Lewis Hamilton In Red, Max Verstappen Under Pressure ... Here Are The Storylines For F1's 75th Anniversary

The 2025 Formula One season has all the makings of a white-knuckle 24-race celebration to mark 75 years since the inaugural seven-race championship back in 1950.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen appears to have his work cut out to seal a fifth straight title with Lando Norris poised to knock the Dutchman off his perch. Hamilton's move from Mercedes to Ferrari is just one of numerous intriguing subplots in a season that gets underway in Australia next Sunday with six rookies gracing the grid.

Here AFP Sport looks at five talking points before lights go out in Melbourne.

Seventy-five years after Giuseppe Farina claimed the first F1 world championship at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, Max Verstappen embarks on the 2025 season in pursuit of a fifth successive title, a feat only achieved once before, by Michael Schumacher.

If he succeeds it will cement the Dutchman's place as a titan of the sport. He hoovered up seven of the first 10 races in his rampaging Red Bull last year, before a 10-race winless run as McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari ran riot.