By Eleanor Clifton
The opening race of the 2025 Formula 1 season posed a serious question: were the rookies ready for the big stage?
Heavy Melbourne rain made for the most demanding conditions at the Australian Grand Prix, won by Lando Norris and McLaren after the British driver dealt with the elements masterfully.
However, the majority of the newcomers simply weren’t up to it.
After an eventful and extremely demanding 57 laps, only two of the six rookies finished – Kimi Antonelli in fifth and Oliver Bearman 14th.
Isack Hadjar didn’t even compete in the race having crashed out during the formation lap.
Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Liam Lawson all had to retire before the end after they lost grip in the rear and went spinning into the walls.
The evidence suggests they were not ready to move up and fill F1 berths.
Even the experienced drivers on the grid struggled with the conditions which made for a devilishly greasy track – Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz both falling victim before completing the race.
While pressure is intense on rookies, if they cannot finish races the consequences should be severe.
Although Bearman did finish, he had quite a tricky weekend after only completing 15 laps before the race.
He had a high speed crash early on in Free Practice 1 (FP1), with only 12 laps under his belt in his rookie campaign.
Bearman didn’t get to take part in FP2 due to the damage caused in FP1. On the Saturday, he had another crash in FP3, just two laps in, and only did one lap during Q1 of qualifying, due to gearbox issues.
This has left fans wondering if he is actually ready to join the world of F1, despite making an impressive debut during the 2024 season when he had to fill in for Carlos Sainz at Ferrari.
However, since he was able to battle through the wet and tricky conditions in Australia, there is a strong argument that he is indeed ready and that what happened at the start of the weekend was a slip-up that he will learn from while continuing to make an impression at Haas.
Antonelli had the most impressive first F1 race after starting the race in P16 and finishing P5.
He has his seat at Mercedes, so he already has a good car to drive with one of the better teams on the grid.
But that doesn’t always mean drivers in teams like this will be able to maximise and get the most out of their cars.
Yet Antonelli was able to do this, even after receiving a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release. Without this, he would have finished fourth.
It could still be too early in the season to be able to tell if some of the rookies are ready for F1, as they have only had one race.
But already there are doubts about the ability of many of them to handle the pressure, and to drive at the level required to be a successful F1 driver.