With the 2025 season just a month away and the lineups for every team set in stone, let’s rank the team’s driver duos for the 2025 season. These rankings are based solely on MY prediction of the Drivers’ ability and compatibility as teammates. The performance of the cars they will drive will NOT be taken into effect.
10.Alpine: Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan
With Pierre Gasly under contract and Esteban Ocon departing for Haas, Alpine decided to stay in-house with their second driver selection. The team decided to go with Jack Doohan, who was their reserve driver in 2024 (backup driver in case a starting driver cannot race).
Though the potential is there, I don’t feel the firepower with this bunch. Gasly may have already hit his ceiling, while Doohan has yet to prove anything in Formula One. Alpine has also signed Williams' 2024 rookie standout Franco Colapinto to a multi-year deal to be their reserve driver. Considering Colapinto has already proven that he has talent, Doohan may already be on the hot seat before driving a race in 2025.
9.Sauber: Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoletto
Sauber (which will become Audi in 2026 and beyond) is going with a completely different lineup in 2025. Former Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and 2024 F2 Champion Gabriel Bortoletto will take the seats this coming year.
Hulkenberg was phenomenal last year and has outperformed everyone’s expectations. Finishing 11th in the Drivers' Championship when most predicted him to be a bottom dweller was very impressive, and deserves respect. However, his teammate is a rookie who flew through the ranks of F4, F3, and F2. Bortoletto’s lack of experience in an F1 car makes me worried about ranking them any higher.
This duo has a ton of potential down the line, but I cannot rank them any higher until I see more from Bortoletto.
8.Racing Bulls: Yuki Tsnuoda and Isak Hadjar
In what shocked me when it was announced, Racing Bulls have decided to bring back Yuki Tsnuoda, and call up reserve driver Isak Hadjar as his teammate.
With Lawson gone to Red Bull, Yuki is forced to be at a team that unfortunately is beneath his talent level. Tsnuoda is a very talented driver, however, his teammate's situation is similar to Hulkenberg's at Sauber.
The reason I have RB's lineup over Sauber is because I do think Hadjar will have a better season than Bortoletto. I think Hadjar will be consistent and have fewer bumps in the road than Bortoletto will. I also think Tsnuoda is a more talented driver than Hulkenberg, and will show once again why he deserves to be a part of a more competitive team.
7.Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll
Though Fernando Alonso is a fantastic driver, I cannot put Aston Martin any higher solely due to Lance Stroll.
Stroll has been a liability for Aston Martin for multiple years now, yet he remains in an F1 seat. If you ask most F1 fans, me included, they’d tell you that the reason Lance is not out of the sport is due to the fact that the CEO of Aston Martin, Lawrence Stroll, is Lance’s father.
The pairing of Alonso with Stroll has not worked and will not work in 2025. Their ceiling has already been reached, making it difficult to rank them any higher.
6.Haas: Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman
Hass has also decided to go with an entirely new lineup for 2025. The team decided to mix experience with youth, giving 2024 Alpine driver Esteban Ocon and current 19-year-old Oliver Bearman, the nod in 2025.
Team Principal (think of a team principal as a head coach, or supervisor/decision maker of team operations) Ayao Komatsu said to Autosport that “we have a hungry and dynamic driver pairing for 2025.” Do I believe him? Possibly.
I love this pairing for Haas' future, but I do think it may take a bit for both of them to adjust. Bearman was great when called upon in 2024, and Ocon is a veteran driver with loads of talent. Bearman’s proven potential, along with Ocon’s consistency, makes the pair an intriguing duo going into 2025. I do think they will pair up well together and ultimately provide a solid result for Haas this year.
5.Mercedes: George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli
This is where things start to get really tough. Mercedes has a fantastic driver lineup, but it may take time for the potential to be truly shown.
With legend Lewis Hamilton departing for Ferrari, Mercedes will pair current driver George Russell with 18-year-old phenom Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
Antonelli is considered by many to be the most exciting prospect since Hamilton, with his ability enough to impress Team Principal Toto Wolff. The Mercedes official website quoted Wolff saying, “Our 2025 driver line-up combines experience, talent, youth and out-and-out raw speed…We are excited about what George and Kimi bring to the team both as individual drivers, but also as a partnership.”
With that being said, though the pairing is exciting for the future, it may not be truly displayed fully in 2025. Antonelli is extremely young and still a little inexperienced. He's very raw, which I do think will result in some inconsistency, at least in his rookie season.
4.Williams: Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon
Ok, hear me out...
Since this is solely based on the drivers and not the team as a whole, Williams’ pairing of current driver Alex Albon and 2024 Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz is good enough to slide into number four in my rankings.
Both drivers are extremely talented and have shown pace that can compete with the best in the sport. Sainz is coming off a 5th place finish in the Drivers' Standings last year, and bested a top-3 driver in Charles Leclerc multiple times last season. Albon, on the other hand, is as steady as they come. Yes, last year he might have been a little crash-happy, but let's be real...that car was an absolute disaster by the end of the year.
Pit Debrief noted Team Principal James Vowles’ confidence in his drivers in 2025, where he said, “In ’25, I think we will have the best driver lineup on the grid.”
Would I go that far? No, definitely not. But I do believe this lineup Williams has put together is elite, and will work well together.
3.Red Bull: Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson
Now you might be thinking, "Wait, What? But Verstappen is the best driver in the sport currently, how is Red Bull only number three???"
Well, I think it comes down to Liam Lawson, who was RB's river last year and Max's new teammate. Do I think he will be better than Sergio Perez was last year? Definitely, but not by too much.
We all know what Max can do, but we still have no idea what Lawson can do in a Red Bull. Red Bull has failed three straight times to find a suitable teammate for Verstappen, with Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon, and Sergio Perez all leaving within a few years of getting signed.
With Verstappen in the mix, of course, they are a top-3 lineup, but until Lawson proves he won't fall into the same trap many of those before he did, it is too much of a question mark to rank Red Bull above these next two teams.
2.McLaren: Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri
Now McLaren’s driver lineup of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri could easily be the number one on this list, don’t get me wrong. However, my reasoning for putting them at the number two spot is because of their compatibility.
Both Norris and Piastri have the talent to be a #1 driver. They are both exactly what you want out of a driver; they are consistent, aggressive, and able to sustain top speed in all aspects of a race weekend. However, when you have two drivers who feel that they deserve to be the "golden boy" of their team, it creates a problem.
This desire, in my opinion, is what prevented them from achieving more last season and will prevent them from exceeding expectations in 2025. Both are young, hungry, and determined, but have not captured the essence of what it takes to be a driver with an equally talented teammate just yet. They can absolutely get there, but until then, they take my number two spot.
1.Ferrari: Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton
Though it still has not hit me that Lewis Hamilton is joining Ferrari in 2025, Ferrari’s pair of Hamilton and Charles Leclerc takes my top spot.
For those unfamiliar, Lewis Hamilton going to Ferrari is equivalent to Tom Brady joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Both are the GOAT’s of their sport that unexpectedly joined a talented new team in the final years of their career, in hopes of winning one last championship.
Leclerc, on the other hand, is a top-3 driver in the sport, whose experience and consistent talent make his pairing with Hamilton the most exciting we have seen in a long time.
The only knock one could have on this lineup would be the concern for Hamilton's qualifying pace, which was terrible with Mercedes last year, but I am not worried. It is a brand new team, a brand new car, and brand new motivation. I mean, at the end of the day, It's Lewis Hamilton.
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Catch you next time!
-Matt Hylen
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