A new Formula 1 season is just around the corner, with teams preparing for the lifting of the covers from their final challengers under the current regulations at London's O2 Arena on 18 February.
While everyone will be chasing the usual improvements over the winter - more speed, increased downforce, reduced drag etcetera - there are numerous areas that are perhaps not so obvious or straightforward to solve that each team needs to nail in order to maximise their potential. So what are those areas?
McLaren - Fine margin decisions
McLaren put most of the pieces of its F1 comeback jigsaw together last season to secure a first constructors' championship since 1998, but it wasn't all smooth sailing for the Woking-based outfit.
With Oscar Piastri much improved from his rookie campaign, the Australian was further towards the front of the field - yet failing to consistently match Lando Norris's form. That caused some trouble mid-season as McLaren mulled over team orders being employed. Many from afar believed the team had erred when opting not to favour the Briton as he pushed for the drivers' title.
If Piastri continues his arc of improvement, then McLaren could have a headache on its hands. If the two drivers are evenly matched pace-wise but one has a slightly better chance of taking the title than the other, then maintaining the team harmony that has been crucial during its uptick in form under Andrea Stella will be a key factor in further success.
The excuse last term was that it had been so long since McLaren was at the front, it was rusty when making these kinds of decisions - there can be no such excuse now.
Another area in which the team lost out on occasion last season was in the pitstops, specifically with both drivers sometimes overshooting their marks in high-pressure situations. With the top order as tight as it is now, such mistakes can be the difference between winning and losing.
Ferrari - Hamilton's qualifying mojo
The upcoming season is a huge one for Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton joining Charles Leclerc to form arguably the strongest line-up on the grid.
While the seven-time champion was well on form in the races last term, punctuated by two victories and a stunning drive to second at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, concerns over his qualifying arose after struggling against George Russell in the Mercedes. Hamilton himself suggested he had lost pace over one lap and that could be a worry going up against Leclerc, who has forged a reputation as potentially F1's best qualifier.
Ferrari has to help Hamilton rediscover his qualifying mojo. If that is achieved, then the duo could be formidable as the Scuderia aims for a first title of any kind since 2008, when it won the constructors' championship.
The team will also be tested on strategy again, with Carlos Sainz having departed as the only driver of the duo seemingly willing to go against calls from the pitwall. Leclerc has been frustrated on numerous occasions during his time at Ferrari and was given a change of race engineer last year following strategic troubles that blighted his 2022 title challenge. One can imagine Hamilton not accepting anything sub-par in this department.
It has long been a thorn in Ferrari's side but now, in the midst of title battles, the flaws have to be ironed out.
Red Bull - A unified front
Aside from the issues that held back the RB20 last season, Red Bull's campaign was summed up by the off-track turmoil that threatened to derail everything early on in the year.
Allegations made against team principal Christian Horner, who was cleared after an investigation, only led to further issues as at one point it seemed Helmut Marko would rush through the exit door. Adrian Newey duly did. Max Verstappen's father Jos was highly critical of Horner and opted to wash dirty laundry in public, sparking chatter that the team's talismanic driver might also leave.
A full-on implosion never materialised. But the Milton Keynes-based outfit must now put on a unified front for the entirety of the new season to stop the rumours and discourse. At least then all focus can go into on-track matters, with Liam Lawson bedding into the second seat after replacing the underperforming Sergio Perez.
Red Bull will also have to deal with the loss of Jonathan Wheatley, who will soon take his position as Sauber's new team principal ahead of that team's transition to Audi next year. Wheatley's position at Red Bull saw him oversee rules management and he was able to dig his team out of plenty of holes with the FIA in the past, as well as put rival teams into them.
His voice was prominent during the feisty 2021 title campaign, where team radio to FIA race direction was broadcast, and the importance of playing to the rulebook as he did is a big void to fill. It is one area that Red Bull's management must reshuffle.
Mercedes - A more consistent package
There were glimmers of hope between the continued struggles for Mercedes last term, with both Russell and Hamilton able to take race victories. And while there will be little interest in major overhauls ahead of the 2026 rule changes, the Silver Arrows must find a way to make the W16 work in higher temperatures.
In the cold, the W15 was proven to be competitive - see Las Vegas as the prime example - but as soon as the sun came out to play, Russell and Hamilton slipped back. If it can unlock even half of the potential its platform has in the cold across a wider range of conditions, it should be more competitive over the entire season and not play a bit-part role at the front of the pack.
Mercedes must also find a way to get Andrea Kimi Antonelli settled into the hustle and bustle of F1, to ensure his focus is on endeavours on track. Attention will be on another scale to what he is used to, given everything that has gone before in terms of hype over his ability and his Monza FP1 crash.
He is clearly a special talent. Now Toto Wolff and his team must nurture the 18-year-old to help fulfil his potential.
Aston Martin - Unleashing Newey
Plenty of changes have been made in Aston Martin's management structure over the winter, with Andy Cowell taking over team principal duties, but the squad must ensure Newey is enabled to implement what he sees fit in the technical department when he officially starts work in March.
With over three decades of knowledge to tap into, the Silverstone-based outfit has the technical guru of the championship on its side and could have found the piece of the jigsaw it needs to take a step towards the top four. While this is a team game and everyone must be given the opportunity to thrive, there is no positive to clipping Newey's wings if he believes improvements can be made in certain areas.
Even if his impact will come too late for its 2025 car, enabling Newey will be the single biggest advantage Aston could have. That, along with a thorough investigation into how it has failed to improve with developments in recent years in order to right its wrongs, could see Aston Martin become a force to be reckoned with for its union with Honda in 2026.
Alpine - Managerial stability at last?
The Alpine soap opera had a largely positive end to its 2024 campaign, with a number of solid results securing a rise up the constructors' table. It would have been wholly positive, had it not been for the unsavoury end to the Esteban Ocon partnership as well as Flavio Briatore's unnerving comments about Jack Doohan's future as his replacement.
It was Briatore's arrival that saw the latest departure in a revolving door of high-profile personnel at the Enstone team - Bruno Famin out and Oliver Oakes in as team principal. That followed Otmar Szafnauer's 17-month stint ending in 2023, after Marcin Budkowski departed in January 2022.
There was much consternation over the decision to ditch the in-house Renault engine for 2026 and instead become a Mercedes powertrain customer. But while team harmony will be of concern, the biggest focus that must be placed is just setting a management team in concrete and laying foundations for Alpine's future.
Constant change over the past three years played to its detriment at the start of 2024. That can't happen again.
Haas - Continued progress
Haas was the surprise package of last season as new team boss Ayao Komatsu led the American-owned outfit forward from its dismal 2023 campaign. Its focus for the new term? More of the same please.
It has an exciting new driver line-up in Ocon and Oliver Bearman, which could help yield even more impressive results. But the key will be ensuring it can continue its upward trend ahead of the new regulations' arrival.
That includes nailing strategy to make sure that track position isn't wasted, which is one of the areas where the team fell down last term. It has already announced sweeping changes to its race team staff organisation for 2025, which includes promoting performance engineers Laura Mueller (Ocon) and Ronan O'Hare (Bearman) to race engineer positions.
The future is undoubtedly bright for Haas under Komatsu's stewardship, but he has to prove that year one was not a one-off forward step.
Racing Bulls - Managing tempers
Isack Hadjar joins Yuki Tsunoda at the newly-named [again] Racing Bulls squad, as he aims to become the next Red Bull junior to work his way through the sister outfit and reach the parent team.
But with Tsunoda already known as F1's hot-head, Hadjar's fiery personality may only give the management team more of a headache as it aims to control tempers. Tsunoda has already proven that, when his head is in the game, he is a fine driver. Hadjar himself is no slouch, even if he failed to convert promise into the F2 title last season.
If team principal Laurent Mekies and CEO Peter Bayer, along with the rest of the senior personnel, can help keep a bottle on emotions when in the car, then Racing Bulls should be able to start making strides up the order and challenge for fifth in the standings. That's a big if though.
Williams - Keeping it clean
Do. Not. Crash. Three words that will surely be ringing in Alex Albon and new recruit Sainz's ears heading out onto the circuit each time this year.
Williams was snookered by heavy crash after heavy crash last year, meaning the team had to funnel resource into repairs rather than developments. For much of the season, one car was running a different specification to the other which hindered performance and resulted in the team tumbling back down the pecking order after showing promise in 2023.
Simply put, the aim for this year will be not to crash - free up resource that can be focused on the 2026 machinery and hit the ground running in the new regulatory era. Sounds simple, right?
Sauber - Pitstop execution
There's so much that Sauber needs to improve on heading into the new campaign. But with the 2026 upheaval hanging over the upcoming season, perhaps its biggest focus should be placed on maximising pitstops.
New equipment left the stops in crisis early last year and although that was eventually overcome, there were still slower stops than rivals. That hindered progress for both Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas in races where they were close to the top 10.
With Audi taking over next year, the focus will be shifting early to the new machinery - and rightly so, given last year's performances. But that doesn't mean that the on-track operations should let their guards down. If rookie Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg get the chance to score, they have to take it and quicker pitstops will only help achieve that.
Positivity into the Audi era will be far more welcome than further scrutiny, especially with the presence of Cadillac adding to the pressure.
