F1 champion picks 2025 season top rookies, snubs Antonelli
Jacques Villeneuve has offered a measured and diplomatic take on who he considers Formula 1’s rookie of the season.
“It's a tough one because it changed during the season.”- Jacques Villeneuve
The 54-year-old, in his assessment, admitted to having evolving views of several young drivers. Villeneuve eventually settled on the trio of Gabriel Bortoleto, Isack Hadjar, and Oliver Bearman.
“It's a tough one because it changed during the season. There was a moment where I was thinking, okay, it's Bortoleto, then Hadjar, then Bearman, and it kept switching between those three, because they're the three who aren't in a big team,” Villeneuve began on the High-Performance podcast.
Explaining his decision not to include Kimi Antonelli, the Canadian continued:
“Antonelli is in a Mercedes, so you can't compare him to the other three drivers. You can only compare him to his teammate.”
Analysing his inclusion of Bortoleto, the 1997 world champion pointed to his impressive development curve through his rookie season:
“Bortoleto, in the middle of the season, started a little slow, was learning from [Nico] Hulkenberg, and kept getting better. Then in the last few races, he started making a few mistakes and crashed, but he shows a lot of potential and seems very serious,” he said.
Villeneuve also dubbed Hadjar a hit or miss, highlighting how brilliant his performance can be and, on some occasions, how he appears a little under par:
“Hadjar was hit or miss. He had some crazy – very Red Bull style – very aggressive races, wow, where did that come from? And then some other races where he was behind [Liam] Lawson.”
Spotlighting Bearman, Villeneuve lauded the British driver for his impressive results despite a slow start to the campaign:
“Bearman started well. He took a little dip, but then suddenly became super impressive again because he was next to a very experienced teammate, and he really got some amazing results.”
Further praising the Haas driver, he added:
“He has good racecraft and spatial awareness. He can read the race quite well, which you don't see in every driver. You can see it when he makes his moves, when he goes to overtake. He really has good racecraft. So I wouldn't know how to pick between those three.”
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Verstappen crowned ‘Dad of the rookies’
Antonelli also crowned Max Verstappen the ‘Dad of the rookies’ in his assessment of the help the Dutch driver extended to young drivers.
The Italian, alongside Bortoleto, stressed how the four-time world champion often offered his support throughout the course of the campaign.
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