Mercedes

Mercedes was very happy about their long-term partnership with their drivers Russell and Hamilton, which is why it was a big surprise for the team when Hamilton decided to sign with Ferrari in the beginning of this year. Now they have one empty seat, that they have to fill out.

There were some rumours that Max Verstappen might join Mercedes next season. In the end they turned out as more of a fan’s wish as Mercedes brushed them aside and confirmed that Max Verstappen definitely won’t race for the Silver Arrows next year.

The free seat will most likely go to Andrea Kimi Antonelli, a young Italian driver who was born in 2006 and is part of the Mercedes junior program. He is so talented that he didn’t even compete in Formula 3 and jumped straight to Formula 2. Mercedes sees so much potential in him and they don’t want to lose the chance of signing him for their F1 team. According to rumours he should be announced as their second 2025 driver very soon.

Alpine

Alpine decided to part ways with Esteban Ocon earlier this year in favor of Pierre Gasly, who renewed his contract for another 2 years with the team. The French team is now in front of a big decision regarding their second seat for 2025.

The first option is Jack Doohan, Alpine’s reserve driver. Doohan did 2 seasons in F3 and 2 seasons in F2.  After his last season in Formula 2 in 2023, where he finished third in the overall standings, he refused every offer from all racing series to increase his chances of getting into F1 in 2025. That actually might’ve been a good move as he is the hottest candidate for the Alpine seat for the next year’s season now.

Another name on the list, that Alpine is considering, is Mick Schumacher. He is a talented driver with a big name, who got a chance in F1 for two years with Haas, however, that didn’t turn out as he imagined. Now he is driving for the Alpine hypercar team in the World Endurance Championship, which gives him a slight hope that Alpine might give him their second seat for next year.

RB

The Red Bull’s sister team is now facing an important decision as well. They renewed Yuki Tsunoda’s contract for the next season, which will be his fifth with the team as he remains there with a hope for a Red Bull promotion. At this moment the question is, who is going to drive alongside him.

Now their second driver is Daniel Ricciardo. Earlier this year, there were rumours regarding Ricciardo’s seat and his possible replacement with Liam Lawson, however, as the season has progressed Ricciardo improved. He was even the number one possible mid-season replacement of Sergio Perez because Red Bull wasn’t satisfied with his results but later on decided to stick with him till at least the rest of the season anyway.

Ricciardo is now most likely to re-sign with RB for 2025, with a small chance of getting promoted to Red Bull. If he gets promoted or RB decides to drop him, there is only one name that has the biggest chance for the RB seat, which is Liam Lawson.

Drivers like Ayumu Iwasa or Isack Hadjar, from the Red Bull junior program, are not very likely to get the free seat.

Sauber

Sauber is now in the process of getting taken over by Audi. This transition is confirmed to happen in 2026 and the team is now preparing for it. That is why they decided to sign Nico Hulkenberg, an experienced German driver who was Audi’s, as a German manufacturer, hottest candidate for the seat.

Now with only one seat left in Sauber, the choice is basically between their current drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. Bottas seems to be in a better position compared to Zhou, even though he lacks good pace and points finishes this year. On the other hand, Zhou won’t give him anything for free and will try his best to steal that remaining seat for himself.

The teams are expected to announce the 4 remaining drivers very soon. But even now it is more than safe to say that the 2025 season is going to be very exciting, with at least one rookie on the grid.