You can all blame the Motorsport101 Discord for this one. We got talking after the Miami GP, about what would happen if you had to rank the F1 drivers in a draft format. I was reminded of the fact that I did this very thing in 2021 based on the Class of 2020, and the people demanded I do a sequel. So welcome to Dre does the F1 Draft 2: Draft Harder!
So, a reminder of the premise here. F1’s come under new ownership, via Jeff “Dre Harrison” Bezos. Because they have more money than God, we’ve managed to buy out and destroy all the current driver contracts and declare a draft for the 2026 season. In that scenario, who goes first? And who goes where? This is where the fun begins.
In American Sports, they all have a draft format for new talent entering the league that same year, usually filled with the best collegiate and overseas talent. Typically, the brightest prospect, or most “ready” player goes first. I’m basing our draft closest to the NFL draft, which determines the original draft order based on who had the worst record the previous year. So for example – This year, the #1 pick went to last year’s 2-15 Las Vegas Raiders, taking Heisman Trophy winner and National Champion quarterback Fernando Mendoza, who in the eyes of most, is the best prospect in the country.
So, we’ll apply that here. But because Cadillac is a brand new team, they pick first as they’re an expansion team. Now because there’s only 22 spots on the grid compared to 224 draft spots in the NFL, giving Caddy the first pick of both rounds is a little overpowered to me. So as with last time, we’re also taking the Serpentine draft format, so the last pick of the first round takes the first pick of Round 2. So McLaren, last year’s constructors have the disadvantage of having to wait until #11 to select a driver, but at least get compensated with immediately getting to lock their team in via the #12 pick too. So, the overall draft order will look like this:
| 1 – Cadillac | 12 – McLaren |
| 2 – Alpine | 13 – Mercedes |
| 3 – Audi | 14 – Red Bull |
| 4 – Haas | 15 – Ferrari |
| 5 – Aston Martin | 16 – Williams |
| 6 – Racing Bulls | 17 – Racing Bulls |
| 7 – Williams | 18 – Aston Martin |
| 8 – Ferrari | 19 – Haas |
| 9 – Red Bull | 20 – Audi |
| 10 – Mercedes | 21 – Alpine |
| 11 – McLaren | 22 – Cadillac |
Now, the last time I did this, I heavily took into account the needs and styles of the team when picking, sometimes abandoning logic. For example, Aston Martin going into 2021, took Lance Stroll sixth overall. A huge reach on paper, but I used the fact that Lawrence Stroll would absolutely NOT abandon his son if the option to take him came up. THIS time, I’m going to take a different approach and be a bit more aggressive towards taking the “best talent available”, in combination with value. For example, Lewis Hamilton is still absolutely one of the best drivers in the world, around the middle of the Top 10, but he’s also 41 in January. If you’re a top team in the draft, you’re spending a really expensive pick on essentially a rental. Don’t get me started on Fernando.
Outside F1 picks are allowed, so anyone with a Superlicense is eligible. And one more thing – No trades. If we did that, this gets way too needlessly complicated and ultimately, this is some fun, so don’t take this too seriously, and please tell me how you’d rank the field, I’d love to know.
Right, welcome to the F1 draft, live from the FIA’s new favourite country… Rwanda.
Pick #1 (Cadillac) – Max Verstappen 🇳🇱
Notes: 28, 4x World Champion (21’-24’), 71 Wins, 48 Pole Positions
Let’s not waste anyone’s time here. Max Verstappen retires tomorrow and he’s one of the greatest of all-time. Despite losing his World Championship last year, everyone pretty much kept him cemented as the best driver in the world, an honour we’ve only really given to Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton in recent years.
There’s some character issues here. He’s openly flirted with retirement at just his Age 29 season, which would be catastrophic in terms of his value. He’s also got a mean streak where at times, he will cross over that line from aggressive into disruptive, and can be difficult to control from an emotional standpoint. But are you going to be the Team Principal that leaves Max Verstappen on the board? Not a chance in hell.
Pick #2 (Alpine) – Andrea Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹
Notes: 19, 2025 Rookie of the Year, 2026 World Championship Leader, 4 Wins, 3 Pole Positions
Yeah, this is the one right here. Even if we pretended the 2026 season hadn’t started yet, I’d be taking Kimi second. Why? Because he’d already shown enough upside to say that on a good day, he can match and even beat George Russell (Brazil 25’ for instance), who for me, is now an elite driver in the current F1 field.
And of course, breaking the fourth wall here for a minute. He’s already massively improved on that in 2026, taking advantage of the new regulations and Mercedes’ revival to dominate the early going with three wins and three pole positions, the first driver ever to convert their first three poles into wins. Everything screams S-Tier prospect about Antonelli, and he maximises “value” as he’s only 19, you could have him for 20 years if you tried hard enough. The proven track record for Verstappen gave him the #1 spot for me but if you took Kimi #1, I wouldn’t have blamed you, he’s more than viable for me at the top of the draft. A monster.
Pick #3 (Audi) – Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨
Notes: 28, 8 Wins, 27 Pole Positions, 52 Podiums, 2022 World Championship Runner-Up
I’ll be honest with you here, the next four picks could easily go in any order and you could make a tangible argument for them. This is like the 2026 NBA Draft, just stacked with good talent that could immediately make half a dozen teams better from Day 1.
Charles Leclerc would easily be an F1 equivalent of that. I’ve said for a while now that if you put a gun to my head and asked me who the second best driver in F1 is right now, I’d say Charles. He just has those spectacular moments that make you want to have him on your team. Those career numbers are outrageous for a driver who’s had a #1 for maybe the first half of 2022, and maybe the final six rounds of 2024. 27 pole positions is nuts and why he’s generally regarded as the greatest qualifier of this era (even factoring in the sheer quantity of Verstappen and Hamilton).
Not to mention, he’s beaten every teammate he’s ever had, and there’s no scrubs here – Marcus Ericsson (Indy 500 winner and Top 6 driver in the series three years running), Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz Jr and Lewis Hamilton in 2025. Factor all that in, even with him being 3-4 years older than some of the other guys in this region, I’d still take Leclerc at #3.
Pick #4 (Haas) – Lando Norris 🇬🇧
Notes: 26, 2025 World Champion, 11 Wins, 16 Pole Positions, 45 Podiums
Just like in the World Championship season he wins the damn thing in, he still ends up being a tertiary story. How unfortunate.
There’s an obvious discussion point here I probably ought to address – Do you take Lando higher than his teammate Oscar Piastri, despite the former being 18 months younger?
For me, I give Lando the slight edge. The pros for Lando is, he’s got a fair bit more experience, having debuted far younger at 19, with 151 starts entering 2026 compared to 69 for Oscar. They battled head-to-head with Piastri, the strongest version of himself we’ve seen as a driver so far in his career, Lando did narrowly come out on top in that battle, even if both men showed weaknesses under an intense title fight.
Lando struggled to adapt to his MCL39 at first, but got a fair bit stronger in the second and third quarters of the season, including some brilliant drives at Brazil and Mexico where he ran the field over.
For me, Lando’s body of work, the extra experience trade-off versus his age, and beating Max Verstappen for a Championship gave him the edge here for me. Now I await for another Australian TV host to tell me it’s a grand conspiracy. (This actually happened.)
Pick #5 (Aston Martin) – Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺
Notes: 25, 9 Wins, 6 Pole Positions, 28 Podiums, 3rd in 2025 World Championship
…And none of this is a huge jab at Oscar, I promise. If anything, there’s a serious case you could make that at his best, he’s better than Lando. Remember, Piastri led through 15 rounds of last year’s Championship. His qualifying was virtually identical to Norris (Within a tenth on average), and at times looked like he’d surpassed Lando overall in his first major title battle.
But there’s going to be some temperament questions to be asked about Piastri in that final third. Blowing a 100+ point lead to Verstappen down the stretch was catastrophic, and a good chunk of it was Piastri’s own making. Baku wasn’t good enough. He wiped out multiple cars with an over-ambitious lunge at COTA, and was completely outmatched at Brazil and Mexico, tracks Lando won. The Aussie, while incredibly fast at his maximum potential, still struggles on low-grip tracks to adapt, and that’s an issue he has to overcome to win the big one with F1 racing at more tracks that aren’t raced on as often.
The upside might just be a little bit higher than Norris, but the drawbacks for me were enough for him to go at #5 here. After all the rumours last year about an Aston Martin poaching in 2025, he ended up here anyway. Ha.
Pick #6 (Racing Bulls) – George Russell 🇬🇧
Notes: 28, 6 Wins, 8 Pole Positions, 26 Podiums, 4th in 2022 and 2025 World Championships
This feels like a raw deal. But that’s the nature of drafting for talent, sometimes they’ll slide down due to needs, concerns, preferences, etc. Any one of Lando, Charles or Oscar being taken sixth here, as well as George feels harsh. But someone had to be.
Again, there’s some big dubs in the win column here. His Mercedes tenure has been mostly excellent. He walked into Lewis Hamilton’s house and immediately ate off his plate. I had to seriously deliberate whether he had a better season than Lewis in 2022. He got his first win that season, and while his 2023 was a setback, he came back and outclassed him completely in 2025. Before George arrived, Lewis’ only real off-colour season was 2011 and his obsessive feud with Felipe Massa. You could make a good case George was 2-1 against the greatest ever, even if Lewis was in his Late 30’s and never seemed to get on well with the “ground effect” cars.
Arguably the biggest swinger in here – His 2025 season was seriously underrated. An average start and finish in the Mid 4’s and ultra-consistent, just lacking a little bit more in the car across the season to really challenge McLaren and Max. It was the real “coming of age” season that George needed in the eyes of many (Mostly Hamilton fans, let’s be real here.)
The main cons? A little bit older at 28. He’s definitely had some rough moments in terms of racecraft, I did used to nickname him “Sidepod muncher” for some of his more aggressive moments on track. And then there’s the Devil’s advocate question – Just how good was Lewis in those last three Mercedes seasons and if you’re giving LH the benefit of the doubt, does that hurt George’s stock by proxy?
Tough one that. As said before, this four pick block could have gone in any direction, but I had the most questions about Russell’s place, so he had to go sixth. If you took a punt at him at #3, I wouldn’t blame you, there’s still a LOT to like here.
Pick #7 (Williams) – Carlos Sainz Jr 🇪🇸
Notes: 31, 4 Wins, 6 Pole Positions, 29 Podiums, 5th in 2021, 2022 and 2024 Championships
Carlos is in a tough spot. He’s essentially for me, the #7 pick in a six-driver draft. I’m very confident that if you took anyone in the Top 6, you could probably win a Championship with them with the right car. Carlos Sainz is the first driver on the board where I’m not sure on that one, but there’s still good traits here.
He had a very good first season at Williams last year, and I genuinely thought he was really underrated as a younger driver when his career first started. Yes, he was no Verstappen, but he stuck around at what we then called Toro Rosso and had some really nice results there before establishing himself at a rebuilding McLaren.
The biggest thing that holds Sainz back besides being a bit more of a veteran in his Age 32 season compared to “The Big 6”, is he was with Charles Leclerc in four of those seasons and was worse in three of them. Don’t let the social media noise trick you into thinking his revenge tour was better than it was, Leclerc was just better than him and that’s okay.
Sainz is still really good, but we’re now in the region of drivers who have significant weaknesses or are a tad bit more “raw” in terms of talent. Sainz is still really good, but not at the very highest level to compensate for being 31 and unfavourable at the elite level.
Pick #8 (Ferrari) – Ollie Bearman 🇬🇧
Notes: 21, 31 starts, 65 Career Points, 13th in 2025 World Championship
Had to go back and forth as to whether I went prospect first over veteran, and I just gave Sainz the edge for now, but Bearman would absolutely be the pick if you were thinking long term.
Bearman’s a stud. I once said: “I’ve seen enough” after he did the double at Baku in F2 as an 18-year old. And while his time in the juniors was muddled with actual race starts with Haas and Ferrari as a teenager, he’s already proven that he’s a great talent with big upside.
He’s got 30 starts for Haas and he’s now regularly in the points in a car that only hovers there on a good day, and he’s starting to take control of the team, as established veteran Esteban Ocon has struggled to keep up.
The biggest concerns? Poor discipline. He’s already picked up 12 total penalty points in just 31 career starts, but he’s done well to keep his nose clean, he starts losing points from his current total of 10 from Canada’s GP onwards. Hopefully, he’s gotten out of the habit.
I think if you believe you gotta have youth at all costs, Bearman could have easily been Top 5 if you believe in his potential. But I think this is a bit more reasonable.
Pick #9 (Red Bull) – Isack Hadjar 🇫🇷
Notes: 21, 27 starts, 1 Podium, 55 Career Points, 2024 F2 Championship Runner-Up
Why not keep this simple and have Red Bull promote the guy they were always going to promote up anyway? And to be fair, it was a warranted call-up. Given the level of car and expectation, I think you could make a very strong case that Isack Hadjar was the real rookie of the year in 2025. Tough start, but got his head down, pace was exceptional right out of the gate, and was rewarded in Zandvoort with a podium finish after Lando Norris’ car died late on, a third earned mostly on merit and an exceptional qualifying session.
Beating Liam Lawson as a rookie might not be the highest standard in the world, but given the other mess around him at Red Bull, it made sense in real life to bump him up and I stand by that here given Red Bull rarely go for external hires, even with in theory, better talent available. Speaking of which…
Pick #10 (Mercedes) – Sir Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧
Notes: 40, 7x World Champion (08, 14-15, 17-20’), 105 Wins, 104 Pole Positions, 203 Podiums
Man. Hamilton was sixth in the draft the last time I did this. Now he’s 10th. I’m going to get some insidious tweets here.
There’s two major problems with Lewis Hamilton entering a draft format. Number 1, it looks like Father Time might be catching up with him a little bit. He entered his time at Mercedes playing second fiddle to George Russell, and then got outclassed by Leclerc in his first year in red. In Hamilton’s defence, his race pace has been much closer to Charles in 2026, but it’s not massively convincing so far.
The other problem’s a bit more obvious. He’s 40. You’re essentially paying for a rental here. As with other drivers like Alonso and Raikkonen, going into your 40’s isn’t the death sentence it may have been in the 90’s, but when it comes to value, you’re being severely punished and essentially paying for a rental. Realistically, anything beyond three seasons would be miraculous.
With that mind, you have to drop Hamilton down your big board. He’s not 10th overall for talent alone, but how long will it be before you need to replace him?
Pick #11 (McLaren) – Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷
Notes: 21, 28 Starts, 21 Career Points, 2024 F3 Champion, 2025 F2 Champion
Remember when doing the double actually meant something? Gabriel Bortoleto became just the fourth of now five drivers to have won the F3 and F2 titles in back-to-back years and he just barely got a seat on the 2025 grid, and a year later, Leonardo Fornaroli did the same thing and didn’t even get a whiff of a seat. More on him in a minute.
Gabriel Bortoleto is an intriguing case. As said, all the upside from the juniors being a one-and-done through F3/F2, was a McLaren junior who had no chance in real life of an F1 seat given the investment in their younger pairing, but was let go so he could join Audi alongside Nico Hulkenberg. Bortoleto was in a really unlucky spot where 19 points put him 19th overall (somehow), but in terms of raw speed, basically matched the far more experienced Nico Hulkenberg for pace. There were mistakes too, like his crashes in Australia and Brazil.
Again, I think there’s some good upside here, and Gabi’s still only 21. If McLaren had no Norris or Piastri, I think this is the natural next step.
Pick #12 (McLaren) – Leonardo Fornaroli 🇮🇹
Notes: 21, 2024 F3 Champion, 2025 F2 Champion (4 Wins at F3/F2 level)
And that comes around again here. The upside of McLaren picking last in the first round is that they essentially have free reign to complete their team first at the #12 spot, and if it’s next in line for their academy, Leonardo Fornaroli I believe is F1 ready right now, and as said, an F3/F2 double was essentially penalised by the hive mind of Twitter and the eyes of F1 bosses for not winning the F3 title on his first attempt as a 19-year old. If you think that sounds stupid, it is.
Leonardo should be in F1 right now and it’s a travesty he isn’t. So this is the perfect time for Zac Brown to replicate the exact youth building plan he has with McLaren now in real life, just with his former and current junior roster instead. And to me, a roster of Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli would out of the box be a really solid midfield pairing. Who says no?
Pick #13 (Mercedes) – Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷
Notes: 30, 1 Win, 5 Podiums, 183 Starts
Pierre Gasly might be the best value pick in the draft because I really don’t think he’s 13th on the grid on raw ability right now. He’s been kicking ass for Alpine since arriving there in 2023, becoming the anchor of that team. I think Mercedes have done very well to have him drop to 13, and I think it’ll purely be because of his age. Being 30 is the no-mans-land of F1 at this point. You’re probably in your prime right now but you don’t have the shelf life that one of the 20-something younger tier of drivers have.
Ignoring that though, you’ve got an easy Top 10 driver on the grid and another really solid partner for Lewis Hamilton’s return in your team. Given Mercedes had #10 and #13 as picks, to come away with the GOAT and arguably F1’s best midfielder isn’t a bad haul at all.
Pick #14 (Red Bull) – Alex Albon 🇹🇭
Notes: 30, 135 Starts, 2 Podiums, 314 Points
Another driver who’s in another really awkward spot, and ironically heading back to the Red Bull team who deemed him not good enough to be there. Oops.
Albon is in the same boat as Gasly as someone who just turned 30, and has always had unfortunate question marks about his overall ability. He had a baptism of fire when came into the sport and then was thrust into a Red Bull after just 12 starts. He was dropped after a year and a half for the more experienced Sergio Perez.
He’s generally been pretty good at Williams, spearheading them back up the leaderboard, but questionable stints with Franco Colapinto and now Carlos Sainz alongside has me a little worried he’s lost in the shuffle, and I think that’s why he dropped to #14.
Again, Albon’s a really solid driver. But in terms of overall value in a draft? He slips a bit.
Pick #15 (Ferrari) – Nico Hulkenberg 🇩🇪
Notes: 38, 254 Starts, 1 Podium, 2015 Le Mans Winner
And by the power of the draft, after 15 seasons, Nico Hulkenberg finally gets the top seat you could argue he’s deserved. I’ve always had a soft spot for Hulk for this very reason. He’s probably been the driver of the last 20 years whio never got a top-tier opportunity and probably should have gotten one at some point. Barely missed out on Mercedes in 2013 and 2017, Red Bull has always kept close tabs on him and Ferrari nearly took him over a returning Kimi Raikkonen too.
I still think today that Hulk can be a solid glue guy in a top team and he was excellent last season with Sauber, taking advantage of excellent race pace to snag some chunky points finishes, including the epic Podium at Silverstone. His outright top speed is fading a little bit, I think Bortoleto at Audi has him virtually matched there, but as a safe, solid pair of hands, he’s still really good, if now on the older side at 38.
Pick #16 (Williams) – Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸
Notes: 44, 2x World Champion (05’-06’), 32 Wins, 106 Podiums, 22 Pole Positions, 430 Starts (F1 Record)
No doubt, when Fernando finally decides to hang it up, he’ll be doing so as one of the very greatest to ever do it. I still think he’s a pretty good driver now, half way through his fifth decade of life. The last time he had a truly competitive car, the 2023 Aston Martin, he proved he could still go with the very best of them en route to 4th in that year’s Championship. But since then, he’s a very tricky driver to evaluate because his teammate is Lance Stroll, who I think has regressed as a driver to the point where he’s probably at replacement level, and the Aston Martin team has been in a regressive state ever since, to the point where even getting both cars over the line right now is difficult.
And of course, he’s 45 in July. Just how much longer can he keep doing this? It craters his value because realistically you’re only looking at maybe a couple more years of this, right? Even more so given he’s just become a dad for the first time. Unless he’s one of those sickos who wants to race alongside his kid, ala LeBron James.
Alonso’s still probably good, but he has to kinda go here by default.
Pick #17 (Racing Bulls) – Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧
Notes: 18, 6th in 2025 F2 Championship (3 Wins)
Arvid Lindblad is the driver I may have the most difficulty placing. He does have some good things going for him. Looking into the future bit, the kid is quick in an F1 car when he’s on a track he likes. He had definite upside in F2, becoming the youngest driver to ever win a race in the series when he won the 2025 Jeddah Sprint Race at 17 and eight months. But he was rough around the edges in the juniors. He couldn’t close out the F3 title down the stretch, and he made mistakes with his racecraft in F2 as well, ultimately dropping to sixth. He got hyped like an S-Tier prospect with Red Bull convincing the FIA to drop their Superlicense requirements down to 17 for “exceptional circumstances”, but I think he’s more in the B+ tier.
Given I had Fornaroli going at #12 to McLaren, I kinda had to have Lindblad lower by default on this one, but the question was how much lower, and I think him naturally falling back into Racing Bulls at #17 was a natural fit. More than willing to be proven wrong on this one long term, but this would for me be a very boom or bust kinda pick.
Pick #18 (Aston Martin) – Lance Stroll 🇨🇦
Notes: 27, 3 Podiums, 1 Pole Position, 325 Career Points
And with that in mind, I kinda had to let Aston Martin take Lance Stroll at 18 here, because not even I think they’re that mad to take Stroll with their top pick like I did the last time I did this draft.
*sighs* Stroll kinda is what he is at this point, right? I don’t think he’s as horrible as his worst detractors say he is on social media, but he’s been playing second fiddle at Aston Martin since the end days of Sebastian Vettel, and he was only okay at the end of his run. He’s got age in his favour to a degree at 27, but… would he even be in F1 by usual metrics if it wasn’t for the fact he’s in F1’s safest seat?
Ergh. Let’s move on.
Pick #19 (Haas): Rafael Camara 🇧🇷
Notes: 21, 2025 F3 Champion, currently 2nd in 2026 F2 Championship
Another one of the spicy picks. But Haas has already proven that long term investment in Ferrari juniors has been profitable once before, so why not do it again?
I like Rafa Camara. For outright speed, he was insane in F3 last year, with 4 wins, and 5 pole positions. He’s got a bit of Ronnie O’Sullivan in him where he’s an incredible front runner. The only drawback of his is that he tends to struggle in pack racing, often making over-aggressive moves lacking patience, or losing more than he should when his equilibrium is rattled. We’ve already seen the complete range of Camara in F2 and he’s only had a handful of races there. But I think the speed is there and that’s half the battle.
And given Haas are allegedly quickly falling out of favour with Esteban Ocon, who hasn’t been the star driver the Americans thought they were getting, this could be worth a punt.
Pick #20 (Audi): Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷
Notes: 29, 1 Win, 4 Podiums, 185 Starts, 484 Career Points
I almost feel bad for Esteban here. By most measures there’s no way he’s the 20th best option on the grid. But then again, has any driver taken more of a harsh knock to their stock in the last 18 months than Ocon has?
He was driven out of Alpine by Flavio Briatore over a very harsh crash at Monaco, he was then given a backseat role as Gasly flourished and then made him walk early for Jack Doohan. He joins Haas expecting to lead that team, only for Ollie Bearman to be on his level immediately despite 165 more career starts and now Bearman’s really turning the screw on him in 2026.
So much so, some of the more obscure press teased an early breakup for Ocon again, which led to Ayao Komatsu turning into Gordon Ramsay in Canada, and he wasn’t supplying the catering.
I suspect Ocon just needs the right fit to really shine again, and maybe Audi is the one in this drafting world. But Ocon’s draft stock is in a tough spot. Age 30 season, a lot of experience but not truly great for a while, and in a spot where teams are more likely to gamble on youth. And that’s why I suspect he’s 20th here.
Pick #21 (Alpine) – Sergio Perez 🇲🇽
Notes: 36, 6 Wins, 3 Pole Positions, 2023 World Championship Runner-Up, 290 Starts
This was close. Franco Colapinto very nearly snuck his way in after his recent upturn in form for Alpine, but I felt a little bit better about Checo in this slot. Of course, I can’t talk about Ocon being damaged goods without talking about Perez’s Red Bull tenure going to total shit down the stretch. Perez always maintained that Red Bull was the cause of his issues, and given how solid he’s been for Cadillac so far, he may actually have been onto something. It looks like there’s still some juice in the tank for Checo.
36 isn’t too bad these days in terms of age, and he’s one of the all-time most experienced drivers in F1 history, only seven men have more career starts (Alonso, Hamilton, Raikkonen, Barrichello, Button, Schumacher and Vettel), someone who at his midfield level, is as good as anyone has been over the last 15 years of his career. So why not?
Pick #22 (Cadillac) – Jak Crawford 🇺🇸
Notes: 21, F2 Championship Runner-Up in 2025 (6 Wins in Class)
I really, REALLY wanted to put Colton Herta here, but technically I can’t – He doesn’t have his Superlicense yet. He only has 35 at the end of 2025 (10th in IndyCar pays 1, 2nd pays 30, 7th in 2025 rules pays 4), so no Herta until 2027 at best. So for now, I’ll believe that new TWG Owner Dan Towriss sticks to his words and pushes hard to keep an American on the grid by taking the best available – Jak Crawford.
Crawford wasn’t spectacular in F2 last year but he won three feature races in the class last season, and finished runner-up in the series to eventual champion Leo Fornaroli. He’s American, got three seasons of F2 experience under his belt, still only 21, he’s got simulator time in via Aston Martin’s academy, what’s the issue here? And if it doesn’t work out, Herta’s still your backup plan, right?
Makes sense to me!
So, with all that done, here’s the 22 picks again!
Picks:
| 1 – Max Verstappen | 12 – Leonardo Fornaroli |
| 2 – Andrea Kimi Antonelli | 13 – Pierre Gasly |
| 3 – Charles Leclerc | 14 – Alex Albon |
| 4 – Lando Norris | 15 – Nico Hulkenberg |
| 5 – Oscar Piastri | 16 – Fernando Alonso |
| 6 – George Russell | 17 – Arvid Lindblad |
| 7 – Carlos Sainz Jr | 18 – Lance Stroll |
| 8 – Ollie Bearman | 19 – Rafael Camara |
| 9 – Isack Hadjar | 20 – Esteban Ocon |
| 10 – Lewis Hamilton | 21 – Sergio Perez |
| 11 – Gabriel Bortoleto | 22 – Jak Crawford |
And in terms of teams:
Cadillac – Max Verstappen and Jak Crawford
Alpine – Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Sergio Perez
Audi – Charles Leclerc and Esteban Ocon
Haas – Lando Norris and Rafael Camara
Aston Martin – Oscar Piastri and Lance Stroll
Racing Bulls – George Russell and Arvid Lindblad
Williams – Carlos Sainz Jr and Fernando Alonso
Ferrari – Ollie Bearman and Nico Hulkenberg
Red Bull – Isack Hadjar and Alex Albon
Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton and Pierre Gasly
McLaren – Gabriel Bortoleto and Leonardo Fornaroli
So, who do you think drafted the best? If you were in my shoes, how would you do a draft? And who do you think has the best team overall? Me personally, I quite like the look of Audi and Mercedes myself, with McLaren getting better in the future. But what say you, readers? Let me know, and thanks so much for reading another Dre long form project. Sayonara!