Why young drivers are attracting interest again in F1

For the first time in history, the 2024 Formula 1 season featured the same drivers as last season’s grid, with no newcomers in Bahrain. The contrast with 2025 could hardly be greater, with four new recruits expected, and perhaps a fifth, on the starting grid for the Australian Grand Prix, the first round of the season.

After the Singapore Grand Prix, Red Bull and Visa Cash App RB announced their separation from Daniel Ricciardo. Meanwhile, the Austrian team has confirmed that Liam Lawson will replace the Australian at VCARB until the end of the season and, although no mention has been made of 2025, the New Zealander will likely drive in the alongside Yuki Tsunoda next year for his first full-time campaign.

He will join Kimi Antonelli at Mercedes, Jack Doohan at Alpine and Oliver Bearman at Haas. In addition, a fifth rookie could also appear at Sauber, with Valtteri Bottas facing Franco Colapinto, Williams driver until the end of the season, and Gabriel Bortoleto, McLaren protégé.

Young pilots much better prepared

There are several reasons why 2025 could be called the “year of the rookies”. Teams are limited to the talent pool available and ready to take the plunge at the right time. A generational talent like Antonelli, who Mercedes decided to promote earlier than expected, doesn’t come along every year.

But if there is one aspect that connects the young drivers mentioned above, it is their extraordinary level of preparation, combining a career in the FIA ​​junior categories with countless simulator hours and private tests. This helped explain why McLaren driver Oscar Piastri adapted so quickly to the premier class last year, and it also paid off in Bearman’s stint at Ferrari in Saudi Arabia and recent performances de Colapinto at the wheel of the Williams.

“I think it’s recognition for all the academies”Jock Clear, head of the Ferrari driver academy, told the F1 Nation podcast. “How is it possible that Bearman can get into a car he has almost never driven, qualify P11 and finish P7 in his very first race, when he has never tested that car? I think that simulators are very efficient today and that this is a natural evolution of technology.”

“As soon as you tell an F1 team: ‘You can’t do any more testing,’ the teams start developing other ways to do exactly the same job. Nobody in F1 accepts being less well prepared than before by not doing more tests. No, everyone in F1 is thinking, ‘Well, how do we make sure we’re as prepared as we were before?'”

“The fidelity of the simulators has reached such a level that what we see with Colapinto and Ollie is the result. In fact, when they arrive here, none of this is foreign to them. They know what to do with it. the tires. They know what to expect. The virtual track they ride on in the simulator is so good.

“A lot of what we do here with our young drivers is ‘in the classroom’. We give them lessons and talk to them about how the car works, how to balance the brakes and what to do with tires, and I hope what you see in Ollie and Franco is the result of that education.”

But as Fernando Alonso points out, in F1 since 2001, no simulator or previous single-seater test (TPC) can reproduce the stress of a Grand Prix weekend. This is why the Spaniard was keen to congratulate Colapinto and Bearman for getting up to speed so quickly in the intimidating F1 paddock.

“I think they did an incredible job and that’s a credit to them.”said Alonso after the performances of Colapinto and Bearman on the difficult streets of Singapore. “They are better prepared, they do more simulators, they do TPC and tests, but it’s not the same as racing. They had that pressure and that of the street circuits, they did an incredible job .”

“The championship also has 24 races and they have to perform well for 10 months, which is probably another challenge, but so far they have been incredibly good and that is a good thing for the sport and for the future .”

Nothing beats experience in F1

To get a better idea of ​​how a young driver performs under pressure, there is always the F2 and F3 championships, although they are not necessarily the most reliable way to spot future stars these days. recent years. After Oscar Piastri in 2021, the next two F2 champions, Felipe Drugovich and Théo Pourchaire, failed to cross the doors of F1.

A look at the current championship shows that Mercedes and Ferrari have placed more emphasis on the work done in F1 by Antonelli and Bearman than on their results in F2 with Prema. Meanwhile, none of the F2 title contenders will be on the Formula 1 starting grid in 2025, unless Bortoleto finds a way into the Sauber seat.

But Jock Clear believes it was Bearman’s performances in Jeddah that started this wave of future rookies, with teams preferring to trust in youth rather than experience. The latter was initially seen as crucial to helping get the most out of the new generation of ground effects cars.

“Ollie’s experience in Saudi Arabia had the merit of justifying and enhancing the entire F2 grid”he explains. “We always believed that if you win in F2, it’s fair that you have the opportunity to move up to F1. I think the mindset needs to change and you need to look at the whole F2 grid You will never win the F2 championship without being a good driver, but there will be good drivers who won’t win the F2 championship and you don’t want them to miss their chance just because it didn’t happen. happened as they wanted on a few occasions.”

“Lando [Norris] was runner-up the year George [Russell] won it and Lando deserves a place in F1 just as much as George. As for Ollie, he had only competed in one F2 race this year when Fred [Vasseur] m’a dit : ‘Carlos [Sainz] isn’t great, we’re going to have to put Ollie in the car. I hope he’ll be ready’. And I told Fred that I had no doubt that he was ready.”

“We didn’t need to see what he was doing in F2 to know that this was a guy who was going to be able to carve out a place in F1. I think that’s healthy, because if you wait for them to be 18-19 years old to decide if you want them in F1, you’re not looking deep enough at what you need in an F1.”

Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing

Photo de: Red Bull Content Pool

Addressing Motorsport.comthe director of the MP Motorsport F2 team, Sander Dorsman, welcomed the fact that F1 teams are betting on youth: “Of course I understand that people in F1 keep the good drivers who have proven themselves, the established names”declared the boss of MP Motorsport. “But at some point it’s time for a change. I think it all shows that F2 is a fantastic training for F1 and that every now and then it’s worth taking a risk, and it pays off immediately.”

It also raises interesting questions for Red Bull, whose protégé Isack Hadjar is currently battling Bortoleto for the championship: “I find it very difficult to read form in Formula 2 these days”said Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. “When you look at the work that Bearman has done, when he started both at Ferrari and at one of the toughest circuits on the calendar in Saudi Arabia, he looked like a veteran. Then, more recently he faced a difficult teammate, Nico Hülkenberg.”

“Colapinto was a total surprise, because he went unnoticed in F2. Nobody was talking about him, and then he jumped into this Williams and in the few races he did he was exceptional. He was really , really impressive. It’s very difficult to say. Does this mean that Hadjar, by beating them all, has taken another step forward? Until we give them a chance, we won’t know.”

With teams striving to maintain a stable driver duo between 2025 and 2026, next year might have been the best opportunity to sign a young driver. But with questions lingering over the long-term makeup of the Red Bull team, don’t be too surprised if someone like Hadjar follows in the footsteps of the “Class of 2025” soon. And if Bortoleto and Colapinto are missing next year, perhaps F1 fans won’t have to wait longer than 2026 to see the next group of youngsters earn their place on the grid.