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Max Verstappen
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Netherlands
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He’s Max by name, and max by nature.
Arriving as Formula 1’s youngest ever competitor at just 17 years old, Verstappen pushed his car, his rivals and the sport’s record books to the limit. The baby-faced Dutchman with the heart of a lion took the Toro Rosso – and then the Red Bull – by the horns with his instinctive racing style.
F1’s youngest points scorer soon became its youngest race winner – at the age of 18 years and 228 days – with an opportunistic but controlled drive on debut for Red Bull in Barcelona 2016. A true wheel-to-wheel racer, another stunning drive in Brazil from the back of the pack to the podium on a treacherous wet track kept the plaudits coming.
Verstappen’s no-holds-barred attitude and hard defending have sometimes landed him in hot water with his peers and paymasters. But the mistakes that initially marred his potential have given way to maturity, while the bravado and energy that make him a blockbuster talent have remained – and the victories have kept on coming.
They led to his first F1 drivers’ crown after that now legendary, final-round showdown with Lewis Hamilton in 2021 and he followed that up with a powerhouse title defence in 2022. An epic third successive championship triumph featured a record 19 wins from 23 Grands Prix, and he held on for a fourth in 2024, despite Red Bull falling off the pace towards the end of the campaign.
The son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen and super-quick karting Mum Sophie Kumpen, racing runs through his genes. Despite moving out of Dad’s house to live in Monaco, Verstappen remains close to his family, and though he’s not afraid to speak his mind, he can still be surprisingly shy.
Having become the Netherlands' first world champion aged just 24, the expectations for the new generation’s leading light are sky high – but with Verstappen there’s a feeling that the sky’s the limit.
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Lando Norris
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United Kingdom
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Lando Norris may not be named after Star Wars rebel Lando Calrissian - his Mum just liked the moniker - but he has flair and fighting spirit in bountiful supply.
McLaren had the British teenager on their books for two years before fast-tracking him into F1’s galaxy of stars in 2019. A firecracker in his junior career, with a penchant for pole positions and wheel-to-wheel tussles, Norris didn’t let them down.
Paired with the highly-rated – and far more experienced – Carlos Sainz, his rookie season was impressive, Norris edging the Spaniard in their head-to-head qualifying battle, scoring points 11 times, and only narrowly missing out on a top-10 championship placing.
A maiden podium came in 2020, with more following in the subsequent two seasons – he narrowly missed out on a win at Russia 2021 – as he dominated another more senior team mate, Daniel Ricciardo, to firmly establish himself in F1’s top tier.
It was the 2024 season that finally brought Norris his breakthrough win – along with three more – as he became the biggest challenger to Max Verstappen’s drivers’ crown and led McLaren to their first constructors’ title since 1998.
Away from the track, Norris brims with a modest charm and an artistic side sees him design and paint his own race gear as a hobby. The focus for the future is allying artistry and ambition on track as McLaren rely on the promise of youth to take them back to the top.
Norris hopes the downforce will be with him…
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Charles Leclerc
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Monaco
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Born in the Mediterranean idyll of Monaco, Leclerc arrived in F1 on a tidal wave of expectation.
Practically peerless on his way to the GP3 and Formula 2 crowns, he showcased a dazzling array of skills from scorching pole positions, commanding victories – even when his car caught fire twice at Silverstone – to an ability to muscle his way through the pack. Winning back-to-back championships also taught Leclerc how to handle pressure, another useful tool in the big pond of Formula 1 racing.
Stepping up to F1 in 2018, Leclerc showed flashes of ballistic pace on Saturdays and racing brilliance on Sundays, dragging his Sauber beyond its limits – and earning himself a money-can’t-buy race seat at Ferrari for 2019, stepping into the shoes of the Scuderia’s last world champion, Kimi Raikkonen.
There he immediately put the cat among the proverbial pigeons, unafraid to go wheel-to-wheel with established number one, Sebastian Vettel. A maiden F1 victory at Spa was followed by another a week later on Ferrari’s hallowed home turf of Monza. The tifosi had found another new hero – who then became the first man to out-score Vettel over a season with the Scuderia, a feat he repeated in crushing fashion the following year.
The 2020 and ’21 seasons bore little fruit for Ferrari, but Leclerc maintained his resolve to emerge a true title contender in 2022. With three wins, 11 podiums and nine pole positions, he was the only man able to consistently take the fight to champion Max Verstappen - a feat he and the Scuderia were sadly unable to repeat in subsequent campaigns.
Out of the car, Leclerc is modest and thoughtful - but then he is on his own very personal mission. This exciting young talent is racing for his late father Herve and his friend and mentor Jules Bianchi, the F1 driver who died in 2015.
On the evidence so far, he is doing them both proud.
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Oscar Piastri
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Australia
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Born in Melbourne, just a stone’s throw away from the Australian Grand Prix venue, a young Oscar Piastri’s dreams of one day racing in Formula 1 were ignited by the sport’s star drivers roaring around his local streets, otherwise known as Albert Park.
But it would take huge commitment and sacrifice to turn that dream into a reality, with a move to Europe – made by the likes of fellow countrymen Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo before him – the only way to go up against the best and catch the attention of the sport’s decision-makers.
Using success on the Australian karting scene as a springboard, Piastri continued to learn the craft in championships across Europe, before getting his first taste of single-seater competition as a 15-year-old – two podium finishes in F4 UAE a sign of things to come.
From there, success flowed. British F4 runner-up. Formula Renault champion. F3 champion. F2 champion (by more than 50 points). Piastri did not simply climb the junior single-seater ladder, he charged up it to knock loudly on the F1 door.
So impressive was Piastri that two F1 teams squabbled over his services for 2023, adding a new dimension to the driver market and so-called ‘silly season’. McLaren, and not long-time backers Alpine, won out and their rookie repaid them in spades, taking two podiums in a highly impressive debut campaign.
It was no flash in the pan. In 2024 Piastri proved vital in McLaren securing their first constructors' title since 1998, pushing more experienced team mate Lando Norris all the way and scoring Grand Prix wins in Hungary and Azerbaijan to finish fourth in the driver standings.
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Carlos Sainz
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Spain
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He’s the matador from Madrid racing royalty.
After entering F1’s Bull Ring paired alongside Max Verstappen at Toro Rosso in 2015, Sainz quickly showed his fighting spirit. A tenacious racer, he puts the car on the edge as he hustles his way through the pack. No wonder Sainz has earned the nickname Chilli.
But the Spaniard is intelligent as well as instinctive, thinking his way through a race and into the points. This calm temperament follows him off track where he remains unfazed by the pressures of forging a Grand Prix career with a famous name.
Sainz is the son of double World Rally champion, also his namesake, and has brought some of Dad’s driving skills to the F1 circuit – junior loves a delicious dose of drift for one.
After following in his famous father’s tyre tracks, Sainz has had big racing boots to fill – first at McLaren where he replaced his childhood hero Fernando Alonso, and now at Ferrari, in the seat formerly owned by Sebastian Vettel.
It is never easy living in the shadow of sporting giants, but Sainz has shown the drive and disposition to deal with it, scoring four Grand Prix victories during his time with Scuderia seasons before moving to his latest challenge at Williams. Vamos!
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George Russell
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United Kingdom
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He’s the driver with the motto: “If in doubt, go flat out”.
George Russell has lived by it throughout his F1 career to date, out-qualifying seasoned team mate Robert Kubica at all 21 Grands Prix in his rookie season, putting Williams back on the podium in 2021, and landing his first race win with Mercedes in 2022.
That brilliant baseline speed served Russell well as he totted up titles on his way to Formula 1. The Briton stormed to the 2017 GP3 championship and delivered the 2018 Formula 2 crown under immense pressure.
Spotting his potential, world champions Mercedes swooped to sign him to their junior programme in 2017, when Russell already had a DTM deal on the table. He banked more experience with practice sessions with Force India and tests for the Silver Arrows, before landing his Mercedes-powered Williams race drive.
A refusal to cede ground to his rivals - and commitment to a tricky pass – underpins Russell’s winning mentality. And it’s what got him the call-up to replace Lewis Hamilton for a one-off Mercedes appearance for Sakhir 2020 when the reigning champ was struck down by Covid-19.
That star turn saw Russell miss out on pole by just 0.026s and then outrace Mercedes stalwart Valtteri Bottas. Only a bungled pit stop and a heart-breaking late puncture prevented a near-certain maiden win for the up-and-coming super-sub.
He kept his head down at Williams in 2021, scoring his first points and podium, all the while keeping his eye on the bigger prize. Having proved himself a hard worker and a tenacious talent, that prize arrived in the form of a chance to take on compatriot and seven-time champion Hamilton in identical machinery.
It was an opportunity Russell has relished, and he took his first F1 win – and Mercedes’ only 2022 victory – in Brazil. The 2023 season proved tougher, but he was again atop the podium twice in 2024 and for 2025 he leads the team following Hamilton's departure for Ferrari.
And if the Silver Arrows can bounce back and provide a truly competitive car, a title bid surely beckons - a huge challenge, but as always, ‘Russell the Rocket’ will be going flat out.
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Lewis Hamilton
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United Kingdom
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Still I Rise’ – these are the words emblazoned across the back of Lewis Hamilton’s helmet and tattooed across his shoulders, and ever since annihilating expectations with one of the greatest rookie performances in F1 history in 2007, that’s literally all he’s done: risen to the top of the all-time pole positions list ahead of his hero Ayrton Senna, surged into first place in the wins column surpassing the inimitable Michael Schumacher, and then matched the legendary German’s seven world titles.
Is he the G.O.A.T? Few would deny that he’s in the conversation – and what’s more he’s got there his way, twinning his relentless speed with a refusal to conform to stereotypes for how a racing driver should think, dress or behave.
Respect is hard earned in F1, but Hamilton – Sir Lewis Hamilton to be precise – has it from every one of his peers. Why? Because they know that whatever the track, whatever the conditions, whatever the situation, when his visor goes down and the lights go out, it’s Hammertime.
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Sergio Perez
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Mexico
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Born and raised in Guadalajara, Pérez began competitive kart racing aged six. Graduating to junior formulae in 2004, Pérez won his first championship in the national class of the 2007 British Formula 3 International Series. He progressed to the GP2 Series in 2009, finishing runner-up to Pastor Maldonado the following season with Addax. A member of the Ferrari Driver Academy since 2010, Pérez signed for Sauber in 2011 to partner Kamui Kobayashi, making his Formula One debut at the Australian Grand Prix, where both were disqualified for an illegal rear wing. Pérez found greater success for the team in 2012, achieving his maiden podium finish in Malaysia, and repeating this feat in Canada and Italy. For the 2013 season, Pérez moved to McLaren, replacing Lewis Hamilton to partner Jenson Button. After a podium-less season for McLaren, Pérez signed with Force India in 2014. He scored five podiums with the team before their re-branding to Racing Point mid-way through the 2018 season.
Pérez placed fourth in the championship with Racing Point in 2020, taking his maiden win at the Sakhir Grand Prix, having been in last-place at the end of the first lap. Replaced by Sebastian Vettel at the re-branded Aston Martin for 2021, Pérez signed for Red Bull to partner Max Verstappen; he took his first victory for the team at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Pérez took further wins in 2022 at the Monaco and Singapore Grands Prix, amongst his maiden pole position in Saudi Arabia, finishing the season third overall. Pérez finished runner-up to Verstappen in the 2023 World Drivers' Championship, after additional victories in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. Following a winless 2024 campaign, Pérez and Red Bull mutually agreed to terminate his contract.
Pérez achieved six race wins, three pole positions, 12 fastest laps and 39 podiums in Formula One. He holds the Formula One records for the most starts before a race win (190) and the most races before a pole position (219).
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Fernando Alonso
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Spain
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Michael Schumacher was the undisputed king of Formula 1 in the early 2000s, picking up wins and championships at a rate that was simply unheard of at the time. It was going to take someone very special to topple the Ferrari legend from his throne – and that it was Fernando Alonso who did it, tells you all you need to know about the Spaniard.
Fiercely competitive, Alonso is not shy about his talent, rating himself as 9/10 “in everything”, and few in the know would disagree, with his performances in F1 characterised by blistering speed, brilliant tactical thinking, exemplary race craft, a razor-sharp eye for detail and a relentless determination to win.
A serial record breaker in his early days, he was – at one time – F1’s youngest polesitter, race winner, world champion and double world champion as he gobbled up success with the Renault team. Even Alonso couldn’t continue that amazing run in his later career though, failing to add another title to his collection despite spells at McLaren and Ferrari.
But after two years away from Formula 1 racing – and with two Le Mans wins in his pocket – Alonso returned with Alpine in 2021. His speed and determination undiminished, he was back on the podium that year, but frustrated by poor reliability – and the lack of a long-term contract – the following season, he opted to jump ship once more.
After eight podiums in his first season with Aston Martin, he has since become the first man to reach 400 Grand Prix starts. And with tech legend Adrian Newey joining in 2025, Alonso now hopes it will be with the team in green that he finally returns to winning ways, as he has unfinished business with F1…
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Pierre Gasly
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France
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If there’s one man who knows how big a rollercoaster ride an F1 driver’s career can be, it’s Pierre Gasly!
The flying Frenchman was called up to make his 2017 debut in Malaysia in place of Daniil Kvyat and, after proving his mettle, he was named a Toro Rosso driver the following year. A further 21 races into his fledgling career, Gasly was moved up again – this time to replace Red Bull big gun Daniel Ricciardo.
Gasly seemed to have a knack of being in the right place at the right time – a quality that’s equally handy on track. A series of impressive 2018 performances for Toro Rosso – including a brilliant fourth place in Bahrain – showed exciting promise for what he might do with the ‘A’ team in 2019.
Unfortunately that promise only appeared in flashes – and he quickly suffered from unfavourable comparisons with superstar team mate Max Verstappen. So much so that after the summer break, he was sent back to Toro Rosso, with another young up-and-comer – Alex Albon – being given a shot in the ‘senior’ Red Bull seat.
But Gasly bounced back, as only Gasly can. In the season’s remaining nine races he scored almost as many points as team mate Kvyat managed over the entire year – and secured his best-ever race result with P2 in Brazil. That trajectory continued in 2020, peaking with an emotional maiden win at the renamed AlphaTauri team’s home race in Italy, and didn’t let up in 2021 when he was back on the podium and scored 110 of the squad’s 142 points.
When AlphaTauri’s momentum stalled in 2022, Gasly decided it was time for a change – in the form of French squad Alpine. It’s a move that has occasionally put him back on the podium, but the question now is can he gather momentum and get himself another shot at the F1 bigtime…
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Nico Hulkenberg
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Germany
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He’s the Superhero with the talent to become a racing superstar – if only he could get to flex his muscles with a top team. F1’s 'Hulk' has shown incredible strength and stamina as a midfield marauder for Williams, Force India, Sauber, Renault, Racing Point, Aston Martin, Haas and Kick Sauber during a career spanning back to 2010.
In that rookie season, Hulkenberg mastered changing track conditions to take a brilliant pole position in Brazil, showing he had brains as well as brawn. Since then his ability to consistently hoover up the points has made him a highly valued team player. In 2015, his reputation grew once more when, on a weekend away from his day job, he won the classic Le Mans 24 Hours race for Porsche at the first time of asking.
Hulkenberg’s off-track alter ego is down to earth – he’s the sort of driver who holds his own umbrella when it’s raining on the way to the grid – with a cheeky sense of humour. When he reached the unwanted record of most race starts without a podium finish he laughed it off as the start of the 'Hulkenberg era'.
Thankfully, even after being dropped by Renault at the end of 2019, the popular German’s era continued with some stand-in (and stand-out) drives in 2020 and 2022, and after landing a full-time F1 return with Haas for 2023, the ‘Hulk’ embraced another chance to set the record straight.
Teaming up with rookie Gabriel Bortoleto at Kick Sauber for 2025, Hulkenberg will be hoping the team that will become the Audi works squad for 2026 can finally bring him that elusive F1 podium - and more.
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Yuki Tsunoda
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Japan
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In the entire history of Formula 1, no Japanese driver has ever won a World Championship Grand Prix. Could Yuki Tsunoda be the first? Red Bull certainly think so, with the youngster resolutely following the path to their senior team over the past few years.
Tsunoda's ascent to the top tier of motorsport was astonishingly rapid: he went from racing in Japanese F4 to a Formula 1 seat with AlphaTauri, now Racing Bulls, in just over three years, having arrived in Europe in 2019 with no knowledge of the circuits.
But after a slow start in F3, followed by a hugely impressive debut F2 campaign that saw him finish third in the championship and pick up three wins along the way, Tsunoda proved he had the speed and the race craft to force his way on to the F1 grid.
He may not have initially adapted to Grand Prix racing quite as quickly as he did to F2, but with four seasons now under his belt, Tsunoda has firmly established himself in Formula 1 - and finally won that seat with the Red Bull team early in 2025.
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Lance Stroll
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Canada
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There is no such thing as too much too soon for Stroll, a teenage sensation with a wet weather predilection. One of the cool kids on the grid, Stroll was unveiled shortly after his 18th birthday by Williams – before he finished high school and got his road licence.
Stroll meant business in his debut 2017 season, setting records on the way. An opportunistic racer he bounded onto the podium in Baku, the youngest rookie to do so. As the son of a wealthy entrepreneur, Stroll is used to a champagne lifestyle but now he knows the fizz tastes all the sweeter on the rostrum. Then in Monza he mastered the downpours to become the youngest driver in history to line up on the front row.
A single-minded starter, the Canadian loves to make up places on the opening lap and fight through to the points. Stroll has the potential to be a long-term fixture in Formula 1 – as amply illustrated by a maiden pole and another two podiums in 2020.
Those came after his father Lawrence led the consortium that took over Force India midway through the 2018 season, and then transformed it from Racing Point to Aston Martin for 2021. The future looks bright for both the team and their young driver – and even if it rains then Stroll can keep on motoring at the sharp end of the pack.
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Esteban Ocon
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France
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If there’s one word that dominates Esteban Ocon’s career, it’s ‘sacrifice’.
Back when he was just a promising karter, Ocon’s parents sold their house, put their jobs on hold, and began a life on the road, living in a caravan and travelling from circuit to circuit to support their son’s burgeoning career.
Sacrifice, see – but it worked. 2014 saw Ocon break through in the world of single-seaters, as he beat a certain Max Verstappen to the European F3 title. Backed by Mercedes, he won the GP3 title the following year and was halfway through a season of DTM in 2016 when he was offered the chance to replace Rio Haryanto at the minnow Manor team from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards.
That opportunity led to a full-time seat the following year with Force India, where his wheel-to-wheel duels with highly-rated team mate Sergio Perez quickly marked him out as a rising star. But when Lawrence Stroll, father of racer Lance, stepped in midway through 2018 to secure the squad’s financial future, the writing was on the wall for Ocon, who was moved aside at the end of the year to allow Stroll Jnr to join from Williams.
Ocon bided his time, though, and after a year on the sidelines as Mercedes’ reserve driver, he found his way back into a race seat for 2020 with Renault, who became Alpine for 2021 – when his wait finally paid off, as he scored his – and the famous French marque’s – first F1 win.
Nothing in Ocon’s motorsport career has come easy – but if Ocon has managed to return to the F1 grid and step atop the podium, it’s through a combination of self-belief, determination and a talent that’s up there with the very best.
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Kimi Antonelli
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Italy
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Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s rise to the F1 grid has been nothing short of meteoric.
Son of sportscar racer Marco, the Bologna native was scouted by Mercedes during a karting career that saw him collect a scarcely believable number of winner's trophies.
He went on to make his car racing debut aged just 15, with more titles swiftly following – in both the Italian and ADAC F4 championships in 2022 and the Formula Regional Middle East and European categories a year later.
Most onlookers saw F3 as the logical next move, but Mercedes already knew they had a star on their hands and decided that promotion to F2 – effectively skipping a step on the ladder – would better serve their latest hot prospect.
It was always going to be a lot to ask of the teenager, with the noise around his future prospects only growing when Lewis Hamilton dropped the bombshell that he would be swapping Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025 – opening up a spot alongside George Russell.
Antonelli got his head down to make a solid rather than spectacular start to life in F2, consistently scoring points, but not yet reaching the podium, while his Prema Racing team and the rest of the grid tried to understand the nuances of the series’ new car package.
Then, midway through the season, Antonelli started to show a much larger audience what he could do – while delivering on the faith that Mercedes talent spotter Gwen Lagrue and team boss Toto Wolff had placed in him.
A breakthrough Sprint victory in the rain at Silverstone was followed by a maiden Feature win at the Hungaroring, before he left the paddock speechless at Spa-Francorchamps with a stunningly brave wet-weather move on Franco Colapinto into Eau Rouge.
Mercedes had seen enough and, shortly after Antonelli’s 18th birthday, the squad announced at the Italian Grand Prix that the home favourite would indeed be replacing seven-time world champion Hamilton at the Silver Arrows.
A heavy crash on his practice debut at Monza took the shine off the news, but another, much cleaner FP1 run in Mexico and thousands of miles in older Mercedes machinery should prepare Antonelli well for the challenge ahead…
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Alexander Albon
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Thailand
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Born in London but racing under the flag of Thailand, Alexander Albon’s first word was in fact Italian. That word was Ferrari – though it was with another Italian team that he got his big F1 break.
Idolising Michael Schumacher and dreaming of one day racing in Formula 1, the junior Albon was pipped to the 2016 GP3 title by a certain Charles Leclerc. He then left his great friendship with George Russell trackside as he took the 2018 Formula 2 title fight down to the wire.
Graduating to the F1 big league along with yet another contemporary – Lando Norris – in 2019, Albon did his talking on track with Toro Rosso in the opening races, earning a mid-season promotion to Red Bull Racing.
A stylish overtaker with a championship mentality, Albon was unfazed by partnering Max Verstappen for the second half of his rookie season, taking top-six finishes in eight of his nine 2019 races with Red Bull.
Staying in touch with the future champion proved tougher in 2020 and Red Bull dropped him from their race line-up. Crucially, though, Albon was retained as test and reserve driver, keeping him very much on team bosses’ radar, leading to his 2022 return to the grid with Williams, where he has established a reputation as a fast qualifier and mature racer.
Laidback and cheerful with a cheeky grin, the Thai driver is popular among his peers – not always easy in motorsport’s cauldron of competition – but you don’t succeed in Formula 1 by being popular. Albon’s challenge remains a big one – to make the most of a rare second F1 opportunity.
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Oliver Bearman
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United Kingdom
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As an official Ferrari reserve he made his F1 race debut in Saudi Arabia 2024 in place of the ill Carlos Sainz.
That was after the young Bearman had got his first taste of F1 machinery with the Scuderia towards the end of 2023, in preparation for a pair of FP1 outings for Haas at the Mexican and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix.
He would go on to complete several more F1 test runs whilst also competing in F2 with the Prema Racing team, winning four races and placing sixth in the feeder series standings that year.
After a tough start to the 2024 campaign for Prema in Bahrain, Bearman struck back to claim pole position at the high-speed Jeddah track but, with Sainz-subbing duties calling, he was required to temporarily drop his F2 commitments.
Not that he was complaining - a stunning performance saw the young Englishman score six points for seventh place in his first Grand Prix, enhancing his future F1 prospects no end.
Indeed, that drive helped him secure a full-time F1 seat with the Ferrari-powered Haas squad for 2025 – as well as an early Grand Prix debut with them in Azerbaijan ’24, as team regular Kevin Magnussen served out a one-race ban.
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Franco Colapinto
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Argentina
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He may have only contested a handful of Grands Prix, but Alpine racer Franco Colapinto has already made quite a name for himself in Formula 1, having not once but twice been drafted in mid-season to replace a struggling team mate.
At the end of August 2024, Williams announced that their academy driver and then F2 racer Colapinto would contest the remainder of the 2024 season with the squad, replacing Logan Sargeant as Alex Albon’s team mate.
A race winner in an array of categories on the junior single-seater scene, Colapinto had joined the Williams Racing Driver Academy in early 2023 and made his FP1 debut with the F1 team at last year’s British Grand Prix – giving him an initial taste of the FW46.
On his subsequent race debut at Monza, he became the first Argentine driver in F1 for 23 years, after Gaston Mazzacane’s last appearances for Prost back in 2001, and only the second Argentine to drive for Williams, following on from his countryman Carlos Reutemann.
Despite his obvious speed, Williams' signing of Carlos Sainz meant Colapinto was left without a full-time seat for 2025 and swapped to Alpine as reserve. But he didn’t have to wait long to be back on the grid, replacing rookie Jack Doohan for at least five Grands Prix from round seven onwards.
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Gabriel Bortoleto
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Brazil
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Gabriel Bortoleto will carry the hopes of a nation during his debut F1 season, with the reigning F2 champion becoming the first Brazilian to compete in the sport full-time since Felipe Massa in 2017.
Born in Sao Paulo, Bortoleto started karting aged seven and was soon winning local championships – his businessman father Lincoln Oliveira, who is involved in Brazilian motor racing, providing valuable support.
Just four years later, Bortoleto was on his way to Europe, where he followed in the footsteps of hero Ayrton Senna by achieving further karting success in international championships and paving the way for a move to single-seaters.
Since then, Bortoleto has won races in almost every category he has contested, initially building his experience in Italian F4 and Formula Regional through 2021 and 2022, and doing enough to be signed by Fernando Alonso’s A14 management company.
With Alonso in his corner, Bortoleto moved up a gear, brilliantly capturing back-to-back F3 and F2 titles in 2023 and 2024 – the latter season including a remarkable rise from last to first during the Monza Feature Race.
It was a performance that got the paddock talking and saw him emerge as an outside contender for one of the then few vacancies on the 2025 F1 grid.
Bortoleto’s situation was complicated slightly by his driver development deal with McLaren, signed shortly after he won the F3 title, but given their locked down duo of race winners Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, team chiefs did not want to stand in the youngster’s way.
As such, whispers of a potential move to Kick Sauber – following a company-wide evaluation by new team boss Mattia Binotto – soon turned into concrete news, and Bortoleto was duly confirmed alongside the experienced Nico Hulkenberg.
Bortoleto hailed an “amazing feeling” when he made his official F1 test debut for Sauber at the 2024 post-season gathering in Abu Dhabi, with the 20-year-old now eager to turn his Formula 1 dreams into a reality…
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Liam Lawson
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New Zealand
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Liam Lawson knows a thing or two about jumping in at the deep end.
A race winner at pretty much every level of junior motorsport, and a front-runner in the highly competitive F3 and F2 championships, the New Zealander was keenly awaiting his F1 chance as Red Bull’s reserve driver when a twist of fate presented it.
With AlphaTauri racer Daniel Ricciardo breaking his hand in a practice crash at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, Lawson – inspired as a youngster by the Lightning McQueen character from the Disney animation Cars – was ready to strike.
After a sink-or-swim debut in the relentless rain at Zandvoort, the entire paddock stood up and took notice amid the intense humidity of Singapore, where the rookie brilliantly beat world champion Max Verstappen to a Q3 spot and bagged some valuable points on race day.
Red Bull told Lawson just before his stellar qualifying run under the Marina Bay lights that there would be no room at the inn for 2024, with a rebranded RB team combining experience and youth once more in the healed Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.
Lawson had been in this position before, though. He underlined his talents to Red Bull’s chiefs when it mattered most and just needed to wait for the next opportunity to arise.
Of all the places for it to unfold, Singapore triggered a second twist of fate. Ricciardo would be out, and Lawson back in, this time as Red Bull tried to understand the “bigger picture” with their driver line-ups for 2025 and beyond.
It marked a golden opportunity for Lawson to not only cement himself in RB colours, but also knock on the door of a Red Bull promotion - which is exactly what he got, when he was announced as Sergio Perez's replacement as Max Verstappen's team mate for 2025.
But the whirlwind nature of his F1 career continued, and after just two difficult Grands Prix with the senior squad, Lawson found himself back at Racing Bulls for the remainder of the season. Only time will tell where the adventure takes him next.
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Isack Hadjar
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France
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Isack Hadjar was the final driver to be announced for the 2025 season after Red Bull’s dramatic winter reshuffle, which involved Liam Lawson replacing Sergio Perez and the French-Algerian picking up the vacant seat at Racing Bulls.
It has been quite a journey for the Paris-born racer, who built on early promise in karting to reach the top step of the podium during his first full season of single-seater competition and secure a top-three championship classification in his second.
With those foundational French F4 campaigns behind him, Hadjar continued the learning process in Formula Regional European and the F3 Asian series through 2021, before combining Formula Regional Asian and F3 in 2022, when he also became a member of the Red Bull Junior Team.
Fresh from claiming three race victories and finishing fourth in the F3 standings, Hadjar had hoped to kick on when he stepped up to F2 for 2023, only to end the year winless and with some question marks surrounding his future.
Red Bull stuck by the youngster, though, giving him F1 practice outings with the then-named AlphaTauri and the senior team at the Mexican and Abu Dhabi rounds respectively, before the two parties regrouped for another crack at F2.
It was a decision that paid off, with Hadjar winning four races and logging four more podium finishes to challenge new Sauber recruit Gabriel Bortoleto for the 2024 title – narrowly missing out after an agonising stall at the Yas Marina finale.
While he did not quite manage to tick the box of a championship win during his junior career, Hadjar’s eye-catching pace and racecraft all but made up for it and marked him out as the ideal candidate to slot in alongside Yuki Tsunoda.
“He’s definitely a raw talent,” stated Red Bull team boss Christian Horner, when discussing the 20-year-old's impending F1 debut. “He needs a little bit of polishing, but he has the speed.”
Now it remains to be seen if the 19th driver to earn promotion to F1 through Red Bull’s junior programme can prove himself in the top echelon and join the smaller list of names who have carved out lengthy careers.
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Jack Doohan
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Australia
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Alpine’s F1 reserve since 2023, Jack Doohan stepped up to full-time racer for the start of 2025, having been handed an early Grand Prix debut for the team at 2024’s season finale.
Doohan became the latest Aussie to join the F1 grid, and the young Queenslander is not short of racing pedigree – he already has plenty of F3 and F2 wins to his name, and that’s before we mention his father, five-time motorcycle world champion, Mick.
After his single-seater debut in British Formula 4, followed by stints in Italian F4, ADAC F4 and Asian F3, Doohan stepped up to FIA Formula 3 in 2020, finishing championship runner-up the following year.
The 2022 season saw him join Alpine’s driver development programme and finish sixth overall in his rookie FIA Formula 2 campaign. The following year he was up to third, thanks to three race wins, including impressive back-to-back feature race victories in Hungary and Belgium.
Formula 1 experience came via Alpine, with free practice outings at Grands Prix in 2022, 2023 and 2024. And having served his apprenticeship with the French squad, Doohan’s reward was a shot at the big time as team mate to F1 race winner Pierre Gasly.
But a tough start to the 2025 campaign saw him fail to make an impact and after six rounds Alpine chose to ‘rotate’ him with former Williams racer Franco Colapinto. Back in a reserve role, only time will tell if Doohan gets another chance of Grand Prix glory.
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