Midfield teams face a dilemma: 'That's no excuse'
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
The 2025 Formula 1 season isn’t just shaping up to be thrilling at the front—it’s expected to be just as intense in the midfield. Teams like Williams, Racing Bulls, and Haas F1 are likely to be highly competitive, making every position crucial. For these teams, securing a higher spot in the championship isn’t just about prestige; it’s also financially vital, as more prize money is at stake. Meanwhile, the focus is already shifting to 2026, when an entirely new generation of cars will hit the track.
It’s a tough decision for Formula 1 teams, especially those outside the top tier—should they go all-in on 2025 or shift focus early to 2026? While Red Bull, Ferrari, and Mercedes have the financial muscle to absorb any loss in prize money, midfield teams don’t have that luxury. For them, every championship position matters. Meanwhile, the top teams can afford to pivot to 2026 once it’s clear they’re not in the title fight, giving them a head start on developing the next generation of cars.
Every spot in the championship makes a difference
Teams struggling to reach the top of the budget cap despite their sponsorships are different. A fifth place instead of a sixth place in the F1 championship can be the difference between hiring or not hiring those extra people for your aerodynamics department. That makes it necessary to perform more than maximum every race this season anyway, to hold off the likely close competition.
So Ayao Komatsu, Haas' team boss, believes: "So it's not like we can say, ‘Okay, we're focusing on 26, so we write off 25. That was the excuse the previous times as well. But you cannot have them.
"So we said, ‘Okay, to be the best in 25, which is the best solution?’ And then after those guys did the proper study and conclusion, their recommendation was we should go with the carryover. So I said, ‘Good. Go for it.’
Different scenarios among teams
For a team like Haas, finding the right tipping point is tricky. The same goes for Williams and Sauber, too. At Haas - and surely the other teams - they are prepared for anything. "Yes. So we have three different scenarios prepared, but we only really going to know which scenario we're going to be in after Melbourne. The earliest we're going to know is Melbourne; we're not going to know after Bahrain testing.
"So yeah, the end of March is one of the key decision times of how we are going to play it?" Said Komatsu, who is probably thinking the same way as his fellow competitors.
This article was written in collaboration with Toby Nixon
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