There has been a lot of movement in the Formula 1 driver market this year, all of which will come into effect in 2025.
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The 2025 Formula 1 season is only a matter of months away, but 2024 will see a lot of activity in the driver market. From Lewis Hamilton swapping Mercedes silver for Ferrari red, to Jack Doohan finally getting a full-time racing seat, this year’s battle with the ‘F1 musical chairs’ had everyone on edge. With most of the 2025 driver line-ups confirmed (at the time of writing), here’s how the changes have played out.
First and foremost, Hamilton shocked the F1 world when he announced he would be leaving Mercedes for Ferrari at the end of the current season. This announcement came on February 1, well before pre-season testing began. Although it came as a surprise to some, the seven-time F1 champion will turn 40 in January 2025, leaving him little time to race for the Scarlet Red team and win that elusive eighth title. Although Ferrari’s performances have been hot and cold in 2024, Hamilton is under no illusions about the challenges that await him at the Italian team. 2025 may not deliver the championship he’s aiming for, but the tide could turn in 2026 when the new technical regulations come into effect.
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The Brit will team up with Ferrari’s golden boy, Charles Leclerc. With a new contract reportedly running until 2029, Leclerc will not hesitate to challenge his new teammate. It will be interesting to see how the Ferrari F1 team handles these two personalities as both drivers are championship material and neither will give an inch if the new cars can challenge for race wins and the championship. If the union between Hamilton and Ferrari produces the desired results, Hamilton will become the team’s first Drivers’ Champion since Kimi Räikkönen in 2007; a feat that Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel were unable to achieve.
In 2025, Carlos Sainz will celebrate his tenth anniversary in F1, after making his debut at Toro Rosso alongside Max Verstappen in 2015. The Spaniard has raced for many teams over the years and will leave his Ferrari seat for one at Williams next year. 2024 was a year of mixed emotions for the three-time race winner, learning of his impending departure early in the year and winning the Australian Grand Prix (Round 3) two weeks after having his appendix removed. The 30-year-old was linked with a move to Audi (joining his father as an official Audi driver), but the move never materialized as he looked for places at more established teams; especially Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG.
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Together with Alex Albon at the British team in 2025, Sainz will be the de facto team leader. He will put his experience to good use as Williams looks to continue its climb out of the doldrums of F1. With little choice but to settle for Williams in midfield, like Hamilton, he negotiates 2026 for a better result.
Nico Hulkenberg, often referred to as the champion who never was, will join Kick Sauber Ferrari and continue as one of the team’s drivers as the team switches to Audi in 2026. Having driven for seven teams since his debut in 2010, Hulkenberg also had a single-season stint with Sauber in 2013. Now returning to this struggling team, the German hopes his next tenure will bring more success and put them in a competitive position will bring as the sport prepares for the new technical regulations. His latest run saw the German driver return to F1 with Haas in 2023 after two years on the sidelines. Although the American team has done its utmost to improve its performance, Hulkenberg’s on-track antics caught the attention of Audi, with Andreas Seidl, CEO of both Sauber Motorsport AG, which runs Kick Sauber, and the future Audi F1 factory team, signed him earlier. in the year. At the time of writing, Kick Sauber/Audi has confirmed that the current driver line-up, including Valtteri Bottas, has been dropped for the second seat, in favor of a Brazilian youngster named Gabriel Bortoleto.
Esteban Ocon has had a very strange period in F1, often receiving criticism from fellow drivers for his questionable on-track antics. With his tenure at Alpine coming to an end, the Frenchman will join Haas in 2025. Ocon’s time at Alpine was marred by many skirmishes with his teammates; former teammate Alonso, who switched to Aston Martin in 2023, called the Frenchman “still very immature”. Ocon and his current teammate, Pierre Gasly, have been at loggerheads since their karting days, with the issue continuing into F1 and their current positions as Alpine drivers. But because Ocon was often wrong – the final straw was when he met Gasly at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2024 – the team opted not to renew his contract. All this preceded a heroic double podium for the all-French team after a rain-soaked Brazilian Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen reaffirming his title dominance in the face of a superlative finish above the rest of the field.
The 27-year-old now joins Haas as lead driver in a brand new lineup. He will be tasked not only with improving the team’s performance, but also with guiding his rookie teammate through the demands of F1.
Following the news of Hamilton’s departure, Mercedes-AMG F1 team boss Toto Wolff began a serious search for a replacement for the illustrious driver. Wolff made no secret of his desire for Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, but when talks broke down he turned to the next best signing: Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The 18-year-old Italian has been on Mercedes’ books since 2019, when he was signed to the team’s junior program at just 12 years old. He has set the racing world on fire with his skills and talents, winning the FIA Karting European Championship and WSK Euro Series titles, both the ADAC and Italian Formula 4 titles in 2022, and the Formula Regional European Championship 2023.
In 2024, Wolff and co. accelerated his F1 preparations by signing him to Formula 2 with the Prema Racing team. Although the year didn’t start well for the young Italian, two F2 wins (at the time of writing) were enough to convince Wolff of his readiness for F1, and Antonelli made his FP1 debut at the Italian Grand Prix. Despite only throwing away the 2024 Mercedes F1 car on his second push lap, the decision had already been made that he would replace Hamilton in 2025. The announcement came later the same weekend, with Wolff confirming that the talent and speed of his new signee convinced them he is ready for F1.
For Wolff, however, he does not want a repeat of 2014, when he missed out on the young Max Verstappen due to his age; hence he pulled the trigger on Antonelli.
Ferrari-backed Oliver Bearman will race alongside Ocon at Haas in 2025. The young Brit, who turns 20 next year, is no stranger to F1, having replaced Sainz at Ferrari in Saudi Arabia (Round 2) when the Ferrari driver removed his attachment. Bearman’s sudden call produced the desired results: he finished the race in P7 and became the 68th driver in the history of the sport to score points on his debut. He is also the first British driver to do so since Paul di Resta in 2011.
Bearman had long been expected to make his F1 debut with Haas; a team with very close ties to Ferrari. Unfortunately, after two disappointing seasons with Nikita Mazepin (2021) and Mick Schumacher (2021, 2022) at the helm, the team was reluctant to field another rookie, hence the decision to field an experienced line-up with Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen to draw up. But with Hulkenberg departing and Magnussen’s poor performances leaving him in no man’s land for a driver’s seat in 2025, it will be up to Ocon and Bearman to lead the team into a new era.
While Bearman’s entry into F1 may be questionable due to his family’s wealth (think Mazepin, Nicholas Latifi, Lance Stroll), the driver has shown his racing chops by winning both the German and Italian Formula 4 championships in recent years. win and thus become the first driver. to win two F4 titles in one year.
If the name Jack Doohan sounds familiar, it’s probably because of his father, Mick Doohan: a five-time 500cc/MotoGP champion. As for the younger Doohan, he has finally been given a racing seat at Alpine, after a year on the sidelines as the team’s official reserve driver. The Australian is also no stranger to competitive racing. He won the Australian Karting Championship in 2015 and 2016 and finished third and sixth at the CIK-FIA Karting European Championships and the World Championships respectively. However, his time in Formula 4 and Formula 3 was not memorable, but he finished his first full Formula 2 season in P6 in the championship in 2022 and P3 in 2023. Doohan took on the role of Alpine’s reserve driver in 2024 and shifted all his focus to his new duties, stepping away from competitive racing in the hope of securing a racing seat for 2025.
The driver, who turns 21 in January, will work with Pierre Gasly. With the team struggling immensely – both on the track and in the boardrooms – Doohan will face a baptism of fire as he looks to make his mark at the pinnacle of motorsport.
At Racing Bulls, Red Bull’s B-team, Yuki Tsunoda is the only confirmed driver for 2025. Daniel Ricciardo’s performance in 2024 was forgettable and the team has laid the foundation for the 35-year-old Australian before the end of the season. Waiting in the wings was Liam Lawson, the 22-year-old New Zealander who replaced Ricciardo after he broke his wrist in Zandvoort in 2023. Lawson proved his worth in five races last year, with Red Bull decision-makers considering his future.
If Lawson gets the nod to work with Max Verstappen at the A-team, Perez could be left out in the cold. However, Red Bull has built its F1 empire around Verstappen, and Lawson’s arrival could further disrupt an already volatile environment. Lawson wants to go racing and has made no secret of the fact that he will pursue other seats in F1 if Red Bull does not reach the end of the contract.
You will find the full article in the November issue of CAR Magazine.
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