone who's cut his teeth in F1 and built a reputation for nothing. He's a brilliant technician and all eyes would be on how Mercedes is able to understand the car that it has built and hopefully use that platform to be a contender for the season.
Aston Martin
Well, the one thing that Aston Martin would be hoping for in 2025 is progress. The team has struggled to gain in-season lap time in the last couple of seasons and that has left the designers and the entire squad bewildered at why something like that continues to happen.
In 2025, the basic target has to be that the team finds out why it is unable to show progress with its current challenger and ultimately reverse and build a car with which it can do a better job.
Alpine
A team that's more or less on the precipice of being sold, there are already suggestions that Oliver Oakes has been assigned his role with the intention of the French team being sold off. The 2025 F1 season will be all about building on the foundations that the team laid down last year where the car was once again at the head of the midfield.
A fight for P5-P6 could be the target as the frontrunners might be a step too far.
Haas F1
For Haas, it's all about growth in 2025. The team is no longer an underfunded and understaffed operation, especially with Toyota providing inputs now. The American team had one strong and one decent driver in 2024 but this season there are two drivers that could more or less put the car where it deserves to be more often than not.
For the Ayao Komatsu-led squad, 2025 is all about finishing at the head of the midfield and that target is not as unrealistic as it might have seemed at first glance.
RB
For the Red Bull sister team, it's all about building on the better foundation that comes from a closer association with the parent team in Milton Keynes. While questions continue to be asked over what role the second team is playing in the bigger scheme of things, the Faenza-based squad would be looking to use a more competitive car for better results this season.
Williams F1
For a team with aspirations to one day get back to the glory days, the 2025 F1 season is a litmus test. Plenty of time and money has been put into upgrading the Grove facility and as James Vowles said, the team had the permission to "break everything".
From 2025 however, the excuses are done. This is the season where Williams has to show tangible progress and having Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz is certainly the first step towards that.
Sauber
Sauber was in a hopeless situation last season where it became clear that funding had dried out completely and Audi had underestimated the challenge of F1 like any other top manufacturer in the past.
The team desperately has to show improvement. The funds are starting to come in and this season is all about finding that confidence that the talented squad from Hinwil has seemingly lost in the last couple of years.
