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2025 - The Year of the rookie

Silly season in F1 always brings some surprises, for both drivers new and old. We’ve seen some big names signing some interesting contracts for the 2025 season already; Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari, Carlos Sainz to Williams and Esteban Ocon to Haas. But unlike the first two teams there, both retaining a driver from previous seasons, Haas are signing an all-new lineup for next year and beyond.

 

Partnering Ocon at Haas will be Oliver Bearman. You might remember him from his heroic Ferrari stand-in at the Saudi Arabian GP back in March, when Carlos Sainz was diagnosed with appendicitis and had to undergo surgery, leaving Bearman to take over for the weekend from FP3 onwards. It was a very impressive Formula 1 debut from the young driver, placing P7 and scoring 6 points in the championship, in which he still sits at 16th; having scored another point in Baku after standing in for Kevin Magnussen during his one-race ban.

 

Born in 2005 in Essex, England, Ollie Bearman started his competitive karting career in 2013. At the age of 16, he left school to join the Ferrari Driver Academy after reaching their Scouting World Final. He made his official single seater debut in 2020 and subsequently became the Italian and ADAC Formula 4 champion in 2021. Before he made his F1 debut (at the age of 18, no less) he was announced as a reserve driver for both Ferrari and also Haas, where he would later sign his first multi-year deal. He currently races with Prema Racing in Formula 2, alongside Andrea Kimi Antonelli – another name that has been in the air this year ever since a coveted seat at Mercedes became available.

 


Oliver Bearman and Kimi Antonelli, who currently race as teammates in F2. Credit - @PREMA_Team on X.

 

Now, when I started planning this blog post, Bearman was the only confirmed rookie for 2025. However, all signs pointed towards the possibility of having others join him on the grid – and now we have two more rookies confirmed to be joining Bearman on the grid next season.

 

Kimi Antonelli has been one to watch for a long time. Toto Wolff has been quite open in the past about having the young Italian driver at the Mercedes team, having followed him through the early stages of his career – and to think that Antonelli’s father nearly enrolled the young Italian in football instead of karting! Born in 2006, he followed in Bearman’s footsteps, winning the Italian and ADAC F4 championships in 2022; a year after the British driver, and he’ll be 18 when he makes his full-time F1 debut; only just over a year younger than his current F2 teammate and fellow rookie for 2025.

 

This year was actually his debut with the Prema Racing team in Formula 2, and if you’ve ever followed F2 and F3, you may already know that Antonelli skipped F3 entirely and was promoted directly to F2. This did spark a small amount of concern that perhaps he was too young to be racing in the big leagues just yet, but despite this, his name was still firmly attached to people’s conversations about filling the seat beside George Russell next year. Antonelli got the chance to replace his future teammate for a free practice session in Monza this season, driving Russell’s Mercedes, but unfortunately crashed out only ten minutes into the session; thankfully, he was unharmed, and the mishap didn’t alter the announcement the very same weekend regarding his future with the team.

 

The third rookie highlighted in the chaos of silly season – and perhaps my personal favourite rookie to join the grid next year – is none other than Alpine reserve driver Jack Doohan, who hails from Australia. He’s the most senior of these three potential rookies but not by much; born in 2003, he’ll have turned 22 by the time the 2025 season is due to begin. High-octane racing runs in his blood, as his father is Mick Doohan, who you might have heard of if you’re one of our resident MotoGP fans; Mick has five 500cc world championships under his belt.



Jack Doohan with his trophy from the F2 Belgian feature race in 2023. Credit - @jackdoohan on Instagram

 

Having started karting competitively in 2012, Doohan was given his first kart from a former neighbour and family friend who you might have heard of – Michael Schumacher. Doohan is no stranger to accomplishment himself, having been the F3 vice-champion back in 2021 and finishing a respectable third place in the F2 championship last year with Invicta Virtuosi Racing. I was fortunate enough to have been in Belgium last year when he won the F2 feature race after starting from P11, and I can pinpoint that as the exact moment I decided he was one to watch for me.

 

Another rookie who we might see line up on the Bahrain grid in March is Liam Lawson. On September 26th, it was announced that Liam Lawson would race the last six Grand Prix of the season at Visa Cash App RB (VCARB), replacing fan favourite Daniel Ricciardo after he was dropped from the team after Singapore. New Zealand's Lawson, still only 22 years old, made his debut at the Dutch Grand Prix last year after Daniel Ricciardo broke his hand in FP2, Lawson then competed in a handful of races before Ricciardo returned from injury.


For the rest of the 2024 season, Liam Lawson will line up alongside friend and former team mate Yuki Tsunoda, but it is yet to be confirmed that he has a guaranteed seat at the team for 2025. Could this be an audition for next year for Liam Lawson's chances at VCARB or even at Red Bull?



Will Liam Lawson have a full time drive in 2025? Credit: F2


We’ve seen in previous years that rookies are not to be underestimated. Take Lewis Hamilton, for example. On his debut season in 2007, he was the runner up in the world championship; second to Kimi Raikonnen by only one point, and tied for points with his then-teammate at McLaren-Mercedes, Fernando Alonso. However, although he and Alonso had the same number of points and the same race wins that season, Hamilton had one more second place finish than his teammate and was thus awarded second overall, with Alonso taking third in the championship overall.

 

Hamilton was just 22 when he made his own debut, after being a part of the McLaren driver development program since the age of 13. Until 2009, he was the youngest driver to be the runner up in the championship; Sebastian Vettel made his debut with Red Bull and soon took that record for himself by a good few months. But sporting records are still Hamilton’s bread and butter, and at the time of writing he still holds the record for race wins, podium finishes, pole positions, and is tied with the legendary Michael Schumacher for his seven Formula 1 world championships.

 

So what’s next for the new generation in the sport? Will any of these rookies go on to have a career as illustrious as Hamilton’s? Only time will tell.

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