Ranked: All the F1 driver moves made for the F1 2025 season

From Lewis Hamilton switching to Ferrari, Kimi Antonelli joining Mercedes, and three first-time F1 drivers arriving on the grid, F1 2025 saw eight of the ten teams change their driver line-ups.

Some changes have been hits, others have been misses.

Ranking the F1 2025 signings from best to worst

1. Isack Hadjar

World Championship points aside, Isack Hadjar has been the M.V.P when it comes to F1 2025’s new signings.

Joining Racing Bulls after a runner-up result in the 2024 Formula 2 championship, the 20-year-old was by no means the most talked-about signing. And yet he’s been the best of the newcomers.

Although his campaign got off to a tearful start with a crash on the formation lap at a wet Australian Grand Prix, he bounced back to score points in six of the season’s 14 race weekends and sits P13 in the Drivers’ Championship.

Barely putting a foot wrong since Melbourne, Hadjar is being tipped to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull next season.

2. Nico Hulkenberg

From the rejection pile to super sub to the podium, Nico Hulkenberg has held up his hand this season as he’s led Sauber’s charge. An unexpected one at that.

Last year’s wooden spoon team, Hulkenberg’s arrival after two years with Haas has been one of the vital cogs in the Sauber resurgence, with the team seventh in the Constructors’ Championship.

The German’s experience, calmness and ability to explain what’s going on to the engineers has helped Sauber develop the C45.

It also put the 37-year-old on the podium at the British Grand Prix, ending his long wait for a top-three result at the 239th time of asking.

3. Gabriel Bortoleto

Gabriel Bortoleto had a difficult start to his Formula 1 career as the 2024 Formula 2 champion went ten races without a single point.

The driver, billed as the next Ayrton Senna, was one of the last signings for this season with McLaren agreeing to release him to open the door for his move to Sauber.

He arrived on the grid without having conducted a comprehensive TPC programme, one of the least experienced rookies facing a host of unfamiliar circuits.

Of late, though, his hard work has paid off with three Q3 appearances in four races and, more importantly, he followed that up with points, including a career-best P6 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

4. Esteban Ocon

As Formula 1 entered its annual summer break, Esteban Ocon was up in 10th place in the Drivers’ standings, only the third time in his career that he’s been inside the top half of the grid.

The Frenchman has been Haas’ leading driver with 27 of the team’s 35 points, and has played a key role in driving the development of the VF25.

Questions were asked about Ocon’s move to Haas given the 28-year-old has a bit of reputation when it comes to team-mates, and this season he has a rookie alongside him in Oliver Bearman.

However, it’s been a case of so far, so good with just one tangle at the British Grand Prix that pitched both team-mates into a synchronised spin. Ocon and Bearman have worked well as team-mates.

F1 2025: The season’s winners and losers

? The results of the F1 2025 championship

? The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship standings

5. Lewis Hamilton

The most talked about driver signing of the F1 2025 season, Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has failed to deliver the results the driver or Ferrari wanted.

Although the Briton is up to sixth place in the Drivers’ standings, he’s yet to boost his points tally with a podium finish and has fallen 42 points behind Charles Leclerc.

While there were signs of promise as he won the Chinese Sprint from pole to flag and finished third in the short race in Miami, overall Hamilton’s performances – in qualifying and grands prix – have left a lot on the table.

Of late, he’s also made headlines for all the wrong reason with his downbeat interviews and frustrated radio messages.

By his seven-time World Championship winning standards, it’s been a disappointing campaign so far.

6. Kimi Antonelli

Child prodigy, once in a generation talent. Mercedes’ next F1 World Champion. All of that has been said to describe Kimi Antonelli ahead of his debut campaign in Formula 1.

The teenager, though, has yet to set the stage alight.

Despite an impressive start to his F1 season, where he claimed his first pole position at the Miami Sprint and a podium in Canada, Antonelli has experienced a disappointing run of form lately.

Blighted by reliability issues as well as a first lap crash at the Austrian Grand Prix, the Italian’s head dropped and he was notably upset at the Belgian Grand Prix.

However, a P10 performance in the final race before the break, Hungary, is hopefully the start of a fight-back for the Mercedes driver.

7. Carlos Sainz

Widely tipped to beat, if not destroy Alex Albon, Carlos Sainz has found his debut campaign as a Williams driver more difficult than expected.

Suffering the same fate as Lewis Hamilton as he struggles to acclimatise to his new team, Sainz has managed just 16 points, a long way off from Albon’s 54.

Sainz and Williams have conceded there have been mistakes on both sides, with the Spaniard looking for a reset when F1 returns from the holiday.

8. Liam Lawson

From bullish to broken, all it took was two races and three Q1 eliminations for Liam Lawson’s head to drop to such a point that former Red Bull team boss Christian Horner sent him back to Racing Bulls.

Off his game as his confidence took a knock, it took Lawson a handful of races to once again find his feet and begin scoring points.

Four top-ten results in the last seven races, during which time he has outscored his team-mate Isack Hadjar as well as his Red Bull successor Yuki Tsunoda, have begun the process of resurrecting Lawson’s fledging, but already scuffed, F1 career.

9. Oliver Bearman

A super sub last season as he scored points on his Ferrari debut in Jeddah and again when he raced for Haas in Baku, making history as the first driver to score points in his first two races with two different teams, Oliver Bearman landed a full-time Haas ride.

The Briton scored six points in his first four races, but since then pickings have been slim.

While his team-mate Esteban Ocon has kicked on, silly mistakes such as his crash under red flags in the Silverstone pitlane, haven’t been a good look for Bearman.

Already up to eight penalty points in a rolling 12-month period, with two of his transgressions relating to red flags, Bearman needs to brush up on the F1 regulations.

10. Yuki Tsunoda

Offered the Red Bull race seat he chased for years, Yuki Tsunoda may be regretting that decision as it could yet spell the end of his Formula 1 career.

The Japanese driver started the season with Racing Bulls, scored points in the Chinese GP sprint, but missed out on top tens in the grands prix through no fault of his own.

But since he joined Red Bull, promoted to the senior team at the Japanese Grand Prix, Tsunoda has looked out of his depth – a driver struggling to adapt to a car that only Max Verstappen’s seems to be able to wrangle into regular top-ten showings.

While his trials have cast a harsh spotlight on Red Bull’s second seat problems, they also don’t put Tsunoda in a positive light. His decision to take the Red Bull opportunity may be his last decision in F1.

11. Franco Colapinto

Last year’s super sub with Williams, Franco Colapinto hasn’t kicked on since replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine.

To be fair, the A525 is a difficult beast to handle and lacks the pace to consistently challenge Formula 1’s midfield.

However, Pierre Gasly has managed to do it a few times. Colapinto has not.

The Argentinean driver’s best results in his eight races have been two P13 performances in Monaco and Canada; he hasn’t even knocked on the door of the top ten.

Blotting his copybook with crashes at Imola and Silverstone, both in qualifying, it didn’t look as if Colapinto would survive beyond his initial five-race deal with Alpine but PlanetF1.com understands he will remain in the car when F1 returns from the summer break.

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