Everything you need to know about the Formula 1 2025 driver lineup
What will the grid look like for the 2025 season? 18 drivers are confirmed for the 2025 grid with only two spots left available.
As driver seats are being filled and contracts are being signed, the 2025 Formula 1 driver lineup is almost finished. There are 10 F1 teams, with each team having two drivers for a total of 20 driv- ers on the grid. Each driver competes individu- ally for the Drivers’ World Championship and as a team with their teammate in the Constructors’ World Championship.
The 2024 season is more than halfway finished, with Red Bull’s team of Max Verstappen and Segio Perez in first place for the Constructors’ Championship.
In close second is McLaren with drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri. Ferrari is next with teammates Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. In fourth is Lewis Hamilton and George Russell driving for Mercedes. Aston Martin is in fifth with drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and the Visa Cash App RB team — Red Bull’s junior F1 racing team — are in sixth, with Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and the Haas team in seventh. Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are driving for Alpine in eight, and Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto are driving for Williams in ninth. In last place for the Constructors’ Championship is Kick Sauber with teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.
This season was the first time that the driver and team pairings stayed the same for a second year. There were only two differences between the 2023 and 2024 lineups: Sauber’s official team name was changed from Alfa Romeo to Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber, and Red Bull's junior team name was changed from Alpha Tauri to Visa Cash App RB, also known as Kick Sauber and RB for short. This season, however, there is plenty of reshuffling across the board as drivers and teams must decide to either continue their ongoing contracts or renegotiate for the 2025 season.
Some teams are retaining both of their drivers for the 2025 season: Red Bull is keeping both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez for the fifth successive season, Aston Martin is re-signing Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll and McLaren is holding on to Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
There are also teams reshuffling that will have one new driver and one returning driver for the 2025 season. At Ferrari, Charles Leclerc will stay for another year, but he will gain a new teammate: seven time Drivers’ World Champion Lewis Ham- ilton will leave his illustrious career at Mercedes and join the boys in red. Formula 2 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be replacing Hamilton at Mer- cedes in what will be his debut season, alongside Mercedes driver George Russell in his fourth year with the team. Current Ferrari driver Car- los Sainz will leave the team next year, as he has signed with Williams to join fellow appendix-less driver Alex Albon for his fourth year at Williams.
While nothing is confirmed yet regarding the 2025 season, Logan Sargeant will no longer be driving for Williams. Sargent has only scored one point on the F1 circuit since his debut in 2023. Williams has decided to part ways with Sargeant to try to “maximize every points-scoring opportu- nity” in the last nine races of the season, which can very possibly mark the end of Sargent’s F1 career. He will be replaced by Franco Colapinto, a current F2 driver, who will become the first Ar- gentine driver on the grid in 23 years.
The current Alpine drivers are set to part ways, as Pierre Gasly is staying with the team while Esteban Ocon has signed with Haas. Meanwhile, Haas has filled their second seat with Oliver Bearman, a F2 driver, following his impressive seventh place finish at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix while filling in at Ferrari for an injured Car- los Sainz. Current Haas driver Nico Hulkenburg will be moving to the Kick Sauber team, and Jack Doohan will be replacing Esteban Ocon at Alpine as Pierre Gasly’s teammate in the driver lineup after being promoted from his current position as the team’s reserve driver. Both the Mercedes and RB teams have re-signed one of their current drivers for the next season: George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda respectively.
With so many seats filled, there is one spot left at each RB and Kick Sauber. However, there are five current F1 drivers with no contracts yet for 2025. Both current Kick Sauber drivers Valterri Bottass and Zhou Guanyu, as well as Logan Seargant from Williams, Kevin Magnussen – who received a one race ban after reaching the maximum allowed 12 penalty points – from Haas, and RB driver Daniel Ricciardo, are left with no current spot secured for the next season.
These drivers will be competing for the dwindling amount of seats left on the grid and if not successful will be forced to retire, as there are only eight races left in the current season.
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