Five to Watch: Meet the 2025 Rookie Drivers

Now that the 2025 season is officially underway, the world is ready to see how the five new drivers joining the grid will perform. Rookies Jack Doohan, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Isack Hadjar, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto are poised to make their mark in Formula 1. Here’s your guide to these rising stars:

Oliver Bearman

• Current Team: MoneyGram Haas F1 Team
• Driver Number: 87
• Birthday: May 8, 2005
• Height: 6’
• Nationality: British

If you thought you’d seen Oliver “Ollie” Bearman’s face around an F1 track before then you’d be correct. The 19-year-old Brit proved he was ready to be promoted from F2 after a string of F1 appearances last season. As the official Ferrari reserve driver, he made his F1 debut at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in place of a recovering Carlos Sainz Jr., impressively finishing seventh and scoring six points for the team. After it was announced later in the year he would sign for the Ferrari-powered Haas team for 2025, he once again drove in F1 for Haas at the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where he filled in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen. Bearman scored a point for his future F1 team by finishing tenth, making history by becoming the first driver to score points for two different teams in his first two Grand Prix starts.

Alongside numerous F1 test runs, he competed in F2 with Prema Racing, winning four races and finishing sixth in the championship.

Fun Fact: Off the track, Ollie is an avid cyclist and often rides along with three-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar or fellow F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jr.

Jack Doohan

• Current Team: Alpine F1 Team
• Driver Number: 7
• Birthday: January 20, 2003
• Height: 6’
• Nationality: Australian

Jack Doohan will be recognizable to F1 fans, having been Alpine’s F1 reserve driver since 2023 and making an early F1 debut for the team in the final race of the 2024 season. The 22-year-old made his racing debut for Alpine in Abu Dhabi, replacing Esteban Ocon, who stepped down before the season’s end.

Prior to his F1 debut, Jack had a successful career in junior Formula leagues, winning several F3 and F2 races. The Australian finished as the championship runner-up in his second season of F3 and, after joining Alpine’s driver development program in 2022, finished sixth in his rookie F2 campaign. The following year, the Queenslander continued to impress and improve, finishing third in the F2 Championship.

You could say that racing has always been in Jack’s blood, with his father is five-time MotoGP World Champion Mick Doohan.

Fun Fact: With his first ever kart being gifted to him by seven-time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher, it appears that Jack was destined to race in the pinnacle of motorsport.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli

• Current Team: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team
• Driver Number: 12
• Birthday: August 25, 2006
• Height: 5’ 6”
• Nationality: Italian

Another impressive young gun who was born to race is Italian native Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Commonly known by his middle name, Kimi became the third-youngest driver to compete in an F1 Grand Prix, debuting at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix aged 18 years, six months, and 20 days.

In 2019, the Bologna-born driver was scouted by Mercedes during his karting career after winning a record number of titles. At just 15 years of age, Kimi made his car racing debut and again went on to exceed expectations, winning titles in both the Italian and ADAC F4 championships in 2022 and the Formula Regional Middle East and European categories a year later. Breaking from the usual driver progression, Kimi skipped F3, with Mercedes promoting him directly to F2 in 2024. There, he consistently scored points for his Prema Racing team and won the Silverstone Sprint Race from pole as well as the main Feature Race in Hungary.

Mercedes then gave the young Italian the greatest belated 18th birthday present when they confirmed him as the replacement for the Ferrari-bound, seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton.

Fun Fact: Kimi, son of Italian sportscar racing driver Marco Antonelli, has an incredible memory, recalling every qualifying lap time from his junior career to the tenth of a second. He’ll no doubt remember every moment of the coming season.

Gabriel Bortoleto

• Current Team: STAKE F1 Team Kick Sauber
• Driver Number: 5
• Birthday: October 14, 2004
• Height: 6’
• Nationality: Brazilian

Gabriel Bortoleto will be the first full-time Brazilian driver to race in F1 since Felipe Massa in 2017. It was evident the São Paulo native was a force to be reckoned with since his F3 debut in Bahrain in 2023. Not only did he win his first race but ultimately took the lead in the standings and secured the championship title. The following year, he was promoted to F2 and caught the eyes of many in the F1 paddock with his notable last to first place race performance in Monza. By securing the F2 championship title as a rookie in a very close season, Bortoleto proved his promotion to the pinnacle of motorsport was well-deserved.

Signing on with the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber for the 2025 season, Gabriel will also play a part in the future of Audi’s F1 arrival when the team changes hands next year. he rising star is looking to emulate his idol, Ayrton Senna, and has previously paid tribute to the F1 great by wearing Senna’s logo and colors on his helmet.

Fun Fact: Gabriel drove one of Senna’s karts from the 1970’s around the Monaco circuit during a tribute event.

Isack Hadjar

• Current Team: Visa Cash App Racing Bulls
• Driver Number: 6
• Birthday: September 28, 2004
• Height: 5’ 4”
• Nationality: French

Red Bull’s driver reshuffle, which involved Liam Lawson replacing Sergio Perez, led to Isack Hadjar’s signing and promotion to Formula 1. He may have been the final driver to be announced for the 2025 season, but that doesn’t mean the French-Algerian should be overlooked.

The Paris-born racer had a promising karting career before progressing steadily through the lower Formula championships and becoming a member of the Red Bull Junior Team. Despite finishing his debut F2 season winless in 2023, the 20-year-old found himself in close contention for the 2024 F2 championship title with four race wins and four more podium finishes. He narrowly missed out on the title to Gabriel Bortoleto after stalling at the Yas Marina season finale.

Fun Fact: Not only does Isack have the smarts when it comes to his racing, but outside of motorsport too. His strong interest and passion for quantum physics was demonstrated via a series of equations painted on his F2 racing helmet during the 2024 season.