The summer is coming to a close, vacations are over and done with and Formula One’s traveling circus returns to action this weekend at the Dutch Grand Prix. Once there, a title chase resumes between McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri with just 10 races remaining until a champion is crowned in Abu Dhabi. 

Though all eyes will be on the two papaya cars, intrigue exists up and down the grid. From how Red Bull plans to move forward around Max Verstappen to how F1’s newest team, Cadillac, works its way into the paddock ahead of next season’s debut, there’s plenty to follow from now until early December. 

Here’s five key storylines to watch for the rest of the 2025 season: 

McLaren’s Piastri, Norris bound for title chase collision course

Gear up for the most competitive championship fight since Max Verstappen vs. Lewis Hamilton in 2021. Sure, this year may not come down to the final lap of the final race, but it’s poised to be the closest finish between teammates at the top of the standings since Hamilton came up short by five points to Nico Rosberg in ’16.

Piastri leads by nine points coming out of the break, but Norris clearly has the momentum. The latter has won three of the last four races since running into the back of Piastri in Montreal and leaving the Canadian Grand Prix emptyhanded. Whether through lucky breaks, favorable strategies or just pure skill, Norris has tightened up the gap and put the bumpy start to the season behind him.

What will remain fascinating to watch is how McLaren manages each of its two drivers from the pit wall. In the final race before the break, Norris pulled off an unexpected one-stop, while Piastri—like much of the rest of the field—opted for two stops around the Hungaroring in Budapest. The decision to split strategies came with controversy, as critics suggested Piastri had been disadvantaged by the move. After the race, McLaren maintained that it entered the race believing a two-stop to be the best strategy, but offered both drivers the option of a one-stop once the Grand Prix was underway.

It’s unlike the past handling of teammate battles, which have often seen a team prioritize one driver over another, or at least keep both drivers on the same strategy in order to avoid the look that any individual was getting special treatment. McLaren is clearly content to let Norris and Piastri duke it out on track, and have each side of the garage operate as its own entity, which only benefits fans eager to see the best racing possible over the next few months.

Hamilton trying to overcome first-half Ferrari woes

In the final race before the summer break, a dejected Hamilton left the Hungarian Grand Prix as despondent as he’s ever been around a racetrack. He called himself “useless,” suggested that Ferrari probably needed to change drivers and said he’d “hopefully” be back after the summer break.

The rose-colored glasses are off 14 races into the seven-time world champion’s tenure with the Prancing Horse. The time for results is past due—and something must click into place after a month off.

Thankfully for Hamilton, he will be back in red at the Dutch Grand Prix and for the rest of the season. Whether or not the trajectory of his season changes will depend on him focusing on what he can control. 

In Hungary, Hamilton alluded to something “not great” in the background at Ferrari, but of late it’s the self-inflicted mistakes that have stood out. The seven-time champion isn’t accustomed to slipping up in high-pressure situations, yet he spun out at a critical juncture in qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix and ended up 16th. The following weekend, he qualified 12th in Hungary; teammate Charles Leclerc was on pole. 

Is Hamilton over the hill? Perhaps. Still, it’s hard to dismiss someone with his accolades and sheer propensity to just figure things out. However, the self-doubt is cause for concern and both he and Ferrari will need to come closer to some level of harmony by the end of this year if this highly anticipated pairing is actually able to bear fruit in future seasons.

Red Bull rounding out roster around Verstappen

The most compelling off-track storyline through the first half of the 2025 season was undoubtedly what would become of Max Verstappen at Red Bull. With Christian Horner ousted amid a disappointing campaign, the reigning world champion seemingly flirted with Mercedes, only to continue on with the team that raised him for at least one more year. 

The question now: Who will drive alongside Verstappen in 2026?

The final 10 races of the season could be somewhat of an audition for the various candidates. Yuki Tsunoda, currently in Red Bull’s second seat, would need to turn his situation around drastically, considering he hasn’t scored in the last seven races and has made it to Q3 just once in that stretch. Liam Lawson has stabilized his career at Racing Bulls, but it seems unlikely that he’ll get the call back to Red Bull anytime soon. 

Given Red Bull’s reluctance to look outside of its own driver pool in recent years, Isack Hadjar would seem to be the leading contender to land the gig. The rookie has impressed in his first season at Racing Bulls, overcoming an emotionally draining debut in Australia to be one of the most consistent rookies on the grid. 

Another name that’s floated around the rumor mill? Four-time IndyCar champion Álex Palou. Chip Ganassi, owner of the IndyCar team for which Palou races, quickly called any connection between the 28-year-old driver and Red Bull “clickbait” earlier this week though, shutting the door rather firmly on an F1 move.

How Red Bull moves into the new regulations is critical for keeping Verstappen in-house. That begins by putting the right leadership in place, whether that’s interim team principal Laurent Mekies or not, and is followed by selecting the right second driver for the job. 

Williams, Aston Martin, Sauber battle for midfield supremacy

With 10 races to go, this is the perfect time to remind you not to forget about each and every one of the position battles that will ratchet up in the coming months. There’s a vacuum of power outside of this year’s top four teams, meaning that the title of “best of the rest” is fully up for grabs in the final year of this regulation set. 

Williams, led by the consistent Alex Albon, raced out to an early lead in the midfield fight, but a drop-off was anticipated when the outfit said it would be focused more on the development of its 2026 car. The result has been a steady clawing back at Williams’s advantage, particularly from Sauber and Aston Martin. 

Nico Hülkenberg gave F1 its feel-good story of the year with his first career podium at the age of 37 in July’s British Grand Prix. Fellow old guard member Fernando Alonso, 44, followed a similar trajectory up the ranks for Aston Martin at the Hungarian Prix by sneaking into the top five for the first time since the second race of the 2024 season.

Here’s how the the three midfield front-runners have fared across the first 14 races:  

Toss Racing Bulls (45 points) and Haas (35 points) into the mix and you’ve got half the grid within a stone’s throw of fifth place. While spending your time looking at Piastri and Norris at the front is important, don’t forget about what’s happening a little further back on the track.

Cadillac duo preps for 2026

At long last, F1’s 11th team unveiled the two drivers who will suit up for the inaugural season in 2026. And they’re familiar faces.

Cadillac named Sergio Pérez and Valtteri Bottas as the first drivers for the brand’s foray into the sport, opting for two well-respected veterans right out of the gate. And the announcement came on the same day as news broke of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s engagement. It’s anyone’s guess as to which reveal was better received by the public.

The signings are huge swings from Cadillac and evidence that it means business. Though both drivers are perhaps best known for their roles alongside the greatness of Hamilton and Verstappen, Bottas and Pérez are both multi-time race winners in their own right. They bring a combined 24 years of experience to the Cadillac garage, which can only be beneficial when it comes to developing a structure for a new team.

Questions remain though: What does each driver have left in the tank? Pérez, though somewhat validated by Red Bull’s struggles this season, departed F1 at the end of 2024 after his worst run in the sport in five years. Although he’s well-liked and gotten rave reviews for his role as Mercedes reserve driver this season, Bottas didn’t score a single point in his last 29 races at Sauber.

Cadillac clearly wants to be taken seriously in Year 1 and the driver signings were a good place to start. Now it’s time to see how the rest of the infrastructure gets implemented, which fans should get a good glimpse of in the waning months of the 2025 season.

More F1 on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Five F1 Storylines to Watch Coming Out of the Summer Break.