Going into the 2025 F1 season, there are four new rookies to the series and two near rookies who have raced but not completed a season in F1. Kimi Antonelli is the youngest of the racers and is most successful after crushing the first race in Melbourne and the second race in China. 

Andrea Kimi Antonelli is an 18-year-old from Bologna, Italy. Antonelli started racing in 2014 with karting, winning multiple categories at just seven years old. He raced in karting until 2021 and went on to the senior class at just 13. Additionally, he would also go into his first race in Italian F4 just a week after turning 15 and go on to place fifth in the season after missing the majority of it. Antonelli would continue in different F4 Categories and move on to F3 in 202,3, winning that title with one race to go. He would move to race in F4 in 2024, where he would have less than amazing results throughout the season but still managed to finish the season sixth in the standings with two victories, three podiums, four fastest laps, and 113 points and withdrew from the last race due to illness.  

Antonelli is currently under scrutiny for skipping what is seen as necessary developmental stages. Toto Wolff is the Mercedes team Principal and is known for finding prodigies in Formula One. Taking up Antonelli to replace Hamilton so early in his career, Wolff’s image as a talent judge is riding on his decision to skip major parts of Antonelli’s development. 

With Antonelli’s first two F1 races in the books, with a fourth and a sixth place finish, respectively. He is the highest-placed rookie in the standings, sitting at 5th, seven spots ahead of Oliver Bearman, who is in twelfth and is the next-highest rookie in the standings.