Youth Over Experience? Why F1 Teams Are Betting on Rising Stars like Gabriel Bortoleto

After a brief period of overlooking rookie talents from F2 and F3, there has been a surge in interest for young drivers in F1 this season. Oscar Piastri and Logan Sargeant were two rookies in 2023 but 2024 did not see any young talent join the grid. This status quo will change massively in 2025 with four new rookie drivers: Oliver Bearman, Kimi Antonelli, Jack Doohan, and Gabriel Bortoleto.

There are multiple reasons why teams have become more keen to trust in these rising prodigies from the feeder series. This is especially because established stars like Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, and Kevin Magnussen have been declining in form and are in the twilight of their careers.

So, from the long-term perspective, it makes sense for teams to bet on young talents like Bearman and Antonelli. With the 2026 regulations set to shake up the pecking order with brand-new car concepts, it would be easier for the younger drivers to adapt to the new cars, as a veteran like Ricciardo has struggled to adapt to even the new ground-effect cars.

All in all, F1 teams are now starting to think about their long-term driver lineups, rather than looking to sign older drivers on short and medium-term contracts. This will also help them from a marketability perspective, with consistency in the lineup for several years.

The cameo appearances by drivers like Bearman and Liam Lawson have also influenced the opinion of many in the paddock and changed the perception of rookies from F2. Lawson, in particular, kickstarted this change in 2023 by scoring points and putting in solid drives in a backmarker AlphaTauri car.

In 2024, Bearman has also impressed a lot by jumping in the Ferrari and Haas cars on very short notice and scoring points. While the 19-year-old earned his seat at Haas for 2025, it also strengthened the chances of his peers — Antonelli and Bortoleto.

How Antonelli and Bortoleto got on Mercedes and Sauber’s radar

Antonelli’s name had been in contention to replace the outgoing Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes since February this year. Despite not having completed a full season in F2, the Brackley team decided to sign him for 2025.

While Toto Wolff had been talking him up, Antonelli had to go through an intense testing program for Mercedes in their old cars. Still, it was more or less a given that Antonelli would earn the seat at the Silver Arrows and replace Hamilton. It eventually came out officially at the Italian GP weekend that the Prema driver will step up to F1 next season.

The more intriguing case has been that of Gabriel Bortoleto. Leading the F2 standings, the 20-year-old Brazilian has been a revelation this year. Managed by Fernando Alonso, Bortoleto caught Sauber/Audi’s new COO Mattia Binotto’s eye in September, as they looked for a potent driver to partner with Nico Hulkenberg.

The dilemma for Sauber was to either invest in youth and sign Bortoleto or bet on the experience of their current driver Valtteri Bottas. While there were reports that Bottas had signed a deal with the Swiss outfit, Binotto’s interest in the young drivers delayed this contract for the Finn.

Bortoleto is currently leading Isack Hadjar in F2 by 4.5 points with two wins and two poles to his name. His performance so far this season has been rather impressive and the Brazilian seems to be a super quick driver with the right mindset.

If that wasn’t enough, Bortoleto’s peer Franco Colapinto further swayed Sauber’s interest toward signing a young driver rather than a seasoned campaigner like Bottas.

The Colapinto stimulus

Coming into Williams from F2 mid-season to replace Logan Sargeant, Colapinto has taken F1 by storm, to say the least. While he has the novelty factor of being the first Argentine F1 driver in over two decades, his performances on track have also been supreme.

Scoring points in Baku and Austin, the 21-year-old has impressed many in the paddock and has gotten himself into the driver market pretty quickly. Sauber and RB had been the two teams showing interest in Colapinto.

While the Hinwil-based outfit have signed Bortoleto, Colapinto was certainly a contender for them, given his talent level seems similar to the Brazilian. The only issue that held back this possibility was Williams’ reluctance to give away the Argentine completely to Sauber/Audi.

Since they wanted to keep Colapinto on their books as a reserve driver, they were only willing to give him away on a loan deal, which naturally wasn’t acceptable for Audi. Nevertheless, the interest in Colapinto would have definitely pushed Audi to look to securing Bortoleto from McLaren, who were willing to end their association with the 20-year-old.

This entire saga points toward how teams are willing to negotiate and secure these rookies for their long-term future. However, young drivers may not always be safe bets. Since they are inexperienced, they are crash-prone in their initial years.

Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin, Nicholas Latifii, and Logan Sargeant are the perfect cases in point. Still, it seems like F1 teams are willing to trust the upside of these young drivers after seeing the likes of Bearman, Lawson, and Colapinto do wonders in a handful of races.

Will this bet on youth over experience pay off?

From 2019 to 2021, there was a huge influx of young drivers in F1 and some of them have flourished into established stars for several teams now. Lando Norris is fighting for race wins every week at McLaren, while George Russell is set to take the lead driver’s mantle after toughing it out with Lewis Hamilton for three years at Mercedes.

Alex Albon has also performed extremely well at Williams to kickstart their competitive revival. Hence, the 2025 rookies will certainly hope to emulate this batch of Norris, Russell, and Albon.

While there is the risk of teams lacking technical expertise and having higher crash damage bills in their rookie year, they would expect the likes of Bearman, Antonelli, Doohan, and Bortoleto to deliver on their faith with the new regulations coming in 2026.

Naturally, it will be a changing of the guard with the drivers who debuted in the 2010s phasing out of the sport and the younger generation taking over as the next batch of race winners and world champions.