The 2025 Formula One season has seen the influx of more new drivers to the grid than one can remember.
Let’s take a look at how the rookies and some new driver signings have fared after the first couple of Grand Prix’s.
The 2024 F1 season gave us a preview of new signings for 2025.
First up was Oliver Bearman, a Ferrari/Haas reserve driver in 2024 who substituted for the appendicitis-ridden Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia. Despite limited practice and just missing out on Q3 (by 0.036 seconds), Bearman went on to finish seventh, becoming the youngest debut points scorer and earning “Driver of the Day”. A second opportunity afforded itself at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, after Kevin Magnussen received a somewhat controversial race ban with sub Bearman finishing again in the points. For the 2025 season, the young British driver has signed with the Haas F1 Team. For the first round in Australia, Bearman’s luck eluded him, with a crash in P2 and a gearbox failure in Q1, which kept the Brit on the back foot all weekend. For the second GP a week later in China, Bearman redeemed himself with a steady qualifying performance, topped with an eighth place finish and valuable points for the Hass Team.
Perhaps the biggest hype in new driver signings is Italian Andrea Kimi Antonelli who has signed with Mercedes. Team principal Toto Wolff followed in the footsteps of Red Bull’s signing of Max Verstappen at an early age, gambling that the risk will bear fruit. Well, the jury did not need to be out too long. Strong finishes in what looks like a more stable Mercedes W16 could give Antonelli a first F1 win by season’s end.
Jack Doohan is another full time signing for the 2025 season with the Alpine team. Doohan did a pick-up GP in Abu Dhabi at the end of the 2024 season, replacing the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon. The young Australian has faced mounting pressure to perform this season. Crashing out in his home race on lap 1 and a poor finish in China means that a strong performance in Japan is required or the weight of the world will be on his shoulders.
Current Formula 2 Champion and Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber driver Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto has also had a Baptism of fire. For Bortoleto, the Sauber chassis seems lacking with even his team mate, Nico Hulkenberg, suffering.
Perhaps the big news has come from Red Bull/Racing Bulls. Although not considered a rookie, Kiwi Liam Lawson has been the focus of attention, with a switch from his current team Red Bull to sister team Racing Bulls (Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team) for the upcoming Japan GP. The second seat at Red Bull has always been a tough ask, but, for Lawson, the axe is falling after just two Red Bull starts. Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Sergio Perez have all had difficulties scoring consistently in the second seat, while Max Verstappen has gone on to four world titles. So, with Lawson moving to Racing Bulls, this moves Japanese Yuki Tsunoda to Red Bull for his home Grand Prix. How will Lawson fare against his new Racing Bulls team mate, rookie Isack Hadjar?
Despite a poor performance in Adelaide, Hadjar picked himself off the ground and raised his game, getting out of Q3 for both the sprint and feature race in China. Nice come-back, Isack!
So what about 2024’s upcoming man, Franco Colapinto? Despite some brilliant performances filling in for the ousted Logan Sargeant at Williams, Colapinto is without a seat for 2025 … at the moment. Moving from Williams to Alpine as reserve driver, Colapinto has been rumored to perhaps replace Doohan if the Aussie’s performances don’t improve.
With Japan being the start of a tough triple header (3 race weekends in a row: Japan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia), it gives the rookies who are under scrutiny very little time to get it right.
Look for team changes becoming more common in the near future. “Hire slow, fire fast” could not be more relevant than in today’s high stakes F1 world, where there is no room for the luxury of time unless you are the sport’s official timekeeper. Even then, Rolex has been ousted, replaced by TAG Heuer in 2025.
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