Opinion: six new faces should spice up the F1 grid

After a few years of F1 drivers being less keen to leave their seats than United fans after an away win at City, there’s a huge buzz around the changing of the guard in 2025. Six, yes six rookies will be joining the sport. So what impact will the class of 2025 make?

Filling a seven-time world champion’s shoes is tall order, but 18-year-old Italian prodigy Andrea Kimi Antonelli is an audacious talent, with a glittering karting career behind him. A member of the Mercedes junior team since 2019, I interviewed him back in 2022, and despite his diminutive age (and stature) he has a calm confidence about him. He blitzed F4 and has won in F2. But his free practice debut at the 2024 Italian Grand Prix ended in the barriers after only one (albeit blistering) lap. Expect to see a handful of rookie mistakes from lil’ Kimi, but also flashes of the brilliance that made Mercedes take the leap of faith.

Jack Doohan is son of motorbike racing legend Mick. The 21-year-old Aussie has been biding his time as reserve driver at Alpine after cutting his teeth in F2. He told me how excited he was to perform in front of his home fans in Melbourne. He’ll be feeling the heat of Franco Colapinto breathing down his neck though; the Argentinian has been signed from Williams as Alpine’s super sub.

Oliver Bearman becomes the fourth British driver on the grid for 2025 and made a sublime stand in performance for Ferrari in Saudi 2024. He also turned heads with a strong showing for Haas in Baku. He has now secured a full term seat at Haas, but needs to leverage this experience. Expect him to score vital points in 2025, putting him in the shop window for a future seat with Ferrari. Incredibly, he only came 12th in F2, which proves the tidal wave of talent waiting to break through. Could one Brit eventually replace another at the Scuderia? Stranger things have happened.

Is Liam Lawson the answer to Red Bull’s perennial second driver problem? It was time for Perez to go, but this is a seat that’s chewed up and spat out more than one talent. He told me that he wasn’t prepared to be on the sidelines for another year, so Red Bull had to recruit him or risk losing him forever. As far as team boss Christian Horner is concerned, he needs to score regular podiums, and after his feisty interaction with Alonso at the US GP, it’s clear he won’t be intimated by superstars on the grid.

Brazilian F2 champ and McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto is a fantastic signing for Sauber, which has swapped Bottas for youth alongside the experience of teammate Hülkenberg. Unlike Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto has the benefit of being out of the spotlight when he steps into F1.

Isack Hadjar completes the lineup, joining Racing Bulls. His personality is a ray of sunshine and he’s proved himself as a racer with F2 wins at Imola, Spa and Silverstone. But he has a fiery side too – and he’s lining up alongside a scorned Yuki Tsunoda, who was overlooked for Red Bull promotion. Sub-plots are everywhere, then. But among these six, future stars – and champions – are likely to lurk.