The 2025 Formula 1 grid will feature plenty of new faces and a few more familiar ones donning new race suits after one of the most fascinating driver markets in recent memory.
Half the spaces on the grid will be occupied by different drivers in 2025 with plenty of high-profile switches including Lewis Hamilton’s extraordinary move to Ferrari.
Pre-season testing is still a few weeks away but it won’t be until each driver begins qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix that fans will have an idea of who looks quick and who doesn’t.
Only McLaren and Aston Martin stuck with both of their drivers and that could give them a slim advantage at the beginning of the campaign as different combinations of drivers and teams get accustomed to working with each other.
There are also a handful of rookies on the grid in 2025 with varying levels of experience and how they compare with their more experienced teammates is going to be fascinating to see.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli has arguably the most difficult job on the grid as he attempts to replace Hamilton at Mercedes.
Antonelli is keen to learn from new teammate George Russell in a car that could be capable of winning races from the start of the 2025 campaign.
Karun Chandhok was speaking on the Autosport Podcast and suggested that some people in the paddock were surprised that the £3.1bn-valued Mercedes team have gambled on Antonelli so soon in his career.
Karun Chandhok says some people in the F1 paddock weren’t sure about Mercedes signing Kimi Antonelli
Talking about how so many rookies earned their place on the grid for the upcoming season, Chandhok said: “You look at the current situation with the driver market, right?
“We’ve got so much new blood coming into the grid for 2025. We’ve got four complete rookies, Liam Lawson as well, I’d classify as a rookie, so that’s five. That’s a quarter of the grid.
“And that wouldn’t happen unless you have people looking at the junior formula as paying attention to not just the results, because that’s a weird thing.
READ MORE: Know all about 2025 Mercedes F1 driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli including stats
“If you look at the results in F2, which I find often so many people still in the F1 paddock just looking and go, well, this makes no sense.
“Like Kimi Antonelli’s ninth and Ollie Bearman is 15th. Why are they getting the seats when they got signed?
“Remember having this conversation back in Monza? People couldn’t get it.
“You have to dig deeper. You have to be able to go and make those phone calls and talk to people in these lower formulas in the paddock.”
Toto Wolff has full confidence in Kimi Antonelli ahead of his Mercedes debut
Antonelli has done extensive testing behind the scenes for Mercedes to get up to speed before his Formula 1 debut in March.
He hadn’t raced above the Formula Regional level 12 months ago but is going to be an F1 driver very soon, with only the likes of Max Verstappen completing such a rapid rise.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has full confidence in Antonelli otherwise he wouldn’t have promoted the 18-year-old.
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Carlos Sainz was an option for Mercedes after becoming a free agent following Hamilton’s switch to the Scuderia.
And while Wolff hasn’t set his expectations particularly high for Antonelli’s debut, he thinks the teenager is the right man to step up in Hamilton’s place.
Only time will tell whether that call was the right one, but another Chandhok anecdote about an Antonelli Formula 3 test in 2024 suggests the talent is there if nurtured correctly.
He said, “Antonelli did a test in an F3 car earlier this year.
“I happened to be around the Silverstone area. So I spoke to some of the engineers who ran him that day.
“And two of the engineers who I spoke to said the exact same thing on two independent phone calls, which was this kid is the best kid we’ve seen in F3 cars since Max Verstappen.”
