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 on Sunday, with six rookies gracing the grid.

Here's a look at five talking points before lights go out in Melbourne.

Can Max make it five?

Seventy-five years after Giuseppe Farina claimed the first F1 world championship at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo, 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. But, Verstappen had the last word, fighting back to win in Brazil and clinch title No 4 in Las Vegas with two races to spare.

McLaren prised the constructors' championship away from Red Bull to seal its long road back to the F1 summit. The tough task facing Verstappen is underlined by the betting, which has him as only second favorite behind Norris (who ended 2024 63 points adrift of the Dutchman) for the 2025 crown, with Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Hamilton leading the rest of the pack.