F1 records: Who are the youngest drivers ever to race in Formula 1?

Try telling it to Fernando Alonso, but increasingly in recent years Formula 1 has become a young driver’s game – at least upon debut.

So who are the youngest drivers ever to have competed in a Formula 1 race? Let’s run through the top 10 in reverse order, with a new entrant on the list in 2026.

Top 10 youngest ever Formula 1 debutants

10) Fernando Alonso – 19 years, 7 months, 4 days (2001 Australian Grand Prix)

Fernando Alonso had just finished fourth in the International Formula 3000 Championship and was test and reserve driver for Minardi in 2000, before receiving a call-up for 2001.

He started 19th for his debut in Australia and finished a credible 12th in a race marred by the death of marshal Graham Beveridge, following a collision between Ralf Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve.

Despite failing to score a point that year, Renault saw enough in Alonso to give him a seat for 2003 after serving as a test driver the previous year.

Now in his fifth decade and currently racing for Aston Martin, the two-time World Champion is still going strong.

9) Ricardo Rodriguez – 19 years, 6 months, 27 days (1961 Italian Grand Prix)

Initially a motorcyclist, Rodriguez had already finished second in the Le Mans 24 Hours when he was given a guest drive by Ferrari at Monza.

It was a brilliant debut too, for he started on the front row by qualifying second but had to retire from the grand prix with a fuel pump failure after battling for the lead with eventual winner Phil Hill.

The Mexican drove in four 1962 World Championship races for Ferrari but was killed in practice for his home event that year, a non-championship race in which he had agreed to compete in a Lotus for the Rob Walker Racing team.

8) Mike Thackwell – 19 years, 5 months, 29 days (1980 Canadian Grand Prix)

A test driver for Tyrrell and a Formula 2 racer at the time, Thackwell was able to drive a third car for the team at Circuit Ile Notre-Dame in Montreal, in addition to those of Jean-Pierre Jarier and Derek Daly.

Starting last of 24, the New Zealander’s race was over at the first corner but through no fault of his own.

A multi-car pile-up involved both of his team-mates and when the restart took place, Jarier took over Thackwell’s car.

Only one more F1 race start came Thackwell’s way, also in Canada for the RAM team in 1984 in which he suffered a blown turbo, but he did enjoy success in other categories.

7) Lando Norris – 19 years, 4 months, 4 days (2019 Australian Grand Prix)

Apart from 2018, when he finished second to George Russell in Formula 2, Norris had won a title in every year stretching back to 2012 when he was still in karting.

After McLaren parted ways with Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne at the end of 2018, Norris and Carlos Sainz were announced as the team’s new driver line-up.

The Briton qualified an excellent eighth for his bow in Australia – with Sainz knocked out in Q1 – only to slip back to 12th in the race.

Norris continues to race for McLaren, having become World Champion for the first time in 2025.

6) Jaime Alguersuari – 19 years, 4 months, 3 days (2009 Hungarian Grand Prix)

While competing in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series and serving as reserve driver for Red Bull and Toro Rosso, Alguersuari got his big chance with the latter team midway through 2009 after the departure of Sebastien Bourdais.

On a Hungarian Grand Prix weekend remembered for Felipe Massa’s serious injury, Alguersuari was slowest in qualifying, starting 19th and finishing 15th with only his team-mate Sebastien Buemi behind him in the classification.

Despite a solid 2011 campaign which included a spell of seven points finishes in 11 races, Alguersuari was dropped by Toro Rosso and that ended his full-time racing career.

He has since carved out a new life as a DJ.

5) Oliver Bearman – 18 years, 10 months, 1 day (2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix)

Ferrari reserve driver Oliver Bearman was handed an unexpected F1 opportunity when Carlos Sainz was ruled out of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with appendicitis.

The teenager became the youngest driver in history to race for Scuderia Ferrari and the first since Arturo Merzario in 1972 to make his F1 debut with the sport’s most sacred team.

Despite only receiving the call up ahead of final practice, the Chelmsford-born driver was fiercely impressive and came within 0.036 seconds of knocking seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari’s big-money signing for 2025, out of Q2.

After being forced to settle for 11th on the grid, Bearman won the fan vote for Driver of the Day with a fine drive to seventh in the race.

He has since gone on to race for Haas on a permanent contract, outscoring his more experienced teammate, Esteban Ocon, across his first full season in Formula 1.

4) Arvid Lindblad – 18 years, 7 months (2026 Australian Grand Prix)*

Arvid Lindblad received a rare Super Licence exemption from the FIA in 2025, allowing him to participate in a Formula 1 session before his 18th birthday.

The Red Bull junior completed multiple sessions with both Red Bull and sister team Racing Bulls, before being announced as a full-time driver for Racing Bulls for the 2026 season.

By the time the lights go out in Melbourne, his age of 18 years and seven months exactly will make him the fourth-youngest debutant in Formula 1 history.

3) Kimi Antonelli – 18 years, 6 months, 19 days (2025 Australian Grand Prix)

While a minimum age of 18 was put in place after the #1 on his list made his debut, Kimi Antonelli missed that barrier by a matter of months when he was chosen as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes.

Despite a hefty crash in his opening free practice outing at Monza in 2024, the Mercedes hierarchy saw enough of the young Italian in private testing to back him for the step up to Formula 1 – leapfrogging F3 to go straight from Formula 4 to Formula 2 in preparation in 2024.

While there were moments of struggle in his rookie year, Antonelli secured Sprint pole in Miami, and impressed to take three podiums in his first season alongside an experienced campaigner in George Russell.

2) Lance Stroll – 18 years, 4 months, 26 days (2017 Australian Grand Prix)

Stroll’s background has been very well documented and it was with considerable financial support from his family that the young Canadian was fast-tracked from a title-winning 2016 F3 campaign straight to F1.

That was with Williams, and after starting at the back of the grid for his first race in Australia he exited with a brake problem at just over two-thirds distance.

Eight races into his F1 career, Stroll finished on the podium in Azerbaijan and that feat has been repeated a handful of times since, showing particular promise in the wet – as evidenced with his maiden career pole position in Turkey.

1) Max Verstappen – 17 years, 5 months, 15 days (2015 Australian Grand Prix)

F1’s youngest driver?

It’s not even nearly a close-run thing, because Verstappen was nearly a full year younger than Stroll when he lined up at Albert Park in 2015.

It was sheer prodigious talent that earned the Dutchman his chance, Red Bull Racing adviser Helmut Marko seeing something immediately that identified Jos’ son as being special.

Qualifying 12th in Melbourne, Verstappen made a lightning start and was on course to score points when his engine blew on lap 34 of 58.

Those points came next time out in Malaysia though, and since then Verstappen has been clocking up more F1 ‘youngest’ records – to win, to finish on the podium, to lead a lap, to set the fastest lap and to achieve a grand slam.

He missed out on becoming the youngest-ever World Champion, but most other records have tumbled over recent years as Verstappen has established himself as one of the modern greats.

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