20 drivers have been battling vigorously around some of the world’s toughest circuits in 2025, with veterans and rookies all eager to make their mark on the sport’s history books.
Six rookies entered the season opener in Melbourne, the most since 2001 but Jack Doohan has since been replaced by Franco Colapinto and will not form part of this list.
Max Verstappen is the reigning World Drivers’ Champion, and the current Constructors’ Champions are McLaren, who are vying to topple Verstappen’s title-winning streak.
Ten races out of 24 have been completed following the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal, and as we close in on the halfway point, it seems like a good time to rank the grid’s performance, but which driver deserves the number one spot at this stage?
20 – Gabriel Bortoleto
Gabriel Bortoleto began the season as a rookie, having won the Formula 2 Championship in 2024 and masterfully becoming the only driver to win from last to first in either Formula 2 or Formula 1.
He became the fourth driver in the F2 era to win Formula 3 and Formula 2 back-to-back, following Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Oscar Piastri and is only the second Brazilian F2 Champion after Felipe Drugovich in 2022.
He is also only the second driver after Piastri to win the Formula 3 and Formula 2 championships in his first season, sealing off a stellar junior career.
However, Bortoleto has not been so fortunate in his Formula 1 career so far and is without a single point during his time at Sauber.
The Brazilian outqualified his teammate at the season opener in Melbourne, making his first Q2 appearance to clinch a promising 15th by 0.05 seconds over the experienced Nico Hülkenberg. However, rain in the race led to Bortoleto retiring from the Grand Prix, much to his disappointment.
Since then, Hülkenberg has beaten him in qualifying six times to four, though they are equal in sprint qualifying, both beating each other once.
The German praised Bortoleto after his first race, saying he ‘has a long and good career ahead of him’
The Osasco-born driver’s highest position was 12th at the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix but he has reached Q2 four times, showing signs of promise.
He finished 14th in Canada and would have been expecting points to be difficult to attain going into the season with Sauber’s total points haul in 2024 coming to just four points.
While on paper the 20-year-old is not dazzling anyone, he produced an ambitious overtake on the first lap in Monaco against Kimi Antonelli at the hairpin before the Italian fought back at Portier, leading Bortoleto to hit the wall.
While some drivers may have given up, the young Brazilian valiantly fought to 14th and finished ahead of his teammate, demonstrating his merit.
He is contracted to Fernando Alonso’s management team, A14 management, so here’s hoping the veteran Spaniard can give his protégé some tips to succeed.
With Sauber changing to Audi in the 2026 season, Bortoleto is expected to retain his seat, but if he keeps improving, perhaps points may be on the horizon.
19 – Franco Colapinto
Following Doohan’s demotion to reserve driver at Alpine after six races, the young Australian was replaced by Franco Colapinto.
In 2024, Colapinto joined Williams in the middle of the season once again as a replacement for American Logan Sargeant and was highly praised for his performances during his nine-race stint.
On his Williams debut, he qualified 18th and finished 12th and became the first Argentine Formula 1 driver since Gastón Mazzacane in 2001.
At the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he qualified ninth and finished eighth, becoming the first Argentine to score points since Carlos Reutemann at the 1982 South African Grand Prix.
Then, in Singapore, he was praised by Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, who admired his defensive driving that resulted in an 11th-place finish.
He finished tenth in the United States Grand Prix for another points finish and recovered from 16th to 12th in the Mexico City Grand Prix, which he retained despite a ten-second time penalty. In 2024, Colapinto achieved five championship points in nine races, which was widely acclaimed.
In 2025 however, Colapinto is yet to score a point in four races and has finished 13th twice, 15th and 16th.
The 22-year-old has outqualified his teammate Pierre Gasly once, obtaining 12th in Canada. which was increased to tenth following grid penalties for Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda.
The Pilar-native is expected to compete in his final race for Alpine in the 2025 Austrian Grand Prix, with the team opting to rotate the seat between multiple drivers. It remains to be seen whether his performances will be enough to retain the seat for further races.
He has been struggling so far for the Enstone-based team with management, including the notorious Flavio Briatore unimpressed by his recent showings.
The Oxfordshire racing giants have a big decision on their hands as Gasly has attained 11 points in ten races though he is undoubtedly more experienced.
With Alpine finishing sixth in the Constructors Championship in 2024 and now languishing in last place, they need to begin picking up the points, but will they have the patience to see if Colapinto can flourish, just as his promise showed for Williams?
18 – Liam Lawson
Liam Lawson began the season as teammate to Red Bull’s star Max Verstappen, replacing Pérez after a turbulent 2025 season in which the Guadalajara-born driver finished 285 points behind the Dutchman.
Lawson had gained four points in six races in 2024 after Daniel Ricciardo was dropped, catching the eye of senior Red Bull officials.
However, after just two rounds in 2025, which resulted in a DNF (Did Not Finish) and 12th, the Kiwi was demoted to Red Bull’s sister team, Racing Bulls and replaced by Tsunoda.
Given the difficult task of measuring up to a four-time World Champion, Lawson floundered with many arguing that Red Bull do not give their second drivers enough time
Helmut Marko, an advisor at Red Bull, admitted via BBC Sport that the team made ‘a mistake’ promoting Lawson and said that the Hastings driver had ‘lost confidence and couldn’t show his true potential’.
The 23-year-old has scored four points for Racing Bulls, achieving an eighth-place finish in the Monaco Grand Prix.
For the Faenza-based team, Lawson has also finished 11th, 12th, 14th, 16th and 17th and has retired twice, including at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
His new teammate, Isack Hadjar, has outqualified him seven times, with Lawson only qualifying higher once in Saudi Arabia.
The New Zealander has also been no stranger to penalties in 2025. He received two penalties in Bahrain for causing collisions with Nico Hülkenberg and Lance Stroll, a ten-second time penalty in Jeddah and a five-second time penalty in the Miami sprint race for causing a collision with Fernando Alonso.
It is hoped that Lawson will show more of that dynamism that got him noticed initially, but the 2025 season hasn’t been kind to him so far, and he’ll need to be resilient to get over these challenges.
17 – Oliver Bearman
Oliver Bearman made his F1 debut for Ferrari in the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix following Carlos Sainz’s withdrawal due to appendicitis, becoming the youngest-ever driver to drive for Ferrari aged 18.
Bearman had a spectacular weekend at the expense of the Spaniard, missing out on a Q3 appearance by 0.036 seconds to Lewis Hamilton.
In the race, he held off the vastly more experienced Hamilton and Lando Norris to score seventh place and a maiden points finish, then the youngest driver to score points on his F1 debut.
His Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc told Formula 1 it was ‘just a matter of time’ before Bearman would appear permanently on the grid.
In July 2024, Bearman signed for Haas and made an early debut in Azerbaijan, replacing Kevin Magnussen, who had incurred a race ban.
He narrowly missed out on Q3 again, qualifying 11th but outqualified his teammate Hülkenberg, whom he then beat in the race, finishing tenth and achieving another points finish. The Brit became the first driver in history to score points for two different teams in his first two races.
The Chelmsford driver deputised for Magnussen again in São Paulo after the Dane withdrew due to illness, beating Hülkenberg in both sprint sessions. In the wet weather, he was awarded a ten-second time penalty due to a collision with Colapinto and was involved in a high-speed spin, managing to finish twelfth.
In the 2025 season, Bearman has scored six points with an eighth-place finish in Shanghai and two tenth-place finishes in Japan and Bahrain, despite qualifying last in the Middle East.
With 11th, 12th and 13th place finishes, including at historic tracks like Monaco and Canada, the Briton’s performances deserve acclaim even if no points were gained.
In the rain-affected Miami sprint race, he climbed from 19th to eighth but was later demoted to 14th due to an unsafe pit release.
He has been outqualified by his teammate Esteban Ocon six times to four, with the Frenchman holding a slender lead despite his experience.
Haas have shown their faith in the rookie by signing a multi-year contract with him, and so far, the 20-year-old has rewarded their trust.
Bearman is a member of the Ferrari Driver Academy and will be keen to perform well at Haas in order to impress the Italian giants. He left school at the age of 16 to prioritise his dream and joined the academy in Modena to develop his racing career.
Haas were seventh in the Constructors’ Championship in 2024 and currently sit sixth in 2025 on 28 points, level with Racing Bulls.
Bearman will be hoping he and Ocon can increase the team’s points tally by the end of the season, which will boost the North Carolina team’s finances.
16 – Fernando Alonso
Fernando Alonso’s 2025 season has not been as fruitful as the veteran would like.
The two-time world champion began the season with two retirements in Australia and China in direct contrast to his 2024 season, where he finished ninth and fifth in the first two races and only retired once in the entire season.
The Spaniard’s performances did not improve until his home race at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where he picked up two points and then picked up six points in Montreal.
Prior to this, it had been a string of lacklustre performances for the 43-year-old, finishing 11th three times, 15th twice and retiring in Monaco due to a mechanical failure.
For the first time since 2001, the driver from Oviedo failed to score in the first eight races.
His teammate Lance Stroll has double the points of the Asturian on 14 and has only competed in nine races.
However, ‘El Nano’ has outqualified the Canadian ten times this year, as the younger driver withdrew following qualifying in Spain.
Alonso joined Aston Martin back in 2023 following a fractious relationship with Alpine and earned them fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship in 2024, behind only McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.
The British team are currently in eighth place, two points ahead of Kick Sauber and will be hoping their fortunes are improving.
The Silverstone-based constructor lured Adrian Newey, heralded as one of the sport’s greatest engineers, from Red Bull to join their ranks as Chief Technical Officer in time for the introduction of the 2026 regulations, which will see a massive redesign needed for all teams.
Alonso views 2026 as the ‘time of truth’ for whether he will retire following his contract expiration at the end of the year, so Aston Martin will be keen to prove they can build a car that can consistently fight for points and high finishes.
15 – Yuki Tsunoda
Yuki Tsunoda probably wasn’t expecting to change teams after two races, but it unfolded that way.
With Lawson struggling at Red Bull, Tsunoda was drafted in from Racing Bulls to see if he could prevent the decline.
Before joining up with Red Bull, the Japanese driver had finished 12th in Melbourne and scored three points in the sprint race in China, though only managed 16th in the race at the Shanghai International Circuit.
He made his debut for the Milton Keynes-based team at his home Grand Prix in Suzuka, but only managed 12th once more; however, he followed this up with two points in Bahrain.
Following Suzuka, Tsunoda reached Q3 in the next three rounds, which was a positive improvement.
A DNF in Saudi Arabia following a collision with his former teammate Pierre Gasly left him reeling, but he atoned by bringing home four points from Miami, with three points from the sprint and one point in the race.
Tsunoda has not scored points since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, where he picked up tenth place despite suffering a terrifying crash in qualifying.
The 25-year-old crossed the line with an abysmal 17th in Monaco and only managed 13th and 12th in Spain and Canada, respectively, so the pressure is mounting for the Sagamihara-born driver.
He qualified last in Catalonia, his worst qualifying since arriving at Red Bull.
In Canada, he was awarded a ten-place grid penalty for the race due to overtaking Oscar Piastri under red flags in Free Practice Three. This scuppered his chances, as he had only managed to qualify in 11th, two positions lower than Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls’ car.
Tsunoda has not been a magnificent success either and has not performed much better than his predecessor, Lawson. In fact, Red Bull would be last in the Constructors’ Championship behind Alpine if only Lawson and Tsunoda’s contributions counted, with just seven points to Alpine’s 11. Luckily, Verstappen has been dynamic out in front and has added 155 points to the Constructors’ Championship single-handedly to take the total to 162 points and fourth place currently.
The Japanese driver may be fearing his fate will match that of Lawson’s, after waiting in the wings for the opportunity for four years.
At his former team, Tsunoda had continually outperformed his teammates in Nyck de Vries, Lawson, and the highly experienced race winner Daniel Ricciardo. In fact, Gasly was the only teammate to beat the younger man in their time together.
Now Tsunoda is facing an altogether different challenge in Verstappen, and like many drivers before him, he’s finding it difficult to keep up in that second seat. Ricciardo, Alex Albon, Gasly, Pérez, and Lawson can all relate.
He’ll be hoping he can get out of this points drought and prove himself worthy of keeping his seat as Red Bull leadership continues to monitor replacements.
14 – Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly sits just above Tsunoda on 11 points in the Drivers’ Championship, but would have been ruing the first three races.
He finished just outside of the points for the first race in Albert Park after starting ninth, but it was Shanghai where disaster really struck as the Frenchman was disqualified after the race, as the car was one kilogram underweight. However, he had once again only managed 11th in a lacklustre race where he was overtaken by Ollie Bearman.
In Japan, Gasly took 15th place, the first of three in the 2025 season. However, in 2024, his start to the campaign was arguably more miserable; he was without points in the first seven races
At the Bahrain International Circuit, he picked up six points and finished seventh after beginning the race in an impressive fifth place, but was forced to retire in Jeddah after qualifying ninth again after colliding with Tsunoda. Surprisingly, the Alpine driver topped the timing charts in the first free practice in Saudi Arabia ahead of Lando Norris by seven thousandths of a second, displaying his ability to maximise the car’s pace.
In Miami, he clinched a single point in the sprint race around the Hard Rock Stadium but was left with zero points in the next two races, retiring once more at Circuit de Monaco after smashing into Tsunoda again at the exit of the tunnel- the location of the famous Nouvelle chicane.
Gasly chose to continue driving despite the damage he was carrying, claiming he had lost the brakes as a result of the accident and was reprimanded by the FIA. The Rouen-born racer was lamenting the opportunities to catch the Williams drivers of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, who finished in eighth and ninth place.
An eighth-place finish in Barcelona earned the Norman driver four points before he trundled to 15th place in Canada, showing the 29-year-old has the potential to change his fortunes but is currently battling inconsistency.
Gasly has proven his quality in qualifying, however, outqualifying Doohan five times to one and his replacement, Colapinto, three to one. Doohan was his equal in sprint qualifying before losing his seat, however. He has made five Q3 appearances and one appearance in Q1, but has exited in Q1 four times.
After eight years in Formula 1, the Frenchman will be keen to routinely fight for points and podiums. In the 20th round of the 2024 calendar, Gasly took third place in Brazil, with former teammate Esteban Ocon achieving second in the rain, showing that the team from near Chipping Norton may still have some surprises in their locker.
13 – Lance Stroll
Lance Stroll has only competed in nine of the ten races this year, withdrawing after qualifying 14th in the Spanish Grand Prix citing pain in his hand and wrist that he had been experiencing for the past six weeks as a result of a cycling accident in 2023.
Despite this the Canadian has a tasty haul of 14 points so far in 2025 and deserves some merit for his performances.
In the season opener in Australia, Stroll achieved a fantastic sixth place, battling through the wet-weather conditions that felled many of his fellow competitors. Then in China he secured ninth place after benefiting from the disqualifications of Gasly, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to cement a successful start to 2025.
The next three races left the Montreal driver empty-handed with no points scored until Miami where he grabbed four points in the sprint race in the Sunshine State.
The Québécois driver has finished 15th, 16th and 17th all twice and 20th once, showing his difficulties to escape the back of the grid. He qualified last and finished last in a frustrating race in Japan and had a dismal performance at his home Grand Prix.
He has only made one Q1 appearance and three Q2 appearances and is clearly finding it hard to extract the pace from his car.
The 26-year-old remains the second youngest driver to score a podium with a third place finish in the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, the third youngest to score points, and the driver with the third most points without a win, showing that the Quebec driver is undoubtedly talented.
Stroll will be looking to add to his points tally and prove he deserves his place in F1 and is not retaining his seat due to his father Lawrence Stroll’s ownership of Aston Martin.
12 – Carlos Sainz
When Carlos Sainz was revealed to be leaving Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton replacing him, the F1 world entered a frenzy about where the Spaniard would be racing in 2025. He would sign for Williams, partnering Alex Albon for the British giants.
His debut race would end in a DNF due to a torque surge while changing gear that led him to hit the wall at a track that he had won the year before, just 16 days after appendicitis surgery. However, his inspired strategy calls on the pitlane regarding rain-aided Albon to secure a fifth-place finish for the team, showing he’s not just an excellent driver.
The Madrid-born driver would score his first point for the Grove team in China, finishing tenth place, but Japan and Bahrain were races to forget with 14th and a DNF, respectively.
Since then, however, the 30-year-old’s performances have started coming together.
The ‘Smooth Operator’ guided his car to two eighth-place finishes in Saudi Arabia and Imola, with ninth position in Miami and tenth in Monaco and Canada, sealing some much-needed points and a welcome confidence boost.
‘El Matador’ failed to score points in his homeland, though, only managing 14th in Montmeló.
He has been outqualified by his teammate six times to four and twice in sprint qualifying and has made five Q3 appearances and three Q2 appearances, suggesting that the Spanish driver is still adapting to the car.
The Oxfordshire team will be bolstered by the signs of improvement from Sainz’s side of the garage with Williams currently sitting fifth in the Constructors’ Championship on 55 points which is ironically Sainz’s race number. This is already a markedly high improvement on last season’s haul of 17 points which left them just ninth, 29 points behind the then-named RB or Racing Bulls as they are now known.
11 – Nico Hülkenberg
Nico Hülkenberg has been putting in some heroic performances in his Sauber as he prepares for the Audi takeover in 2026.
The German has attained 20 points and scored a brilliant seventh-place finish Down Under in the season opener.
He then went pointless in seven races and was disqualified in Bahrain after his rear skid showed excessive wear and was below the minimum thickness of nine millimetres by just 0.05 millimetres, losing the 13th position he’d overtaken three cars for.
‘Hulk’ has finished 15th and 16th twice, 14th and 12th and may have been expecting more of the same.
In Spain, the tides changed and the 37-year-old brought home a phenomenal fifth place despite starting 16th on the grid and surviving for 36 laps on medium tyres on a high-degradation track.
It was a masterful drive on a circuit that has a reputation for few overtaking opportunities after recovering from being outpaced for the fifth time in nine weekends by his rookie teammate Bortoleto.
An excellent strategy by the Swiss team allowed Hülkenberg to capitalise on his opportunities and he crossed the line in sixth, which was later increased to fifth following Max Verstappen’s ten-second time penalty.
The driver from Emmerich am Rhein has some unfortunate records in Formula 1 with the most career starts without a win, the most points without a win and the most career starts without a podium finish which he will be looking to change.
His impressive ability to squeeze the most out of the Sauber has rightfully earned him praise, dragging it to four Q2 appearances.
The racer from North Rhine-Westphalia will be hoping that Audi can provide podium prospects, with the German team experiencing great success in other areas of motorsport including rally, Formula E, touring car and endurance racing. They are the second most successful team in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with 13 victories. They hold 4 World Rally Championship titles and 12 drivers’ titles in German touring car, known as DTM or Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters.
10 – Esteban Ocon
Esteban Ocon has been having a prosperous first season with Haas following his departure from Alpine after five years. He is of Spanish and Algerian descent but famously battled with Gasly, growing up near him as a child and standing on the podium together back in 2024.
The Frenchman sits on 22 points in the Drivers’ Championship with some excellent performances for the American team.
In only his second race, he finished fifth after both Ferrari drivers were disqualified bringing ten points back for the team before gathering four points two races later in the Sakhir desert, climbing from 14th to eighth.
At the notoriously challenging Monaco Ocon finished the race in seventh position after qualifying eighth in a lap he described as one of the best laps he’d done around the Principality. This came after he finished last in every session and retired due to a power unit issue in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, a weekend he’d surely rather forget.
In Canada, the Évreux-born driver accomplished ninth, taking two points in his team’s 200th Grand Prix.
The Norman has fulfilled two Q3 appearances and has jointly boosted Haas to sixth in the Constructors’ though they must be wary as Racing Bulls are level on points with 28. In 2024, the Kannapolis-based team finished seventh at the end of the season with 58 points so these results are promising. However, they have a long way to go to match Williams who are 27 points ahead.
The 28-year-old has a record on his list to beat; he is the driver with the second most races without a pole position behind his compatriot Romain Grosjean and will be looking to maximise his qualifying prowess with his best qualifying performance being third place in Belgium 2018.
He has four podiums in his F1 career, including one win in Hungary 2021 and one fastest lap, but he’ll be hoping Haas keeps strengthening the car and reward him with some top finishes now that he has been reunited with his first-ever race engineer Ayao Komatsu- Haas F1’s team principal.
9 – Isack Hadjar
Isack Hadjar is one Formula 1 rookie who has not failed to impress under the spotlight.
The driver finished runner-up to Bortoleto in the Formula 2 Championship after stalling in the feature race and scored 130 more points than his teammate Pepe Martí. His Formula 2 successes gave rise to his nickname ‘le Petit Prost’ in French media, meaning ‘the small Prost’, referring to the legendary four-time world champion and Hadjar’s compatriot, Alain Prost.
The 20-year-old had a disastrous debut despite qualifying 11th as he spun into the barriers on the formation lap and was thus unable to start the race. He made his way to the pits clearly devastated, emotional about a moment he’d waited so long for.
He qualified a remarkable seventh for the Chinese Grand Prix, but a strategy error afforded him 11th in the race, just outside of the points.
He once again qualified seventh in Japan but finished eighth in the race for his maiden points finish and scored tenth in Saudi Arabia to pick up a lone point.
The Frenchman struggled in Miami, finishing outside of the points in the sprint race and 11th in the main race.
However, the Parisian’s form skyrocketed with a streak of consecutive points finishes in Imola, Monaco and Barcelona, finishing ninth, sixth and seventh respectively, drawing the eyes of many admirers.
The French-Algerian was awarded a three-place grid penalty for impeding Carlos Sainz in qualifying and dropped from ninth to 12th. As a consequence, Hadjar only managed 16th in the race.
In the midst of Red Bull’s second seat woes, Hadjar has been a shining star, and his name has been floated about to be promoted if Tsunoda is told to vacate his seat. On the matter, the Île-de-France driver said he ‘wouldn’t feel ready’ to drive the ‘scary’ Red Bull anytime soon.
He has six Q3 appearances and was tied with Tsunoda, beating each other once in standard qualifying and losing to the Japanese driver once in sprint qualifying. Since Tsunoda’s promotion to the parent team, the young Frenchman has beaten Liam Lawson seven to one in standard qualifying and once in sprint qualifying, maximising his advantage over the Kiwi, who’d competed in 11 races prior to 2025.
Hadjar almost certainly has skill and pace in abundance and is already making waves in the sport in his debut season. The 19th driver to be promoted to F1 via Red Bull’s junior programme, he is sure to provide some fascinating performances throughout the long career he has ahead of him.
8 – Alexander Albon
Alex Albon is having a fabulous season with Williams, racking up 42 points and holding eighth in the Drivers’ Championship as of the Canadian Grand Prix.
He excelled in the rain in Australia and finished seventh in China, benefiting from the misfortune of Leclerc and Hamilton.
The Thai-British driver collected ninth place in Japan, Saudi Arabia and Monaco and was fifth two races in a row in Miami and Imola.
The 29-year-old is now coming off the back of two DNFs in Spain and Canada, but impressed in the first two free practice sessions in Montreal, gliding to second and fourth.
There were question marks raised as to how Albon would handle the introduction of a new teammate in Carlos Sainz, who was seen to be a challenger to his success.
Albon’s fortuitous form has been an answer in itself; he has made seven Q3 appearances in contrast to the Spaniard’s five and has finished higher than him seven times in races versus three, proving that he doesn’t see the former Ferrari driver as a threat.
In fourteen fewer races, the London-born driver has eclipsed his 2024 points total by 30 points and has doubled his position in the championship from 16th to eighth.
He has scored points in seven out of ten races this season and came close to a points finish in Bahrain but had to settle for 12th.
Albon has cemented himself as a worthy adversary on the grid who cannot be underestimated and certainly deserves to rank highly on this list.
7 – Andrea Kimi Antonelli
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, commonly referred to by his middle name Kimi, is the highest-placed rookie on this list after thriving for Mercedes alongside George Russell, aged just 18.
The Italian’s junior career was meteoric; he skipped Formula 3 to be promoted straight to Formula 2 and consistently started scoring points in the series.
He was victorious in the rain at Silverstone, took his first Feature race win at the Hungaroring and captivated the paddock with an ambitious overtake on Colapinto into Eau Rouge in the wet, one of motorsport’s most challenging and thrilling corners and also one of its most dangerous, located at Spa in Belgium.
Antonelli’s first season in Formula 1 with the German team has been astronomical.
In his debut race in Australia, he powered to fourth place just behind his new teammate Russell, who has raced in F1 since 2019. This made him the second youngest driver to score points behind Verstappen and the third youngest driver in Formula 1 history. It was an exceptional drive, battling from 16th on the grid and handling changing weather conditions with maturity.
Then in China and Japan, he finished sixth, gaining two further points in Shanghai as he finished seventh in the sprint race. In Japan, he took the record for the youngest driver to set a fastest lap and the youngest driver to lead a race, snatching the accolade from Verstappen, who had held it for nine years. He was just three days younger than the Dutchman was when he led the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix. However, in the 2025 season, points are no longer awarded for the fastest lap.
He bounced back from 11th in Bahrain to take 6th twice more in Saudi Arabia and Miami. He qualified on pole for the Miami sprint race, holding off Piastri by 0.045 seconds to become the youngest polesitter in any format, beating Sebastian Vettel’s 2008 record by two years and qualified third in the race.
Disappointment followed in his next three races, however, with a DNF in his home race, Imola, while he was running in eighth after a throttle issue forced him to retire. Antonelli lives 30 minutes away from the track in Bologna and was disappointed not to score points in front of his home crowd. He then finished 18th in Monte Carlo after he hit the wall in qualifying and had to settle for 15th around a track with few overtaking prospects.
To round off a miserable triple-header, the 18-year-old suffered a power-unit failure in Spain, which put an end to his afternoon.
The Silver Arrows driver remained optimistic and stormed to an epic third place in Canada, with his teammate Russell taking the win. Following this, he is the third youngest driver to score a podium finish, adding to what has already been a monumental season for the Italian.
He has, however, been outqualified nine times to one by his British colleague but has appeared in Q3 seven times and exited twice in Q2.
The Emilia-Romagna native is seventh in the Drivers’ Championship on 63 points with Mercedes occupying second spot in the Constructors’ Championship behind McLaren, showing the impact the rookie has made.
The youngster will be in conversation for the FIA Rookie of the Year Award come the end of the season and just needs to keep the momentum alive. He is sure to flourish in his F1 career, and while he only has a one-year contract with the Brackley-based team, they are sure to be impressed with his performances and will hopefully offer an extension to keep him at the Northamptonshire factory for the future.
6 – Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is one of the biggest names in Formula 1 and left the sporting world reeling when he announced his decision to swap the black and silver of Mercedes for Ferrari’s Rosso Corsa, but it hasn’t been the winning ways he would have hoped for.
His first race for the Scuderia earned him one point, which is uncharacteristic of the Brit’s usual performances. He qualified eighth but Ferrari’s strategy gamble did not pay off as Hamilton was left on slick tyres in increasingly wet conditions- initially this had put him in contention for a podium but the Brit struggled with radio communication with his new race engineer Riccardo Adami and endured a lack of clarity in regards to the intensity of the rain.
In China, it was a mixed bag; he experienced the highest of highs by converting pole position to a win in the sprint race and then the lowest of lows in the race. He experienced contact with his teammate Charles Leclerc on the opening lap but appeared to be finding his feet, pumping in a succession of fastest laps and finishing sixth. After the race, he was disqualified as the rear skid was found to be below the nine millimetre thickness designated by the regulations, resulting in a frustrating Sunday for the 40-year-old.
He has finished fifth, sixth and seventh twice each as well as one eighth in Miami despite taking third in the sprint race in Florida, and as such has not finished higher than fourth on a Sunday in 2025- his best result came at Imola in front of Ferrari’s passionate tifosi or fans.
This is his worst-ever start to the season as he has failed to finish in the top three across the opening ten rounds of the F1 calendar.
Ferrari now has the unenviable task of choosing which driver to prioritise- the seven-time World Champion Hamilton or Leclerc, the one they hail as predestined to win championships and who has been with the Maranello team since 2019.
Hamilton was no stranger to team orders at Mercedes, with Valtteri Bottas often asked to concede his position to the Brit in order to win races, but now the Italian giants have had multiple team orders controversies.
In Miami the Stevenage-born driver asked to be let past Leclerc to try to attack Antonelli but did not feel he was answered quickly enough and then a few laps later was told to let Leclerc back through as it appeared impossible to catch the Italian before the end of the race but he didn’t return the position until a lap later.
He was also told to let his younger teammate pass in China and in Spain with the Briton crossing the chequered flag after a painfully slow race in the SF-25. Leclerc was fuming over the radio, arguing that he had not sacrificed a second run in Q3 to be stuck behind his teammate, showing tensions are high at The Prancing Horse.
Nico Rosberg labelled Hamilton’s Spanish Grand Prix ‘shockingly bad’ and a ‘very dark situation’.
Ferrari hoped the new rules surrounding flexi-wings, banning movement of more than 10mm, would help them prior to the Grand Prix in Catalonia and would hinder McLaren, but it did not appear to improve Hamilton’s circumstances.
The racing legend has been outqualified seven times by the 27-year-old and has reached Q3 eight times, having been knocked out twice in Q2.
He is sixth in the Drivers’ Championship on 79 points, 25 points behind his teammate and aiming to improve on last year’s seventh-place finish.
Ferrari are third in the Constructors’, 16 points behind his former team, Mercedes, where he drove for 11 years.
Hamilton will be hoping these issues can be resolved and will be looking forward to Silverstone, which brings a new upgrade package to attempt to improve performance.
5 – Charles Leclerc
Charles Leclerc has fired the Ferrari to the front of the grid despite its lack of pace and appears unfazed by the threat of his high-profile teammate.
Leclerc has collected all three of the Italian team’s podium finishes to date, with two third-place finishes in Saudi Arabia and Spain and one second-place finish at his home Grand Prix: Monaco.
The Monégasque has failed to make Q3 just once this season in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and his best qualifying position was second around his home streets of Monte Carlo.
‘Il Predestinato’ has finished in the points at every race this season, barring China, where he was disqualified due to his car being under the minimum weight of 800 kilograms by a fine margin of just one kilogram, resulting in the loss of his fifth place.
However, he has finished fourth twice, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth this season to give him an attractive points total of 104, putting him at fifth in the Drivers’ Championship.
Nevertheless, the 27-year-old must eliminate mistakes from his driving if he wishes to become an F1 World Champion, which has been outlined once again this season. In Free Practice One in Canada, a lock-up at Turn 3 sent him careening into the wall at Turn 4 and cracked the chassis, spelling the end of his Friday running in what he described as a ‘misjudgement’.
Then in qualifying, the team encountered traffic with Leclerc feeling he lost time due to dirty air.
He had made a mistake in the season opener, spinning at turn 11 while on slick tyres, which cost him a potential podium finish. His overtakes on Tsunoda and Albon were unravelled as following a safety car restart, the former repassed him, which was combined with strategic errors from the team who delayed a switch to intermediate tyres.
The Ferrari driver finished third in the Drivers’ Championship in 2024 and became the first Monégasque to win at Circuit de Monaco in 93 years, but he must now set his sights on catching George Russell before looking ahead to 2026.
4 – George Russell
George Russell has adapted to his new position as the number one driver at Mercedes with flying colours.
The Brit got off to a magnificent start in 2025 and took third in the first two races and fourth in the first sprint race in China.
He took second in Bahrain after attempting an overtake on Piastri going into Turn 1 before locking up. Russell held off a late charge from Lando Norris on the final lap to retain his position despite faulty brakes and electronics for a heroic finish.
Then in Miami, the 27-year-old crossed the line in third place, benefiting from pitting under a Virtual Safety Car to take the position away from Verstappen, though at the finish line he was a staggering 37 seconds behind the race winner Piastri.
The Norfolk-born driver took his first win of the season in Canada with a scintillating pole position lap that seemingly came out of nowhere- 0.160 seconds ahead of Verstappen. He made a clean getaway from the Dutchman but had to be wary of his rival staying within DRS (Drag Reduction System) range through some nervy laps.
He covered off the Red Bull driver in the pits, emerging ahead of him, but was later accused of erratically braking under the safety car, though in his opinion, Verstappen had overtaken him, yet another moment of tension between the two. This meant that Russell took his maiden hat-trick, taking pole, the win and the fastest lap.
The driver from King’s Lynn has collected fifth, seventh, eleventh and fourth in Spain, with the latter the location of a dramatic collision with the four-time world champion once again involved. His fifth-place finish in Saudi Arabia came in spite of the team’s struggles with overheating tyres.
Russell is currently fourth in the championship on 136 points, just 19 points behind Verstappen and will have ambitions of passing him following their tumultuous history. The Brit’s contract with the Silver Arrows expires at the end of the season; however, there are options for extension.
3 Max Verstappen
Max Verstappen is having to handle a season where his dominance is being challenged, and two drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, are vying for his throne.
The Dutchman isn’t going down without a fight, however and still demands vigilance when his competitors see him in their mirrors.
He took second in Melbourne and was at one stage leading before continually deteriorating conditions forced him to pit, relegating him to second.
In China, he picked up fourth in the race and collected a handful of points in the sprint race, finishing third, but it was in Japan where the familiar Verstappen returned, winning his first race of the season by 1.4 seconds after a hard-fought battle with Norris.
The Red Bull driver could only manage sixth in Bahrain but bounced back with second again in Saudi Arabia after he was awarded a five-second penalty for cutting the apex at the first corner while going wheel-to-wheel with Piastri.
The Belgian-born driver took a dominant victory at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, a circuit he has now won four times, committing a daring overtake around the outside of Piastri at the first chicane and controlling the race throughout, reinstating his class.
The 27-year-old finished second again in Canada, though he was unimpressed with George Russell, which has been a running theme.
‘The Dutch Lion’ is one penalty point away from a race ban with 11 penalty points in 11 months across six different infringements, but his last transgression in Catalonia carried the most weight, with three points awarded in punishment. The incident unfolded as Verstappen came under attack from Russell, who was on newer soft tyres, with the pair clashing at Turn One. Verstappen stayed ahead but had gone wide and, as such, was advised to give the position back by his team to avoid any repercussions.
The Dutchman was frustrated by the request but slowed down to hand over the position at Turn Five. The Brit went ahead and slowed down to take at the entry of the corner when Verstappen suddenly accelerated with the two making contact at the apex. The stewards handed him a ten-second penalty in addition to the points on his super licence, with many onlookers seeing it as a deliberate move by the four-time World Champion, taking his final result from fifth to tenth.
‘The Flying Dutchman’ also achieved fourth in Monaco and Miami, though finished 17th in the Miami sprint race due to a ten-second penalty for an unsafe release in the pit lane, in which he collided with Antonelli.
He has featured in all ten Q3 rounds and has dispatched both his teammates, outqualifying them in every race so far in 2025.
Verstappen will need to avoid further incidents and recall the tenacity he displayed against Hamilton back in 2021 if he wishes to defend his title from the McLaren duo, but it seems an impossible task to snatch back the Constructors’ Championship from the British team, as Red Bull are currently fourth in the standings.
Oscar Piastri says he’s not counting Verstappen out of winning the championship as ‘Max will race how he has always raced’
The Dutchman will go into the next race in Austria feeling confident as he has won at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg five times and will be hoping success will find him once more in the Styrian mountains.
2 – Lando Norris
Lando Norris hadn’t finished outside of the top four all season until the Canadian Grand Prix, after a clumsy crash with his teammate, Oscar Piastri, at 200mph led to him retiring from the race.
In the closing laps, the McLaren pair were fighting for fourth when Norris dived down the inside of his teammate at the hairpin, but Piastri was able to come back with the pair side by side down the pit straight.
The Brit braked earlier to form a move into the first corner, but Piastri held his line, and as Norris tried to go down the inside, his right front wheel and front wing clipped the rival McLaren, causing suspension damage to his car. He apologised for making a ‘silly’ decision which saw him receive a five-second time penalty.
Norris and Piastri have had a respectful battle for the title thus far, but this could be a defining moment. With 14 races to go, it is far from over for the 25-year-old; there is a very real chance he could win the championship, but he must avoid making major mistakes.
With two wins in Australia and Monaco, four second-place finishes, one third and one fourth, the Bristol-born driver is having a brilliant season.
He was utterly dominant in both weekends, taking the win, taking pole twice and winning by over three seconds to the home favourite Leclerc in Monaco.
He has appeared in all Q3 sessions and shattered the track record in Monaco with a blistering lap time of 1:09:954 seconds and beat the second-placed qualifier by 0.019 seconds, showing his calibre.
After ten races, Norris is trailing by 22 points to his Australian teammate despite finishing second in the Drivers’ Championship last year, compared to Piastri’s fourth. The Belgian-British driver outqualified his teammate 21 to three in 2024 but has now been beaten six to four in standard qualifying and twice in sprint qualifying.
McLaren have made it clear they will let the two drivers race, so it will doubtlessly be a high-octane fight down to the very last lap in Abu Dhabi, but will it be second time lucky for Norris?
1 – Oscar Piastri
Oscar Piastri is the current championship leader and has led since Saudi Arabia became the first Australian to lead the World Drivers’ Championship since Mark Webber in 2010- Webber is incidentally his manager.
He qualified second in his home race and challenged his teammate Norris for the win despite losing a position to Verstappen on the opening lap. The increasing rain spelt disaster for the Melbourne-born driver as he went onto the grass and ended up rearwards in the run-off area, but he valiantly fought to get moving again and finished the race ninth, showing excellent composure and maturity.
The 24-year-old would then win in China and take third in Japan before winning three consecutive races in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Miami.
Piastri took two third-place finishes in Italy and Monaco before winning again in Spain and held onto fourth in Canada despite pressure from his more experienced teammate.
He became the fourth McLaren driver to achieve podiums in seven consecutive races after Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Lewis Hamilton.
His calm and collected demeanour has earned him praise from both journalists and rivals, though he is keen to prove that he can be ruthless and assertive when necessary.
The Woking-based team do not have a clear number one driver and is keen not to implement team orders to allow the two drivers to achieve their positions based on merit and racing quality.
The Australian has eradicated the tyre management and qualifying pace issues that hampered him in previous seasons and has not qualified outside of the top ten in this campaign.
He has put himself in the conversation as a potential Championship winner through some outstanding drives while the McLaren is clearly the dominant car on the grid, and some theorise this is due to their superior temperature management for the rear tyres and higher downforce.
Piastri will be hoping to maximise his chances to run away with the Championship lead and will continue to increase McLaren’s stalwart lead of the Constructors’ Championship, 175 points ahead of Mercedes.