2025 Formula 1 rookies pre-assessment: How will they fare?

Jonathan Victoria • 14 Feb 2025 Features

A stacked rookie class for the 2025 season…

2025 could be a monumental year for Formula 1, with the potential of three/four teams, six or so drivers all hunting for wins and overall glory.

As exciting as that thought is, there is also great excitement for the future as 2025 will see six rookies joining the grid for their first full season in F1 (note that part down for later).

With the new rules and regulations coming in for 2026, this season will be perfect for allowing the host of young drivers to come in and get acclimated with the hectic circus of Formula 1 before everything is thrown up in the year from next year, when they may find themselves in a position where they have to deliver.

We’re getting ready for the new season with some fresh F1 content, starting with the 2025 F1 rookies pre-assessment, where I’ll give my thoughts and opinions on how I think each will fare this year and who, if any, will last past the year.

2025 F1 rookies: Who are they?

There will be six drivers heading into their first full season of F1 in 2025. Why do I phrase it like that and not just say ‘there are six rookies making their debuts in 2025’? Because three of those six drivers have already competed in F1, and knowing how people online get about these things, I’m being more specific about what counts in this.

That’s why Ollie Bearman and Jack Doohan are both appearing despite featuring during last season, as is Liam Lawson, who has had two stints already in F1 in ‘23 and ‘24, but both not for a full season.

The other three have made appearances in young driver tests and FP1s in the past but have not raced in an official F1 race, so do count as a full rookie. The full rookie class for this season is:

• Liam Lawson
• Isaac Hadjar
• Ollie Bearman
• Andrea Kimi Antonelli
• Gabriel Bortoletto
• Jack Doohan

Each is joining a different team and in various different situations, so it will be interesting to see who will shape out to be the best rookie this year.

With that out the way, let me tell you about each rookie and how I think they’ll do this year.

Liam Lawson, Red Bull

If this was Liam Lawson being confirmed for a full-time seat with Red Bull sister team Racing Bulls like what was expected, then I wouldn’t have too much to say.

We’ve seen Lawson racing over the last two seasons. He had a stint with RB when Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand in 2023, then replaced Ricciardo half way through the 2024 season, so he has experience under his belt.

But instead of that, he’s been promoted up to the main team to partner Max Verstappen. In the past, that would worry me as we’ve seen how Red Bull operate if the Dutchman’s teammate can’t keep up with him.

That was before Max was a four-time world champion, though. Now, I’d like to think Red Bull will be more willing to give Lawson a chance, after essentially parring him off last year.

I don’t think he’ll be setting the F1 world on fire, but I’d like to think Lawson will do just fine this year. I reckon the car will perform similarly to the latter half of last season, which is to say good enough to be third-best. If that is the case, I can see Lawson becoming a solid regular point scorer and maybe sneak one podium in there, depending on the battle at the front. 

Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls

In all honesty, this is the driver I know the least about. I know he finished runner up in last year’s F2 championship and that Red Bull do consider him ‘one for the future’, but aside from that, I don’t know a whole lot about Isack Hadjar.

He’s only 20 years old so he’s got a lot of time to develop, and being with Racing Bulls this year should give him that opportunity. 

In normal circumstances, I’d say Red Bull should’ve held off for a year, let  compete in F2 for one more season as after the debut season he just had, he would likely go on to win it this year. 

But with the new era of F1 coming and the potential of at least Yuki Tsunoda leaving for Honda after this year, it makes sense that they wanted to promote him now to give him a year to get used to things so that if Yuki does leave, he’ll be in a position to take the reigns at the team more effectively than if he was thrown in from 2026.

Ollie Bearman, Haas

I’m probably more excited for what’s to come from Ollie Bearman than any other rookie, and I mean that for this year and for what’s to come in his career.

If you’re reading this, I assume you watched last season so know how Bearman did in his three appearances. If you didn’t and don’t know, here’s a quick recap: He scored points in two of his three races last season, including a seventh place finish in a Ferrari that he jumped into for the first time Saturday morning, fending off Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris in the latter stages of the Saudi Arabian GP to obtain said seventh place finish.

They were impressive showings last year and I don’t doubt he’ll be able to replicate that success this year.

I do have some doubts, though, but more about the effectiveness of his teamwork with Esteban Ocon, who is also new to the team.

The Frenchman is known for not being the best team player, clashing on track at times with essentially every teammate he’s had, and they’ve always been more experienced drivers than he.

Now with a rookie on the other side of the garage, I don’t know how he’ll cope, especially if Bearman starts showing him up, so that worries me a little for the young Brit.

However, I’m going to stay positive for him and look at the last bit of that and say Bearman will outclass his teammate and the other rookies this year. Sure, Lawson will be in a Red Bull so scoring-wise he’ll no doubt finish with more points. But that’s where you’ve got to take performances and finishes relative to the car, and when we do at the end of the year, I think Bearman will show up top of the class.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Supposedly the biggest, brightest young star since Verstappen. I remember last year when Kimi Antonelli’s name started popping up. It was out of nowhere. One night I go to sleep having never heard of this young Italian, the next it's all over every one of my social medias proclaiming him as the next coming of Christ in F1.

I didn’t get it and I still didn’t when the F2 season got underway. He was reckless and, while he did get some points finishes, I was led to believe he would dominate. He did no such thing.

He did improve as the year went on, though, and I was in attendance at the Hungarian GP weekend where he picked up his first Feature race win in what was an impressive weekend, despite a lowly 14th place Sprint finish due to his poor strategy of racing off into the lead in the first stint and not looking after his tyres.

I wasn’t surprised when he was announced as Hamilton’s replacement with Mercedes as Toto Wolff didn’t exactly hide the fact. I also understand why, because Antonelli is quick. Very quick.

If he can nail down keeping the car on track, he definitely has a good future. And as Wolff said, he didn’t want to miss out again on a young talent like he did with Verstappen.

I can see Antonelli having a decent year. I think he’ll start off fairly poorly, some crashes and collisions with some flashes of brilliance. But he’ll grow as the season goes on and will be a competitor to his fellow fast-running teammate George Russell.

Gabriel Bortoleto, Kick Sauber

Like Hadjar, I don’t know much about Gabriel Bortoleto, but given that he won the F3 and F2 championships in consecutive seasons, both in his debut year in the series, I can tell he has the capabilities to be something special.

I like a Brazilian driver on the grid, it just feels like F1 always needs one so it's been rubbish that one has been missing for the last few years. I like it even more so that it is a young driver who has a lot of upside.

Bortoleto is supposedly a protege of Fernando Alonso, so I can imagine he’ll be getting some solid tips from him at points this year. Couple that with the fact he has veteran Nico Hulkenberg as a teammate, he certainly has a strong support system gunning for his success.

It’s just a bit of a shame that he’s with Sauber, because they suuuuuck, and will likely suck for this season again. But he’s got a two-year contract, and when Sauber becomes Audi from 2026, I reckon they’ll be straight in as a regular points scorer at least, and that’s when we’ll really see what the Brazilian is made of.

As for this year, unless the car is better than what we all expect it to be, he’ll have to make do with some good battles at the back of the grid and maybe the occasional fight for the low points here and there. If he can do that, I’d call his season a success.

Jack Doohan, Alpine

Honestly, you’ve just got to feel bad for Jack Doohan. If you don’t know why keep reading to find out, but just know it is quite possibly the worst situation for a rookie to be in.

He’s being given an opportunity this year after being with the Alpine young driver programme since 2022. He’s been the reserve driver so when it was announced Ocon was moving on, it was likely Doohan was going to take his place.

So Doohan is given it and is even handed an early call-up for the last race of the season. It wasn’t a mega drive but that wasn’t the point, it was more for getting him used to things.

Then Alpine signed Franco Colapinto, the surprise star of the second half of last season, and it became clear that the team now has now intention of going forward with Doohan as the future.

Colapinto has been signed as a reserve driver, but he absolutely will not be a reserve driver come the end of the year. Unless Doohan is able to drag that car to regular points and maybe even some podiums, completely outclassing teammate Pierre Gasly, he’ll likely be gone at the summer break if not before.

It is such a shame that this is the case. Jack is a great character who deserves a shot. But Alpine has already signed his F1 career death warrant, so I doubt we’ll get to see a lot from him. I just hope he can do some good, maybe get a seat with the incoming Cadillac team from 2026 or can take his talents to another category and thrive there.

2025 F1 rookie class power rankings

So now I’ve given my thoughts and a bit of backstory to each driver, I’m going to rank them like F1 does for the full grid power rankings. This is a power ranking of the drivers as they head into the season, not how I think they’ll finish at the end of the year. I’ll come back to this at the seasons end to see how I did

I’ve tried to be unbiased, particularly with Hadjar and Bortoleto since I said I don’t know much about them.

1. Liam Lawson
2. Ollie Bearman
3. Gabriel Bortoleto
4. Andrea Kimi Antonelli
5. Jack Doohan
6. Isaac Hadjar

I’m putting Lawson first basically because he’s not really a rookie. He’s got a good wealth of F1 experience already so in his first full season in a front running car, I think he’ll do well.

I’ve put Bearman second over Bortoleto also because we’ve seen him in F1 already. He did well in his three outings last year and I think he’ll continue that trend this year.

Bortoleto is next as I think he’s going to be special. Again, be sure to look at his performances relative to his car and not just finishes, because I have no doubt he’ll impress.

I think there’s a bit of a gap between the top three and the bottom three if I’m honest. Not a massive one, but enough of one to put Antonelli in fourth and some ways behind Bortoleto. I just think he’ll be very accident prone at the start which the others won’t be.

Doohan is next, and as I said with him, he’s in a tough spot. I think he’ll get to race with no pressure, no expectations, and hopefully he’ll want to push as hard as possible so he can get something out of his likely short time on the grid.

Then lastly I’ve put Hadjar, only really because I have no idea what to expect from him. I think Tsunoda will smash him this year but that’s more on the quality of Yuki than it is his performances.

Rookie of the Year prediction

When the season is all said and done, I think Ollie Bearman will be taking the crown as the rookie of the year. 

I really think he’s capable of something special during his career and that we’ll see moments of that this year. I believe he can beat Ocon, which is ultimately the first challenge every driver wants to overcome (beating their teammate, that is, not Ocon specifically).

I won’t be surprised if Lawson or Bortoleto gets the nod, though. Both have the potential to show some real quality, too, but I think Bearman will just about take it.