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The 2025 Formula 1 season housed the largest number of rookie drivers since the 2010 term, and Michael Bleekemolen thinks one of them could have ended their maiden season as a world champion if they were given the same tools as Lando Norris.
Other than Lando Norris’ first world title feat, the 2025 F1 campaign will also be remembered as the year of the rookie.
The majority of the debutants were extremely impressive. Isack Hadjar and Kimi Antonelli both secured their very first podiums, while Gabriel Bortoleto showed why he deserves a drive at the works Audi team, and Oliver Bearman proved why he could replace Lewis Hamilton at Ferrari one day.
Former F1 driver Michael Bleekemolen believes that one of these drivers could have done what no other driver in the history of the category has previously achieved: winning the title in their rookie season.
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Michael Bleekemolen thinks Isack Hadjar would have won the 2025 F1 title in Lando Norris’ McLaren
During a quick-fire interview with RacingNews365 NL, Bleekemolen was given a series of images from the recently concluded campaign and was asked to answer questions based on them.
After being shown a split image of the two occasions where Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crashed together, the current NASCAR Euro Series driver was asked who, out of the current field of drivers, would have won the title in identical machinery to them.
Bleekemolen replied, “That’s a difficult question. The first one that comes to mind is Hadjar, I think.”
Then asked why he didn’t name a more established driver on the grid like George Russell, Charles Leclerc, and Fernando Alonso, the Dutchman added, “I think in terms of age, he’s just super. It’s incredible how well that man is doing.”
After impressing Red Bull’s leadership figures in 2025, Isack Hadjar will now partner with Max Verstappen at the Austrian constructor in the first season of F1’s new regulations this year.
The record of Verstappen’s teammates in recent years means that the Frenchman has a daunting task ahead of him.
It also means that Hadjar must learn to ‘live with’ Red Bull favouring Verstappen in the early stages of his tenancy in order for him to get the most out of the car.
- READ MORE: Isack Hadjar explains why he gives Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso more ‘leeway’ when racing them
Will Isack Hadjar suffer the same fate as Pierre Gasly at Red Bull?
Lewis Hamilton came mightily close to winning a championship during his rookie Formula 1 season
The seven-time world champion remains the most recent driver to have been in contention for a title during his maiden foray into Formula 1 racing.
Hamilton came awfully close to winning the title in 2007 with McLaren after being in the driver’s seat of the title fight heading into the last race of the season in Brazil.
Kimi Raikkonen ended up surprising everybody by taking the crown at the chequered flag, with one McLaren mechanic blaming the ‘terrible teamwork’ between Hamilton and Alonso as the leading factor for why the title didn’t head back to Woking with one of them.
Before Hamilton, there was Jacques Villeneuve. In a very similar vein to Hamilton’s first two seasons in F1, the Canadian driver came close to winning a championship in his first season of racing, before finally clinching one in the following campaign.
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