Being a Formula One driver is a dream of many. The allure of driving the best cars in the world is hard to resist. Add a globetrotting lifestyle and luxury and even sports phobics would be tempted. So how do those who reach the top make it there?
Motorsport is unlike football, basketball, baseball, or anything you might try as a kid. There is no low-cost entry to racing. You don't learn you have natural talent by beating your friends at the park. Formula One drivers' childhoods are contrary to most, involving sacrifice, money, and a lot of luck.
While the sport's early days involved the rich racing almost as a hobby, it's not the same today. We looked at three F1 drivers racing in 2025 to compare and contrast their journeys.
Oscar Piastri
No driver has made an entrance to F1 quite like Oscar Piastri. The Melbourne man stunned the paddock with his tweet denouncing Alpine, who claimed he was driving for them. Everyone in 2025 knows why McLaren swooped in to pick up the now-multiple race winner. But what had Zak Brown's team seen to gamble a court case on a rookie?
Like Charles Leclerc and George Russell, Piastri had just taken back-to-back titles in Formula 2 and Formula 3. Many drivers win F2 and F3, but the successive nature of the championships counts. These rookie-season triumphs separated this trio from the likes of Nyck de Vries, Mick Schumacher, and Felipe Drugovich.
It might seem harsh from the outside, but being a Formula 2 champion doesn't mean you're F1 material. We saw how quickly Red Bull lost interest in De Vries in 2023, for example. He and Bortoleto took three seasons to win their titles. With roughly half the grid exiting F2 each year, people expect an experienced driver to be the best.
Piastri defeated seasoned F2 racers like Zhou Guanyu and Jüri Vips to the title in a car that was new to him. He did the same in F3 one year earlier, beating Liam Lawson and Logan Sargeant. Those two years saw McLaren take an interest and change his life.
It wasn't such a celebratory time beforehand. Like many non-European drivers, Piastri had to leave his homeland behind as a teenager. Impressing in Australian karting, the 15-year-old hopeful moved to England in 2016. The European karting scene is often the proving ground for drivers, and Piastri did enough for his father's company to sponsor his step to single-seater machinery.
British F4 followed, and Oscar won a handful of races to become the vice-champion driver. Experience around some F1 tracks like Monza and Spa came one year later in Formula Renault Eurocup. Again, though, there was no title. The eventual first championship had to wait for a second season of Eurocup. It was that success that fully opened the door to F1.
Renault added Piastri to the Renault Sport Academy, later called the Alpine Academy. The academy's director, Mia Sharizman, saw the potential in those Eurocup years, and the French manufacturer's backing seemingly tipped the scales. Access to their F1 know-how led to those all-important F3 and F2 successes. It now seems a matter of time before an F1 championship gets added to the collection.
Ollie Bearman
British racer Ollie Bearman almost has the opposite route to F1 from Piastri. The London-born driver excelled in the lower ranks but never converted those championships into P1 finishes higher up the ladder. But early reputation and chance worked in Bearman's favor for him to get his chance.
Like his peers, Bearman had to shine in karting before taking that step up. Bearman's early British and European victories didn't require a journey to the other side of the world like Piastri. He'd become the champion in X30 Junior and Senior classes before graduating to F4.
That’s when Bearman had to step away from home, though. Leaving school and joining the Ferrari Driver Academy (FDA), the Bearman family put their belief in their teenager. Moving to Italy at 16, Bearman went all in on his racing dream.
The FDA works differently from other junior programs, with drivers required to pay to access Ferrari's knowledge and facilities. Although public information about the figures is unavailable, the FDA houses and feeds its members, which comes with a cost. However, keeping everything on-site, Ferrari can offer a comprehensive package for young racing hopefuls.
Nonetheless, each driver must apply the learnings to the track, and Bearman did just that. Running a dual campaign in his second F4 season, he took the Italian and German championships. This unprecedented feat was later matched by fellow F1 2025 newcomer Andrea Kimi Antonelli, showing how much early results can indicate potential.
However, those would be Bearman's final junior series titles. He next stepped up to F3, finishing P3 in the standings. A rookie F2 campaign had as many highs as lows, leaving Bearman P6, but the F1 journey was already beginning. Two rookie FP1 outings for Haas at the tail end of 2023 handed Bearman some F1 car experience that would prove life changing.
A disappointing sophomore F2 season didn't see anything like a championship surge. New regulations had his team stumbling to find speed, but it wouldn't matter. Carlos Sainz's appendicitis in Saudi Arabia required a last-minute driver to step in. Bearman's long-time ties to Ferrari had him as their reserve driver. He filled in for the Spaniard and drove a faultless race.
With that ability to tame an F1 car displayed to the world, a full-time drive seemed inevitable. Haas had already begun putting Bearman in for FP1 sessions. It was no surprise when they announced the Briton as their 2025 driver shortly after. Further appearances to substitute for Kevin Magnussen before the year ended added experience, and his rapid ascent from F4 to F1 was complete.
Isack Hadjar
Of the three drivers in this article, Isack Hadjar has the fewest junior series victories. While Piastri and Bearman's route to the top had title-winning success, it's another story for Hadjar. The French driver didn't win any championship in karting or cars, yet still reached F1. How? Hadjar's journey is an example of being at the right place at the right time.
Like his rivals, time in karting preceded the step to single-seater racing. Doing well in national championships helped, but Hadjar didn't carry that to the regional or international levels. French F4 represented his first tier of formula racing, but it took until a second season for regular podium visits.
Moving up the ladder to Formula Regional, the successor to Eurocup, is where Hadjar's life changed. A decent rookie season saw the then 16-year-old enjoy his best weekend three rounds in. It just so happens that the two races of Round 3 came at Monte Carlo in support of the Monaco GP.
With 32 entries, the championship split the field into two groups for Qualifying. Hadjar stormed to Race 1 pole position by being the fastest in his group and would start P2 in Race 2. He didn't put a foot wrong in either race and finished P1 and P2 in both Monaco rounds. Of course, the full F1 paddock was also there, and Hadjar caught the eye of an influential figure.
Helmut Marko, the enigmatic head of the Red Bull Junior Team, promptly requested a meeting with the young Monaco winner. Hadjar met the Austrian at Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and left the Principality with the promise of a contract. Hadjar was racing in F1 for Marko at Racing Bulls within four years of that meeting.
Unlike other academies, Red Bull's Junior Team comes with fully funded seats. Free from financial burden, Hadjar just needed to deliver on his promise. Ironically, it took until the end of that Formula Regional season to reach the podium again. Yet things improved when he stepped to F3...
Winning on debut and scoring consistent points had him finish P4 in the 2022 F3 standings, nine points behind Bearman. It also saw him clinch a single pole position and a Feature Race win at Red Bull's home circuit in Austria, again shining when it counted.
Formula 2's rookie campaign wasn't as bountiful, however. A lowly P14 in the standings saw just one podium trip. Sure enough, though, that again came at the Red Bull Ring. However, a supercharged second season had Hadjar as the standout driver. He won twice as many races as champion Gabriel Bortoleto.
However, reliability and incidents out of his control meant he had to settle for P2 in the standings. Fortunately for Hadjar, Bearman's earlier Ferrari debut injected belief in rookie drivers, improving his F1 hopes. Coinciding with a downturn in Sergio Perez's form, Hadjar was the best option for Red Bull to promote to the newly vacant Racing Bulls seat for 2025. Any disappointment of losing the F2 title soon disappeared with his F1 seat secured.
