F1 2025: The Drivers, Part 1
Starting from the bottom, now we here!
Last newsletter gave you an overview of the season, today we’re going to start digging into the infinitely more interesting world of the teams, based on their 2024 standing in the overly complicated World Constructors’ Champions … championship.
I pulled the driver photos from the official F1 site and I assume half the drivers look like they’re in illustrated straight jackets because they’re still waiting to confirm sponsors for their race suits, and at first I hated it, but now I sort of enjoy that they look like police wanted posters.
Kick Sauber
Coming in very last in 2024 was everyone’s favourite lime green ninjas, Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber!
This is Kick Sauber’s [insert karate noise] last year before they morph into Audi in 2026. Morphing happens a lot in F1, kinda like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Kick Sauber’s drivers for 2025 are:
Who are these dudes?
Nico Hulkenberg has been driving in F1 on-and-off since 2010, making him one of the elder statesmen of the current grid, especially this season, when every man and his dog is a rookie.
Last season Hulkenberg raced for Haas and came 11th in the Driver’s Championship, before leaving the team at the end of the season. If I had to guess, I would say he left before he was pushed, after he saw the writing on the wall and the writing said, “No contract for you!”
I would describe his role at Kick Sauber as almost like a night watchman. Hulkenberg is experienced and steady, and has driven for a lot of different teams, so if you want a driver who will keep the wheels on the car and get it across the line, you want someone like him for your last season. Do I think he will drive for Audi in 2026? No, I do not, this is his grand finale.
Gabriel Bortoleto is one of six rookies on the grid in the 2025 season, having won the lower division Formula 2 Championship in 2024.
Fun fact no. 1: If you win the F2 Championship, you can’t compete in F2 again the next season. What if there are no open seats in F1 the next year? Tough luck, you need to try and secure yourself a reserve driver position, or a part-time job at your local go-kart track, because F2 isn’t having you back!
My personal opinion is that Bortoleto’s move to F1 would have been much bigger news in any other season, but not only are there five other rookies, there’s also a lot more controversy surrounding some of them, so Bortoleto is flying under the radar a bit for now.
Fun fact no. 2: Bortoleto’s management company is owned by current F1 driver, Fernando Alonso, and if, like me, this seems strange to you because conflicts of interest are a big no-no in your place of employment, this is F1, a sport where drivers sometimes crash deliberately in order to try and influence the outcome of races, a move used by one Nelson Piquet Jr, the then-teammate of our friend Fernando.
Fun fact no. 3: Nelson Piquet Jr is the son of Nelson Piquet Original, who is also the father of Kelly Piquet, who has a daughter with former F1 driver, Daniil Kvyat, who was replaced at Red Bull by Max Verstappen, who is the current partner of Kelly Piquet, who is currently pregnant with Max’s first child. Yes, there are a lot of memes about this situation.
Who is the number 1 driver?
I think it goes without saying that Hulkenberg is Kick Sauber’s number 1 driver, based on experience alone.
Williams
After finishing second last in 2024, Williams dropped American driver, Logan Sargeant, and replaced him this year with everyone’s favourite hunk, and potential himbo, Carlos Sainz Jr.
Williams’ drivers for 2025 are:
Who are these dudes?
There is a huge push to make F1 popular in America, on the back of the insanely popular Netflix series, Drive to Survive1, and Logan Sargeant was heralded as America’s wonder boy.
He finished the season without scoring any points, but breaking a lot of hearts with his sincere, and often sad, radio comms with his pit crew when things just didn’t go right for him.
Williams scored big time by managing to snap up Carlos Sainz, who was told at the start of 2024 that it would be his last season with Ferarri, who dumped him for Lewis Hamilton. Imagine having to race for an entire season for a team that dumped you. It would be like dating someone who told you they were leaving you for your best friend in 12 months.
Anyway, Carlos took the news and reacted the polar opposite to how I would’ve. Our sassy little Spaniard jumped in his red racing suit and absolutely caned it, finishing the season ranked fifth, compared to Hamilton’s seventh, all the while maintaining a delightful demeanour and phenomenal hair.
Alex Albon has been with Williams since 2022, and finished 16th in the Championship last year.
He is also a delight. He dyes his hair cute colours for charity, he is in a relationship with Lily He, a professional golfer, and they make lovely content together, he is basically niceness personified, as is Carlos, so without a doubt, Williams are going to be the A++ Good Boys of the 2025 Formula 1 season.
As for his driving, I think it’ll be interesting to see how he’s motivated by having a really good teammate (sorry, Logan!). I feel in my waters that Williams will pull off a few surprises this year, not because they’ve suddenly improved their engineering, but because they have two drivers who really gel and will push one another. I won’t put money on it, but with a few safety cars and some potentially dubious stewards calls, I wouldn’t be entirely shocked to see Williams on a podium or two this year.
Who is the number 1 driver?
Look, it feels like it should be Alex, given the amount of years he’s been at the team, but in my opinion, Sainz is probably Williams’ number one driver this season, and I think he’s going to be incredibly exciting to watch because I think he will absolutely push his car to the limits and make Ferrari look foolish for dropping him.
Racing Bulls
Well, this answers last newsletter’s question about what the Red Bull sister team is called this year.
Racing Bulls. I don’t know why, but that name makes me deeply uncomfortable.
Racing Bulls’ drivers for 2025 are:
Who are these dudes?
RB, now Racing Bulls (I can’t. I just … who sat in the meeting when this atrocity was decided?), had an interesting season last year. 2024 began with both Yuki Tsunoda and his then-teammate, Australia’s favourite boyfriend, Daniel Ricciardo, heavily rumoured to be in the running to replace Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s number 2 driver at big brother team, Red Bull.
Instead, RB dumped Daniel part way through the season and replaced him with New Zealand rookie, Liam Lawson, who then ended up replacing Perez as Max’s teammate for 2025.
Ouch.
Fun fact no. 4: Cadillac are joining F1 in 2026 and Daniel has publicly said that he’s not going to Cadillac and is potentially done with F1 altogether (as public as saying, “Nah, I’m done” to a fan’s question while posing for a selfie can be).
I don’t think this is true, for several reasons:
There was no send off for Daniel. Sure, he was dumped at the end of a race, it wasn’t like the end of a season where all the drivers and fans can gather to farewell him, but he’s a really well-liked driver. The fact that there was nothing, even at the end of the season, makes me suspicious
He’s been missing from social media and F1 ever since. Usually former drivers either pop up in some official capacity, like as a reserve driver, or just in the paddock swanning about, but Daniel’s been nowhere, not even really on social media. Now, when Lewis Hamilton lost the Championship in 2021, Lewis disappeared off social media, but we all knew he was sulking. Daniel isn’t a sulker, it feels maybe more like a PR move to distance himself from his performance over the last few seasons, and have a comeback
Daniel is incredibly popular in the US, thanks to Drive to Survive and some celebrity friendships. The man was invited to the Met Gala, for goodness sake, I don’t think F1 are prepared to give up someone with a such a large fan base. For Cadillac to launch in F1 with a driver with a proven track record, both in [some] results and popularity, would be a coup. Do I think he’d be signed for more than one season? No, I don’t, but I do think there’s a strong chance he’d be onboard to launch a new team and guide them through a tricky first season, kinda like a reverse Hulkenberg.
Back to Running Bulls.
Yuki is a little tornado. He’s the shortest driver on the grid and he’s very loud and can be horrendously offensive by accident on the team radio. In the last half of last season, he really started to reign some of that in though, saying Daniel had mentored him, and he can be a really exciting driver to watch. I think Yuki could have some pretty fun races this year, and maybe not having the pressure of trying to prove himself will allow him to hone his skills more …
… or he’s going to be impossible for Running Bull to control and we’ll see wild Yuki again, with some epic clashes with the likes of Lance Stroll, or some of the rookies … and I don’t mean competitive clashes, I mean expensive, metal-on-metal clashes.
Isack Hadjar is another rookie, having placed second in the F2 Championship behind Gabriel Bortoleto.
Hadjar’s Wikipedia page states:
Hadjar initially grew fond of motorsport after watching the Pixar animated movie Cars.
I suspect this is just part of his lore, because F1 is one of the most expensive sports for kids to progress through, I really doubt that his passion for Cars was enough for his parents to warrant pursing an extracurricular sport that can cost millions of dollars before a driver even makes it to F1.
His Wikipedia page also says his nickname in F2 was "le Petit Prost", as in “Little Prost”, Alain Prost, the former French F1 driver nicknamed “The Professor”. I find this endearing, not because I have a particular fondness for Prost, but because “le Petit” is one of my favourite things to say in French.
I don’t have much else to say about le Petit Prost at this point, but being a rookie is hard, it’s a big jump from F2 to F1 and it usually takes a few seasons to settle (unless you are Australia’s new favourite boyfriend, Oscar Piastri), and I’m not sure that Yuki is necessarily the best mentor for a rookie. I flag Running Bulls as a team that will potentially have internal clashes this year.
Who is the number 1 driver?
Yuki for sure, and if he’s smart, he’ll use the extra attention from the team to hone his skills.
We are at the end of the first batch of drivers, I hope you have enjoyed your time here, next newsletter we’ll look at Haas, Alpine, and Aston Martin, and there is some tea to be spilt on those teams!
My thoughts on Drive to Survive are complicated. I have never watched it, but do think it’s been a great gateway for new fans to the sport. It’s also changed the sport, and not for the better, it’s far too focused on content these days, and some drivers have criticised Netflix for editing the series to create fake scandals.