2025 F1 Season Review: Kimi Antonelli is the best rookie of the season

Kimi Antonelli joined Mercedes this season as Lewis Hamilton's replacement. As a teen, he was rated highly by paddock insiders, and it takes a special driver to get their debut in F1 with the German team.

While there were moments where he showed that he belonged, overall, this was a season where, at points, it did appear that he was out of his depth in his sport. At the same time, Kimi Antonelli was a part of a very impressive crop of rookies that debuted in F1 this season.

We had Isack Hadjar, who scored a podium in his Racing Bulls and has been promoted to Red Bull. We had Ollie Bearman, who came into his own after an early-season stumble. Then there was Gabriel Bortoleto as well, who continued to evolve and impress as the season progressed.

In the eyes of many, Isack Hadjar takes the cake as the most impressive rookie. Quite a few have gone with Ollie Bearman as well. Well, in our view, it was Kimi Antonelli who ended up being the most impressive rookie this season. Let's take a look.

Kimi Antonelli's rookie season was the best!

Why he shouldn't be

The biggest damning evidence when it comes to Kimi Antonelli not being the best rookie is his numbers next to his teammate George Russell. The rookie's numbers don't paint a bright picture of his season as Russell more or less executes a clean sweep on him.

Russell has 319 points, 2 poles, 2 wins, and 9 podiums. Antonelli, on the other hand, has 150 points and 3 podiums. When we look at these numbers, it does make you question if the driver had a strong enough season.

To add to this, there was a period where Kimi Antonelli looked completely out of sorts and unable to make the most of the car under him. So much so, the driver was even called out publicly by Toto Wolff after one of the races.

You compare that with the likes of Isack Hadjar, who became the benchmark within his team as soon as Yuki Tsunoda was moved to Red Bull, or Ollie Bearman, who outscored and outperformed an experienced hand in Esteban Ocon at Haas, then it does make you question the premise behind picking Kimi Antonelli as the rookie of the season.

Why numbers alone don't necessarily show the true story

Now, let's come to the other side of the equation, where it is safe to say that the numbers don't necessarily show the full story. One of the major reasons why that is the case is that the benchmarks that each of the rookies had were different.

For Isack Hadjar, he had another young driver in Liam Lawson, who had been dropped from Red Bull after just two races. Lawson came to the team down on confidence and took a long time to recover from the shock that was his stint at the senior team.

At Haas, Ollie Bearman was going up against an Esteban Ocon who had a major learning curve in front of him. The French driver was moving from a Renault power unit to a Ferrari one at Haas, which meant a major change in terms of learning and unlearning the way he drove the car. Then came the change of moving from Alpine to Haas. It was still certainly an impressive drive from Bearman overall, but he wasn't up against the best version of Ocon.

Now, when we move to Kimi Antonelli, we see the difference. Contrary to the benchmarks in other teams, the young Italian was up against George Russell at the prime of his career. Sure, Ocon and Lawson were worthy challengers, but Russell is the cream of the crop in F1. Alongside Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, he is one of the top 3 drivers on the grid.

With such a massive benchmark in front of him, Kimi Antonelli was never expected to beat him. The expectation for the first year was to learn and get closer to the pace.

Antonelli did stumble a bit when the Mercedes suspension upgrade introduced in Canada proved to be a disaster, but as soon as it was gone, he slowly started putting the pieces together.

His race weekend in Brazil was one of the best for any driver throughout the season. He ended up picking another podium in Vegas, overcoming a poor qualifying. Later in the season, Antonelli had multiple races where he had the measure of teammate George Russell as well.

Getting anywhere close to George Russell is a bonus for any rookie on the grid. The fact that Antonelli was able to get the better of him and by the end of the season was more or less within striking distance of his teammate is what tips the scales in his favor.

Conclusion

When we're talking about the rookie season, we need to understand that there would be errors. There would be moments when the driver is still getting used to racing in F1. What matters the most, however, is the level of performance you reach by the end of the season.

For Kimi Antonelli, if we take a look at the last quarter of the season, he was arguably performing at a much higher level than his rookie counterparts. Considering the fact that he was constantly being measured against George Russell as a teammate, it's hard not to pick the Italian as the best rookie of the season.