All 20 drivers are confirmed for the 2025 Formula 1 season but speculation about the driver’s market is never far away.
A grand total of 10 changes have been confirmed for the 2025 F1 grid, with only McLaren and Aston Martin retaining both of their drivers from last season.
Sauber and Haas have completely refreshed their pairings, with the other six teams making a single change each.
There are several changes in the paddock that are courting more interest than others.
Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari is the most high profile, but his Mercedes replacement Andrea Kimi Antonelli will also be under considerable pressure.
Max Verstappen has a new teammate in the form of Liam Lawson, which makes Yuki Tsunoda’s performances at the newly-named Racing Bulls team even more intriguing.
However, aside from Antonelli, there are four other rookies who will be under the microscope as soon as pre-season begins.
Fernando Alonso has high hopes for Gabriel Bortoleto at Sauber, while Isack Hadjar – his F2 runner-up last year – will face Tsunoda after benefitting from Lawson’s promotion.
Oliver Bearman already has three Grand Prix under his belt, while Jack Doohan made a late debut in Abu Dhabi for Alpine.
Journalist Ben Anderson, speaking to The Race, is already concerned for the Australian’s F1 future.
Alpine might not be ‘totally convinced’ by Jack Doohan
The journalists from The Race were predicting their strongest driver line-ups ahead of the 2025 F1 season.
When talking about Alpine, Anderson said: “I’m just not convinced that Alpine is totally convinced by Doohan!”
His colleague Josh Suttill theorised that Alpine – who are valued at £1.2bn – could end up replacing Doohan during the season.
READ MORE: Who is Alpine F1 driver Jack Doohan? All to know from his girlfriend to dad
It’s been suggested that Doohan’s Alpine contract only runs for five races and he will be well aware of the quality of the drivers who dropped off the grid this year that would love to find a way back into the sport.
The likes of Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu would all jump at the chance of returning.
Alpine team principal Oliver Oakes is also a big fan of new reserve driver Paul Aron, who he worked with during his time at boss of Hitech in Formula 2.
Jack Doohan’s future is in the hands of Flavio Briatore
Although Oakes is team principal at Alpine, the power within the team appears to be with CEO Luca de Meo and his executive advisor Flavio Briatore.
Briatore has worked with Alpine before in its previous guise of Renault where he helped Alonso win two world championships.
After being initially banned from the sport following Crashgate in 2008, Briatore is back and his return has coincided with an uptick in performance.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Alpine F1 Team from team principal to lineage
He made the call to drop Esteban Ocon before the final race of the season to give Doohan his debut.
Jolyon Palmer described Doohan’s debut as difficult and he’ll be aware how important his home Grand Prix in Melbourne is going to be.
Ralf Schumacher can’t believe Doohan is on the grid next year, but this might prove to be all the motivation he needs to prove he’s fast enough to be a Formula 1 driver.
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