ABU DHABI: As a hectic 24-race Formula 1 season comes to a close this weekend in Abu Dhabi, this year’s rookie class of drivers have plenty to digest and countless learnings to carry with them into 2026.
Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli will finish the season as the top rookie as he enters Sunday’s finale perched nicely at P7 in the drivers’ standings with 150 points, just two points adrift of sixth-placed Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton.
Antonelli’s closest rookie rival is Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, who is looking to lock down P10 in the championship this weekend, heading into the last race of the year with 51 points to his name.
Oliver Bearman, who raced three times as a reserve driver for two different teams last season, scored 41 points for Haas in 2025 to make it to P13, while Gabriel Bortoleto tallied up 19 points for Sauber and is currently in P19.
Kimi’s ‘massive learning curve’
The 19-year-old Antonelli had arguably the toughest task of the bunch, knowing he was stepping into a seat previously occupied by seven-time world champion Hamilton.
That didn’t stop the Italian teenager from making history in a season that included many highs and several soul-crushing lows that made him feel “like everything was just falling apart”.
Antonelli sent out an early signal of intent in his debut race at the Australian Grand Prix, moving through the field from P16 to P4 in remarkable fashion.
Two sixth-place finishes in his next two races in China and Japan officially saw him enter the history books as just the third ever driver in F1’s 75-year history to score top-six finishes in each of his first three races.
The other two drivers to achieve that feat were the legendary Jackie Stewart in 1965 and Hamilton in 2007.
In Japan, Antonelli, still 18 at the time, became the youngest ever F1 driver to lead a race and to set a fastest lap, taking both records from four-time world champion Max Verstappen.
It was a dream start for the talented Bolognese, but in the fast and unforgiving world of F1, dreams can very quickly turn into nightmares.
When the European season came along, Antonelli had a stretch where he retired four times in six races, and scored points once in seven races. That sole points-scoring effort was actually a maiden podium for Antonelli, who came up for air to place third in Canada in June during what had otherwise been a brutal period for him on the track.
“I had a really strong first part of the season. Obviously expectations got higher and higher. And then the European season came, it felt like everything was just falling apart. It felt like everything was just not working,” Antonelli reflected this weekend in Abu Dhabi.
“Of course, on Mercedes we were already fighting back then for P2 [in the constructors’ championship]. We were losing points. Also the team started to put a bit of pressure. And of course it added up. But it's normal. It's how it is.”
It didn’t help that at his second home race in Monza in September, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff described Antonelli’s weekend as “underwhelming” and said the driver was carrying baggage and trauma over from his previous races.
A conversation between Antonelli, Wolff, Peter “Bono” Bonnington and other race engineers allowed the Italian to reset post-Monza and he’s had six top-six finishes in his last seven races, including podiums in Sao Paulo and Las Vegas.
“Obviously I was also not happy with how things were going. I was just getting more and more frustrated because I was thinking too much about the final result,” explained Antonelli.
“Also I was trying to fulfill the team's expectations. But it was just a snowball effect and I felt like I wasn't going anywhere. But after Monza I was able to reset. Now I have good momentum. I'm just really aiming to finish the season on a high.”
Antonelli describes his rookie year overall as “a massive learning curve” and is most proud of the fact that he found a way to rebound from his mid-season slump, admitting there were times where he started really doubting himself.
“Definitely going into Mercedes this first year, I think it was a massive opportunity. Obviously, I was more under the spotlight, more under pressure. But I think that really helped me to grow even faster,” he added.
“Being able to overcome it (the difficult period) made me stronger. It was kind of a small victory for me.”
Hadjar earns promotion
French-Algerian driver Hadjar is another rookie who has surfed many highs and lows this season but has overall impressed in his first year in F1; so much so that he has earned himself a promotion from Racing Bulls to a seat at alongside Verstappen at Red Bull in 2026.
Hadjar’s F1 debut saw him crash out of the formation lap at the Australian Grand Prix, walking off the track in tears and needing consoling from Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony.
He scored points at his third outing in Japan and arrived in Abu Dhabi with 10 top-10 finishes under his belt, including a podium at the Dutch Grand Prix.
News that the 21-year-old Parisian will be replacing Yuki Tsunoda at Red Bull next season broke last week and Hadjar was already fielding questions about 2026 when he spoke to the press in Abu Dhabi.
“I have no expectations at all because it's starting from scratch, everyone. So yeah, the work is going to be done. I'm just really looking forward to January, February, working with the team, getting to know all the people. Yeah. It's going to be crucial to try and be ahead a bit,” he said.
Just 12 months ago, Hadjar was battling Bortoleto for the Formula 2 championship in the UAE capital. He was confirmed a Racing Bulls seat after the race weekend in Abu Dhabi and barely a year later, he is moving up the ranks once again, joining a team that has won eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ championships since 2010.
Hadjar is not worried about moving up the ranks so fast.
“I've never repeated every year. I've always competed in different cars, so I don't know what it's like doing twice the same thing, the same job. So I think I'm pretty decent at adapting, so I'm actually confident,” he stated on Thursday at Yas Marina Circuit.
Managing a tough calendar
Besides adapting to the high-pressure environment to F1 and learning how to extract the most out of the cars at every single weekend, a big part of the rookie experience is about learning to manage the hectic 24-race schedule.
Bortoleto is pleased with his first year with Sauber, scoring points with a car that initially could barely make it out of Q1 in qualifying.
The 21-year-old Brazilian explained how he has navigated the physical and mental toll of his rookie season, saying: “It has been very consuming, I need to be honest. There’s so many races, so many things to be done.
“But when you jump in the car, everything resets. It’s like starting from zero again, that feeling just before you jump in a race. Everything around you, maybe you get tired during the day, but then when you jump in again it’s like you are brand new.
“Definitely a long season but a very enjoyable one and one that will be forever in my memory.”
For Bearman, maintaining his energy levels throughout the campaign has been a challenge, one he hopes to address with better travel planning in 2026.
“We're all doing 24 races, but I think for the rookies who have never done it before, there's a lot of things,” said the 20-year-old Brit.
“For example, even on my travel planning that I would change for next year and you would only know having done it. I think keeping your energy levels high for the entire season is a challenge and there's a lot of things and little things you can change to help that.”
‘I still don’t have it’
Bearman made history last year in Baku by becoming the first driver to score points for two different teams in his first two Grand Prix starts. He replaced Carlos Sainz in Saudi Arabia at the start of the season and placed seventh in a Ferrari, before finishing 10th as a stand-in for Kevin Magnussen in a Haas.
He earned a full seat with Haas in 2025 and gave an honest response when asked about the moment he felt this season that he’s “got this”.
“I don't have it. I still don't have it. I'm just an F1 rookie. I'm learning as we go, so I'm getting more comfortable every weekend and achieving a better result, extracting more from myself and using my talent more,” said Bearman in Abu Dhabi.
“But it still throws new challenges at me every weekend and forces me to think on my toes. So, yeah, it's tough.
“Also, with a team like Haas, as a driver, you end up making a lot of decisions yourself. Whereas in bigger teams, I have a feeling that you're guided through the processes a bit more.
“in my opinion, it's a good thing. It probably means it's more challenging at first, but I think in the long run that's going to help you out.”
Bearman is grateful there were other rookies with him making their debuts in 2025, which won’t be the case for next season, where Racing Bulls’ Arvid Lindblad will be the only first-timer on the grid.
“It's good to have other rookies in the same position as me. I would not like to be the only rookie on a grid because everyone else has the experience and that definitely counts for something. So to see myself against the other rookies and see how they're performing, it's not like I'm the only rookie who's done silly mistakes. I think we all have this year,” he added.
“It just shows that laps are really important and even if we're all performing, I think, at a very high level because we're all quite talented, I would say, there's still a learning process and a trajectory. I think most of us are on the same trajectory of improving throughout the year.”
