Adam Scriven: Formula 1 teams' influx of rookies look like an investment for the future

This time last year we were heading into a Formula 1 season that, for the first time ever, would begin with the exact same driver line-ups as finished the previous campaign.

I wrote here about why it had become so hard for up-and-coming drivers to make the leap up to the pinnacle of motorsport.

Yet no fewer than six of the 20 drivers who will start the 2025 season later this month have less than a season's F1 experience under their belts, two of whom are joining top-four teams from last season. Meanwhile only McLaren and Aston Martin field an unchanged driver line-up from last year.

So what has suddenly changed to make team principals more willing to take a chance and shake things up?

There are two main reasons for the change of heart, the first of which is a huge revision of the technical rules coming for 2026, but more on that later.

The first incident which may have broadened team bosses' minds occurred at the second race of last season.

Having felt ill during Friday's running in Saudi Arabia, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz was rushed to hospital for an emergency appendectomy during the night.

The team were left with no option but to hastily promote their 18-year-old reserve driver Oliver Bearman for the rest of the weekend.

The Briton had already qualified on pole position for the Formula 2 race at Jeddah and caught a lot of attention for his battling drive to seventh place in the race on his F1 debut.

Oliver Bearman impressed in three appearances last seasonCredit: Formula 1 via Getty Images

Bearman would make another F1 appearance, this time standing in for the suspended Kevin Magnussen at Haas for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he again collected a points finish.

That race at Baku was also notable for being the first point-scoring performance from Franco Colapinto. The Argentinian had been brought in at Williams in the previous round after the team finally ran out of patience with the crash-prone Logan Sargeant.

Colapinto would also go on to amass a hefty repair bill for the team, but his and Bearman's displays almost certainly softened the paddock's view of hiring rookie drivers. 

The following race proved to be the final appearance of Daniel Ricciardo's career, as the popular Australian was subsequently replaced by Liam Lawson, who had impressed in a handful of starts in place of an injured Ricciardo in 2023.

At the final race of the season, a fourth rookie would get his chance to shine as Jack Doohan trailed home last in Abu Dhabi after Alpine terminated Esteban Ocon's contract a race early.

It is no surprise that Bearman has been rewarded with a full-time race seat at Haas having clearly proved himself capable, and while Colapinto is not returning this year as things stand, Lawson has been handed the coveted Red Bull seat alongside world champion Max Verstappen.

Doohan continues at Alpine, F2 champion Gabriel Bortoletto joins Sauber, which will become Audi in 2026, while Isack Hadjar, runner-up to Bortoleto in Formula 2, is the latest Red Bull junior to be drafted in at their junior team, this year named Racing Bulls.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli has done thousands of kilometres of testing in old Mercedes machinery and joins the grid with a lofty reputation and high expectations with the Silver Arrows in the seat vacated by Ferrari-bound Lewis Hamilton.

New Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli Credit: Getty Images

This coming season is the last with the current evolution of cars. Radical changes to both chassis and engine regulations for 2026 bring the likelihood of a shake-up in the pecking order and teams not in contention early in 2025 will soon switch their focus to the future.

The value of experience for drivers is one of the main reasons it has been so tough for rookies to get a chance recently, so those teams fielding youngsters this season will see the year as a chance to bed them in for 2026.

Of course, that means that we could well see very few or no changes going into 2026, but if the youngsters can prove their worth this season, they may be doing a favour to those drivers on the lower rungs of the motorsport ladder hoping to make it all the way to the top.

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