F1 Rookies 2026: Who’s Thriving, Who’s on the Brink of the Exit?

Formula One is certainly a baptism of fire, where drivers as young as 17 are strapped into cars capable of 230mph and sent out to race in front of millions of fans.

The pressure is immense, with the future of their careers resting on split-second decisions, while they have to figure out how to live life under the media spotlight.

This weekend marks the 11th race of the 2025 F1 season, so now they have had some time to settle into their teams, we reflect on how this year’s rookies have done.

Kimi Antonelli

The standout rookie driver so far is undoubtedly Antonelli .

Mercedes have provided him with a competitive car that has definitely aided his endeavours compared to his fellow rookies, however his talent is undeniable, cemented by his maiden podium at the Canadian Grand Prix.

At 18, the Italian is the youngest-ever race leader and pole sitter, as well as being the third-youngest driver and second-youngest point scorer in F1 history.

Currently seventh in the drivers’ standings with 63 points to his name, it is safe to say that Antonelli has exceeded expectations in his first season.

Although his contract is expiring at the end of 2025, Mercedes would be mad not to keep him on, with team principal Toto Wolff recently suggesting that Antonelli will probably be offered a further two-year deal to push on.

Grade: A*

Isack Hadjar

Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar will certainly have caught Helmut Marko’s eye, with a string of solid performances garnering him 21 points and 10th place in the drivers’ standings.

With Yuki Tsunoda in the dreaded second Red Bull seat having only scraped 10 championship points so far and Hadjar’s Racing Bulls’ teammate Liam Lawson even further down the standings, the French-Algerian is outperforming his peers.

There is undoutedly a future for Hadjar in the sport, and he looks poised to snatch the second Red Bull seat away from Tsunoda, but whether this will be a fruitful career move remains to be seen.

Grade: A

Oliver Bearman

Bearman may currently be 17th in the drivers’ standings, but this feels distinctly unrepresentative of his talent.

The Englishman was the talk of the paddock when he first debuted in F1, standing in for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz at the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, where he fought from eleventh to seventh, holding off the likes of Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton .

Since then, his results have been much less eye-catching, but Bearman is a promising driver, and given that he is under contract at Haas until at least the end of the 2026 season, he certainly has a chance to make a mark on the sport.

Grade: B

Gabriel Bortoleto

Bortoleto entered the 2025 season as perhaps the most qualified rookie, having won the Formula Two championship the previous year at the first time of asking. But so far, his performances have been decidedly unremarkable.

Driving for Kick Sauber is not easy, with the team being a permanent fixture near the bottom of the standings.

However, with a few impressive drives, Bortoleto’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg has scored 20 points, while the Brazilian is yet to finish in the top 10.

Granted, Hulkenberg has more than a decade’s experience in the sport, but he has shown the performance that the car possesses, something that Bortoleto seems unable to extract.

Bortoleto is contracted to remain with Kick Sauber until at least the end of 2026, but if results don’t improve, his future in the sport looks murky.

Grade: C

Franco Colapinto

It is safe to say that Colapinto has had an unusual start to his Formula One career.

This is his first full year in the sport, meaning that he is still considered a rookie despite having competed in nine grands prix in the 2024 season after replacing Williams driver Logan Sargeant, achieving a total of five points after some solid performances.

That spell remains the highlight of his career to date however, with his replacement of Alpine driver Jack Doohan at the Imola Grand Prix beginning a string of mediocre performances that see him languishing in 20th place in the 2025 drivers’ standings without a point to his name.

The Argentine signed a contract for five races with Alpine, which is set to expire after the upcoming Austrian Grand Prix, and there has been no decision yet about who will race alongside Pierre Gasly for the rest of the season.

Colapinto’s performances in 2024 showed that he has potential, but his time at Alpine, and as a consequence his time in F1, may be coming to a close.

Grade: C

Liam Lawson

Similar to Colapinto, Lawson has competed in F1 prior to this year, having first joined the F1 grid in 2023, standing in for Daniel Ricciardo at Racing Bulls (then AlphaTauri) after the Australian broke his hand in a free practice session at the Dutch Grand Prix.

He duly put in some solid performances, most notably a ninth-placed finish at the Singapore Grand Prix, which carried on into the 2024 season after he replaced Ricciardo for the remaining six rounds, picking up two more ninth-placed finishes.

However, after earning an exciting promotion to Red Bull ahead of the 2025 season to replace Sergio Perez, he lasted just two races there before being demoted to Racing Bulls.

This no doubt knocked his confidence, and he has only managed one eighth-placed finish since then while being significantly outperformed by fellow rookie teammate Hadjar.

Lawson’s contract runs out at the end of this season, and with so many talented young drivers waiting in the wings, it looks likely that this will be his last year in the sport.

Grade: D