2025 F1 Silly Season: Predicting the top 5 shocking moves

The 2025 F1 season had only two teams (McLaren and Aston Martin) that had a stable driver line-up. Other than these two teams, the 2024 F1 season had shuffled everything upside down last season. As a result, there was this inherent expectation that this time around, we are not going to have too many things happening during the silly season.

Most, if not all, drivers were locked up in contracts with their respective teams, and hence making a move was next to impossible. As it turns out, this wasn't necessarily the case. We had Jack Doohan chucked out of Alpine very early.

Then we've had an even bigger announcement with Red Bull firing Christian Horner. Hence, while there was an expectation that the 2025 F1 silly season was going to be a bit of a damp squib, that's not the case now.

Things are going to kick off for sure. So without further ado, let's jump straight into the top 5 predictions of what we expect to happen in the silly season.

#1 Franco Colapinto is dropped from Alpine

Franco Colapinto is a brilliant racer, and he's already shown glimpses of it last season. The unfortunate reality is that when you're a young driver that's part of Alpine, a team headed by Flavio Briatore, the pressure is immense.

The conditions are just not conducive for him to get the best possible results, and it seems to be affecting him already. Flavio is not someone who has made his name for his patience, and that's going to catch up to Franco at some point, as he's going to be replaced before the end of the season.

#2 Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez are announced at Cadillac's F1 team

This one seems more and more like an eventuality. In all fairness, this is exactly what the lineup should be from day 1.

Two experienced and safe pairs of hands bringing Cadillac into the F1 world seem perfect. At some point, Graeme Lowdon is surely going to make an announcement, and we'd have the two F1 veterans announced at the American team.

#3 Max Verstappen announces his departure from Red Bull

This one might be the first announcement we see out of all of this, and it does appear that Max Verstappen's announcement to Mercedes is imminent. The driver has cornered himself in such a way in the driver market that if he says no to Toto Wolff now, he's not going to do that for a while.

With Red Bull expected to struggle next season while Mercedes is expected to have a better power unit, the move just might be the right thing for the driver as well.

#4 George Russell moves to Red Bull

The unfortunate reality is that in all of this, George Russell is going to end up with the shortest string, as Max Verstappen's announcement to Mercedes means the Brit gets replaced. With no other team on the table that has the track record of success, the Brit might not have many places to go.

#5 Alpine announces the sale of its F1 team

Finally, and now one that is maybe a tad too bold for the lighthearted, Alpine is going to announce the sale of the team by the end of the season, and in all likelihood, it is going to be taken over by Christian Horner.

The French team is looking for buyers, and the current project has been shelved for the most part. It would be interesting to see if this comes true, as there are indications of the former Red Bull boss's return to the sport.

Edited by pranavsethii