The 2025 Formula 1 season welcomed an unusually high number of rookies onto the grid which provided a focus point throughout the campaign.
While some of the rookies starred, others floundered and some didn’t even make it to the end of the season. Here’s who our writers have picked as the standout rookie of the year.
Gabriel Bortoleto – Ed Hardy
To be fair to the rookie class of F1 2025, they were all pretty solid. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, for example, claimed a couple podiums and a Miami sprint pole to show great promise at just 18 years old when he made his debut. Then there is Isack Hadjar, who again claimed a podium and ended up with a Red Bull promotion for 2026.
But perhaps the more left-field choice for best rookie is Gabriel Bortoleto and that’s who I’m going for. Yes, he spent much of the season towards the back, but he was in a Sauber and it is his qualifying record which stands out.
The 21-year-old ended the campaign level with Nico Hulkenberg in the team-mate head-to-head battle (12-12, 15-15 with sprints) and how impressive that is cannot be understated, considering the quality and experience of the German. I would thus argue that Bortoleto being level with him is more impressive than Hadjar having a number over Liam Lawson.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli – Jake Boxall-Legge
Everyone's going to say Isack Hadjar here and I don't disagree with that sentiment, but for the sake of variety I'll say something different and say Antonelli. The highly-rated Italian was incredibly close to Russell, one of the season's star performers, in terms of qualifying pace and race performance across the final rounds of the year.
Rookie seasons do not need to be flawless, and nor should they be; while drivers are expected to step up to the highest level and perform, mistakes and errors are a vital part of their learning. And Antonelli went through that arduous process across the European leg of the season, hurt by Mercedes' rear-suspension updates that took away the familiarity of this year's W16 and led Antonelli into a spiral. That he was able to recover, supported by the team, demonstrated that he was able to turn the corner and rebuild his waning confidence.
That'll serve him well in his second season; if the going gets tough as Antonelli gets his head around the new regulations, he'll at least be able to lean on the confidence that he can recapture his form.
And let's not forget his podiums in Montreal, Brazil, and his recovery from 17th to third in Las Vegas after an extended stint on the hard tyres. He's shown more than just glimmers of potential, and the target now will be to match Russell on a much more regular basis.
Isack Hadjar – Owen Bellwood
The crop of rookies that entered Formula 1 in 2025 was strong – especially when you consider that just one new racer will join the grid next year and there were no full-time rookies in 2024. Pundits were right to laud Sauber’s Garbiel Bortoleto for his consistency over the season, and Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli has shown flashes of brilliance over the year, but form me there’s no question that Isack Hadjar has been the rookie of the season.
The Racing Bulls driver had a rough start to the year, crashing on the formation lap of the Australian Grand Prix and suffering the wrath of Helmut Marko in the process. But rookie seasons are about learning from mistakes, and boy did he.
After a tearful hug with Lewis Hamilton’s father in Melbourne, Hadjar kicked off his season proper in China, where he out-qualified and out-raced his much more experienced team-mate: Yuki Tsunoda in the grand prix. His season was then punctuated by impressive points finishes and even a podium at the Dutch Grand Prix. He ultimately finished the year as the second-best Red Bull driver behind Max Verstappen and earned a promotion to the senior team for 2026.
For the first time in what feels like years, Hadjar is a driver who may have been promoted through the Red Bull junior programme at the right pace – now he just has to prove that the curse of the senior team’s second seat isn’t actually real.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli – Ben Vinel
There’s obviously a strong case to make for Isack Hadjar, but I’m willingly going a bit left-field with Andrea Kimi Antonelli here.
Antonelli was F1’s third-youngest driver ever and reached the category with extremely little experience relative to most rookies. He skipped F3, spent just one year in F2, and had a chunk of testing in older F1 cars prior to his debut.
Starting out in a top team was a tall order, and strong performances in the opening rounds – including sprint pole in Miami – made way for midseason struggles. Antonelli was feeling the pressure at Mercedes despite the team trying to ease it, as displayed by his misty eyes after a double Q1 exit at Spa-Francorchamps.
Yet, the wonderkid bounced back in the latter part of the season, becoming a consistent points scorer and clinching two consecutive podium finishes in Las Vegas and Sao Paulo – the first one somewhat coincidental after the McLarens were disqualified.
This is encouraging and will leave us excited to see more.
Gabriel Bortoleto – Filip Cleeren
Without looking, I imagine several colleagues will go for Isack Hadjar and that's probably objectively the right call. But I am going for a slightly less heralded option. Gabriel Bortoleto really impressed me from day one with his attitude. When other youngsters were apprehensive about making their F1 debut in the wet in Melbourne, Bortoleto welcomed it as an opportunity to make a difference. Why worry about circumstances beyond your control anyway?
Going from the front of the field in the feeder series to the back of the grid in F1 was hard to take for the Brazilian F2 champion, but Sauber's Barcelona upgrade started giving him a few chances to shine. Along with several points finishes, Bortoleto really wowed us in qualifying, defeating one-lap specialist Hulkenberg eight times in a row and going on to finish 15-15 in head-to-head qualifying duels. Ask anyone at Sauber - I guess we should start saying Audi - and they all couldn't be happier with the 21-year-old's work ethic.
Have there been rookie errors? Absolutely, just look at the character-building weekend he had at home in Sao Paulo. But that all goes into his bank of experience and he will be a better driver for it in year two.
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