Ranking the real 2025 F1 driver line-up pecking order

“In 2025, I think we have the best driver line-up on the grid.”

Williams team principal James Vowles caused quite the social media stir with this line in a recent edition of the ‘Beyond the Grid’ podcast. It was something of a throwaway remark considering Vowles’ in-depth chat about his lofty wider ambitions for his squad, but it was nevertheless revealing on several levels.

Firstly, it’s notable how consistently slick Vowles comes across. There have been missteps – such as describing, however accurately, Mick Schumacher as not “special” when explaining why the former Haas racer and Mercedes reserve didn’t get a temporary promotion to replace Logan Sargeant and Franco Colapinto did, plus retaining Sargeant for 2024 in the first place. But, generally, Vowles has appeared totally at ease with being an F1 team boss.

He is also adamant that Williams can and will win again. But, given how much work it still must do to overcome the comparatively ancient car build processes that left its 2024 launch car shipping 0.5s a lap in excess weight alone, there is clearly a long way still to go.

But given the reaction to Vowles’s comment on his estimation of how Carlos Sainz will slot in alongside Alex Albon next year, it’s another reminder of just how much F1 fans love a changing driver market.

PLUS: Why long Sainz courtship was only one factor in eventual Williams union

The rare stability from 2023-2024 will go unreplicated for next year, with at least seven teams set to get to work with at least one new driver in 2025.

Vowles has utmost faith in his 2025 partnership of Sainz and Albon - but how do they truly stack up?

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

There are also intriguing subplots at play already – such as the explosion of rookie talent arrival and the ongoing uncertainty over the Red Bull and RB line-ups. Sauber/Audi, also still has a slot to fill.

Vowles’s belief on the strength of the Albon/Sainz partnership should be of little surprise. In speaking as he did, he showcased his own ability in the PR game an F1 team principal must always be playing, plus how it shields any weakness elsewhere.

In Williams’s case, it can’t be forgotten that snaring Sainz away from that Audi offer was an impressive feat given the team is over 12 years without an F1 win, nearing 27 since winning a title and isn’t the works-level setting the Spaniard has gotten used to at Ferrari.

Weighing past achievements, known strengths and weaknesses, plus the potential of the various rookies set to join the grid next year produces an interesting debate on how the changed 2025 field is indeed set to benefit the 10 F1 squads – not just Williams.

Here’s how we therefore rank those coming line-ups.

10. Sauber

Will Bottas still be at Sauber in 2025?

Photo by: Lionel Ng / Motorsport Images

Given it still only has Nico Hulkenberg signed on for next year, Sauber must take the bottom spot by default. That it still hasn’t opted to retain Valtteri Bottas speaks unfortunate volumes for the likeable Finn, who could yet be beaten to the last spot on the grid by temporary Williams star Colapinto or McLaren junior Gabriel Bortoleto.

But if Sauber was to sign Bottas for what would be an expected one-year deal ahead of its Audi works rebranding in 2026, that would automatically elevate the team at least two places in this ranking and there’s a strong case for it going as high as sixth.

This is based on Bottas’s 10 GP wins and his Lewis Hamilton-bothering qualifying speed during their time as Mercedes team-mates, plus how good Hulkenberg has been for Haas since rejoining the F1 pack full-time in 2023.

9. Alpine

Doohan is one of a number of new faces that will feature on the 2025 grid

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Pierre Gasly continues to provide F1 race-winning experience for Alpine and will be joined by Jack Doohan for 2025 after Alpine missed out in its respective late bid to lure Sainz away from Sauber.

Although he has done excellent work getting his personality recognised by many F1 fans with a slick media appearance campaign during his time as Alpine’s reserve, Doohan’s lack of junior titles counts against him and Alpine here when it comes to comparing the other rookie-featuring 2025 line-ups.

8. Haas

Bearman will partner Ocon at Haas as part of an all-new line-up

Photo by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Images

Another of these rookie line-ups is at Haas, which will pair former Alpine star Esteban Ocon with Ollie Bearman for 2025.

Ocon’s reputation is battered in some quarters for his many intra-team clashes on-track since his Force India days – which unfortunately often squeezes out his story of getting onto the F1 grid from a humble background – but his decade-long relationship with Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu got his selection at the American squad over the line.

Bearman’s point-scoring results in his one-off 2024 F1 appearances for Ferrari and Haas provide enough insight that he can likely survive at the top level to boost Haas above Alpine in this ranking. The Briton is already well-liked at Haas given his quick learning and quiet, self-deprecating attitude shown while temporarily replacing Kevin Magnussen in Baku.

7. RB

Tsunoda is expected to have new team-mate Lawson continue alongside him into 2025

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images

Red Bull’s junior team is tricky to rank for several reasons. Firstly, Yuki Tsunoda’s ongoing inconsistency, plus Red Bull feeling racing alongside Max Verstappen would likely shatter his confidence, meaning he is yet to force his way into consideration for a drive at the main team. Then there’s how Liam Lawson is only now confirmed until 2024’s conclusion.

What happens to Sergio Perez at Red Bull is much to do with this, but what goes in favour of an expected Tsunoda-Lawson 2025 RB line-up is how good the former can be on his best days and how impressive the latter was in his five-race stint replacing the injured Daniel Ricciardo in 2023. Points on his first taste of the Singapore heat challenge was seriously impressive.

PLUS: How a devastating title loss steeled Red Bull’s latest charge for F1

Red Bull now has six races to make its call, but if Ricciardo were to make a surprise return alongside Tsunoda for 2025 it would have no impact on this ranking.

6. Aston Martin

Alonso and Stroll will feature in an unchanged Aston Martin partnership

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

It may have been harder to spot given the ongoing inadequacies of Aston Martin’s car package since early 2023 – and he’s getting pretty vocal in highlighting these himself – but Fernando Alonso has continued to deliver very well for the Silverstone-based team.

If there’s a position to snare from the top four squads these days, Alonso will generally grab it – as evidenced by his clear ninth place (by 38 points) in the standings and eight top-eight finishes this year (next best is Lance Stroll on three).

The ongoing problem for Aston remains its commitment to Stroll, who is currently level on points with Hulkenberg – two places behind Alonso in the drivers’ standings – thanks to the German’s two sixth-place finishes to the Canadian’s one.

Having made such a commitment in signing Adrian Newey, Aston will continue to be held back by a driver line-up imbalance where Stroll has contributed more than 50% of a leading team-mate’s points total just once in the nearly four seasons since the Racing Point rebrand.

That was his 79.1% of Sebastian Vettel’s 2021 haul, which became just 35.9% of Alonso’s 2023 total. Their difference is 38.7% so far in 2024 in the Spaniard’s favour.

5. Mercedes

Russell will be joined by Antonelli, after Hamilton elected to join Ferrari

Photo by: Mercedes AMG

The highest spot for a team featuring a 2025 rookie here, which comes down to two things.

The first is how highly Mercedes itself rates Andrea Kimi Antonelli, which is indicative of how impressing F1 teams is more important than succeeding in the supposed meritocracy of the Formula 3 and Formula 2 single-spec series.

There’s plenty of Mercedes spin at play regarding Antonelli’s potential – for instance the reaction to his Monza FP1 shunt – but the old adage that it’s easier to slow a fast, wild driver than try and speed up a slow one surely applies here (and also counts against Stroll). But what can’t be denied is how Antonelli racked up junior titles the other 2025 rookies don’t have, such as his 2023 European Formula Regional championship. Bearman’s record comes closest.

Of course, it could be that Antonelli never curtails that predicted F1 arrival wildness (something Tsunoda has struggled with since 2021) and so Mercedes can’t be placed any higher given the lack of F1-level data right now.

Boosting the Silver Arrows squad here, however, is the other part of its gap to other teams featuring rookies in 2025: George Russell. His highs in pure speed since being promoted to Mercedes in 2022 have resulted in a 38-31 (sprints included) qualifying record against Lewis Hamilton.

But for the various miscalculations in Mercedes’ Spa starting weight, Russell would’ve delivered one of the best wins of the current campaign – highlighting his flourishing racecraft.

4. Red Bull

Red Bull will be hoping Perez can find consistency to match Verstappen in 2025

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Another Red Bull team that’s hard to rank is its eponymous one – because Verstappen’s prowess pulls it up so high and Perez’s ongoing underwhelming results in a top-class car package drag it back down.

Although the momentum is with Lando Norris and McLaren in terms of the shock battle for the 2024 drivers’ championship, Verstappen’s brilliance in winning races at Imola, Canada and Spain means the Dutchman remains the favourite to preserve his hefty current points lead to the finish.

Perez was granted a two-year contract extension by Red Bull back in early June in the expectation that it would restore his performances to those he did deliver back at the season’s commencement. That backfired, although Red Bull chose to give Perez a reprieve over his place alongside Verstappen ahead of the summer break.

But races such as Baku – Perez was excellent for 49 of 51 laps until his part in the crash with Sainz, where the acres of room to his left means he should surely be considered culpable for the collision overall – show exactly why Red Bull can’t rely on him on weekends where Verstappen isn’t delivering the goods.

3. Williams

Albon and Sainz are a pairing befitting of a top team

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

High, but not Vowles high and, if this was a ranking of how cerebral drivers can make a key difference to F1 teams, the likely winning line-up is indeed Albon/Sainz.

Each has worked hard to carve out a long-term F1 career when at various points in their younger days all might’ve been lost. Albon has replicated Russell’s giant-killing qualifying performances for Williams and arrived at 14 points-scoring finishes in his near-three seasons with the team compared to his friend’s four (albeit without Russell’s Williams podium) in the same period. The still-rebuilding team is, however, much better than it was when Russell raced there.

Sainz can also show searing speed at times given his 58-30 record against Charles Leclerc in their time as Ferrari team-mates, plus his intelligence behind the wheel was key to that famous 2023 Singapore win and stopping a Red Bull walkover last year. His Melbourne win two weeks after appendicitis surgery showed his mettle.

PLUS: Why Sainz could still have won in Melbourne in a Verstappen head-to-head

What caps Williams’ 2025 driver line-up potential compared to the two ahead is how Albon and Sainz are yet to prove they’re clear number-one star drivers. They are close, no doubt, and expected to be very well-balanced for Williams in 2025. But each just comes up short based on historical results – such as that near 2:1 Ferrari qualifying record for Sainz against Leclerc and how Albon too couldn’t survive as Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate.

2. McLaren

Norris and Piastri scored their first wins this season, with McLaren leading the constructors' standings

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Easily the top 2025 line-up in another ranking, but what holds McLaren back here is actually one of its strengths: in Norris and Oscar Piastri, the orange team has two young drivers still climbing their way to the F1 summit. Piastri has not even completed two full F1 seasons.

Although excellent in Singapore, Norris’s wallstrikes betrayed again that mistakes still creep in just too often for the 24-year-old. For instance, Verstappen wasn’t doing that when he enjoyed a massive car advantage. And 23-year-old Piastri is yet to really nail things consistently in qualifying.

But, given where McLaren has reached in the last year-and-a-half, these two will go into 2025 as automatic title contenders. And what they’ve shown in 2024 also indicates they have what it takes to make a real fist of a title challenge. More Monza-like battles must be expected.

1. Ferrari

Leclerc will be joined by Hamilton next year in a real power pairing

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

Here, Hamilton’s seven world titles make the critical difference. Because, if Ferrari can get into title consideration as it did in early 2022, he has shown he can cut it in many a championship battle – even against Verstappen approaching his top form in 2021.

The Briton’s 2024 Silverstone and Spa wins were also top draw – the latter rather eclipsed by the Russell disqualification controversy, but nevertheless an impressive win on the orthodox strategy at that fearsome track. If there is a sniff of victory, Hamilton will take it. It’s telling how the F1 greats can raise their game even amongst sustained inconsistency such as Mercedes has produced in the new ground-effect era.

What Hamilton has struggled with of late is qualifying speed. That’s around Mercedes really struggling to get the best results out of the tricky 2024 Pirellis. Here, however, Leclerc comes into his own – his reputation as F1’s best qualifier deserved for a reason.

That provides Ferrari with cover even for Hamilton’s few weak areas and the team is convinced enough Leclerc remains its long-term star it picked him over Sainz for a new deal at the start of 2024. He also can deliver stunning, and clever, results – such as that Monza win and the 33-laps of metronomic consistency.

Hamilton remains a class act and will only push Leclerc to new heights

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

Conclusions

Sure, it’s a subjective exercise, but one that F1 fans regularly enjoy. Ferrari fans are said to be so eagerly anticipating Hamilton’s arrival next year Autosport understands Monza officials are already seeing unprecedented levels of interest in tickets for the 2025 Italian GP.

How he fares in an F1 narrative arch only most recently completed by Kimi Raikkonen and Michael Schumacher – failed by Alonso and Vettel – is going to be one of the stories of next season no matter how expectations of any of these still-to-come driver line-up pairings really live up.

F1 fans came into 2024 starved of narratives on the driver market front, but now 2025 is already being discussed as rivalling 2021 in terms of interest levels given how many teams have won this term.

That’s even with how good the current campaign has unexpectedly become and driver line-up change is playing a major part in this.

With Sauber's final seat yet to be determined, there could yet be further shifts in our assessment of the true strength of 2025's driver pairings

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images