The last 10 drivers to win the FIA Rookie of the Year award as Rafael Camara scoops 2025 prize

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The FIA’s annual Prize Giving Gala sees plenty of awards handed out across a wide range of series, but one of the most hotly anticipated is for the Rookie of the Year.

Many emerging talents on the Formula 1 grid and rising stars from an array of other categories have won the FIA Rookie of the Year award in recent seasons.

The most recent recipient of the gong is Rafael Camara after dominating his maiden season in Formula 3. The Brazilian broke the F3 record for the most pole positions in 2025, starting from the front spot five times during the year.

Camara had a record-breaking year in Formula 3, after clinching the championship victory at the penultimate race in Hungary, making him the first driver to achieve the feat.

After an incredible debut season in the series with Trident, it was confirmed that the Ferrari Junior will make a step up to Formula 2 in 2026 with reigning champions Invicta Racing.

The FIA Rookie of the Year award was first handed out in 2014 and, since then, the winners have gone on to achieve varying levels of success. For many past winners, they would make their way to Formula 1 but it is not a path that every driver chooses to take.

So, on the back of Camara winning the 2025 FIA Rookie of the Year award, F1 Oversteer takes a look back at the last 10 drivers to lift the gong…

2015 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Max Verstappen

It is hard to believe that Max Verstappen earned this award nearly 10 years ago but it was at the 2015 gala that the Dutchman won the FIA Rookie of the Year title.

Verstappen, like Kvyat, also earned the award after his debut season in Formula 1 with Toro Rosso. Red Bull ushered him onto the grid as the youngest F1 driver of all time, with Verstappen making his debut at 17 years and 166 days old in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix.

The record-breaking talent also only waited until his second race to score points with P7 in the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix, marking the first of Verstappen’s 10 top-10 results through 19 entries for 49 points that season.

Starting the 2016 season with three top-10 results through four races even saw the Dutchman replace Kvyat at Red Bull, and Verstappen won his first F1 race on debut at the Spanish Grand Prix.

Red Bull have come to relish promoting Verstappen, with the Milton Keynes team growing around him en route to winning Formula 1 drivers’ championships in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

A further flurry of records broken later, thanks largely to dominating the 2023 season with 19 wins through 22 Grands Prix, it is safe to say that Verstappen has established himself as an all-time great in Formula 1.

2016 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Kevin Hansen

Kevin Hansen remains the only winner of the FIA Rookie of the Year award to date who was not on the path to Formula 1 when he won the title.

The Swede is a leading light of the rallycross world and scooped the Rookie of the Year gong in 2016 after Hansen stepped up to the top tier in the FIA World Rallycross Championship after winning the RX Lites Cup in 2015.

Hansen followed in the family tradition by becoming a rallycross driver and drove alongside his brother Timmy for his father Kenneth’s team in the 2016 WRX season.

In his Peugeot-Hansen car, Kevin Hansen finished 15th in the WRX standings with fourth-place finishes at the World RX of Great Britain and Germany as the highlights.

He also won the supercar category that year with Hansen’s performances across five races and has gone on to have a successful rallycross career, including fighting for the WRX title in 2019 and 2023 alongside competing in Extreme E.

2017 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Charles Leclerc

The FIA Rookie of the Year award returned to a young open-wheeled driver in 2017 with Charles Leclerc winning the trophy.

Leclerc was also the first winner of the prize to still be working his way towards Formula 1, with the Monegasque handed the award after winning back-to-back GP3 Series and Formula 2 titles.

He defeated the likes of Nicholas Latifi, Nyck de Vries and Alex Albon to seal the 2017 F2 title and was rewarded with a seat on the F1 grid with Sauber heading into the following year.

2018 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Charles Leclerc

Leclerc even became the only back-to-back winner of the FIA Rookie of the Year award to date in 2018, having highlighted his immense potential as soon as he joined the F1 grid with Sauber.

The Monegasque teamed up with Marcus Ericsson, who was entering his fifth year in the sport and his fourth with Sauber, yet Leclerc quickly proved himself.

Racing beside Leclerc even proved to be Ericsson’s last season in F1, as his young teammate outscored the Swede 39 points to nine. So, Ferrari decided they had seen enough to promote Leclerc and placed their academy product in a works car alongside Vettel.

He has since established himself as a qualifying specialist with Leclerc one of the fastest drivers over one lap in F1 with a myriad of pole positions. He is also a multiple-time Grand Prix winner and enjoyed a title challenge for the first time in 2022.

2019 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Alex Albon

While Albon was racing against Leclerc in Formula 2 back in 2017, it took the London-born Thai driver slightly longer to reach the pinnacle of motorsport and join the Monegasque in F1.

After finishing third in the 2018 Formula 2 standings, Albon joined British pair George Russell and Lando Norris in making the step up to Formula 1 for the 2019 season. The FIA also named Albon as its Rookie of the Year following his early exploits in F1.

The FIA was not the only party to see Albon’s potential, either, as he also earned a promotion to the senior Red Bull team to drive alongside Verstappen in place of Pierre Gasly after just 12 races with Toro Rosso.

While joining Red Bull did not work out for Albon and they dropped the Thai for Sergio Perez ahead of the 2021 season, he returned to the F1 grid with Williams in 2022 and has proven that he is the real deal.

2020 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Yuki Tsunoda

The Red Bull Junior team continued to hoover up the FIA Rookie of the Year award in 2020 as Yuki Tsunoda won the trophy without yet stepping foot on a Formula 1 grid.

The Japanese driver even took part and impressed in two series during the 2020 season, in which Tsunoda finished third in Formula 2 and fourth in the Toyota Racing Series.

Those performances also meant Tsunoda became the latest driver to earn a promotion to the newly re-named AlphaTauri F1 team after Red Bull rebranded Toro Rosso.

Honda-backed Tsunoda has since been partnered with many different drivers at the Faenza outfit, including through its second rebrand to Visa Cash App RB in 2024, but he remained the constant.

His efforts for the Faenza team had previously seen Tsunoda touted for a move to Aston Martin ahead of Honda leaving Red Bull to become the Silverstone squad’s works engine partner in 2026.

2021 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Oscar Piastri

The conveyor belt of drivers making the step up from Formula 2 to F1 was beginning to slow down but Oscar Piastri still caught the eye with his displays in 2021.

The Australian took pole position in each of the last five races of the 2021 F2 season and won six races all year as Piastri took the title in his rookie campaign with a 60.5-point advantage over Robert Shwartzman.

Yet Piastri had to watch from the sidelines in 2022 after Alpine failed to secure their academy driver promotion to Formula 1. So, he spent the year as the Enstone outfit’s reserve driver as Zhou Guanyu earned a seat at the Alfa Romeo-branded Sauber team.

But what Piastri showed during his F2 title-winning season, on the back of winning the Formula 3 crown on debut in 2022, saw him win the FIA Rookie of the Year award. It also proved he had the potential to be a world-class driver.

2022 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Zane Maloney

Zane Maloney won the 2022 FIA Rookie of the Year award after the boy from Barbados finished as the runner-up for the Formula 3 title to Victor Martins by just five points.

His triumph still marks the lowest series from which the FIA Rookie of the Year award winner has come so far, although Maloney did complete the final weekend of the F2 Championship that year with Trident.

The only rookie in F1 in 2022 was Zhou who managed to score just six points, while the highest-placed rookie in Formula 2 was fourth-place Logan Sargeant – although that was enough to earn the American a seat in F1 with Williams.

It meant Maloney – who lost out on the F3 title to Martins, who was in his second season at that level – ended up with the Rookie of the Year trophy.

Maloney also made the move up to Formula 2 full-time in 2023, but finished the year 10th in the standings and was outscored by Rodin Carlin teammate Enzo Fittipaldi by 28 points.

Rodin retained Maloney for the 2024 F2 season and saw the Barbados boy become a title contender from the off with Sprint and Feature Race wins at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

He also took P2 in both races at the British Grand Prix but would forfeit the final round after Maloney secured a move to Formula E with the LOLA Yamaha ABT team.

2023 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Oscar Piastri

It came as no surprise to anyone who watched Formula 1 in 2023 that Piastri won the FIA Rookie of the Year award for his performances with McLaren beside established talent Norris.

When McLaren decided to drop Daniel Ricciardo from the 2023 F1 season, they quickly took advantage of a contractual clause to lure Piastri away from Alpine’s clutches to partner Norris.

It proved to be a great decision for both parties, too, as Piastri produced statistically the best rookie season in F1 since Lewis Hamilton with McLaren in 2007 by scoring multiple Grand Prix podium finishes.

Piastri quickly Piastri earned his first podium in Formula 1 with P3 in the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, before winning the F1 Sprint at the Qatar Grand Prix and finishing P2 in the main race.

He also helped the Woking outfit win their first constructors’ title since 1998 during the 2024 season after Piastri won his first Grand Prix at the 2024 Hungarian GP that year.

2024 FIA Rookie of the Year winner: Gabriel Bortoleto

Gabriel Bortoleto won the 2024 FIA Rookie of the Year award after lifting the Formula 2 title during his rookie season. His title-winning campaign also saw Audi sign Bortoleto to drive for Sauber in F1 from 2025.

Bortoleto saw off the challenge of Isack Hadjar to win the F2 title with Invicta Racing whilst a McLaren junior driver. His championship success also followed the Brazilian winning the Formula 3 title as a rookie with Trident during the 2023 season.

Despite not winning a race until the 14th of the year, Bortoleto used his Feature Race victory on the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix bill to mount a Formula 2 title challenge. He took the title by 22.5 points, aided by Bortoleto’s last-to-first Feature Race victory at the Italian Grand Prix.