The ultimate F1 Christmas gift guide: A perfect present for all 11 teams

Christmas themed press conference — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 at Christmas

The ultimate F1 Christmas gift guide: A perfect present for all 11 teams

It's Chriiiiiiiiiistmaaaaas

Chris Deeley

Wednesday 24 December 2025 12:57

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It's the most wonderful time of the year! Well, unless you hate Christmas, or want to watch live F1 races, or hate adverts wishing you a Merry SkySportsmas.

Otherwise, it's the most wonderful time of the year! We're hoping that you all get the presents you're hoping for under the tree, and since we're in the giving mood, we've taken it upon ourselves to write lists to Santa from all 11 (eleven!) teams.

Milk and mince pies ready? Here we go...

McLaren: Marriage counselling vouchers

McLaren's driver pairing aren't necessarily heading for divorce, but it's fair to say that Oscar Piastri's started sleeping in the spare room.

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Maybe this was a marriage doomed to failure as soon as the team got good – it's nigh on impossible to sustain a winning team with co-lead drivers. Title battles are fractious, and feelings get hurt. But with the new regulations coming in next year, now would be a really good time to get back on the same page, if only for a season longer.

Mercedes: A new PR director

You wouldn't know that Mercedes were the second best team in the sport this year, would you?

An absolute miracle of a season for a team with a rookie driver and a man who's spent a couple of years in Lewis Hamilton's shadow, Mercedes did an awful lot of excellent work in 2026.

They just...weren't interesting. Even when George Russell was great, he was great in an incredibly competent, unflashy way. A bit of publicity would go a long way.

Red Bull: Aw, just let Isack Hadjar work out

Nope, not sure how you'd wrap this one – but Red Bull's systematic failure of their second drivers has to end at some point, right? Sonic the Hadjhog seems like a nice kid.

Ferrari: ????????????

There is no Christmas present that can fix what's wrong at Ferrari. I don't know. A hug for Lewis Hamilton? The Italian media not being the Italian media for a season? A handshake for Charles Leclerc, for a job well done? Nothing that fits in a box will help this team.

Williams: Large pens and contracts

The best season-on-season improvement from 2024 to 2025, and just getting better. Get everyone involved nailed down to long-term contracts, and do it yesterday.

Carlos Sainz is clearly the best driver in the sport outside of the Big Four teams, and Alex Albon isn't far behind him. They're good, they're fast, they have institutional knowledge and they're getting better. Extend. Everyone. Now.

READ MORE: F1 team reveals new name for 2026

Racing Bulls: A fresh start

A Red Bull junior program without the looming spectre of Helmut Marko is fresh indeed. So many of the organisation's major figures have moved on in the last year and a half, it's hard to know exactly who's doing what in Milton Keynes at the moment.

That could be a boon for Racing Bulls. If Isack Hadjar can make a good fist of things opposite Max Verstappen next year, there might not be a sense of frantic urgency to get one of the youngsters in an RB ready for the big time. And if that works...this team can start functioning like it was supposed to again.

Aston Martin: Driving lessons for Lance Stroll

Yeah we used this one last year, what of it? Maybe if someone had actually shelled out for this, we wouldn't have to.

Only one driver finished more places behind his team-mate in the championship this year than Stroll – Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber, a rookie contending with a veteran who had the best season of his career.

With all the respect in the world, this was not Fernando Alonso's best season opposite his Canadian team-mate. And this was Stroll's seventh season in the sport. It's not great.

Haas: A handwritten note from Ferrari promising not to take Ollie Bearman until the team's done with him

It's been a rough few years for the American-ish team, but young Oliver Bearman was a breath of fresh air in 2025.

Yes, his accent sounds insanely continental for someone who was born and raised in the south of England, and yes, Ferrari will pinch him to replace Lewis Hamilton when they're ready to move on.

In the meantime? Enjoy!

Audi: A better paint job

The German outfit released a first look at their livery for their entry into the sport in 2026, and it didn't exactly make waves. The phrase 'like the basic paint job you get before anything else is unlocked in a racing game' was thrown around a little in GPFans internal communications.

Their previous incarnation, Sauber, had some absolutely iconic looks. Even their garish highlighter green was at least easy to pick out on the track. Audi...step it up, guys.

Alpine: Flavio Briatore leaving...again

There are some very good ways to run an F1 team. There are also a great deal more very bad ways to do it. Having an eccentric Italian in a nebulous semi-official role falls into the latter category.

Come on, man. What are we doing here, really?

Cadillac: Connor Zilisch to decide he wants to race in F1 and not NASCAR

There is one young, preternaturally talented American driver with some open-wheel racing experience, and he's driving in the NASCAR Cup Series in 2026 with Trackhouse Racing.

19-year-old Red Bull athlete Zilisch is great at his actual job (mostly oval racing), but is also considered a road course (read: normal track) specialist in NASCAR because of the time he spent in Europe getting trained up in karting with the likes of Kimi Antonelli.

Cadillac want an American to fly their flag and Colton Herta, coming over this year to drive in F2 and back up Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez, is not the answer. Zilisch could be.

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