F1 rookie power rankings: Which driver is on top halfway through the 2025 season?

F1 sits in a bit of a holding pattern for much of the rest of the summer, with a three-week gap between Silverstone and Spa followed by the summer break after Hungary in early August.

So as we have crossed halfway in 2025, let's rank the rookies' performances so far — keeping in mind their cars' abilities and their recent run of form along with the overall product.

6. Franco Colapinto

The clear bottom choice here is allegedly on the chopping block with lowly Alpine.

Alpine basically telegraphed Franco Colapinto taking Jack Doohan's spot before the season started. And it has paid zero dividends. Both drivers in the same amount of races have delivered the same amount of points: zero.

Is Colapinto driving possibly the worst car on the grid? Maybe! Teammate Pierre Gasly has struggled at times with the car, but also is fresh off a P6 at Silverstone. Colapinto's best so far is P13 — also the best finish Doohan managed.

It could be Valtteri Bottas in the car next, who also did very little for Sauber last year that have now just sat on the podium. Alpine's second-seat situation is only second in being an overall disaster to Red Bull.

5. Oliver Bearman

Bearman isn't having a horrific run of form right now, but he is now at three months without a point (last was in Bahrain). He certainly is coming into this mini-break with a feeling of frustration, fresh off three straight 11th-place finishes.

The British driver faces a similar conundrum as Colapinto: As a rookie, he has to face comparisons with a massively experienced and proven driver. Esteban Ocon has nine points in the bag since Bearman's last score, so not a massive advantage on his end. Ocon only holds a 7-5 lead in head-to-head qualifying efforts, and is 8-4 ahead in grands prix.

Bearman's first half showed a lot more promise, and he very well could have more points on the board if not for some silly practice mistakes that led to grid drops. Clean that up and he's doing much, much better.

4. Gabriel Bortoleto

Gabriel Bortoleto also has the unfortunate task of being measured of against a veteran driver who is fresh off a career-defining podium. But the Brazilian F2 champ has started to eek out signs of promise. He posted his first F2 points in Austria, and finished no lower than 14th in the three races before that.

Bortoleto is coming off a British Grand Prix where he gambled on slicks too early and crashed out of the race, his third DNF of the season. It was a missed opportunity for him to follow Hulkenberg into the points.

Bortoleto is a distant 37-4 on points with his teammate, but he is tied with him on qualifying results. It's unclear if the car has taken a sizable step forward from 2024 or if this lineup is just that much better than Zhou/Bottas, but Bortoleto clearly has the tools and abilities to make more out of his rookie season in the second half.

3. Kimi Antonelli

These power rankings aren't "potential" rankings or "highest ceiling" rankings. Because if they were, Antonelli would likely be up top each time.

But we need to face the facts here. Antonelli had four DNFs in six races; outside of those two non-DNFs were his first podium in F1, but also a P18 finish.

Not all of these DNFs were Antonelli's fault: He was rear-ended at Silverstone and faced a power issue in Spain. But he also does take worthy critique for rear-ending Max Verstappen in Austria.

All part of the learning process for the 18-year-old, but it has certainly a brutal run of form, where all of these issues have meant Mercedes have dipped to third in the constructors' championship. Antonelli is also still seeking his first grand prix finish above teammate George Russell (12-0). It almost seems wild that Toto Wolff might opt to boot Russell's proven talent for Antonelli's promise.

2. Liam Lawson

It hasn't been a season to write home about for Lawson whatsoever, but we're finally seeing some of the talent we saw from him in his first tries in an F1 car pre-2025.

Lawson has netted 12 points in his last five race weekends, including an impressive P6 in Austria. He could have even more points to his name if not for DNFs in Canada and England, neither of which were his fault.

Lawson has also been faced with being measured against Isack Hadjar, who holds an 8-1 grand prix head-to-head advantage him (and 8-2 in quali).

But with some momentum in his pocket, and Hadjar cooling off, Lawson has an opportunity to make some headlines in the coming weeks.

1. Isack Hadjar

Hadjar maintains the top spot among his rookie class, all despite a rough three-race stretch for him.

The French driver is coming off a DNF where he plowed into Antonelli amid the brutal spray at Silverstone — certainly not a good result, but a crash where the onboard showed just how impossible the conditions were.

Before that, Hadjar missed points in back-to-back races for the first time since the opening two races of the year. Remember when he crashed out before he could take the lights in his debut race? It feels like a lifetime ago.

Hadjar holds down the top spot in part due to a not-so-brilliant run of races for his fellow rookies. His full-season product has been very impressive still: 21 points, points in five of 12 weekends and top quali and race efforts inside the top six.

It'll be interesting to see if Hadjar can get back on track at Spa, where he won the F2 feature last season.

F1 Rookie Point Standings (through British Grand Prix)