Lewis Hamilton will return to his iconic yellow helmet color scheme in 2025, although with a Ferrari twist within the well-known Modena shade. F1Technical’s Balazs Szabó takes a take a look at the helmets drivers will put on within the upcoming season.
There shall be a sequence of adjustments to the grid because the 2025 F1 season kicks off at Melbourne with the Australian Grand Prix in March.
Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will go away Mercedes after twelve seasons to affix Ferrari, ending his record-breaking streak of probably the most consecutive seasons driving for a single constructor, in addition to competing in his first season and not using a Mercedes energy unit.
The Briton will substitute Carlos Sainz Jr., who left Ferrari after 4 seasons to affix Williams on a multi-year deal. Hamilton himself shall be changed by Mercedes junior Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was promoted from Method 2.
Haas will discipline an all new line-up in 2025 as Nico Hülkenberg will go away the staff after two seasons to drive for Sauber, with whom he final competed in 2013. He shall be changed by their reserve driver Oliver Bearman, who will step up from Method 2, having beforehand raced within the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix for Ferrari, and within the 2024 Azerbaijan and São Paulo Grands Prix for Haas.
The American staff’s Danish driver Kevin Magnussen may even depart the staff after seven seasons throughout two stints, together with his vacant seat set to be crammed by Esteban Ocon, who break up from Alpine after 5 seasons with Group Enstone.
5-time MotoGP champion Mick Doohan’s son, Jack Doohan changed Ocon for the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and can retain the seat at Alpine for 2025.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will each go away Sauber after three years. Bottas will rejoin Mercedes as a reserve driver, after having beforehand raced for the staff from 2017 to 2021. The vacant seats shall be crammed by Hülkenberg and reigning Method 2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto.
Regardless of a beforehand introduced contract till 2026, Sergio Pérez left Red Bull Racing after the conclusion of the 2024 season. He shall be changed by Liam Lawson, who shall be promoted from Racing Bulls after 5 Grands Prix in 2023 beneath the AlphaTauri moniker, and 6 Grands Prix in 2024 beneath using the initialism RB.
Red Bull Racing reserve and Method 2 runner-up Isack Hadjar will make his F1 debut with Racing Bulls as he’s set to companion Yuki Tsunoda.
The upcoming season will see six rookie drivers make their F1 debut, with Liam Lawson, Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto, Isack Hadjar, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman.
Doohan will be part of the already signed and introduced Pierre Gasly to type the staff’s driver pairing for subsequent season, changing into the primary Alpine Academy prospect to graduate right into a race seat with the staff.
The 21-year-old Australian – son of the legendary five-time 500cc motorcycling world champion – Mick Doohan – has served because the staff’s Reserve Driver for the previous two years after a profitable junior profession in worldwide single-seater racing.
Following the season-closing F1 spherical at Abu Dhabi, Red Bull Racing confirmed that Liam Lawson will companion four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen in 2025 F1 season.
The New Zealand native joined the Pink Bull Junior Programme in 2019 and after a number of junior method successes made his Method One debut with Scuderia AlphaTauri on the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, rather than the injured Daniel Ricciardo.
He scored his first championship factors in simply his second outing on the Singapore GP and accomplished 5 races in all for the staff. After taking over his Reserve Driver function with each groups at first of 2024, Lawson returned to Grand Prix racing with Visa Money App Racing Bulls with a points-scoring end at this 12 months’s United States Grand Prix.
Now, after finishing the season with VCARB the 22-year-old takes the subsequent step in his profession with a seat at Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Audi and Sauber Motorsport AG confirmed at the start of November that Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto will full the staff’s 2025 F1 pairing alongside Nico Hülkenberg.
Hailing from São Paulo, Bortoleto started his racing profession on the age of six in karting and, by twelve, he had moved to Europe together with his household to pursue his Method One dream.
He made a powerful impression upon graduating to FIA Method 3 in 2023 by dominating his debut season and profitable the Championship, earlier than shifting to the FIA Method 2 Championship, the place he’s main the standings with simply two rounds to go. Becoming a member of the long run Audi works staff now offers Bortoleto the chance to point out his expertise on the highest stage of motorsport.
The staff, which already confirmed German driver Nico Hülkenberg as a part of the staff for the upcoming season again in April, will now boast a balanced mixture of expertise and youth, because it prepares for the transition to the Audi F1 manufacturing facility staff in 2026.
Forward of final 12 months’s British Grand Prix, Haas confirmed that Oliver Bearman will compete for the US-squad on a multi-year contract starting with the 2025 F1 season.
The 19-year-old Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member is presently an official reserve driver for the staff whereas contesting the FIA Method 2 Championship for Prema Racing. The Briton collected his first win of the 2024 marketing campaign final weekend in Austria within the Dash race so as to add to his tally of 4 victories from a stellar rookie season in 2023.
Bearman, in his further function as reserve driver for Scuderia Ferrari, made a memorable Method 1 debut again in March in Saudi Arabia substituting for the sidelined Carlos Sainz – in doing so changing into the third-youngest racer in Method 1 historical past. The then 18-year-old from Chelmsford completed in P7 at his debut.
The Racing Bulls introduced after the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that Isack Hadjar will be part of Yuki Tsunoda for the 2025 F1 season, because the staff sees one other Pink Bull Junior Driver step as much as into probably the most sought-after seats in motorsport.
The 20-year-old driver has been driving for the Campos Racing staff in F2, and completed second within the drivers’ standings behind Sauber-bound Gabriel Bortoleto.
Hadjar turned AlphaTauri and Red Bull Racing‘s reserve driver after Liam Lawson crammed in for the injured Daniel Ricciardo finally 12 months’s Dutch Grand Prix.
The French driver shall be following the footsteps of Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo as he turns into the nineteenth driver to be promoted to Method One from the Pink Bull Junior Program, which began again in 2001.
On the eve of final 12 months’s Italian Grand Prix, Mercedes introduced their 2025 driver line-up, with 18-year-old Italian Kimi Andrea Antonelli becoming a member of three-time F1 race winner George Russell behind the wheel for subsequent season.
As a part of Method One’s rule that requires each staff to run a younger driver in a free observe session twice a 12 months, Mercedes elected to supply Antonelli together with his first run in an official F1 session on his residence turf at Monza. Nevertheless, the Italian sensation crashed into the boundaries at Parabolica solely on his second flying lap.
The Bologna-born driver was then handed one other alternative on the Mexican Grand Prix, the place he accomplished a profitable second outing with the German marque.
