Perched on the end of a white couch in Bahrain last week before a room full of journalists, Carlos Sainz could not help but feel his age.
Sainz turned 30 last September, putting him in the peak years of his career. His performances for Ferrari last year were testimony to that, and his new team Williams sees him as a key part of its bid to get back to the front of the F1 pack. His future in the sport is very much still bright.
And yet, to his left, sat four young drivers all born this century who, should their careers go to plan, are likely to be racing in F1 long after Sainz, now the fourth-oldest driver on the grid, has hung up his helmet.
The quartet comprising Ollie Bearman (19), Kimi Antonelli (18), Gabriel Bortoleto (20) and Isack Hadjar (20) form part of an astonishing six full-season rookie slate this year. Absent from the news conference were Liam Lawson (23), who has 11 races already to his name, and Jack Doohan (22), who debuted for Alpine at the season finale in Abu Dhabi last year.
Together they form the largest complement of full-season rookies in F1 since 2013 (though only three will be debutants in the season opener in Australia next weekend), signalling a major change for the grid. It also caused a dramatic drop in the average age of this season’s drivers, from 29 years and 5 months at last year’s opening race in Bahrain to 27 years and three months if all 20 line up as planned in Melbourne.
It may not get close to breaking the record for the youngest-ever F1 field — the 2017 Russian Grand Prix had an average age of 26 years and nine months — but 2025 does herald a new, more youthful era. But why now?
It’s rare to get so many rookies in one year, let alone so many who are considered potential future stars, boasting impressive resumes from their junior careers, much of which they spent racing one another. It’s uncommon for one driver to make it onto the grid from each year group, let alone a handful at the same time.
“It just shows we have a strong generation,” said Hadjar, who will drive for Racing Bulls this year after stepping up from F2. “It’s good to race guys I know already.”
Isack Hadjar pictured during day three of testing in Bahrain on February 28, 2025 (Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
No matter how talented the driver, timing is vital to making it onto the grid. Bortoleto, who will race with Sauber, is the first F2 champion to immediately step up to F1 for the following year since Mick Schumacher did so in 2021. The 2022 and 2023 champions, Felipe Drugovich and Theo Pourchaire, are yet to make a grand prix appearance and their chances may well have passed. If the opportunities are not there, it’s hard for even the most talented of youngsters to break onto the grid.
F1’s stagnant driver market between 2023 and 2024 helped create more opportunities for this season. For the first time in F1 history, the 2024 grid started with the same line-ups as the previous year had ended. As a number of drivers came to the end of their contracts in 2024, teams were always going to consider making changes this season. Only two teams, McLaren and Aston Martin, will field the same line-up as they did in 2024.
Even a wild driver market sent into a tailspin by Lewis Hamilton’s shock switch from Mercedes to McLaren was no guarantee that so many young drivers would get a chance. For each seat taken by one of the full-season rookies, there were plenty of older, more experienced candidates in contention. The bet on youth was still a gamble for teams.
Except it was made to look like less of a risk thanks to a couple of outstanding, and unexpected, performances through last year, starting with Bearman’s sudden call-up for Ferrari at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
When Sainz was ruled out due to appendicitis that required surgery, Ferrari turned to its then 18-year-old academy driver who was meant to start from pole in the F2 race that weekend. Despite only putting Bearman in the car from final practice onwards, the Briton managed to qualify 11th and finish the race in an admirable seventh place on his debut, winning acclaim across the paddock, and particular praise from Hamilton. “He did such a phenomenal job,” Hamilton said. “It just shows that he’s really a bright future star.”
Bearman would make two further race starts with Haas later in the year, replacing Kevin Magnussen, again equipping himself well by scoring a point in Baku.
Chasing that kind of upside also prompted Williams to replace Logan Sargeant with Franco Colapinto, 21, in the last nine races of the season. Colapinto, who had only driven an F1 car once prior to his debut weekend and had been racing in F3 a year earlier, quickly excelled with points in his second race and a series of solid displays, justifying the decision and putting himself on the map. Alpine struck a deal in January for Colapinto to join on loan as its reserve and test driver for this year, with Williams believing it served as the best opportunity to get the Argentine back on the grid in the next two years.
(From left to right) Jack Doohan looks on as Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto embrace in the paddock during day two of testing in Bahrain on February 27, 2025 (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
Oliver Oakes, Alpine’s team principal and the former chief of the Hitech team that races across junior categories, thought Bearman’s display in Saudi Arabia and Colapinto’s efforts with Williams helped show F1 teams that taking a punt on a young driver can have a significant pay off.
“I think that had quite a big effect for teams,” said Oakes. “I’ve always felt F1 was a little bit cautious in bringing rookies in, and there’s a lot of talent in F2, F3. Everyone is pretty well prepared now as young drivers. But I think also the maturity that some of those youngsters show when they jump in now is really impressive.”
Oakes explained that such thinking helped with the decision to give a last-minute test to academy driver Paul Aron the day after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, despite having zero time to prepare. “He performed absolutely mega on that Monday,” Oakes said. “If you’ve got it, you’ve got it.”
It was also a matter of the right opportunities coming up for each of the six youngsters. Without Hamilton’s decision to leave Mercedes, Antonelli would likely have been required to wait a little longer for his chance. Lawson and Hadjar both benefitted from the struggles faced by Sergio Pérez and Daniel Ricciardo within the Red Bull setup. The movements of Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon helped open up spots for Bearman and Doohan, while Bortoleto’s march to the F2 title gave Sauber the confidence that he’d be a better option than either of its incumbents, Zhou Guanyu or Valtteri Bottas.
“It’s cool to see young drivers getting into F1 now,” said Bortoleto. “For some years already, I think there were one or two coming in, but finally (this is) a year that a lot of us managed to get the opportunity. All of us deserved it (after) good results in junior series, good results in testing that we have done.”
This sudden influx is unlikely to become a yearly occurrence. Ahead of the regulation change in 2026, most teams sought stability with their driver line-ups, prompting them to sign drivers to multi-year deals. While there is always room for things to change, as recent seasons have proven, a quieter market this year would come as little surprise, such is the cyclical nature of the grid.
The next big fall in the average age should occur when Hamilton, 40, and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, 43, opt to call it quits after careers that started in their early twenties, around the same age of this year’s rookies.
Not since the 2019 intake of Lando Norris, George Russell and Alex Albon has there been such excitement over the new crop of talent entering the sport. Though errors are to be expected, given their inexperience, the rookies know they must impress from the start.
Now they must live up to the hype, and prove the grid’s new-found faith in youth has been the right call.
(Top photo: Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
