The 5 Youngest F1 Drivers to Ever Compete

More often than not, talented drivers make their way to F1 at a very young age. While most of their beginnings come from karting, some drivers leapfrog past F3 and F2 to head right into Formula 1. Over the past few decades, many extremely young drivers have made their way to the top, with Kimi Antonelli being the latest to join for the 2025 F1 season.

In this article, we’ll highlight the top five youngest drivers in F1 to compete, including where they began, who they race for, how well they’ve performed at a young age and how they’ve impacted the sport overall.

#5 Jaime Alguersuari – 19 years, 4 months, 3 days

Starting the list of youngest F1 drivers is 19-year-old Jaime Alguersuari, who would be brought up from the Red Bull Junior team to Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) to replace Sebastien Bourdais at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix. His performance throughout the next few years up until 2011 was relatively underwhelming, as he’d only rack up 30 points with a top personal finish of 7th place in all his races.

By 2012, the youngster would get dropped from Red Bull Chiefs and couldn’t find another team to race for. After a few years of his final motorsport career in Formula E and GT, Jaimes Alguersauri would quit racing altogether to become a DJ and pursue his love of music.

#4 Oliver Bearman – 18 years, 10 months, 1 day

Up next is the Briton Oliver Bearman, an 18-year-old who’d work his way up from the Ferrari Junior roster after claiming an F2 pole position at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. He rapidly replaced Carlos Sainz (suffering from appendicitis) in the 2024 Saudi Arabia F1 Grand Prix before settling with Haas Racing in July 2024.

Bearman replaced Nico Hulkenberg at Haas for the 2025 season and comes in as the 4th overall youngest driver to ever compete at the F1 level, a truly impressive feat.

#3 Kimi Antonelli – 18 years, 6 months, 19 days

The latest to join the F1 roster is 18-year-old Italian Kimi Antonelli, a young racer who would leapfrog F3 after his karting career to head right into the PREMA Racing F2 team as a Mercedes Junior team driver.

He performed extremely well in a rain-riddled Silverstone Race, taking home an F2 victory, which prompted Toto Wolff (Mercedes team manager) to set his sights on the young driver. Since Lewis Hamilton’s departure from Mercedes to Ferrari in the 2025 F1 season, Kimi Antonelli would be the latest aspiring young talent to take the seat at Mercedes next to George Russell.

#2 Lance Stroll – 18 years, 4 months, 25 days

Canadian racer Lance Stroll would begin his promising youth career at Ferrari’s Junior program, where he won the European F3 title, prompting him to become a newfound Williams Racing test driver. He became just one of two drivers who would skip F2 altogether to join F1 after having a spectacular F3 campaign.

Stroll took an F1 seat in 2017 for Williams before becoming a Racing Point driver next to Sergio Perez for the 2019 and 2020 seasons. Eventually, the team became Aston Martin Racing, where Lance Stroll would be their #1 driver to the 2025 season with a seat next to Fernando Alonso.

#1 Max Verstappen – 17 years, 5 months, 13 days

Finally, the youngest driver to ever take an F1 seat is none other than the legendary Max Verstappen. Like Stroll, the 17-year-old Dutch driver skipped F2 altogether and made his F1 debut for Toro Rosso (now Racing Bulls) in 2015.

In 2016, Verstappen’s talent would earn him a spot at Red Bull’s main team for the season, making him the youngest driver to ever compete in F1, with an immediate victory in his first Barcelona Grand Prix. While Max oozes talent, he would not only be the youngest driver to ever compete in F1, but one of the best to ever race, and heading into the 2025 season, Max Verstappen would already have a whopping 4 world championships under his belt.