What was the biggest heartbreak of F1 2025?
by Motorsport Staff · AutosportThe 2025 Formula 1 season was filled with meteoric highs, as well as a handful of crushing lows
Every year, Formula 1 is packed with surprises and great storylines as 20 of the world’s best drivers battle for supremacy and the chance to lift the F1 World Drivers' Championship Trophy. But it wasn’t all good news over 2025, and the season had its fair share of heartbreak as well.
From Lewis Hamilton’s collision with a groundhog in Canada to Lando Norris’ retirement in Zandvoort that left him perched on a bank for the remainder of the race, and even Yuki Tsunoda’s awful final season in F1, 2025 had a few heartbreaking moments.
Here, are our writers share some of the most emotional scenes from the 2025 F1 campaign.
The downfall of Lewis Hamilton – Ben Vinel
After a tricky last three seasons at Mercedes alongside George Russell, Lewis Hamilton had something to prove at Ferrari: he still had potential for more.
Right now, this is hard to see.
Hamilton’s enthusiastic demeanour as he took up this new challenge quickly made way for frustration and distress, as he struggled to wring the most out of a tricky SF-25. He rarely matched team-mate Charles Leclerc, and a sprint win in China hardly makes up for his overall lack of performance.
This was the seven-time world champion’s first foray into an Italian racing team in his 25-year single-seater career, and maybe he underestimated the challenge. His communication with race engineer Riccardo Adami often stuttered to a surprising extent.
By the end of the year, Hamilton cut a downbeat figure, at a loss as to how to fix the situation. He won’t look back on F1’s ground-effect era fondly and will hope to bounce back in next year’s new era; this would otherwise be a heartbreaking end to such a glittering career.
The passing of Eddie Jordan – Jake Boxall-legge
It feels a bit mawkish writing this but, having grown up as a fan of the Jordan team during my formative years as an F1 fan, Eddie Jordan's passing felt like a big loss. EJ was one of F1's biggest characters who, in his capacity as a team owner, fought against a field of more amply funded teams and ensured his eponymous team survived for 14 years before the tide became too great. Jordan burst onto the scene in 1991, preceding a handful of seasons defined by struggle, but the Irishman's ability to bring money into the team and resist meddling in the affairs of the technical staff ensured that the Silverstone squad could keep climbing the ladder.
As such, Jordan rose to third in the championship in 1999, as Heinz-Harald Frentzen's unlikely title bid hit the buffers with a couple of rounds to go. The team subsequently declined, caught in the maelstrom of manufacturer interest and the swollen budgets of its nearest rivals. After selling up to Alex Shnaider's Midland concern in 2005, Jordan later became a TV pundit when F1 returned to the BBC in 2009 – and his unremitting ear-to-the-ground disposition ensured he was able to break the news of Lewis Hamilton's move to Mercedes.
Jordan was involved as Adrian Newey's manager in later years, negotiating the designer's move to Aston Martin (with a penchant for wrong-footing the media with carefully constructed misdirection) and had been part of the consortium that purchased the London Irish rugby club before his death from cancer at 76.
Isack Hadjar’s awful start – Owen Bellwood
The 2025 Formula 1 season had its fair share of heartbreak – mostly arriving at the Dutch Grand Prix where Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc painted a perfect picture of misery as they watched the race unfold from the Zandvoort sand dunes. However, there’s one scene that tugs at the heartstrings even more, and that was Isack Hadjar’s awful start to his Formula 1 career with Racing Bulls.
Hadjar had a strong start to the Australian Grand Prix weekend, qualifying in 11th for the race and missing out on Q3 by just 0.063 seconds. However, rain fell on the Melbourne track before the Sunday race, leaving the circuit slippery and this extra hazard proved too much for the young Frenchman.
The Racing Bulls rookie spun on the formation lap ahead of the grand prix start, bringing his race to an end before it had even begun. The incident brought the wrath of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko clattering down on the young driver, and he was seen in tears in the paddock as the race roared on without him.
Thankfully, the then-20-year-old wasn’t left alone in this tough moment, Lewis Hamilton’s father Anthony Hamilton was on hand to console Hadjar as he made his way back to the pits.
He since turned around his season after the shocking start, scoring a debut podium in Zandvoort and earning promotion to the senior Red Bull team. Clearly, the heartbreak didn’t last long for Hadjar.
Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari nightmare – Filip Cleeren
I personally wasn't expecting Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari to set the world alight in 2025. Driving for Ferrari is a very different beast to representing any other team on the grid. And beyond all the adaptation that was required, Hamilton clearly hasn't been able to gel that well with the outgoing era of cars as a whole.
But following the false dawn of his pole-to-flag sprint race win in China, I wasn't expecting his season to get that ugly. He was no match for qualifying phenom Charles Leclerc on Saturday, which is certainly no disgrace, and at times it did look like he was edging closer. But the final third of the season was just brutal, accentuated by three successive Q1 exits to see out the season.
Hopefully Hamilton gets the off-season reset he clearly needs, and comes back swinging like he always does. The 2026 season, with a clean slate and new cars, will make or break his Ferrari move.
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