Please your bets gentlemen! Anyone putting a wager on who the 2025 WDC will be? With all the speculation here and on social media I looked into the official odds at the moment: Lando +175 Max +225 Charles +400 Lewis +800 Piastri +900 https://www.vegasinsider.com/auto-racing/odds/f1/
If I was a gamblin man, I would put money on Leclerc and Verstappen. Ferrari looked strong at the end of 2024, he's a lightning fast and Lewis moving to Ferrari may mean he knows something is very promising in the pipeline, just as he likely did with Mercedes in 2013. Verstappen proves he can win championships with the 3rd best car, so he has to still be the favorite.
Can Mclaren stop themselves from bottling (yet another) championship? Norris not mentally strong enough. Needs a car with a significant advantage year round to take it IMO. Piastri needs to work on his consistency, but he mentally far tougher than Norris. If he gets his consistency sorted he'll beat Norris. Ferrari have shot themselves in the foot. I believe Leclerc to be better than Russell, who handily beat Lewis in the 3 years together. Lewis will still get good results, but willingly be walked over by Leclerc. Expect fireworks and a (costly) internal battle as they take valuable points of each other. Well done snookering yourself, Ferrari. Merc will have an unproven rookie and a quick driver who has spatial awareness only rivaled by Lance Stroll. They'll likely win a few races but won't be a factor. Max will be Max, speed and insane consistency and no one is as ruthless as he is. If this car isn't the same understeering pig as the RB20, he'll go for #5. I like Lawson but he's not a significant factor.
I want Charles to win it and fully believe he can, Monza was a superb masterclass high wire act and Austin a brilliant drive. He will prevail most of the time over Sir Loulou who will feel like a fish out of water in an entirely different culture and team, be slower in quali for sure and not succeed in assert any true dominance in races. I would not be surprised or unhappy if he retires with his tail between his legs at the end of 2025. Most importantly Ferrari with the excellent Fred Vasseur is now run properly with, at long last, great strategy which most if not all here have noted; don't forget (or be informed) that the first thing Fred did when he arrived was to get rid of the incompetent head strategist Inaki Rueda. I think the biggest improvement next year will be Piastri's; he is special and delivers superbly. He just needs to qualify better but he is showing every sign of reaching a very, very high level of efficiency, Prost like, so I would not be surprised to see him take power in Papaya land. Lando needs to get his head straight, far from certain. he could crumble and become erratic if Oscar beats him regularly. Antonelli will alternate stunning drives with several big shunts causing Herr Toto much grief; it won't be boring! George will be outpaced at least some of the time but more reliable. Red cow; let's see how much Newey will be missed in the performance of the 2025 car. Max will be better than ever and Liam will be decent, better than the Mexico city taxi driver but that is not hard to achieve. It will be interesting to see how he copes mentally with the comparison with Max's lap times. he is quite headstrong so I think he will cope. So title between Max, Charles and Oscar.
Not even for fun? I have a bunch of friendly bets placed on this, mostly just for bragging rights but a few for a few bucks. I’m no gambler by any means, I just find it all fascinating.
Id like to see a Piastri surprise, but he needs better tire management and qualy results to hope to challenge. This assumes the car is on a positive trajectory to start the season after a good testing period with no suprises found.
