Helmut Marko offers damning five-word verdict on 2025 F1 rookie once signed by Red Bull

The 2025 Formula 1 grid will feature five official rookies, but they possess varying levels of experience. A couple have already made their debuts.

For instance, Ferrari called up Oliver Bearman for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix when Carlos Sainz had to withdraw through appendicitis. Kevin Magnussen was twice unavailable in the second half of the year (suspension and illness), opening up two more stand-in opportunities.

Bearman will race for Haas full-time next year, likely competing against Jack Doohan at Alpine. Doohan, who graduated from F2 a season earlier than the Briton, received an effective headstart at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Flavio Briatore asked Esteban Ocon to step aside for the finale, allowing his chosen replacement to make an early debut. Ocon was then able to test for Haas in the post-season event.

Elsewhere, Isack Hadjar graduates to Racing Bulls on the back of four FP1 appearances in the last two years. While he only has half that number, Kimi Antonelli has completed 9,000 testing kilometres for Mercedes.

Least experienced of all is F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto, who’s yet to take part in an official F1 weekend. Bortoleto was on the books of the McLaren driver academy before securing a release to join Sauber.

Helmut Marko wasn’t impressed with Jack Doohan’s Formula 1 debut

Remarkably, Doohan already finds himself under pressure before the start of his first season. That’s because Alpine have signed Franco Colapinto from Williams as their reserve driver.

Colapinto is a plug-and-play option for 2025 – the same age as Doohan but more experienced, and backed by wealthy sponsors from his Argentine homeland. If Pierre Gasly’s new teammate doesn’t deliver in the early rounds, he could lose his seat rapidly.

Indeed, reports claim Doohan only has a six-race contract. And he may already have used up one of those.

He qualified last at Yas Marina, two-tenths slower than anybody else and six-tenths behind Gasly, who went on to take fifth. While he nominally progressed to 15th in the race, four drivers failed to finish.

Though this was clearly not an impressive debut, many would argue it was standard for a newbie. But Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko was unforgiving in his assessment.

Marko signed Doohan to the Red Bull driver programme in 2017, and he was involved for four years. But speaking to F1-Insider, he said ‘there should have been more’ from the youngster’s first race.

Why Jack Doohan isn’t the biggest victim of Alpine’s Franco Colapinto move

Technically, Doohan’s future is in his own hands. If he performs well in the first quarter of the year, he will quiet the substantial noise around Colapinto.

One journalist believes Doohan’s contract features a performance clause. If he clears a certain benchmark, Alpine will have to pay him off if they want to remove him.

It’s easy to feel sympathy for the promoted reserve driver. His home race in Australia should be a celebratory occasion, but instead, it will be dominated by questions over his future.

Still, Paul Aron is the biggest victim of Colapinto’s arrival. After a third-place F2 finisher, he joined Alpine in the hope of securing an F1 drive, but now he’s clearly been bumped down the pecking order.