Six rookies are on the grid in 2025, and they are under big pressure to perform. Almost all have had a crash, only two have points so far, and one has already switched teams.
Here's how they rank after two rounds.
6. Liam Lawson
Well, duh.
After three Q1 eliminations, zero points, and an unbelievably quick demotion to another team before the calendar turns to April, there's obviously no other choice here.
Whether the car is too suited to Max Verstappen for anyone to succeed isn't relevant for this discussion — he still put nothing on the board in a car that his teammate has in second place in the championship standings.
In short, no one had a rougher last couple of weeks, maybe in all of sports, than Liam Lawson. A place back at Racing Bulls might net him more points over the course of the next 22 races than he would've at Red Bull.
5. Jack Doohan
Before the season started, fans thought Doohan would be the only driver likely to get a brutal, midseason axing. The rumors remain that he might be out before the grid gets to Europe in a few rounds.
And unfortunately, Doohan has done little to make Alpine have second thoughts about possibly putting Franco Colapinto in the car instead.
Doohan has zero points in his four results with Alpine (including the China sprint and his debut at Abu Dhabi last year), and has been pretty clearly slower than Pierre Gasly (although I don't think anyone is expecting him to be even close to better).
Alpine is the only team left without points through the first two weekends, so Doohan doesn't have incredible machinery under him, but he needs something remarkable to stick around. He has been handily unremarkable, with his most memorable moment thus far being his Australia DNF.
4. Gabriel Bortoleto
Look, he is driving what still seems to be the worst car on the grid, and he has done a decent enough job.
Sauber's early points by Nico Hulkenberg are in part thanks to the rain chaos at Australia, not that the car is particularly better than 2024's last-place effort. So Bortoleto can only do his best to put in some decent results.
To this point, he's done just fine, getting out of Q1 once and out of SQ1 as well. The race results aren't there yet: a DNF in Australia, 18th in the China sprint and then 14th in the China GP (only 16 cars were classified after 3 DQs).
Bortoleto, luckily, will be afforded some time to figure it out with the team's low expectations in its final season before becoming Audi.
3. Isack Hadjar
Who would've though he'd be in the top half of these rankings after how the first seconds of his rookie campaign went?
The Racing Bulls car seems to have some decent qualifying pace, and Hadjar has used it to this advantage, putting the car in an impressive 7th in China. The race pace is another discussion, as he is still seeking his first points, after the China DQs promoted him to only 11th.
Hadjar clearly feels his emotions quite strongly, but he is also someone who can put results on the board (i.e., second in last year's F2 standings behind Bortoleto). It seems like his first F1 points shouldn't be far off, as long as the Racing Bulls car doesn't lose pace.
2. Ollie Bearman
And with how god-awful the Haas has looked for good portions of the testing and opening weekend, and Bearman's crash-filled opening sessions, who would've though Bearman would be this high up either?
Bearman carries some expectations after a solid Ferrari substitute effort and then putting a Haas in the points as well last year. It seemed like he was going to spiral from weekend one in a car that looked like it might be in the bottom two on pure pace.
But China brought optimism thanks to double points for Esteban Ocon and Bearman — and those points were solidified even before the triple DQs.
Bearman looked confident in the Haas, making a few impressive overtakes. Although the Haas may still not be a car that will fight for points every week, the team has a fun lineup to compete whenever their strengths match up with the circuit.
1. Kimi Antonelli
Before Melbourne, it seemed like there were two tiers of rookies: Hadjar, Bortoleto, Doohan and Bearman in midfield cars, and Antonelli and Lawson in the top-four cars.
Well, Antonelli is the only one who raced like he was in one, so the choice for No. 1 is too obvious.
While Antonelli hasn't been at his teammate's level yet, no one really expects him to be. But what he has done is make very few mistakes (yes he spun at Melbourne, but it ended up making no overall impact) and put points on the board at every opportunity so far.
The includes a P4 in the rain-soaked Australian GP, which is just a brutal situation to debut in and I think most would've understood if he took it really easy or didn't perform. Instead, he pushed it to the limit and showed some wild overtaking skills.
He also, somehow, got Driver of the Day in China, which didn't really make a lot of sense (even to him), but good for him! The future is bright for Antonelli.