For the first time in more than a decade, Formula 1 will have two drivers over 40 years of age on its grid when its new season begins in March.
Lewis Hamilton celebrated his 40th birthday earlier this month while fellow multiple champion Fernando Alonso turns 44 later this year. They are the first pair of forty-somethings to share the grid since Michael Schumacher and Pedro de la Rosa prior to their retirements at the end of 2012.
Despite that, F1 has a much more youthful grid on the whole than last year. The average age of the competitors in Australia for this year’s season-opener will be 27.2 years, down from 29.4 in Bahrain when the 2024 season began.
A changing of the guard has taken place during the off-season. Experienced race-winners such as Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have departed (along with Daniel Ricciardo shortly before the end of last year) along with several others. In their place come six drivers embarking on their first full seasons.
Among them is Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who at 18 years and 203 days old when the new season begins will be F1’s youngest rookie since Lance Stroll in 2017. He will be joined by 19-year-old Oliver Bearman as F1 starts a season with two teenagers on the grid for the first time since 2017 (Stroll and Max Verstappen).
F1 now has an unusual spread of ages, with two drivers each in their teenage years, thirties and forties, and the rest in their twenties. The drivers will be the following ages when the new season begins:
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All bar one of the newcomers has chosen a career number previously picked by an F1 driver. Several recent champions’ numbers have returned: Bortoleto has taken five, as used by Sebastian Vettel, Jack Doohan has seven which previously belonged to Kimi Raikkonen and Isack Hadjar will be number six, which Nico Rosberg had when he won the title in 2016. However that number was more recently used by Nicholas Latifi in 2020-22.
As when he returned last year, Lawson will use number 30, previously seen on Jolyon Palmer’s Renault in 2017. Andrea Kimi Antonelli will be number 12, which last appeared on Felipe Nasr’s Sauber in 2016.
Only Oliver Bearman has chosen a number no one has used since the FIA introduced the current career numbers system in 2014. In fact, his number 87 has only appeared on an F1 car once: Yves Girard-Cabantous’ Talbot at the 1951 German Grand Prix. The number was also used by various drivers who contested the Indianapolis 500 when it counted towards the world championship, though those were not F1 cars.
That leaves just two teams who have not changed their driver line-ups for the upcoming season. They are Aston Martin (Alonso and Stroll) and McLaren (Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri). Both are going into their third seasons as team mates.
Perez’s departure means there will be no Mexican driver on the grid for the first time since 2010, the season before he made his debut. This year’s Mexican Grand Prix is therefore set to be the first without a home driver since 1992.
Conversely, Isack Hadjar’s arrival will boost the grid’s French contingent to three, yet that country dropped off the calendar in 2022. Bearman boosts the British population to four, and the presence of London-born Thai racer Alexander Albon means a quarter of the grid can call the United Kingdom their home.
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In 2024, Brazil produced its second Formula 2 champion in three years. But while Aston Martin has not yet seen fit to give 2022 champion Felipe Drugovich a race seat, Gabriel Bortoleto will contest the season for Sauber. He is the first reigning F2 champion to step up directly to F1 since Mick Schumacher in 2021.
Bortoleto is also the first Brazilian to have a full-time F1 drive since Felipe Massa in 2017. Miami-born Brazilian racer Pietro Fittipaldi also started two races as a substitute in 2020. Antonelli’s debut means Italy has a full-time driver for the first time since Antonio Giovinazzi lost his seat at the end of 2021.
Bortoleto joins Nico Hulkenberg, who is returning to Sauber, which he previously drove for in 2013. It’s the second time he’s gone back to an old team, having left and rejoined Force India in 2012 and 2014 respectively.
With new regulations due next year, the teams embark on this season knowing some big changes are coming. This is Sauber’s last year on the grid under its original identity – again, as it previously changed after 2005 (to BMW Sauber) and 2018 (to Alfa Romeo). It will become Audi next year.
It also looks highly likely this will be the last year with a grid of just 20 cars, as Cadillac has an agreement in principle to join next year, boosting the field to 22 competitors for the first time since 2016.
Over to you
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