2025 F1 reserve drivers: the hopefuls on standby for each GP team

There’s almost a totally new look to the Formula 1 grid in 2025, which means the ranks of F1 reserve drivers have been reshuffled too.

Most are yet to be confirmed for the new season but are typically young hotshots who have previously impressed in Formula 2, some even winning the championship. But now they’ve taken their seat on the substitute bench, with their single-seater career on pause, all the while on standby for a chance to prove themselves.

That chance can come out of the blue, as Oliver Bearman found out at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix — where Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz was ruled out with a case of appendicitis. The F2 driver, who won four times during the 2023 F2 season and has since been on duty as Ferrari’s reserve driver, impressed vastly with a seventh-place finish and was quickly snapped up by Haas, who offered the Briton a 2025 race seat. Bearman has since made more reserve appearances for the American outfit: replacing Kevin Magnussen in Azerbaijan and Brazil.

Others have received more long-term call ups, such as Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson, who took up full-time seats mid-way through the 2024 season in place of underperforming drivers at Williams and RB respectively. With so much new talent on the grid for 2025, there could be more chances for those on the sidelines to step into the spotlight.

Should the likes of Gabriel Bortoleto or Jack Doohan struggle for pace, could Sauber or Alpine look to former F2 champions in Theo Pourchaire and Felipe Drugovich or even former Williams driver Franco Colapinto? Or will they look to follow in the wheel tracks of Ferrari and Mercedes, which have chosen to employ experienced reserves for 2025?

2025 F1 reserve drivers

Click on a team name for more details

As well as attending races, reserve drivers will assist with simulator work — testing new components or set-up options. They are also at the front of the queue to get a taste of F1 machinery in the two free practice sessions that teams must offer to younger drivers each year

Should illness, injury or even a team dispute sideline one of the race drivers then, as with Bearman, the team’s reserve driver is suddenly thrust into the spotlight with sometimes just one race to make an impact. Nyck de Vries impressed so much for Williams at Monza in 2022 that AlphaTauri offered him a contract for the following season — although that didn’t quite work out as planned. In 2023, Liam Lawson burnished his credentials with assured drives when Daniel Ricciardo was sidelined with a broken hand, and has returned to replace the Aussie in 2024 from the US Grand Prix onwards.

An F1 reserve driver’s duties can also vary from team to team: some called in as a ‘super-sub’ from other categories such as IndyCar or the World Endurance Championship, while others travel and work with the team more frequently, with regular simulator sessions. Customer teams such as Haas or Williams have the option of borrowing reserve drivers from suppliers such as Ferrari and Mercedes — allowing some drivers to have more chances than others at an F1 debut.

With that in mind, below are details of all the reserve drivers confirmed as an option for the 2024 F1 season.

Red Bull

Reserve driver: TBC

Red Bull is yet to confirm a reserve driver for 2025, having promoted Liam Lawson — the team’s former reserve — into a full-time race seat next to Max Verstappen.

They could have turned to F2 star Isack Hadjar, but the Frenchman has also been promoted into a full-time F1 seat with RB. So, naturally, next on the Red Bull junior ranks is either Ayumu Iwasa, who impressed throughout his Super Formula campaign in 2024, or Pepe Marti, who finished fifth in the 2024 Formula 3 standings.

Mercedes

Reserve drivers: Valtteri Bottas

Valtteri Bottas will return to Mercedes as a reserve driver in 2025, following a tumultuous three-year stint with Sauber.

The Finn will aim to bring experience to the Brackley outfit, which will run a very youthful driver line-up this year composed of 26-year-old George Russell and 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli.

Previously, Bottas had spent five seasons with the team from 2017-2021, in which he proved a reliable number two to Lewis Hamilton and captured 10 Grands Prix victories, 20 pole positions and 67 podium finishes in total.

“His impact and contribution in the five years he was with us previously as our race driver was immense,” team boss Toto Wolff said in a statement. “His technical feedback and input were important in helping us to those successes and pushing the team forward. Not only that, but he was also a fantastic colleague and team member. In his role as Reserve Driver, all those qualities will be incredibly important in helping us compete for world championships and supporting both George and Kimi on track.”

While Bottas is unlikely to return as a full-time driver for Mercedes, the Finn could step in and score good points for the team, should Antonelli or Russell be unable to race.

Ferrari

Reserve driver: TBC

Ferrari will run arguably the strongest line-up in Formula 1 in 2025, with Charles Leclerc joined by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. So who best to back them up?

The Scuderia are yet to make any announcements, but reports suggest that former Alfa Romeo driver and current Ferrari endurance driver Antonio Giovinazzi will be selected alongside Charles Leclerc’s younger brother Arthur, who is currently acting as the team’s development driver.

Aston Martin

Reserve drivers: Felipe Drugovich

After setting up its own young driver programme in 2023, Aston Martin hired the services of reigning F2 champion Felipe Drugovich to fill its reserve driver spot.

The young Brazilian enjoyed a dominant campaign in 2022, claiming feature race wins in Jeddah, Barcelona, Monaco and Zandvoort — allowing him to wrap up the F2 title in Monza with a race to spare. His consistent performance throughout the season put him on the radar of most F1 teams but with very few spaces, Drugovich was limited to the sidelines — attending races throughout the year to gain experience, as well as compete in FP1 sessions — while Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll enjoy the team’s resurgent performance in 2023.

Although his first outing at the 2023 Italian GP did little to impress, Drugovich found incredible pace during the first practice session of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix weekend, as he finished second in the overall standings, just 0.228sec off the pace set by Mercedes’ George Russell.

More impressive performances during FP1 sessions at the 2024 Mexico City GP and the 2024 Abu Dhabi GP has kept Drugovich on many team’s radar for 2025, but it’s expected that the Brazilian will remain in his reserve role for Aston Martin.

McLaren

Reserve drivers: TBC

McLaren is yet to announce any details about its reserve driver line-up for 2025, but will likely field stars from other series, such as IndyCar’s Pato O’Ward, as it did last year.

As an engine customer to Mercedes — an agreement has recently been extended until 2030 — the Woking marque have often utilised reserve drivers from other teams instead of employing their own. In 2023, Mick Schuamcher and Felipe Drugovich were on standby. But in an effort to make it a more standalone outfit, McLaren CEO Zak Brown chose to look further afield than many other teams on the grid, in the hope of showing that F1 talent lies on the other side of the Atlantic too.

O’Ward, who has completed several test sessions for the team and made his most recent FP1 apperance at the 2024 Mexico City GP, is already a well-accomplished driver in IndyCar having finished fourth or better in the series three times in the last four years.

Alpine

Reserve driver: Ryo Hirakawa and Paul Aron 

Alpine will utilise a blend of experience and youth in its reserve driver line-up for 2025, with 30-year-old Ryo Hirakawa joined by 20-year-old Paul Aron and former Williams driver Franco Colapinto.

Hirakawa was a development driver for McLaren in 2024 but rose to the motor sport fore in 2022 and 2023 with title-winning WEC campaigns with Toyota. The Japanese driver has limited experience in a F1 car, but did appear in FP1 for the Woking outfit during the season finale in Abu Dhabi. It has already been confirmed that he will make further FP1 appearances in 2025, the first of which is planned for the Japanese GP on April 4.

Aron, who finished third in F2 last season and is signed to the Alpine junior academy, will aim to gain further experience behind the wheel of an F1 car in 2024, after making his debut in F1 machinery at the Abu Dhabi post-season test. The Estonian driver is also expected to compete in FP1 sessions for the Enstone outfit throughout the year.

Franco Colapinto has also been confirmed as the team’s third reserve driver for 2024, after impressing for Williams as a step-in reserve last year. Given his experience, it’s likely that if Doohan or Gasly are unable to race — or if Alpine feel the need to make a mid-season driver change — Colapinto would be the name that is called upon to fill the void.

Visa Cash App RB

Reserve drivers: TBC

Under the rule of Red Bull, Visa Cash App RB (formerly AlphaTauri) are made to be flexible when it comes to its reserve drivers. While there are no official reserve drivers listed, the team are given the luxury of picking from a large pool of talented Red Bull juniors.

Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar were at the top of the list, but since they’re now in full-time seats for Red Bull and RB, it’s likely that  or team-mate Yuki Tsunoda were unable race, reserve duties would likely fall to Ayumu Iwasa, Pepe Marti or Jak Crawford — the latter having competed in two FP1 sessions in 2023.

Sauber

Reserve drivers: TBC

Sauber could have plenty of options when it comes to its 2025 F1 reserves, as it enters its final F1 season prior to Audi’s takeover.

Theo Pourchaire remains the teams most successful and experienced junior driver, as he followed an impressive F2 campaign in 2022 — finishing second in the title standings — with further progress in 2023: winning the championship by 11 points over Frederik Vesti. The Frenchman has been on the sidelines ever since while making occasional appearances in Super Formula and IndyCar, but could be on call to replace either Nico Hülkenberg or Gabriel Bortoleto if needed.

Zane Maloney could be in a similar situation. The Barbados-born 20-year-old joined the Sauber Academy for 2024, having been named 2022 rookie of the year in the FIA Formula 3 Championship where he finished second in the standings in his debut season. He moved on to Formula 2 last year, claiming four podiums with Rodin Carlin in his rookie season before winning the season-opening sprint and feature race in Bahrain in 2024.

Williams

Reserve drivers: TBC 

As a customer team of Mercedes, Williams does not often employ its own reserve driver — instead utilising the Silver Arrows pool of young talent. In 2022, it was able to call on the talents of Nyck de Vries or Stoffel Vandoorne — utilising the former in Monza after Alex Albon underwent surgery for appendicitis.

But midway through the 2024 season, the Grove outfit decided to bet on one of its own drivers: Franco Colapinto.

The Argentine driver has been a Williams junior driver since January 2023, and impressed team principal James Vowles during an FP1 outing at the 2024 British Grand Prix. Four races later, he was called upon to replace a struggling Logan Sargeant for the remainder of the season — and has impressed vastly ever since.

Colapinto finished 12th on debut at Monza, then eighth in Azerbaijan, eleventh in Singapore, tenth in the US and 12th in Mexico City. He then had a rough end to the season, as he failed to finish three out of the next four races.

He was never listed as the teams official reserve driver, but is still listed as a Williams junior and could be a great option to replace Carlos Sainz or Alex Albon if necessary.

Haas

Reserve drivers: TBC

For the past three seasons, Haas has employed Pietro Fittipaldi as its official reserve driver — the young Brazilian and grandson of two-time F1 world champion Emerson Fittipaldi making FP1 appearances in Mexico and Abu Dhabi last year. His contract was extended for 2024, but Haas has not announced anything for 2025.

Fittipaldi was previously joined by Ferrari reserve driver Oliver Bearman, but after the Briton’s promotion into a full-time seat for the American outfit, team principal Ayao Komatsu could be willing to look a little further afield for a good back up.