by F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth
BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Formula 1's 2025 season arrived with the promise of stability yet delivered a year shaped by fluctuating form, shifting power structures and the first real sense that the current competitive order is no longer fixed in place.
McLaren ultimately converted potential into titles as Red Bull's Max Verstappen flirted with an improbable comeback, and Mercedes continued its slow climb back toward respectability. Ferrari faltered, Williams impressed, and a cluster of rookies hinted that the future might yet be brighter than the present.
In the first part of this season review, Xinhua looks at the teams which finished fifth to tenth in the 2025 Constructors' Championship, charting the moments that defined their seasons, the decisions that shaped their futures, and the questions they now carry into a new era in 2026.
WILLIAMS
Williams' best statistical return since 2017 put the Grove squad at the head of F1's congested midfield under James Vowles, whose steady hand is beginning to show up more glamorous but less organized rivals.
Perhaps buoyed by the prospect of a competitive teammate at last, Alex Albon was one of the stars of early 2025, scoring more points across the first eight races than he had managed across the previous three years. That stood in stark contrast to an eight-race pointless streak at the end of the year, and the Thai driver must be hoping that his slump in form doesn't carry over into 2026.
Across the garage, the pattern inverted. Carlos Sainz spent the early months trying to unlearn Ferrari muscle memory and looked oddly provincial doing it. Once his feet were fully under the table after the summer break, the Spaniard seemed a man transformed, managing two podium finishes as it was Albon's turn to appear all at sea.
The real intrigue is the power unit. Whispers from Brixworth suggest Mercedes has stolen a march on its rivals with its 2026 power unit. If the gossip proves accurate, Williams could find itself with a car capable of harassing the established order rather than filing in behind it.
ASTON MARTIN
Another year of treading water for Aston Martin while team owner Lawrence Stroll continues to insist that reality will soon catch up with his ambition. Fernando Alonso showed that the fire remains undimmed even as he edges toward 45, wringing lap times out of the AMR25 that had no business existing, hinting that with a sharper car he might finally have put an end to that 12-year wait for a 33rd win.
Across the garage, Lance Stroll offered the usual mixture of gentle promise followed by a steady drift into apathy. The familiar question lingered again: is there any scenario in which he'd still have that seat if his father didn't own the team? Every year the evidence piles higher and still the conclusion is politely ignored.
Sensing the limits of the current car and eyeing 2026 as the true inflection point, the team quietly reshuffled the hierarchy. Andy Cowell was slid out of the team principal's chair after barely a year in charge, making way for the most audacious appointment in recent memory.
Adrian Newey, the sport's most decorated designer and the closest thing F1 has to a competitive cheat code, will now run the entire team. For three decades he shaped championship-winning cars at Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, accumulating enough silverware to sink a small yacht. The question now is whether Newey can apply his genius across an entire organization without blunting the very edge that made him indispensable in the first place.
RACING BULLS
A solid year for Red Bull's junior outfit, which discovered mid-season that the conveyer belt of driving talent to the senior side also applies to senior management, with erstwhile team boss Laurent Mekies spirited away to Red Bull to replace the axed Christian Horner, as paddock veteran Alan Permane stepped into Mekies' shoes.
Isack Hadjar's F1 debut could hardly have been more inauspicious, as the Frenchman spun off in wet conditions in Australia before the race had properly begun. To his credit, the 20-year-old responded decisively. A podium at Zandvoort capped a run of assured drives, prompting murmurings that the Frenchman would be set to replace the underperforming Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull. With his ascension now confirmed, Hadjar's new challenge will be to measure himself against Verstappen - a task that has undone every recent teammate with remarkable efficiency.
Liam Lawson's experience was a harsher lesson still. His time at the senior outfit lasted just two races, and its demoralizing effect seemed to linger conspicuously into the first half of 2025. There was, eventually, a recovery. Strong performances in Austria and Baku salvaged his standing and secured another season at Racing Bulls, though that is likely to be the limit of his reprieve.
Any realistic return to the senior team appears remote. Instead, Lawson seems destined for a role Red Bull understands well: the control subject, retained less for his own prospects than for his usefulness in gauging the progress of the next arrival - in this case, the raw and highly prized Arvid Lindblad.
HAAS
Haas slipped a spot to eighth in 2025, although the raw numbers suggested something healthier. Its points haul was the best since the brief, sunlit optimism of 2018, serving as a reminder that progress in F1's midfield often hides behind the league table's flat prose.
Esteban Ocon arrived as the putative adult in the room, eager to escape the Alpine soap opera and present himself as a reliable cornerstone for a team trying to outgrow its own limitations. For a while he managed that steadiness, then the shine wore off. His year drifted into a grey zone of anonymous Sundays, and the balance of attention shifted to the wunderkind in the other car.
Ollie Bearman's season began like most rookies do, full of rough edges and promising fragments. By autumn, though, the rough edges had been filed down. The Briton produced one of the drives of the year in Mexico, finishing fourth in a performance that turned heads around the paddock and surely did nothing to discourage Ferrari as it quietly prepares for a post-Lewis Hamilton future.
Both stay on for 2026, and that continuity coincides with increased backing and investment from Toyota. Haas remains the smallest player in the room, but the road ahead looks increasingly inviting.
SAUBER
The Sauber name faded quietly from the F1 grid after Abu Dhabi, disappearing for the first time since 1993 as Audi's piecemeal takeover reached its conclusion. In raw terms, the season was respectable enough. 70 points would have been sufficient for sixth place a year earlier, yet the tightening of the field at the end of this regulation cycle saw them finish a misleading ninth - less a collapse than a casualty of convergence.
Nico Hulkenberg provided the defining moment. At Silverstone, on his 239th start, he finally collected the podium that had long eluded him, and a statistical curiosity was resolved at last. Throughout the year he generally outperformed his car, finishing 11th in the standings and reminding the paddock why Audi has entrusted him to anchor a project still finding its shape.
Alongside him, rookie Gabriel Bortoleto grew into the role Sauber envisioned. A difficult start in a recalcitrant car gave way to several accomplished drives that justified the team's faith, even if that progress was punctured by needless errors in Brazil and Las Vegas. From 2026 onward, his task will be to convince Audi's leadership that he is equipped to lead the team when Hulkenberg eventually steps aside.
ALPINE
Alpine's grim 2024 campaign had been flattered by that freakish double podium in Brazil, a meteorological sleight of hand that hauled them from ninth to sixth and allowed the team to pretend the fundamentals were sound. In 2025 there was no such divine intervention, and Team Enstone slumped to an undignified last place.
Life at Alpine rarely resembles a bed of roses, and this season confirmed it. Oliver Oakes was ushered toward the guillotine after less than a year in charge - a curt reminder that executive advisor Flavio Briatore remains the true powerbroker at Enstone. Pierre Gasly at least kept his dignity intact and scored all 22 of Alpine's points, though he may be questioning the wisdom of having nailed his colors to the Alpine mast until 2028.
Jack Doohan's demotion after six races was bleakly predictable, but the Australian had not covered himself in glory during his brief spell. His replacement Franco Colapinto offered little evidence that the team had traded up, although his coterie of South American backers have helped secure his return next year.
Alpine will at least abandon the wheezing Renault engine for Mercedes power in 2026, but the more consequential question is whether Briatore is truly interested in repairing the team or simply tarting it up for a sale. ■
