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First wins, historic moments and a giant squid – What was happening in the world when the 2025 rookies were born?
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The 2025 season will see a host of new names join the grid, with six rookies set to make their full-time debuts in the sport.
Ranging in age from 22 to just 18, many of these drivers were still babies when some of their new competitors – namely Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton – were making a name for themselves in Formula 1.
READ MORE: 5 things to be excited about as F1 gears up for the 2025 season
As such, we’ve taken a trip down memory lane to look back at what was happening in the world when Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, new Red Bull arrival Liam Lawson, Alpine’s Jack Doohan, Haas driver Ollie Bearman, Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and Kick Sauber’s debutant Gabriel Bortoleto were each born…
Former F2 team mates Bearman and Antonelli are amongst those set to make their full-time F1 debuts in 2025
Kimi Antonelli – August 25, 2006
We start with the youngest of the 2025 rookie pack; Kimi Antonelli, who will make his debut for Mercedes in 2025, only turned 18 in the month before his place at the squad was confirmed. When he was born on August 25, 2006, Jenson Button had recently won his first-ever race in memorable style for Honda at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, meanwhile, would go on to take his own debut victory two days after Antonelli’s arrival into the world. Fernando Alonso was leading the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Michael Schumacher in what would prove to be the Spaniard’s second – and to date last – title-winning year with Renault.
Elsewhere, Antonelli’s home country of Italy had won the FIFA World Cup earlier that summer, beating France to victory in the final – while, in astronomy news, Pluto was demoted from planet status by the International Astronomical Union on the day before Antonelli’s birth, having instead been relegated to a “dwarf planet”.
Hungary 2006: Jenson Button recalls his first Formula One win
Liam Lawson – February 11, 2002
After his super-sub appearances for Racing Bulls in 2023 and 2024, Liam Lawson will make the step up to Red Bull for the season ahead. And when the New Zealander was born on February 11, 2002, another young hopeful had signed to a leading F1 team, with Kimi Raikkonen preparing to race for McLaren after impressing in his debut season with Sauber.
Other changes across the grid included Fernando Alonso joining Renault as a test driver from Minardi, while his place at the Italian outfit was taken by rookie Mark Webber. Toyota, meanwhile, were about to embark on their first campaign in the sport, fielding a line-up of Mika Salo and Allan McNish.
Elsewhere in the month of Lawson’s birth, the Winter Olympics were held in and around Salt Lake City in Utah. Norway claimed the highest number of gold medals with a tally of 25, while Germany took a total of 36 medals, setting a record for the most medals won at the Winter Olympics.
The Toyota F1 team were preparing to make their debut in 2002, the year of Lawson's birth
Jack Doohan – January 20, 2003
When Jack Doohan was born on January 20, 2003, the F1 world was awaiting the start of a new season. Questions centred around whether anybody could take the fight to Ferrari and Michael Schumacher – a friend of Doohan’s former motorcycle racer father, Mick – after a dominant campaign in 2002 had seen the Scuderia win all but two races.
Doohan’s future team – then known as Renault rather than Alpine – were hoping that their decision to promote a certain Fernando Alonso from his role as test driver would pay dividends. The rest with that one is history…
Meanwhile in the sporting world, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders in the Super Bowl during the month of Doohan’s birth. Technology-wise, many home internet users were switching over to broadband – and in terms of what we were listening to, Lose Yourself by Eminem had taken the Number 1 spot in the US charts.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders by a score of 48–21 at the Super Bowl during the month of Jack Doohan's birth
Ollie Bearman – May 8, 2005
On the day of Ollie Bearman’s birth – that being May 8, 2005 – Kimi Raikkonen won the Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren, his first victory of the season in a year that had witnessed a shift from Ferrari’s previous dominance.
Renault had triumphed in the first four races of the campaign, with one win going to Giancarlo Fisichella while three were claimed by Fernando Alonso ahead of the Spaniard clinching what would be his first World Championship later that year.
READ MORE: Haas reveal when 2025 challenger will take to the track for the first time
Elsewhere, YouTube had launched earlier in 2005 while, in Bearman’s native Great Britain, Chelsea had won the Premier League, marking their first league title in 50 years after a season in which they broke numerous records. In the world of television, long-running shows such as The Office and Grey’s Anatomy had recently premiered in the United States.
Kimi Raikkonen won the 2005 Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren on the day that Ollie Bearman was born
Isack Hadjar – September 28, 2004
Two days before Isack Hadjar was born on September 28, 2004, Rubens Barrichello had taken what would be his final victory as a Ferrari driver at the Chinese Grand Prix. The Brazilian would not win again until he claimed two wins for Brawn GP in 2009, while the race in Shanghai was also the first in which team radio was broadcast to viewers.
In other sporting news, Roger Federer had won his first US title earlier in September after beating Lleyton Hewitt at the US Open. This would prove to be just the start as the Swiss player went on to become the only male player in history to win five consecutive US Open titles on a streak that lasted through to 2008.
READ MORE: All the 2025 F1 driver numbers confirmed in full
Entertainment-wise, the hit TV series Lost premiered this month. And while viewers were getting, well, lost by that, something else was being found – two days after Hadjar’s birth, an adult giant squid was caught on camera in its natural habitat for the first time in waters off Japan's Ogasawara Islands.
The 2004 Chinese Grand Prix marked Rubens Barrichello's final victory as a Ferrari driver
Gabriel Bortoleto – October 14, 2004
Kick Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto arrived into the world on October 14, 2004 – just a few days after Michael Schumacher had won the Japanese Grand Prix. This was the German’s 13th victory of the 18-race campaign, a record number of wins only beaten by Max Verstappen in 2022 and 2023.
Schumacher and Ferrari had already sealed both championships, marking their final back-to-back titles in a five-year run. The next race on the calendar – in Bortoleto’s native Brazil – would be won by Juan Pablo Montoya during the Columbian’s last race for Williams before his switch to McLaren.
Two days after Bortoleto was born, footballer Lionel Messi made his La Liga debut for FC Barcelona. The team won 1-0 against Espanyol in what was just the start of the Argentine’s extensive career with the club, a partnership that stretched through to 2021. This was also the beginning of his La Liga success, with Messi having scored the most goals in the club’s history.
Footballer Lionel Messi's FC Barcelona career had just started when Gabriel Bortoleto was born
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