F1’s Big Gamble on Rookies Is Already Paying Off

When six fresh-faced teens and barely-twenty-somethings posed clumsily on a red carpet in late February, the garish Formula 1 2025 pre-season festivities were only a sample of the sport’s shift toward production value. The stars of the show smiled awkwardly—all gangly limbs and poor formal attire—unaware of their status as marketing magic in carbon fiber machines.

Even before the lights went out at Sunday’s rain-soaked Australian Grand Prix, an air of uncertainty fed spectators’ growing hunger. It had something to do with the clash between hungry but inexperienced drivers fighting against veterans—many of them global megastars. This tension began early in the weekend, with a handful of rookie drivers pirouetting off Melbourne’s street circuit during both practice sessions. Haas’ Oliver Bearman severely damaged his car in Practice 1, and then again in Practice 2. It was just the thing to keep viewers’ eyes glued to their screens, no matter the time difference. 

F1’s pursuit of pop culture relevancy set off into a sprint when Netflix released the reality TV-meets-documentary series Drive to Survive back in 2019. Off track, F1 75 Live, the sport’s award show-style car unveiling at The O2 Arena a month ago, and a series of fashion partnerships and arcade pop-ups all point toward an interest in infecting the masses with F1 fever. And it has largely worked: last year’s Miami Grand Prix marked the most-watched race in F1’s history with 3.1 million viewers. 

But the sport has had a tougher time translating that entertainment value into something tangible fans—new and old—could bite into. Despite the addition of sprint races in 2021 and Miami and Las Vegas’ introduction to the F1 calendar, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull tearing 30 seconds ahead of the field left much to be desired. The Dutchman’s dominant run, winning 19 of 22 grands prix in 2023, tarnished the chance of a championship fight.

So when six newbies slipped into the driver’s seat on a soaked Sunday ahead of the first race of the 2025 season, nothing about the event screamed predictability. Isack Hadjar was the first domino to fall. The 20-year-old French driver barely made it through the first corner of the formation lap when a brief lapse in focus (and inexperience driving an F1 car in the wet) caused his RB to skate into the wall at Turn 2. His immediate reaction after exiting his mangled car was a vivid reminder of the high stakes of F1: tears. Three more rookies joined him in a somber trek back to the garages before the checkered flag fell.

It’s a sight we’re bound to see more of this year, as thirty percent of the F1 grid is rookies this season, a direct response to motorsport’s recent supply and demand issue. Before home favorite Jack Doohan crumpled the rear wing of his Alpine on Sunday, his job was the equivalent of a benchwarmer and part-time commentator despite rounding out the 2023 Formula 2 championship podium—just like so many before him. But the Australian was one of the fortunate few whose time spent waiting patiently for a seat to open up paid off. Others, like 2022 and 2023 Formula 2 champions Théo Pourchaire and Felipe Drugovich, have sat waiting for a grid slot that might never become available and have since moved on to compete in other racing series.

The silly season leading into 2025, however, offered not only an opportunity for junior drivers as 12 concluding contracts launched a high-level game of musical chairs, but also a chance for F1 to shed its old skin and grow a new one better aligned with producing a show worthy of its “pinnacle of motorsport” title. 

Only two teams carried over their driver lineup from last season, McLaren and Aston Martin, while over half of the competition welcomed novel talent under the age of 23. Team principals were well aware of the risk: “There are some good indications that he has a lot of talent and a lot of potential, and now it needs to be conditioned. When you invest in young drivers, these things happen,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said ahead of the season about 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli. “You need to be prepared to take that risk.”

Six years into the sport’s conquest of a younger, increasingly female and more American audience, the new crop of characters also gave fans something new to express rage, remorse or rapture on behalf of. While Hadjar gained a new crop of sympathetic fans (especially after Anthony Hamilton’s class move after the Frenchman’s premature retirement), Mercedes’ answer to Lewis Hamilton’s departure, Antonelli, proved the anticipated hype wasn’t overdone with a fourth-place finish. Bearman managed to drag his Haas into last place, 40 seconds shy of race winner Lando Norris, while Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson smacked into the barriers. 

A record 465,498 fans stared at the first of 24 spectacles to come this season, their eyes darting as a dwindling number of cars sped past Albert Park’s green lawns. The most famous scene of the weekend is likely Norris and Oscar Piastri’s choreographed drifts into the grass when a second round of rain showers hit the tarmac.

It’s a tired cliche, yet not being able to look away from a car crash is part of F1’s appeal. We click on plane crash articles with morbid curiosity and watch greedily through our fingers as America’s Funniest Home Videos rewind faceplants. It’s a psychological response that can’t be squashed.

Even if it’s not written into F1’s publicity playbook, a little rain and some early retirements make for a good show. Six new faces without much track time make for an even better one. 

After all, the corporate machine behind the sport might not control the weather, but it does take ink to paper.

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