World champions in the F1 paddock are ‘worried’ about the emerging talent on the grid, ‘the one to watch’

The 2025 Formula 1 grid features three world champions. Max Verstappen has won the last four, while Lewis Hamilton (seven) is the most successful driver in the sport’s history.

Fernando Alonso continues to chase his third, 20 years on from his first. The Aston Martin driver turns 44 in July.

But this year, there’s a strong chance that the champions club welcomes a new member. McLaren’s Oscar Piastri currently leads the standings, 10 points ahead of teammate Lando Norris.

McLaren are the fastest team in F1, so while both drivers only have five wins apiece right now, they know this is an enormous opportunity. George Russell has also been mentioned as a title contender by some, but his Mercedes may be a little too far off.

While the late-1990s generation battles it out at the top of the standings, the mid-2000s crop have arrived. 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli has become the third-youngest driver in F1 history and immediately impressed as Hamilton’s Mercedes replacement.

Oliver Bearman, a member of Ferrari’s driver academy, has also made a strong start at Haas. Likewise, Isack Hadjar’s audition for a long-term Red Bull seat at the sister team is going well.

F1’s established superstars are wary of Oscar Piastri’s rise

Speaking on F1TV’s Weekend Warm-Up show ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, former strategist Ruth Buscombe-Divey said Piastri is the driver that the established champions are really worried about. This is his third year in F1.

Just as he did before his sophomore campaign, Piastri has made a leap this winter. The improvement has been most visible in qualifying, where he’s scored his first two pole positions.

Buscombe-Divey says her interaction with Piastri before this weekend’s race reinforced his ‘gloriously unflappable’ reputation. And that makes his rise even more daunting for the old guard.

They’ve long regarded him as the ‘one to watch’ given his immense ‘raw talent’.

“He’s just gloriously unflappable,” Buscombe-Divey said. “I wasn’t at the previous race, but I did see him this morning. I said congratulations on leading the championship.

“He said ‘thank you’ like someone had passed him a cup of tea! Absolutely phenomenal. If you speak to world champions – plural – in this paddock, a lot of them have always mentioned Oscar’s name as the one to watch, and the one that they were most worried about, in a flattering and in a complimentary way in terms of his raw talent.”

Zak Brown taunts Alpine over losing McLaren gem Oscar Piastri

Jolyon Palmer says Piastri has a cooler head than Norris, which could make the difference if they end up going head-to-head for this year’s title. Verstappen’s stubborn presence is a complicating factor.

But Piastri scored an important symbolic victory over the Dutchman at the Saudi Arabian GP. He beat him to the apex of turn one after starting second, and Verstappen earned a five-second penalty as he ran off the track trying to keep the position.

Given that he’s made all 51 of his race starts with McLaren, it’s easy to forget that he was once on Alpine’s books. The Woking outfit successfully poached him after a dramatic legal battle.

CEO Zak Brown says Alpine ‘dropped the ball’ by losing Piastri. He even sarcastically thanked their former team principal, Otmar Szafnauer.