The summer break is about to come to a close and the F1 2025 season is about to kick off for a fast-paced 10-race dash to the championship finale in Abu Dhabi.

But not every driver has had a strong start to the year. These five drivers are going to need to make a major impression after the shutdown if they want to improve their hopes for their championships — and for their futures.

Lewis Hamilton

All eyes were on Lewis Hamilton heading into the F1 2025 season as the seven-time World Champion joined the sport’s most illustrious team, Scuderia Ferrari.

Would it result in heaps of success, or would it end in tears?

Just a little over the halfway point of the season, it’s certainly trending more toward the latter option.

Hamilton seems to be fundamentally uncomfortable with the SF-25, which has enabled team-mate Charles Leclerc to assert himself as the lead driver of the team.

The British racer’s best performances have been in the season’s early sprint races, taking victory in China and a podium in Miami.

However, Ferrari’s later disqualification from the Chinese Grand Prix resulted in a lifting of the SF-25’s ride height that has thrown both drivers off track, and that has particularly caused Hamilton headaches.

It’s left the driver proclaiming himself “useless” while team principal Fred Vasseur alleged that Hamilton “exaggerates problems” with the car.

Clearly, all is not well in the Prancing Horse.

There are just 10 races left for Hamilton to prove that he still has what it takes to compete with the best the open-wheel racing world has to offer, and it’s going to take a fair amount of effort from everyone involved to turn the year around.

Carlos Sainz

Though Carlos Sainz’s season hasn’t been a disaster, he has also found himself on the back foot since moving to Williams after Ferrari replaced him with Lewis Hamilton.

Entering summer break, he sits 16th overall in the championship standings, putting him on track for his worst-ever finish in Formula 1.

Meanwhile, his team-mate Alex Albon has amassed an overwhelming majority of the team’s total points, which leaves Albon eighth overall.

Williams team principal James Vowles has been nothing but laudatory of his lineup, stating that the team is “generally moving in the right way.”

But Sainz has found the swap from a pole-setting car to a backmarker to be much more challenging than anticipated.

While Sainz has a strong support net around him, he’s almost assuredly feeling the kind of pressure that a driver can only place on his own shoulders knowing that’s he’s capable of far more than his car can provide.

For the rest of the season, he’ll be looking to equal Albon.

More analysis from the F1 2025 season:

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Franco Colapinto

Franco Colapinto arrived in the Williams garage in 2024 with ample fanfare, but his move to Alpine this season as a replacement for Jack Doohan has left a lot to be desired.

Since making his debut at Imola, Colapinto has failed to score a single point.

And while it is understood that Alpine intends to keep the Argentine in its second seat for the duration of the F1 2025 season, there’s little to suggest that he should hold that seat into 2026.

Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Colapinto admitted that “I’m lacking confidence with the car” and that he’s not “finding, sometimes, my feet in some corners.”

He also noted that while Alpine has endeavored to address some of the issues, there remains a “feeling that nothing has been connected or put back together” and that the “package we have, it’s been maximized at times, but not in some other times.”

That, however, has been less of a concern for his more experienced Alpine team-mate Pierre Gasly, who has been able to finish in the points in four grands prix.

If Colapinto intends to continue developing Argentina’s legacy in Formula 1, he’ll need to illustrate consistency and dependability in these final 10 races.

Kimi Antonelli

When Toto Wolff signed teenage racer Kimi Antonelli to the Mercedes F1 team, he had plenty to say about the driver’s quality and his future prospects.

It has been clear from the start that the team is hoping Antonelli could be the next Max Verstappen.

And while the Italian remains the best-performing rookie of the F1 2025 season, he hasn’t quite justified the “prodigy” label many have affixed to him.

With the exception of a third-place finish in Canada and 10th in Hungary, Antonelli has failed to score a point since Formula 1 began its European leg back in May.

Though he is yet to be officially confirmed for F1 2026, Antonelli can at least rest somewhat easier knowing that he has Mercedes in his corner.

Wolff has been candid about knowing the risks of running a rookie and nevertheless feeling confident in providing Antonelli with the stability he needs to find his footing in the long haul.

But for Antonelli himself, strong performances are going to be critical in building the kind of off-track confidence and on-track assurance that defines a lasting career, and these final 10 races will be critical in helping him develop that.

Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunoda is in a truly unenviable position.

Yes, he finally earned a promotion to Red Bull after years spent in the outfit’s junior team, but that promotion came just as the team began to hemorrhage performance, and was the result of a swap with Liam Lawson.

Considering Tsunoda’s ties are more with Honda’s driver program than with Red Bull’s, there’s an expectation that the Japanese driver will lose his seat with the Milton Keynes team at the conclusion of the F1 2025 season — thus meaning he’ll need to be on the lookout for a potential seat coming into 2026.

Unfortunately, his results this season leading up to the summer break have left a lot to be desired.

With only three points-paying finishes to his name in the first 14 races, Tsunoda sits 18th in the drivers’ championship standings while his team-mate Max Verstappen is still in contention for a third place.

And as the days pass, fewer and fewer seats remain for 2026.

In these final 10 grands prix, Tsunoda will be fighting to prove that he deserves an ongoing place in the Formula 1 paddock.

The odds, unfortunately, are against him.

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