1 overreaction for every F1 team after opening races

With two Formula 1 races in the books for 2025, we're jumping to conclusions with one overreaction for every team.

McLaren

McLaren will utterly dominate both championships: Through two races, McLaren is 2-for-2 in race wins and poles and has led 109 of 113 total laps. Both team drivers have seemingly traded superb weekends, with Lando Norris controlling the season opener in Melbourne and Oscar Piastri putting on a show in China. Maybe F1 should move its goalposts from wanting an exciting season full of parity to hoping McLaren doesn't repeat Red Bull's 2023 dominance because the papaya team will smother any hope of an exciting year.

Mercedes

Mercedes finally figured out these rules: For the first time in the ground-effect regulations, Mercedes has a stable car. The days of Mercedes claiming it's back one weekend and then saying it has no idea what went wrong the next week are finally over. McLaren may be the fastest, but the W16 has been the most consistent of the remaining competitors. George Russell will take home at least 20 podiums with a car Mercedes understands.

Red Bull

Red Bull will never win a championship again: Red Bull pulled the plug on Liam Lawson's disastrous time with the team after only two races. The hits keep piling with the second-seat disasters, poor car development, and the losses of key talent such as Adrian Newey and Rob Marshall in recent years. With the RB21 still a step behind McLaren, Red Bull is officially clinging to the Max Verstappen lifeline. But even now, that's not enough. There's little evidence this former powerhouse can give the reigning drivers' champion the machinery he needs to overcome his rivals. And, if that's the case, Red Bull might not have to expand the championship trophy case at Milton Keynes for a long while.

Ferrari

Fred Vasseur's shine has worn off. Ferrari is still Ferrari: It was full steam ahead for Ferrari in the winter break. That's now turned into a train wreck. Vasseur's operation, which had legitimate bright spots, is starting to appear more like predecessor Mattia Binotto's Ferrari: awful strategy calls in crunch time and points given away due to incompetence. Ferrari suffered a double disqualification in China after a strategy debacle in the rainy season opener. Sure, Lewis Hamilton won a sprint race already, but 2025 is shaping up to be remembered more as one of the team's biggest disappointments than for the arrival of an all-time great.

Williams

Alex Albon is a top-eight driver on the grid: Remember when most of the buzz around Williams surrounded Carlos Sainz? Well, Albon has quickly extinguished that in convincing fashion. The Thai driver has outpointed his teammate 16-1 and is up 3-0 in qualifying, including sprint sessions. Don't forget that Sainz more than held his own against some quality teammates in the past, such as Norris and Charles Leclerc. So, what does that say about where this current version of Albon ranks among the best drivers? Perhaps that conversation needs to start.

Haas

Esteban Ocon was the best driver pickup for 2025: Hamilton? No, there are still swings of extreme highs and lows there. Sainz? He hasn't delivered. Ocon? Sorry, do you mean the leading Ferrari engine driver in the championship? The French pilot failed to score in Australia but picked up a solid 10 points in last week's race. Haas only earned more than 10 points in one of 24 races last season. No driver addition will move the needle more than Ocon at Haas.

Aston Martin

Fernando Alonso is washed: Alonso has brilliantly managed to evade Father Time, but at 43, he may have slowed down enough to let aging get a hold of him. The Spaniard is the only driver who hasn't finished a race yet this season following a mechanical failure in China and a crash in Australia. What's more concerning is the minuscule gaps between Alonso and teammate Lance Stroll in qualifying. This might be the year that F1 sees an immortal figure become human.

Kick Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg will end his podium-less streak: In his first race with Kick Sauber, Hulkenberg outscored the team's entire 2024 points haul with his seventh-place finish. Next on the horizon is the end of his streak of 229 consecutive race starts - and counting - without a single podium finish. All it'll take is another seventh-place finish, perhaps some rain, and a handful of disqualifications. With the way 2025 is going, that might not be too unrealistic.

Racing Bulls

Isack Hadjar is the fastest rookie on the grid: Move over Kimi Antonelli; Hadjar is the rookie with the best raw pace. Despite being in a Racing Bulls car, Hadjar has been the fastest rookie in qualifying in each of the two races this season. He qualified 11th in Australia and just narrowly missed Q3. In China, Hadjar was 0.262 of a second off Verstappen and beat out Mercedes' Antonelli to the fastest rookie honors by starting seventh. Get on the Hadjar train before it's too late. There may not be room to join the bandwagon once everyone else notices him.

Alpine

Jack Doohan ends up with more penalty points than race starts: Doohan is already at four penalty points after the Chinese Grand Prix. There have been persistent rumors that it's a matter of when - not if - Franco Colapinto will take his seat. Despite the team's zero points so far, Alpine will use the penalty points and lack of results to justify a cruel early demotion.