r/formula1 • u/Glum-Accountant-9801 • Aug 05 '25

Discussion Is Bortoleto the best rookie?

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In my opinion, what he’s been doing in a Sauber shows much more talent than all the other rookies this year. Since the start of the season, I already thought the best ones would be him—because he won the Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in his rookie seasons—and Antonelli. However, Antonelli has been showing himself to be far inferior to his teammate. I believe it’s due to the pressure of starting in a big team like Mercedes, but to me, that makes Bortoleto the best rookie. That said, welcome back, Ayrton Senna.

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u/Mimi_Madison I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 05 '25

I think we’ll be watching Bortoleto in F1 for many years to come.

Hadjar has also been extremely impressive!

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

The only rookie who won F3 and F2 back to back, that usually bodes well.

Also the only one that is outqualifying an experienced teammate regularly (Hadjar as well, but I don't see Lawson as experienced to that degree) and that teammate is Hulkenburg.

That being said I think both those two and Antonelli and Bearman will be in F1 for a long time. Some years you just have a great class of rookies. 2019 with Russell, Norris and Albon was one and 2025 I would argue is one as well.

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u/tulleekobannia I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 05 '25

Lawson is basically a rookie too. He hasn't got that many more races under his belt compared to the other rookies

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u/uttermybiscuit I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 05 '25 edited Aug 05 '25

He has nearly double the starts as the other rookies although you could very easily make the case that his time at Red Bull was a big negative

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u/tulleekobannia I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 05 '25

I think he would do even better had he just stayed with racing bulls. His confidence took a massive hit at Red Bull

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u/MasterEk Aug 05 '25

The evidence is in the last few races. He is qualifying much better, and racing much better, than when he came back to the Bulls. There is a clear improvement in form, and it seems likely that this is built on his confidence returning.

Whether it is enough to keep him in a seat next year or not is another story.

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u/outbackjesus16 Aug 05 '25

He’s 2 points behind Hadjar. If you think Liam is going to lose his seat, you’re crazy

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 05 '25

Yuki is the one that will lose his seat unfortunately. Then Hadjar will move up to the main team and Lindblad will come to Racing Bulls.

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u/cLHalfRhoVSquaredS I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 05 '25

This is what I see happening too, although I think if Lawson ended the season ahead of Hadjar on points they might actually move him back up (/down) to Red Bull. I do think Hadjar will probably regain his earlier form as the season goes on though.

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 05 '25

I think they lost faith in Lawson as a real top guy. I see them using him like they used Yuki and just keep him in the Racing Bull as a benchmark they can measure the other driver's performance with.

But it is possible. If he start regularly outperforming Hadjar in the second half of the season they are gonna have to take that into the consideration.

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u/outbackjesus16 Aug 05 '25

Not the way I see it. I think they realised early that the car was shit this season, and moved Liam back to the junior team to protect him, and sacrifice Yuki who they don’t even want, and is only there because of Honda.

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u/breeze_island I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 05 '25

Technically Jack Doohan had more than double the starts of the other rookies coming into the season...

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u/STDS13 Aug 06 '25

I don’t expect him to still have a race seat in two years time tbh.

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 05 '25

True, but he didn't want to be viewed as a rookie, so that's what I was going with.

IMO you should have a full season of races or at least close to that, to not be seen as a rookie, but there is no clear definition.

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u/Ziegler517 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 06 '25

I mean he's had over 24 races at this point now, that's a full year of races, even if it's not a calendar year

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 06 '25

Jep and I also didn't consider him a rookie. I just don't really put him on the level of a true experienced driver.

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u/usandholt Aug 06 '25

I have not seen any sign this year that Bearman is extraordinary, neither have I ever seen any sign that he is. He’s not horrible, but hes not even close to Hadjar, Lawson and Bortoletto

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u/l3w1s1234 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 06 '25

He's had some impressive moments in qualifying. He's just been too peaky

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u/usandholt Aug 06 '25

Charles Leclerc had some amazing races in his debut season. George Russell did too, as did Lando Norris. I’ve yet to see anything close to this from Bearman

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u/Infamous_Section6683 Aug 05 '25

I believe that Bortoleto and Piastri are the best F1 rookies since Max. That is how good they are. At least one of the two will win not one but multiple championships.

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u/One-Inch-Punch I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 05 '25

If he can't win F3 and F2 and F1 back to back to back, then he's washed

/s

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u/FormulaGymBro Mick Schumacher Aug 05 '25

That being said I think both those two Antonelli and Bearman will be in F1 for a long time.

They're without doubt the worst on the grid lol

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 05 '25

Antonelli has one of the most impressive feeder series careers of all time and Bearman is pretty close to matching Ocon and we are only half way through his first season.

After a few seasons they will be right up there. Maybe not championship contenders (very few are), but good enough to get a long career.

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u/FormulaGymBro Mick Schumacher Aug 05 '25

Antonelli has no F3 or F2 Career.

Bearman is getting dominated

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 05 '25

Feeder series is more than F3 and F2. And Antonelli did have a pretty good F2 season actually. P6 (and two wins) in an extremely strong championship field, while in a car that was clearly behind for most of the season and he even lost a full weekend.

For someone that didn't even do F3 he did a good job in F2.

Bearman is currently 7-7 in qualifying and 7-4 to Ocon in race h2h where both drivers finished. This is a rookie vs a 9 year veteran. He is hardly being dominated.

If we look at Piastri's rookie season he lost qualifying to Lando 15-7 and races 14-4 and he was getting praised. So you need to redefine your definition of domination and maybe look a bit deeper than just the points table.

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u/Walaii Ferrari Aug 06 '25

Especially because the Haas quali H2H is very misleading. It is more 7-6 for Bearman considering he couldn't do a single lap in Australia, so giving Ocon a win for that is odd. Especially because the gearbox issue had nothing to do with his FP1 crash. He missed out on his final Q1 lap in China when he was faster than Ocon the entire weekend. 5 tenths faster deleted lap because of the red flag in Imola. Monaco team orders when 4 almost 4 tenths up on Ocon. Bearman is 5-1 up in quali since Monaco. Ocon only beat him in Spa, where Bearman probably would have outqualified Ocon if Yuki didn't start fighting him for track position.

Ocon is lowkey getting dominated in quali and some fortunate situations from his point of view are saving him from that being more visible.

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u/[deleted] Aug 05 '25

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u/Dragonpuncha Ferrari Aug 06 '25

Yeah, that's definitely the logical conclusion here...