3 F1 drivers who are already fighting for their careers heading into the season

The 2025 F1 season kickoff is getting ever closer now with teams and drivers executing the final preparations before Australia. The season will be a long one, with as many as 24 races in the calendar.

Every driver and team enters the season with a certain level of expectation of what they want to achieve. There are some who are vying for the title this time around, while there are others, arguably a small majority, who have a bigger fight on their hands, are fighting to secure their future in F1.

In this feature, we take a look at three of those drivers who find themselves in a tricky situation this season.

#1 Jack Doohan (Alpine F1)

This one is not that big a stretch, as Alpine has picked up Franco Colapinto to be a part of the squad. A leader like Flavio Briatore has not picked up a potential superstar like Colapinto to just sit on the sidelines and do sim work. He's picked him up because he wants to put him in his car.

The question does remain, however, about the number of races that Jack Doohan would get to prove his worth at Alpine. In terms of F1 talent, Doohan has a decent pedigree as well.

The Aussie was decent in junior categories, and if we look at the preseason test, he did just fine. The challenge that Doohan faces, however, is getting into the car and, in the very first race, having the pressure to either be very competitive against a proven talent like Pierre Gasly or even beat him.

It's almost an impossible challenge to expect something like this from a rookie, but there's certainly a likelihood that this could potentially happen. At his first-ever home race in F1, Jack Doohan has a lot of pressure on him, and it would be interesting to see how he performs and if he can keep that seat going into the future.

#2 Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls)

Being a Red Bull-backed driver is unfortunately sometimes a case of just living the F1 life on the edge. Within a moment you can be the next big thing, and soon after you're wondering what happened to your career. There was a serious possibility last season that Yuki Tsunoda would be Max Verstappen's teammate at Red Bull in 2025.

Unfortunately for the Japanese driver, that opportunity is now gone as Liam Lawson pipped him for that seat. There is, however, a problem for Yuki, as 2025 will be his 5th F1 season in the sister team.

A team that was supposed to be the ladder to the top team cannot continue to keep a driver for this long and not promote him. At the same time, this is the final season of the Red Bull-Honda association, and at some point, that relationship has also played a role in Tsunoda keeping his seat.

There's a high likelihood that the Japanese driver could be on his way out of the Red Bull umbrella, and in that case, he has to find a new home. To prove that he's good enough to be in F1, the driver has to impress, and in essence, he is fighting for his career heading into 2025.

#3 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)

This might come as a surprise because Isack Hadjar is yet to make his F1 debut, but Red Bull is currently going through a phase where the team is looking for the next Max Verstappen/Daniel Ricciardo/Sebastian Vettel who could potentially be the future of the team. That search has been hastened with the team not really having a proven talent alongside the 4x champion at the senior team.

While Isack Hadjar has been impressive, there's still a question mark around his temperament that Helmut Marko has already flagged going into the season. There's, however, a bigger issue at play here for the rookie, which is the emergence of young Arvid Lindblad, who has already secured a super license for F1 and will be making his F2 debut this season.

Red senior personnel seem very impressed with the 17-year-old prodigy and if his first few races in the feeder series are good, the team could potentially look at a straight swap as they try to benchmark him against a known entity like Yuki Tsunoda.