Formula 1’s 2025 rookies

After an off-season that saw the entire 2023 Formula 1 entry list transferred to 2024 unchanged there has been a lot more driver market activity over the course of this season, and rookies have been at the heart of it.

Along with Jack Doohan at Alpine, Prema Racing Formula 2 team-mates Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman will move into Mercedes and Haas race seats respectively.

In addition Liam Lawson, who took part in five F1 races in 2023 when Daniel Ricciardo was injured, looks set to be part of the Red Bull/VCARB set-up – although how he will fit in is not clear at the time of writing.

Meanwhile Sauber/Audi is still deciding on a team-mate for Nico Hülkenberg, with several youngsters under consideration. Then there’s Franco Colapinto, a late replacement for Logan Sargeant at Williams from the Italian GP onwards.

This bumper crop of youngsters looks set to give the sport a jolt, and it demonstrates that the junior programmes and driver academies that teams operate really do work.

Antonelli’s progress has without doubt been the most spectacular. Picked up by Mercedes early in his karting career, the Italian made the jump from Formula Regional to Formula 2 this year as part of a fast-tracked career progression.

Even before he’d raced in the latter category he was in the frame to replace Lewis Hamilton for 2025, with Toto Wolff claiming that he made the decision “five minutes” after learning in January that the seven-times world champion was heading to Ferrari.

Race wins in F2 and his quick progress in testing with a 2022 F1 car earnt him the nod well before September’s official confirmation, which came just a few days after his 18th birthday. He now has the chance to show what he can do in a car that at the very least should be capable of winning races in 2025.

Bearman had a golden opportunity land in his lap at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in March when Carlos Sainz was sidelined by appendicitis. Having stepped into the Spaniard’s car for FP3 he did a superb job to claim seventh in the race, effectively guaranteeing himself an F1 future whatever happened during his
second F2 season.

Haas was the logical destination for the 19-year-old to undertake an apprenticeship, ahead of a potential eventual graduation to Ferrari. He’ll know the US-owned team better than incoming team-mate Esteban Ocon, benefiting from a series of FP1s and a bonus race weekend in Baku after Kevin Magnussen triggered a race ban.

Colapinto is the anomaly in that he was given nine races by Williams, but with no chance of a full-time graduation with the Grove team for a couple of years at least.

The Argentine driver arguably has nothing to lose and everything to gain over his part-season, and he might just put himself in the frame elsewhere. He turned a few heads with a self-assured debut at Monza, despite limited preparation.

ANDREA KIMI ANTONELLI
(Italy)
AGE: 18 TEAM: Mercedes-AMG
TITLES: 2x European karting champion (2020-21), Italian & ADAC Formula 4 (2022), Formula Regional European & Middle East (2023)

JACK DOOHAN
(Australia)
AGE: 21 TEAM: Alpine
TITLES: 2x Australian karting champion (2015-16)

OLIVER BEARMAN
(Great Britain)
AGE: 19 TEAM: Haas
TITLES: Italian & ADAC Formula 4 (2021)

LIAM LAWSON
(New Zealand)
AGE: 22 TEAM: RB (TBC)
TITLES: New Zealand FF1600 (2016-17), Toyota Racing Series (2019)