Shock Vettel return opens up after major twist at F1 team

Formula 1 in 2024 started off slowly, well for everyone outside of Red Bull – who raced into a massive early advantage, but not many could have predicted the twists and turns that have occurred since.Or even before it started really, with 2024 producing a wild internal war at Red Bull with Christian Horner at the centre of it right before the cars had even been unveiled for the season.That came just days after the bombshell news that Lewis Hamilton had announced he would ditch Mercedes and join Ferrari for 2025, in one of the most sensational F1 stories of all time.Adrian Newey and Jonathan Wheatley will depart Red Bull after decades of service between them. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton have produced home grand prix wins that would tick many boxes of a Hollywood scriptwriter.Almost buried beneath all that chaos – a surprise genuine championship challenge could emerge after the summer break to threaten Red Bull, and maybe even Max Verstappen, when the F1 circus returns for the Dutch Grand Prix.The whole point of summarising all of the above into a few paragraphs is to offer a reminder that no matter how many times you think something is unthinkable in F1, you really can get caught with a sucker-punch from nowhere.So that brings us to the 2025 grid and how it is shaping up as we enter the end of ‘silly season’. In theory, there are four spots left on the grid – or potentially five if you include the threat of Sergio Perez perhaps being axed at the end of 2024 after a torrid year and just months after extending his contract (a double unexpected turn).