Five F1 drivers frantically trying to avoid being axed in 2025

Daniel Ricciardo

Heading into the 2024 F1 season, Daniel Ricciardo’s sole aim was to make a swift return to Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen. It’s now fair to say that Ricciardo is closer to not being on the grid for 2025 than signing for F1’s leading team.

Things haven’t worked out for Ricciardo in 2024 with his performances reminiscent of his days with McLaren. He’s yet to out-qualify teammate Yuki Tsunoda, and his only triumph on race day came in Bahrain, benefitting from a RB team orders call.

To Ricciardo’s credit, he showed a better turn of pace at Suzuka last time out, despite missing FP1 as Ayumu Iwasa was handed an outing in the RB and then second practice was unproductive given the weather. However, he threw away a solid starting position with a clumsy incident on the opening lap.

RB are giving Ricciardo a new chassis for China - so there’s no excuses for him now. Ricciardo has to up his game fast or risk losing his seat to Liam Lawson.

Logan Sargeant

Logan Sargeant shows no sign of improving in his sophomore season at Williams. He’s yet to beat Alex Albon in a competitive session - qualifying or the race - and errors continue to creep into his driving. 

Ironically, Sargeant performed at his best during the first few races of his F1 career, showing flashes of speed and potential in Bahrain and Azerbaijan. Since then, Sargeant has continued to disappoint, and a lack of obvious replacement was ultimately why Williams decided to retain him for this season.

While it’s unlikely, Sargeant needs an incredible upturn in form to keep his drive for 2025. If the American is replaced, Andrea Kimi Antonelli seems likely if Mercedes don't opt for him.

Zhou Guanyu

Zhou Guanyu tends to go under the radar for his performances - or lack of. Zhou has been out-qualified 12-1 by Valtteri Bottas in the last 13 races - a remarkable stat given the general perception that the pair are fairly evenly matched as teammates.

In similar fashion to Sargeant, Zhou hasn’t kicked on since his rookie year. By the middle of 2022, Zhou exceeded everyone’s expectations and the ‘pay driver’ tag had somewhat disappeared.

Since then, while he’s has some high moments (Spain 2023, Hungary 2023 qualifying) generally speaking, they have been few and far between. In 2023, he was knocked out in Q1 on 15 occasions - only Sargeant (17) had more eliminations. 

While the Sauber package since the start of 2023 has rarely threatened the top 10, Zhou has stagnated, often going missing during weekends. With Audi gearing up for their F1 entry in 2026, they will be keen to have two high-performing drivers.

Unfortunately, on the evidence of the last two and a bit years, Zhou isn’t that.

Kevin Magnussen

With Oliver Bearman waiting in the wings, Kevin Magnussen is another driver fighting for his F1 future. To Magnussen’s credit, the struggles of last year seem to have lessened, particularly in qualifying.

While Nico Hulkenberg continues to have the edge, Magnussen is performing closer to his best. Haas have a long-standing relationship with Magnussen and would prove to be a solid experienced option alongside Bearman in 2025.

Haas would love to keep Hulkenberg, but it looks like Audi awaits him, which is good news for Magnussen.

Valtteri Bottas

The best performing driver on our list is Bottas. The Finn is on a remarkable qualifying streak against teammate Zhou, coming out on top on Saturdays in eight consecutive weekends.

Without Sauber’s recurring pit stop woes, Bottas would have likely scored in at least two of the opening rounds. So despite Bottas’ off track 'distractions' or claims he’s not interested in F1, the Finn is still performing at a very high level.

However, it seems that Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl is still keen to replace him, with some reports suggesting he wanted Bottas out at the end of last year. Harsh? Most definitely given the level of the car on top of all of the operational errors costing him several opportunities of headline results.

Regardless, Audi will be keen to bolster their driver line-up ahead of 2026, and with the likes of Carlos Sainz also linked, the current Ferrari driver would be an obvious upgrade on Bottas. The German factor goes in Hulkenberg’s favour while one of the Alpine drivers could be also available - and with Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly being younger than Bottas - that could make them an attractive proposition for Audi.