Rookie class of 2025

An Italian teenager who only passed his driving test in January is among the six-strong cohort of rookies for the 2025 season. Kimi Antonelli, an exciting 18-year-old who uses a nickname derived from his uncle's love for Ferrari's last world champion, Finn Kimi Raikkonen, takes Hamilton's seat alongside George Russell at Mercedes.

"I really want to make my own story "insists last year's multiple Formula 2 winner, brushing off suggestions he is the seven-time world champion's "replacement" at the Silver Arrows. Kiwi Liam Lawson, a 'veteran' of 11 Grands Prix already, makes his fully fledged debut as Verstappen's new wingman at Red Bull. Ferrari's British academy driver Ollie Bearman was thrown into the F1 deep end when he was called up as a last minute replacement for appendicitis victim Carlos Sainz at the Saudi Grand Prix last year, becoming the youngest ever driver to compete for the Scuderia. He seized his chance, holding off Hamilton and Norris to finish seventh. He joins Ferrari-powered Haas.

Brazil has a presence on the grid for the first time in five years in F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber. Aussie Jack Doohan will be hoping to enjoy even a small slice of his MotoGP star dad Mick's success on two-wheels, as he graduates from reserve driver to become Pierre Gasly's teammate at Alpine. Last, but not least, is Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar, the 20-year-old Algerian-French who narrowly missed out to Bortoleto for the F2 title.

FIA vs the drivers

In the volatile, high-octane bubble that is F1, one thing seems assured in 2025: renewed tension between the governing body and the drivers. Notably over the FIA's crack down on swearing. Verstappen and Leclerc fell foul of the rules in 2024 for turning the air blue at news conferences. The guidelines were strengthened in January, triggering an indignant response from drivers, who took a swipe at FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem.

"We urge the FIA president to also consider his own tone and language when talking to our member drivers, or indeed about them, whether in a public forum or otherwise," they wrote, adding: "As adults, they do not need to be given instructions, via the media, about matters as trivial as the wearing of jewelry or underpants."