Young gun with F1’s hardest job; brutal reality Aussie must face — Every rookie analysed

At last year’s first race the grid was 29.5 years old. This year the 20 drivers will average out at 27.3 years old come lights out on Sunday.

All six of them were born after Fernando Alonso made his grand prix debut at the 2021 Australian Grand Prix.

The loss of experience is even more dramatic. Sergio Pérez (281), Daniel Ricciardo (257), Valtteri Bottas (246), Kevin Magnussen (185), Zhou Guanyu (68) and Logan Sargeant (36) take a combined 1073 race starts off the ledger.

The six newcomers bring a combined 15 starts. Lawson owns most of those, with 11 starts to his name, ahead of Bearman’s three and Doohan’s one.

Commensurately there are markedly different expectations for the six-strong crop of new stars. Some have been billed as being destined for greatness. Others are just hoping to still be employed by the end of the season.

12. ANDREA KIMI ANTONELLI (MERCEDES)

Age: 18 years old

Nationality: Italian

Junior titles: 4 (Italian F4, German F4, Formula Regional Middle East, Formula Regional Europe)

Last season: finished 6th in his maiden Formula 2 season with two race wins.

There was going to be a significant spotlight on whichever driver Mercedes placed in Lewis Hamilton’s vacated seat, but the fact an 18-year-old only four seasons out of karting got the nod guarantees that Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be one of the key storylines of the season.

Antonelli has taken the express service into Formula 1. Backed by Mercedes as a junior, he powered to national championship in Italy and Germany and then regional titles in the Middle East and Europe to establish himself as a potential future great.

Mercedes was so confident in his abilities that he was thrown directly into Formula 2 last season, bypassing Formula 3, in what turned out to be an acid test of his readiness to step up.

After a shaky start, Antonelli came into his own, winning twice and comfortably beating Prema teammate Oliver Bearman in the final standings.

Combined with what’s rumoured to be some truly phenomenal times in private testing, especially in the wet, and Antonelli arrives on the grid as the most anticipated rookie in years.

Just don’t call him the next Lewis.

“I don’t find it right to say that I’m his replacement,” Antonelli said, acutely aware of the damaging potential of the comparison. “He has done so much in the sport.

“I just feel like the next Mercedes driver, and I really want to make my own story.”

“Racing for Mercedes is a big responsibility, because it’s obviously a top team, but at the same time it’s a great opportunity and it’s a privilege to be where I am today. I’ll just try to make the best out of this opportunity.”

Mercedes lost the bidding was for Max Verstappen a decade ago. Now it thinks it might have his successor on its hands.

87. OLIVER BEARMAN (HAAS)

Age: 19 years old

Nationality: British

Junior titles: 2 (Italian F4, German F4)

Last season: finished 12th in his sophomore Formula 2 season with three race wins.

Race starts: 3

Oliver Bearman’s junior CV reads as impressive but perhaps nothing spectacular. Successful in Formula 4 and promising in Formula 3, the Englishman hit a ceiling in Formula 2, wining just seven times across two seconds with a best championship finish of sixth.

He was even soundly beaten by teammate Antonelli last season during their Prema partnership despite having a year’s experience on the Mercedes young gun.

Had he not had the steadfast backing of an impressed Ferrari junior academy, that might’ve been where his F1 quest ended.

But then the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix completely changed the game.

Carlos Sainz was taken to hospital with appendicitis, and Bearman was called up shortly before final practice. He qualified a commendable 11th and brought his Ferrari home seventh for a six-point haul at one of the sport’s most dangerous circuits.

It wasn’t to be his last grand prix appearance.

Replacing the banned and then unwell Kevin Magnussen in Azerbaijan and Brazil, he twice outqualified veteran teammate Nico Hülkenberg, and his single point in Baku was Haas’s only score at either race.

Sometimes drivers who excel in Formula 2 can’t cut it in Formula 1. Bearman appeared to prove the opposite can also be true, nailing his high-pressure chances in the top category despite an underwhelming season in the juniors.

Haas has been extremely impressed with what it’s seen. His professionalism and coolness under pressure despite his tender age mark him out as a driver of considerable potential.

This season he lines up alongside Esteban Ocon, the quick Frenchman having exited Alpine in considerable acrimony. Ocon has a reputation for getting under the skin of his teammates, sometimes to the frustration of his team.

He’ll be a stern test, but Bearman is being tipped as equal to the challenge.

5. GABRIEL BORTOLETO (SAUBER)

Age: 20 years old

Nationality: Brazilian

Junior titles: 2 (FIA F3, FIA F2)

Last season: won the F2 title in his rookie season.

It says a lot about the hype surrounding some of F1’s other rookies that Gabriel Bortoleto has almost slipped under the radar, but the Brazilian has earnt some attention.

He’s only the fourth driver to win back-to-back rookie titles in Formula 3 (or GP3) and Formula 2 after Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri — quite some company.

He’s also backed by Fernando Alonso’s management team, and the Spaniard rates the Brazilian highly.

“I know there are a lot of talks about the young generation — a lot of rookies also next year, very talented all of them — but the best is Gabriel,” Alonso said, per Autosport.

And yet Bortoleto has retained a low profile. Why?

The reasons are twofold, and they’re critical to decoding how the Brazilian grapples with the early days of his F1 career.

The first is that he’s making his debut for Sauber, the nailed-on back-of-the-grid team. The Swiss squad has tumbled down the order thanks to years of underinvestment, turning the last two seasons into something of a purgatory before Audi takes the reins next year.

Rarely will Bortoleto play a role in the broader narrative of the race. Last year the Sauber drivers mostly raced between themselves.

The second reason is that Bortoleto arrives as the least prepared rookie on the grid.

All five of his fellow newcomers have either already made their debuts or at least made some FP1 appearances. Almost all of them have also accumulated considerable mileage during private testing.

Bortoleto has had none of that. He’ll make his debut cold and learn on the fly.

But he has the pedigree to make the most of his chance, and with a long-term deal in his pocket, a successful career as an Audi works driver could be his reward.

7. JACK DOOHAN (ALPINE)

Age: 22 years old

Nationality: Australian

Junior titles: 0 (best finish: 2nd in Asian F3, FIA F3)

Last season: reserve driver until the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where he finished 15th.

Race starts: 1

It’s hard to remember a more pressurised full-time debut than Jack Doohan’s.

Of course this isn’t his actual debut, the Queenslander having replaced Esteban Ocon at last year’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, giving him a head start on his 2025 campaign while avoiding the attention of having his first race at home.

But that did little to alleviate the pressure on Doohan. Paddock speculation suggests he could be replaced by reserve driver Franco Colapinto as early as the end of April.

No-one outside Alpine management can know whether it’s a done deal or whether Doohan has a genuine chance to prove himself. If he does, he has one powerful tool at his disposal: incumbency.

His underrated junior career and background with the team should set up him to make the most of his chances.

Doohan got his F1 chance the hard way, impressing in the lower categories and attracting the interest of F1 driver academies.

He started out backed by Red Bull but switched to Alpine on the eve of his second Formula 3 campaign, correctly sensing a better opportunity to get his foot into the F1 paddock.

A close second in that year’s championship got him into F2 the following year, when he finished a commendable sixth. He was tipped to be a title contender the following year, but an undiagnosed cracked chassis left him scrambling for points on his way to third.

He could’ve raced elsewhere last year after being locked out of the driver market, but instead he heeded Alpine’s desire for him to be a fully embedded reserve driver, clocking up thousands of kilometres of private testing in the process. He showed himself to be a diligent worker and a team player, and his efforts in the simulator were praised for improving the team’s on-track performance.

Extremely quick — he was in Pierre Gasly’s ballpark during qualifying in Abu Dhabi before a timing error left him unable to improve — in any other year Doohan would have had the season to find his feet, and his pace and background with the team would probably have earnt him an easy second-year extension.

But the Aussie rising star might have to be more than just a good rookie to ensure his F1 dream sees out the year.

6. ISACK HADJAR (RACING BULLS)

Age: 20 years old

Nationality: French

Junior titles: 0 (best finish: 2nd in FIA F2)

Last season: finished runner-up to Bortoleto in the F2 title with four race wins.

It’s been four years since the team now know as Racing Bulls put a genuine junior in one of its cars, such has been the mess over Red Bull’s approach to its second team, and even then you got the sense the brand wasn’t totally convinced it wanted to put him on the grid.

Ideally the rough-diamond rookie would’ve been sent to Japan’s Super Formula for a final polish, having shown himself to be quick but flawed in his second Formula 2 campaign.

But Red Bull’s slow-flowing talent pipeline and its troubles securing Max Verstappen a long-term teammate meant Hadjar got the nod to line up alongside Yuki Tsunoda this season.

He does so with a reputation that he’ll need to shake if he’s to establish his Formula 1 career.

If you’ve been watching the Formula 2 championship in recent years, you’ll have been subjected to one of his characteristic radio explosions. Fairly or unfairly, his temperament has become a major question ahead of his first full-time season.

But then there’s his reputation for speed mixed with chronic inconsistency that’s seen him rise through the ranks without a junior title.

Last year’s F2 championship challenge was indicative, with Hadjar amassing a 36-point lead with four rounds to go before squandering it all on a scoreless two-round run to hand Bortoleto the advantage.

He then stalled on the line at the title decider.

The most important question, however, isn’t for him to answer.

If Racing Bulls is fully embracing its status as a junior team, then none of these qualities will deter it from trying to hone Hadjar.

But if Red Bull harbours greater ambitions for its second squad, the Frenchman could find that he’s reached F1 in the wrong place at the wrong time.

30. LIAM LAWSON (RED BULL RACING)

Age: 23 years old

Nationality: New Zealander

Junior titles: 2 (New Zealand Formula Ford, Toyota Racing Series)

Last season: started six races for RB, scoring four points.

Race starts: 11

Liam Lawson has the hardest job in Formula 1.

Being Max Verstappen’s teammate is a thankless, rewardless, self-defeating endeavour.

The Dutchman wrestled control of Red Bull Racing from Daniel Ricciardo in his early years and then summarily dispatched Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, almost ending both their careers, before griding down and destroying Sergio Pérez, who left the team looking like a shadow of the man who had arrived four years earlier.

Now it’s Lawson’s turn to enter the colosseum.

He does so with the least experience of any of Verstappen’s teammates and of any Red Bull Racing driver since Robert Doornbos in the second year of the team’s existence.

What reason is there to think Lawson can succeed where so many others have failed?

In his favour is an ice-cold mentality. His steely determination and level head have ensured he’s seized every one of his fleeting opportunities to make his mark, culminating in his RBR chance.

He was never overawed in his 2023 last-minute cameo substituting the injured Daniel Ricciardo, and he was even more impressive replacing the Australian for good last season, holding his own — and being totally unafraid to get his elbows out — racing far more experienced drivers.

It’s exactly the sort of thing Red Bull loves to see, and with a perceived temperament advantage over the obviously quick Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing considered him a better bet to survive the Verstappen onslaught.

His challenge won’t be to beat or even match Verstappen. To succeed the Kiwi just has to score more heavily than Pérez before him, keeping the team in with a shout at the constructors title if the car is capable of challenging.

But as so many drivers before him have proved, that’s easier said than done.