After zero driver changes ahead of last season, the 2025 Formula 1 campaign sees half the grid reshuffle following several headline-grabbing moves.
While none quite rival Ferrari’s capture of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, the sport welcomes some highly-rated rookies to the 20-strong roster, and many other established stars have also changed teams.
Check out our guide to all the lineups below ahead of the new season — which starts with the Australian Grand Prix on March 16.
McLaren
Lando Norris, 25, and Oscar Piastri, 22
After delivering McLaren’s first constructors’ title in 25 years last year, it’s no wonder McLaren has retained its young — but immensely talented — driver lineup for 2025.
Piastri has fitted in seamlessly alongside Norris after McLaren more than raised a few eyebrows when replacing Daniel Ricciardo with the young Australian, and he claimed his first Formula 1 victory last year.
More of that form, and McLaren may have even more awkward team order — or “papaya rules” — issues in 2025, when Norris will be looking to follow up his maiden title challenge with a first crown.
Ferrari
Charles Leclerc, 27, and Lewis Hamilton, 40
The link-up between the sport’s most successful driver and most successful team has led to much fanfare before Hamilton has even turned a wheel in anger — and Ferrari’s driver lineup is absolute box-office for 2025.
Replacing the unlucky-to-be-dropped Carlos Sainz, Hamilton will go head to head with Leclerc in his 19th season, hoping his racecraft and nous is a match for a Monegasque driver who is always lightning fast in qualifying.
Whether the pair can work together if they have a title-contending car — with Hamilton going for a record eighth championship, Leclerc a long-desired first and Ferrari aiming to end a 17-year drought — will also be worth watching in a Scuderia season that promises fireworks.
Red Bull
Max Verstappen, 27, and Liam Lawson, 22
It’s a case of next man up at Red Bull this year as Lawson, with just 11 races under his belt, replaces Sergio Perez aiming to help Red Bull regain its constructors’ crown.
Verstappen‘s talents need no introduction after four straight drivers’ titles but Red Bull — after Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Perez wilted next to the Dutchman — is eager for a consistent driver to back up its established star, and the pressure will be on Lawson to deliver at the front immediately given the strength of the team’s rivals.
While he has impressed in junior series and in his limited F1 action with Red Bull’s sister outfit RB, the New Zealand-born racer’s highest finish thus far in the sport is ninth.
Mercedes
George Russell, 26, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, 18
The post-Hamilton era begins at Mercedes with a driver 22 years his junior as Antonelli links up with Russell to form an exciting, albeit raw, new partnership.
Antonelli, who will become the third-youngest driver in F1 history when he debuts at the Australian Grand Prix, joins with limited single-seater experience and just one season in Formula 2 — where he finished sixth in 2024 — but team boss Toto Wolff is confident he has a star in the making after narrowly missing out on Verstappen all those years ago.
The dynamics are fascinating on the other side of the garage, too, as Russell — after so long as Mercedes’ prodigy in the wings — suddenly becomes team leader for F1’s former dominant force. Russell has long-hinted he is a champion in the making and thrashed Hamilton in qualifying last year, but now is the time to spearhead Silver Arrows’ charge into a new era.
Aston Martin
Fernando Alonso, 43, and Lance Stroll, 26
24 years after making his debut, F1’s eldest statesman Alonso is back for another season alongside Stroll, the son of Aston Martin’s owner Lawrence.
The pair are tied as the longest-serving lineup in F1 (with McLaren’s duo, at three years) and two-time champion Alonso has proved himself as the “best of the rest” in recent years despite the age. What has been disappointing, though, is the form of Stroll, who hasn’t kicked on after showing promise at Williams and Force India earlier in his career.
Both drivers look in no danger of moving soon and will likely have an eye on 2026, when heralded designer Adrian Newey — who joins this March from Red Bull — casts his eye over a new car for the vast regulation changes.
Alpine
Pierre Gasly, 28, and Jack Doohan, 22
After a fractious few years with an all-French lineup, Alpine is bidding to learn from its Piastri mistakes by promoting a young driver and Doohan — the son of motorcycle world champion Mick — gets the call-up.
Doohan has never won a single-seater title but has plenty of race victories in the feeder categories and impressed enough in test sessions to give Alpine hope, while Gasly continues to improve as he enters his prime.
Gasly finished last season with three top-seven finishes in the last four races, helping seal an important sixth place in the championship for Alpine. He’s already a strong team leader.
Haas
Esteban Ocon, 28, and Oliver Bearman, 19
Bearcon 2025 🔥 pic.twitter.com/pqyHuHS6W0
— Esteban Ocon (@OconEsteban) January 16, 2025
It’s all-change at Haas this season after moving on from Nico Hülkenberg and Kevin Magnussen. The 2025 lineup is arguably the US team’s strongest yet in F1.
Rarely does an experienced, established yet still young campaigner like Ocon become available for a team like Haas, but such was the internal conflict at Alpine that it was the right time for the Frenchman to move. Likewise, Bearman is the brightest talent the team has ever recruited, having impressed on debut for Ferrari when filling in for Sainz and also scoring points on his Haas debut as a Magnussen stand-in.
Haas saw Bearman’s ability up close in two races for the team last year and various tests, and the British teenager will have an eye on a full-time seat with Ferrari, where he is a member of the driver academy, in the future.
RB
Yuki Tsunoda, 24, and Isack Hadjar, 20
Grid ain’t ready 😮💨#F1 #VCARB #IsackHadjar #YukiTsunoda pic.twitter.com/RsEgSanaFl
— Visa Cash App RB F1 Team (@visacashapprb) December 20, 2024
After once again being overlooked for a Red Bull seat — despite having much more experience than Lawson — Tsunoda must pick himself back up for the challenge of another new teammate in Hadjar.
Hadjar is the next driver off Red Bull’s conveyor belt of talent and, while not as highly rated as the likes of Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel and Ricciardo, he did finish second in last year’s F2 championship, ahead of the aforementioned Bearman.
The dynamics at RB are therefore fascinating as both these drivers, albeit further down the grid, bid to impress Red Bull. Tsunoda is surely in a case of last-chance saloon for his career, while Hadjar could well prove himself as the next big thing.
Williams
Alex Albon, 28, and Carlos Sainz, 30
Despite experiencing many years towards the back of the grid, Williams suddenly has one of F1’s strongest lineups.
Albon has long-established himself as a force — consistently dominating teammates after leaving Red Bull for the Grove team — but Sainz, after arguably his best F1 year with Ferrari, provides star appeal.
Sainz was hugely unfortunate to lose his Ferrari seat and insists he is fully motivated to rebuild Williams after being persuaded about its long-term goals. Both drivers will surely have suitors further up the grid should Williams not improve as expected under team boss James Vowles.
Sauber
Nico Hülkenberg, 37, and Gabriel Bortoleto, 20
There’s an all-new driver pairing down at Sauber in the final year with this moniker before the switch to Audi in 2026.
The two drivers are at opposite ends of their careers but evoke excitement nonetheless; Hülkenberg is coming off one of his strongest seasons in F1 in year 11 at Haas, while Bortoleto won last year’s F2 title in style.
Both are locked into contracts into the Audi era so have time to lay down a marker, with the team having much grander long-term aspirations than 2025 may well suggest.
