Despite the majority having previous Formula 1 experience, history will reflect that six rookies started the 2025 season at the Australian Grand Prix – and it was a chastening experience for all but one of them.
While the changeable conditions saw four crash out, plus one endured a tough weekend and finished last, Andrea Kimi Antonelli gave a glimpse of his huge potential by taking fifth place for Mercedes.
Autosport looked at how the sextet fared around Albert Park on what was a memorable start to the campaign.
High-five for Antonelli
Whether you see Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton’s direct replacement or not, he stood out head and shoulders above the other five rookies with a fine performance.
Starting down in 16th, the 18-year-old showed maturity to move up through the pack, making notable overtakes – including twice passing Nico Hulkenberg in near-carbon copy moves having let the experienced Sauber man back through after a spin.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff called the drive “mega” as Antonelli crossed the line fourth, a result he kept after overturning a five-second penalty for an unsafe pitstop release into the path of Hulkenberg.
“I think today we got all the possible worst conditions for a first race,” he said. “We got wet, slicks on damp, slicks on wet, and then back to wet. So definitely a really, really eventful race but I’m really happy how it was managed from my side and from the team.
“Of course, I did a couple of mistakes, especially the spin, but the conditions were super, super tricky. Also those white lines were a killer.
“The team really helped me throughout the whole race and made all the right calls and definitely cannot complain about today.”
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Wolff gave a glowing review of Antonelli’s debut display: “He just reeled them in one by one, showed the pace when he had no traffic, and then eventually ended up P4 on the road and P5 from a result, and that's really impressive.
“Even very good drivers spun or hit the wall and it's easier to not finish than to finish, and he kept his cool and it was just very impressive to see and it shows that he has a good future as long as the trajectory keeps being like it is.”
Ollie has to grin and bear it
For Oliver Bearman, it could be seen as a positive that the 19-year-old finished the race for Haas, given he had crashed out in free practice one and three – sitting out the second session due to the damage to his car.
He also struggled in wet weather as a stand-in for Haas at last year’s Brazilian Grand Prix but brought the car home in Melbourne, even if he was last of the runners to take the chequered flag.
Starting from the pitlane, Bearman was pleased with his performance although he conceded Haas will need to find improvements moving forward.
“It's an achievement just to finish a race like this because they're incredibly difficult,” said the British racer.
“Of course, I don't want to dwell on the past. I want to get rid of it and move on to the next one. I'm not pleased with my mistakes but to finish the race in a good way on my side gives me confidence going to China.
“This inter tyre is very tough when it starts to rain again and I was happy with my performance and execution, even if as a team we're still missing pace.
“[It is] incredibly, incredibly tough to drive the car in these conditions. It's the toughest you'll find and even if in Brazil I was fighting for the points and now I'm fighting to really catch or stay on the pack, it's a different type of race compared to the one I was in in Brazil.
“But same push and drive and I'm glad that I've learned from the mistakes I made in Brazil and had a relatively error-free race.”
A-Borted start
Gabriel Bortoleto outqualified team-mate Hulkenberg, not bad for a man starting his first F1 race to a wizened campaigner of 228 grand prix.
The Brazilian has been batting away questions surrounding remarks from Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who labelled the 20-year-old a “B” grade driver.
He ultimately crashed out in the latter stages in Australia but had looked in good shape, all things considered, until that point – although he was hit with a five-second penalty for an unsafe release.
“Obviously not an easy start. I would say it was a good weekend overall for all the learning we got there,” said the back-to-back F3 and F2 champion.
“Unfortunately, it didn't finish as we expected. Luckily for the team, Nico scored some good points and I'm very happy for them. I'm sorry for my mistake there. I tried to recover a bit what we lost in the safety car and I'm looking forward to China now.
“We take some positives from this weekend. We learn from the negatives and heads up. It's just the beginning of a long season.
“I was very close to Nico the whole race in inters. Then we went to pit and then we double-stacked. I lost a lot of time there with the safety car as well, with the unsafe release.”
Aussie curse strikes Doohan
Ask most people in the F1 paddock and they will tell you that Jack Doohan was already under pressure before a wheel had been turned this season.
Having raced for Alpine in the Abu Dhabi GP at the end of 2024, the Australian came into this year with speculation he was already driving for his seat after Franco Colapinto joined the team as a reserve driver.
Crashing out of his home race on the opening lap will do little to silence those rumours but the 22-year-old was determined to take positives away from a tough weekend.
“In this sport, things happen very quickly, as we've just seen, and the next round is already almost upon us,” he said, already turning an eye to the Chinese Grand Prix next weekend.
“So it was an unfortunate way [to go out], but a lesson is learned. I've digested it. There's a lot of positives that we have to take away from this weekend and for me, they outweigh this negative and I'm looking forward to bouncing back for next weekend.
“It seemed I lost it on the third to fourth gear upshift. As soon as I went into fourth, I lost the car.
“I think maybe a combination of the white line but it seems that we had a spike in RPM when I've upshifted to fourth so we're just double-checking to make sure that everything's behaving itself and maybe a little bit less right foot, a little bit more left, and it won't happen again.
“So some things that I'm going to need to understand because, for me, that wasn't out of the normal, but a constant learning process. Unfortunately, this one has big consequences.
“But I've definitely learned, and I'm going to ensure that it doesn't happen again.”
Hamilton hugs for Hadjar
For Isack Hadjar, qualifying 11th for his debut race would have been seen as a fine start to life at Racing Bulls.
However, he did not even make the start of the race as the tricky track surface caught him out on the formation lap when a spin ended with the Frenchman breaking his rear wing in the wall.
Visibly upset, the 20-year-old was consoled on his return to the paddock by Anthony Hamilton, father of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton.
“I’m just embarrassed and sorry for the team,” Hadjar said, his accident having caused an aborted start to the 2025 season.
“I overdid it, I just over-slipped the rears and once I lost the car, I tried to save it but I was just a passenger it just snapped so fast and I didn’t expect it.
“I'm just mad that these mistakes can happen. Breaking the car so early in the season really breaks my heart. I'm really sorry for the team. I'm missing out on more experience. My first grand prix, missing out on a wet track.”
Asked about Anthony Hamilton’s input, he added: “It means a lot, knowing that he knew where I was, how bad I felt, to go and see me in the worst moment ever.
“I think it's nice gesture from him. I really appreciate that. [He told me to] just keep my head high and be proud of myself. I did well yesterday. Nice stuff.”
Lowly Lawson
Being across the Red Bull garage from Max Verstappen is a pressured place to be in F1 and Liam Lawson is the latest to try and match the flying Dutchman.
Having been preferred over Yuki Tsunoda to be promoted from Racing Bulls for 2025, Lawson is arguably the furthest away from a rookie having already competed in 11 grand prix before this season.
The New Zealander, though, found his first weekend in the senior Red Bull team to be a difficult one as he started from the pitlane following changes to his rear wing having only qualified down in 18th.
It was a calculated risk that did not pay off as Lawson found himself running at the back of the field with the Haas duo while Verstappen competed at the business end against the McLarens.
A poor race was summed up with a late crash into the barriers as the rain returned.
“We wanted to take a risk so that was a shared gamble together, but I was just apologising for putting the car on the wall,” Lawson said.
“We were hoping for a majority wet race and it basically dried up more than we thought and we struggled a lot with the fronts in the first stint, just overheating.”
Asked what positives he would take from the day, Lawson replied: “Not much honestly, I'm just looking forward to going to China and resetting.”
