F1 2025 calendar and race reports: The new Formula One season as it happens
Is this McLaren's year, or will rivals be able to mount a challenge?
The 2025 Formula One season has begun, and the first race — the Australian GP — was filled with drama. McLaren clearly has the edge, continuing the Woking-based team’s form from 2024, but Mercedes and Ferrari also look competitive, with Max Verstappen also very much in the running. The Dutchman is arguably still the class of the field, driving the doors off (if they had doors) his Red Bull F1 car, which he’s clearly not 100 per cent happy with yet, in Oz; Verstappen managed an impressive third on the grid and second in the wet race.
It might not be such good news for Aston Martin, which will need to wait before the Adrian Newey effect kicks in (the former Red Bull Racing design chief and engineering superstar was only able to start work at his new outfit on March 1 this year), and the team appeared to have one of the slowest cars at the Bahrain test last month. Still, Lance Stroll managed to claim sixth place Down Under, in the tricky conditions.
Things are looking brighter for Williams, and the team could easily be the best of the rest this year — despite Carlos Sainz crashing out in the wet of Australia. Some set-up work clearly needs to be done at his new team.
The big story this year, of course, is Lewis Hamilton in Sainz’s old seat at Scuderia Ferrari. The British seven-times world champion didn’t have the best of times in race one but it looks like a good place from which to build over the course of 2025.
When is the next F1 race?
The second race of the 2025 Formula One season is the Chinese Grand Prix, on Sunday, March 23.
If you can watch it live, the main race starts at 3pm Shanghai time. For our UK readers, that’s 7am over here, which is slightly less painful than the 4am of the prior race. We’ve included local times below for the UK, USA and Australia.
| London (United Kingdom – England) | Sunday, 16 March 2025, 04:00:00 | GMT | UTC |
| New York (USA – New York) | Sunday, 16 March 2025, 00:00:00 | EDT | UTC-4 hours |
| Los Angeles (USA – California) | Saturday, 15 March 2025, 21:00:00 | PDT | UTC-7 hours |
| Canberra (Australia – Australian Capital Territory) | Sunday, 16 March 2025, 15:00:00 | AEDT | UTC+11 hours |
It’s a Sprint race weekend, meaning there’s also a shortened race to enjoy on Saturday morning, and that will mean an early start for us British fans.
The full Chinese GP schedule with UK timings:
| Friday, March 21 | SHANGHAI | LONDON |
| Practice 1 | 11:30 – 12:30 | 03:30 – 04:30 |
| Sprint Qualifying | 15:30 – 16:14 | 07:30 – 08:14 |
| Saturday, March 22 | ||
| Sprint | 11:00 – 12:00 | 03:00 – 04:00 |
| Qualifying | 15:00 – 16:00 | 07:00 – 08:00 |
| Sunday, March 23 | ||
| Grand Prix | 15:00 | 07:00 |
2025 F1 calendar
Here’s the full schedule of grands prix for the 2025 Formula One season. After each round you’ll be able to click on links to read a report of each race.
| Date | Country | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| March 14-16 | Australia (race report) | Melbourne |
| March 21-23 | China | Shanghai |
| April 4-6 | Japan | Suzuka |
| April 11-13 | Bahrain | Sakhir |
| April 18-20 | Saudi Arabia | Jeddah |
| May 2-4 | USA | Miami |
| May 16-18 | Italy | Imola |
| May 23-25 | Monaco | Monaco |
| May 30 – June 1 | Spain | Barcelona |
| June 13-15 | Canada | Montreal |
| June 27-29 | Austria | Spielberg |
| July 4-6 | United Kingdom | Silverstone |
| July 25-27 | Belgium | Spa |
| August 1-3 | Hungary | Budapest |
| August 29-31 | Netherlands | Zandvoort |
| September 5-7 | Italy | Monza |
| September 19-21 | Azerbaijan | Baku |
| October 3-5 | Singapore | Singapore |
| October 17-19 | USA | Austin |
| October 24-26 | Mexico | Mexico City |
| November 7-9 | Brazil | Sao Paulo |
| November 20-22 | USA | Las Vegas |
| November 28-30 | Qatar | Lusail |
| December 5-7 | Abu Dhabi | Yas Marina |
2025 race reports
Come back to this page in the week following each grand prix for full race reports and highlights videos.
Australian Grand Prix race report
The 2025 season was already shaping up to be a promising one, between driver changes, exciting rookies and the lack of any major regulation changes. For the first time since 2019, the F1 season kicks off “Down Under” at the Australian Grand Prix, writes Dave Humphreys.
Calm and predictable Autumn greeted the F1 community at the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne for the Friday and Saturday sessions. Qualifying threw up some surprising results, with experience proving a strength as none of this year’s six rookie drivers made it into the top ten. Pole position was clinched by Lando Norris (McLaren), who just edged out his teammate Oscar Piastri on home turf.
Current world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) secured a third-place slot on the grid next to George Russell (Mercedes). They were followed by Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls), Alex Albon (Williams), Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), Pierre Gasly (Alpine) and Carlos Sainz (Williams).
The best of the rookies was Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls, who started from 11th, just ahead of Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin — now the most senior F1 driver on the grid.
The calm weather ended on Sunday morning as heavy rain in the build-up to the start, adding further unpredictability. Car setup changes for Ollie Bearman (Haas) and Liam Lawson (Red Bull) would see them start from the pit lane. As the drivers made their way around on the formation lap, Hadjar lost control of his car and collided with the barriers, ending his debut race before it officially began; he appeared inconsolable in the aftermath, understandably.
That delayed the start by 15 minutes as his Racing Bulls car was recovered.
With the track already starting to dry, all cars started on intermediates, and it was clean racing into the first corner. Verstappen harried Piastri for second place, a move he made stick into the third corner. Two corners later, Jack Doohan (Alpine) lost the back end and hit the barriers, bringing out the safety car.
That should have settled things down, but conditions were still tricky as Carlos Sainz lost control of his Williams in the final corner and hit the wall. The Spaniard complained of a surge of torque (twisting force), suggesting some throttle mapping work is required at Williams.
Racing proper eventually got underway on lap 7, with Norris quickly building a gap to Verstappen. More drivers were going off the racing line in search of wet sections to cool their inters from overheating on the drying racing line. A spin for Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) saw the rookie drop down to 13th, while Verstappen made an error in turn 10, running deep and opening the door for Piastri to reclaim 2nd place, much to the delight of the home crowd.
Piastri was in the groove now, consistently putting in fast laps as he honed in on Norris. As the gap closed, the team told Piastri to hold position as the duo made their way through to lap the backmarkers before confirming, “We are free to race now. You know the rules.”
A second safety Ccar period started on lap 34 when Alonso uncharacteristically lost control of his Aston Martin at turn 6, colliding hard with the wall. The incident prompted a flurry of pit lane activity as drivers came in to switch to slicks for the drying track. However, no sooner had the safety car period ended than teams began to report incoming rain showers.
As the rain began to fall, teams had differing views on whether to stay out and ride out the tricky conditions on slicks to switch back to intermediates. Then Norris and Piastri skated off the track at turn 12, with Verstappen just managing to hold onto his car.
Piastri, temporarily beached, managed to reverse back onto the circuit and rejoin, but any prospect of a podium finish was now gone. Norris pitted, but Verstappen and most of the field stayed out.
All of this promoted the Ferraris of Hamilton and Leclerc to 1st and 2nd. With intensifying rain Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) went off into the barrier quickly followed by Lawson in the Red Bull, ending both their races.
As the safety car once again returned to police the field, Ferrari were forced to pit, dropping them back down the order to just within the top ten. Norris kept a cool head on the restart, now back at the front ahead of Verstappen, Russell, Albon, Antonelli, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber), Gasly, Hamilton and Leclerc.
Gasly ran wide in the first turn, opening the door for Leclerc and then Hamilton to capitalise. Verstappen made some late moves but didn’t have enough to make it by Norris, who claimed a well-earned victory.
Russell’s 3rd place on the podium, combined with a 4th place for Antonelli on his debut, gave Mercedes a haul of points to put them joint-top of the Constructor’s championship next to McLaren, as Piastri managed to get home in 9th. Vital points for Williams, Sauber and Aston Martin place them ahead of Ferrari in the team standings.
Watch the 2025 Australian GP race highlights
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