Looking back at the last 10 drivers to score a podium in their debut season
- Liam Ploetner
- Oct 16, 2025
- 7 min read
Written by Liam Ploetner, Edited by Gabriel Tsui
Isack Hadjar took an incredible maiden podium amid his rookie campaign at the Dutch Grand Prix, as did Kimi Antonelli in Canada. In this article, we dive into the previous 10 drivers who scored Formula One podiums as rookies, prior to the 2025 season. This list includes some world champions, but also some surprises.
1 - Oscar Piastri, 2023 Japanese Grand Prix
The current driver leading the world championship, Oscar Piastri took his maiden Formula One podium at the Japanese Grand Prix, in his 16th start in F1.
Starting in second, Piastri had a poor start and dropped behind his teammate Lando Norris.
Piastri settled on a two-stop strategy, while Mercedes’ George Russell opted for a one-stop, meaning Piastri would have to pass him on track.
The Australian was able to move ahead of the Briton to finish third, 36 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen and 17 seconds behind Norris. It was a sign of things to come from the Australian, who has since shown his potential with another 23 podiums, including nine victories.
Piastri would take another podium in the following race at Qatar, including a sprint victory.
2 - Lance Stroll, 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix
A much more chaotic one, Lance Stroll took his first of three podiums in Baku during the 2017 season, making him the second-youngest podium finisher in F1 history.
Stroll started in eighth place, one spot ahead of his experienced Williams teammate Felipe Massa.
But Stroll’s podium would not have happened if Sebastian Vettel hadn’t collided with Hamilton under the safety car. He was aided by several cars ahead having incidents - including the Force Indias, Kimi Räikkönen throughout the race, but it was still a strong and mature drive.
When many would have made errors, Stroll did not. He avoided accidents and kept up with race leader Daniel Ricciardo for several laps before eventually getting caught by Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
Bottas had a huge run on Stroll coming down the main straight, and Bottas managed to catch Stroll at the finish line on the final lap, handing Stroll a third place finish.
3 - Kevin Magnussen, 2014 Australian Grand Prix
In what was a wet qualifying, Kevin Magnussen managed to qualify fourth for his F1 debut, which meant he was in a position to capitalise if something happened to the dominant Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton or home hero Daniel Ricciardo.
And capitalised he did, as Hamilton immediately started suffering issues with his engine, going from a V6 to a V5 engine, which eventually led to his retirement.
Magnussen’s maiden podium was very similar to Hadjar’s, as it was a great qualifying, decent race pace and benefiting from a front-runner retirement to get into the podium places.
Magnussen held onto third for the rest of the race, being the first driver to take a podium on debut since Hamilton. Post-race was even better for Magnussen, as he was promoted to second and teammate Jenson Button was promoted to third when Ricciardo, who finished in second place, was disqualified.
4 - Nelsinho Piquet Jr, 2008 German Grand Prix
A man remembered mainly for Crashgate, Nelson “Nelsinho” Piquet Jr had a very short and yet memorable career in F1.
Piquet had big shoes to fill, as his father with the same name was a three-time F1 champion and his teammate was Fernando Alonso, two-time F1 champion.
Despite this though, he did manage to score one podium in his rookie season at the German Grand Prix. Piquet started 17th for the race, with his team electing to go for a one-stop strategy whilst others chose a two-stop.
Due to a safety car, Piquet was able to pit and be in the race lead after McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld pitted ahead of him.
The duo pitted and Piquet led for a few laps, but Hamilton rapidly closed in and passed him for the lead, but Piquet held on to finish second ahead of fellow countryman Felipe Massa and Heidfeld.
5 - Heikki Kovalainen, 2007 Japanese Grand Prix
Heikki Kovalainen is largely remembered for being Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at McLaren, but he was considered a great driver before his unsuccessful time at McLaren in which he won once for the Woking outfit.
Kovalainen had a great junior record: he fought with Nico Rosberg for the GP2 Series title in 2005 with both being rookies, and he was chosen as Fernando Alonso’s replacement at Renault for 2007.
The Finn had a great rookie season, as he beat teammate Giancarlo Fisichella in the standings and finished seventh, being the best of the rest behind the big three teams of Ferrari, McLaren and BMW Sauber.
His successful rookie season was aided by an incredible drive in the torrential rain in Fuji. Despite qualifying 12th, Kovalainen put on a fantastic display of wet-weather driving. Some would argue that he should have won because winner Hamilton was to blame for an incident involving him, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.
But Kovalainen drove well and fully deserved his second place, defending tooth and nail against compatriot Kimi Räikkönen, which almost cost the Ferrari driver the title that year.
6 - Lewis Hamilton, 2007 Australian Grand Prix
Considered one of Formula One’s greatest drivers, it’s strange to remember Lewis Hamilton as a beady-eyed rookie back in 2007, but he was once a rookie, and arguably one of the best rookie drivers of all time.
With Fernando Alonso as his teammate, Hamilton was expected to be number two to the Spaniard and learn from the veteran, but Hamilton came for more than the end piece of the steak
Hamilton showed this immediately, qualifying two tenths down on Alonso at a track he had never driven at before in Albert Park.
While McLaren had one of, if not the quickest car in 2007, Hamilton was a rookie, so it wasn’t expected that he would be in the top three immediately, but Hamilton subverted expectations and became a sensation.
He overtook Alonso for third off the start and jumped Nick Heidfield in the first stops to run second behind Kimi Räikkönen, but Alonso would get ahead of both after the second round of stops.
Despite this, Hamilton had been ahead of Alonso on pace for the majority of the race, showing his promise. He came home third in what was an inspiring debut performance.
7 - Robert Kubica, 2006 Italian Grand Prix
After Jacques Villeneuve left BMW Sauber in mid-2006, the German-Swiss team elected to promote test driver Robert Kubica to the main seat, making him the first Polish driver to drive in Formula One.
He immediately made an impression on the sport, finishing seventh in his first race in the wet in Hungary before being disqualified.
His third race was at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. BMW Sauber had pace around Monza due to their strong engine, with Kubica’s teammate Nick Heidfeld in third and Kubica in sixth post-qualifying.
After a great start, Kubica was fourth by turn one. By turn three, he was in third.
The Pole had great pace during the race and even led a few laps as he went longer on his first stint than Kimi Räikkönen in first and Michael Schumacher in second.
Due to his pace, Kubica was able to get a gap to Giancarlo Fisichella and Jenson Button, finishing third in only his third race, 19 seconds ahead of Heidfeld, as a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pitlane denied Heidfeld a chance at battling with Kubica.
8 - Juan Pablo Montoya, 2001 Spanish Grand Prix
When Juan Pablo Montoya showed up to his first F1 race, great things were expected of Colombia’s greatest racing driver. He had won CART in 1999 and won the Indy 500 in 2000, but he also had a great record in F3000, winning the championship in 1998 after finishing runner-up the previous year.
After a difficult opening four rounds, including an incident in Brazil where he led the field until he collided with backmarker Jos Verstappen, Montoya finally tasted champagne on a Formula One podium for the first time.
Despite starting in 12th in Barcelona, Montoya got a fantastic start, moving up into sixth. After several races with poor luck, Montoya finally had the rub of the green.
After getting ahead of Jarno Trulli and the retirement of teammate Ralf Schumacher due to brake failure, Montoya was up to fourth. Then, both Rubens Barrichello and Mika Häkkinen fell victim to a damaged suspension and a hydraulic leak on laps 50 and 65 (the final lap) which promoted Montoya up to a second finish, behind Michael Schumacher.
9 - Alexander Wurz, 1997 British Grand Prix
Alexander Wurz’s first season in F1 came about quite suddenly, as compatriot Gerhard Berger had a sinus illness and was mourning the loss of his father, who died in an aeroplane accident.
In Wurz’s final race before handing the seat back over to Berger was the British Grand Prix. He qualified eighth slightly ahead of teammate Jean Alesi in 11th. Ahead of Wurz were Eddie Irvine, McLaren’s David Coulthard, Jordan driver Ralf Schumacher, Michael Schumacher, Mika Häkkinen and Williams duo Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jacques Villeneuve started first and second.
At the start, Wurz was jumped by Alesi and on the following lap, he was passed by the Jordan of Giancarlo Fisichella. But over the course of the race, Wurz kept things clean and didn’t get caught up in any incidents, which greatly improved his race result.
Up ahead, many drivers were falling into misfortune. Frentzen was out on lap one in a crash and had stalled originally which put him at the back before the crash, Coulthard struggled with brake issues throughout the whole race, Schumacher had a problem with a wheel bearing, Irvine retired exiting the pits and Häkkinen had an engine failure.
These misfortunes for other drivers were helpful to Wurz. From lap 39 to lap 49, Wurz went from sixth to fourth, and following Häkkinen’s retirement, he was promoted to third, where he finished.
10 - Ralf Schumacher, 1997 Argentine Grand Prix
Ralf Schumacher’s third F1 Grand Prix start was in Argentina, but it seemed his race could’ve been over early on, as a chaotic start jeopardised the German.
Up ahead, his brother Michael collided with Rubens Barrichello leading to a DNF for the elder Schumacher. David Coulthard then went into the back of Schumacher, which caused Coulthard to retire.
Due to these incidents, Schumacher was down to eighth. On the restart, he got past Johnny Herbert and Damon Hill to move up to sixth. Heinz-Harald Frentzen then retired from second place which put him in fifth.
A battle with Herbert ensued which the German eventually won, but for the second time, his race was almost over, this time due to teammate Giancarlo Fisichella, as the two collided on lap 25 while they were running second and third, but neither had pitted.
Fisichella retired but Schumacher kept on racing. After the pit stops, Schumacher dropped to fifth, but once Herbert and Häkkinen pitted, Schumacher was up into third behind Eddie Irvine and Jacques Villeneuve.
R. Schumacher finished a brilliant race in third in his third Grand Prix start.
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