F1 boss claims current drivers may be best in sport's history

Antonelli, Norris, Verstappen, Brazil — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

F1 boss claims current drivers may be best in sport's history

Stella has praised the F1 grid

Originally written by Sheona Mountford. This version is a translation.

Sunday 16 November 2025 16:09

McLaren boss Andrea Stella has claimed that the 20 drivers on the F1 grid may be the best in the history of the sport.

The current crop shares 13 championships between them (spread between just three drivers), but it's the strength in depth that's impressed the papaya boss.

His star driver Lando Norris has had competition in races this season from team-mate Oscar Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell, who have also been tipped to be future world champions, especially if the latter is given a race winning car.

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Supporting the established names on the F1 grid are Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto, Ollie Bearman and Isack Hadjar, all rookies who have impressed in their first season of the sport with both Antonelli and Hadjar claiming a podium in 2025.

Is this the best F1 driver lineup in history?

“I think what we see in this season in Formula 1, in terms of competitiveness – and this is something that you may pick for a little bit of analysis – I don't recall that there was such a competitive pool of drivers in any other season,” Stella said.

“The new generation of drivers, they're just so good, and now you have seven, eight drivers which are at world championship level. Like I say, I'm not sure this has happened before.

“Potentially this is because of how good the junior categories now are. These guys, they go karting and they have the data. They train at a certain level when they are adolescents. This has made the competitive field extremely, extremely tight, and therefore the difference is in this last one percent.”

Formula 1