Which Formula 1 teams benefit most from the aerodynamics handicaps newly calculated in the half year 2025 and which teams lose something.
June 30th is an important date in the 2025 Formula 1 season, even though it was not a race day.
The Monday after the Austria Grand Prix is crucial because an interim assessment is drawn on this day in the constructor evaluation-and based on this interim balance, the aerodynamics handicaps are awarded for the second half of 2025.
This has been the case since 2021: The handicap system introduced at the time stipulates that better placed Formula 1 teams receive less development time than poorer-placed teams. Specifically: Teams in positions one to six in the constructor classification receive a deduction, teams from eighth place. Only the seventh -placed team is a hundred percent.
This means analogous to the current overall ranking: McLaren as a World Cup table leader is most limited in the second half of the season in development work. Alpine, as the current lead, in turn benefits the most.
Formula 1: Anyone who benefits the most from the Aero Handicap
Together with Aston Martin, Alpine is one of the teams that made the biggest “crash” in the handicap rating from the first to the second half of the year: These race stables ended the 2024 season at the World Cup positions six and five and are now in positions ten and nine-at the very back.
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However, this has a positive effect on the development time: Alpine changes from 95 to 115 percent development time, Aston Martin from 90 to 110. And because Red Bull is no longer third, but fourth, it receives a development plus of five percent in the second half of the year.
Which teams are more restricted by the aero handicap
Williams makes the biggest leap in the other direction: after the World Cup rank nine in the previous year, the British private team is now on the fifth World Cup rank and therefore has to restrict itself significantly in the development work-instead of 110 percent, there is only 90 percent of the time in the wind tunnel in the second half of the year.
In addition to Mercedes (from P4 to P3), the other climbers in the field also include racing bulls (from P8 to P6) and clean (from P10 to P9).
Everything remains unchanged at the top: McLaren was number one in the first half of the year and remains. The same applies to Ferrari in second place. Both top teams must continue to work with their previous restrictions.
The next new adjustment of the Aero Handicaps will then be based on the final World Cup table 2025 for the first half of 2026 and will apply from 1st January to June 30th.