F1 driver numbers: Which will the drivers be using in 2025 and why?

How are F1 driver numbers decided?

After race numbers were dictated by the previous year’s Constructors’ Championship, the FIA changed the rules in 2014 to allow drivers to choose their own permanent race number between 2 and 99 which would accompany them for the entirety of their Formula 1 career.

The only exception to this in the rulebook is the number 1, which is reserved solely for the reigning World Champion – and it is up to that driver as to whether or not to use it. Max Verstappen has opted to run the number 1 on his car as champion, while Lewis Hamilton chose to keep the number 44 on his car while he was the title-holder.

Once a number is chosen, drivers are not allowed to change their number at all throughout their Formula 1 career. If a driver’s desired number is unavailable at the time they enter the grid, they have to pick their second choice, or third if their second is unavailable, and so on.

Which F1 driver numbers are currently unavailable for new drivers?

FIA rules say that a number must be out of use for two full seasons before it can be made available again, to allow appropriate time for a driver to either come out of retirement or regain their seat.

This means for drivers who lose their seats mid-season, their numbers will be reserved for two full championships afterwards rather than two calendar years from their last race.

Numbers 5 [Sebastian Vettel], 6 [Nicholas Latifi], 47 [Mick Schumacher] and 88 [Robert Kubica] all became available again at the end of 2024, and two of which have been snapped straight back up again in 2025.

Here is a list of the F1 driver numbers unavailable as it stands, and when they will become available again:

2 [Logan Sargeant] – 2027

3 [Daniel Ricciardo] – 2027

11 [Sergio Perez] – 2027

20 [Kevin Magnussen] – 2027

21 [Nyck de Vries] – 2026

24 [Zhou Guanyu] – 2027

43 [Franco Colapinto] – 2027

77 [Valtteri Bottas] – 2027

The only number unavailable for use for any driver at any time is the number 17, with the FIA having retired it as a mark of respect for Jules Bianchi, after his tragic passing following his injuries sustained at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.

Temporary numbers for drivers competing for stand-in races, such as Oliver Bearman racing using 38 and 50 in Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and Brazil 2024 and Liam Lawson using number 40 for five races in 2023 are not removed from use, because they were not drivers permanently contracted to those seats at that time – and these numbers were randomly issued by the FIA.

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Why are there stories behind F1 driver numbers?

For many drivers, they feel a personal connection to their race number because they raced with it from an early age – and they wanted to bring it with them to Formula 1.

A significant portion of the grid have used their race numbers since their karting days, others picked numbers for marketing reasons, while some could not get their first choices at all. Let’s take a look.

2025 F1 driver numbers and their stories

1 Max Verstappen, Red Bull

As is his right as World Champion, Verstappen is using number 1 for 2025 – and uses the number 33 when not World Champion in Formula 1.

While #3 was believed to be his first choice, that was taken by Daniel Ricciardo at the time, so opted for 33 instead. Prior to his Formula 1 arrival, he posted a picture of himself as a child driving a toy car with 33 emblazoned on it and wrote: “Since I was a young kid I was racing around with this number. So I thought it is nice to keep that in F1 as well!”

4 Lando Norris, McLaren

Lando Norris admitted two of his numbers from his early days in racing, 11 and 31, were already taken when he arrived in Formula 1 by Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon – so he opted for number 4, in part at least, to make use of the marketing opportunities to come with it.

“Four was the best one in the end, mainly because it fitted very nicely into my logo,” he said.

5 Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber

Gabriel Bortoleto has chosen the number 5 for his Formula 1 career, which was last used by a four-time World Champion in Sebastian Vettel at the end of 2022.

The number became available again as Bortoleto prepared to enter Formula 1, and the Brazilian has opted to take it.

He has had previous success with it, too, having won the 2022 Formula 3 title while using the #5 in his rookie season in that category.

6 Isack Hadjar, VCARB

Isack Hadjar has taken on the number 6, last used by former Williams driver Nicholas Latifi in Formula 1, but Hadjar’s connection with the number appears to go back a long way.

After his deal with Racing Bulls was announced for 2025, Hadjar posted a picture of himself during his karting days with, you guessed it, #6 on his kart.

7 Jack Doohan, Alpine

Jack Doohan joins the grid with Alpine in 2025, and he takes on the number last used by 2007 World Champion, Kimi Raikkonen.

It has special meaning for him, too, having raced with it with the Iceman’s Double R team in Euroformula Open in 2019, before carrying on with it in F3 Asia the following year.

“I really wanted to go with a number that I raced with before, something that had meaning for me,” Doohan said in November 2024.

“Also one of my idols, a super special person and driver, Kimi Raikkonen, drove with that number. I’m really looking forward to continuing it on and make it my own and getting some luck from number seven.”

10 Pierre Gasly, Alpine

Pierre Gasly picked the number 10 for his time in Formula 1 after racing it to great success in the Formula Renault European Championship in 2013.

Alongside that, he acknowledged he is also a huge fan of French footballing legend Zinedine Zidane – who wore the number 10 on his shirt while playing for France.

12 Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Kimi Antonelli brings the number 12 back to the grid for the first time since Felipe Nasr in 2016 when he makes his debut in the 2025 season, after his promotion to a Mercedes seat.

He confirmed it is related to an “idol” of his, Ayrton Senna, who raced with it from 1985 right through to his first title-winning campaign in 1988, but Antonelli also used it while racing to Italian F4 and Formula Regional European Championship glory in 2022 and 2023 respectively.

He told media including PlanetF1.com when his Mercedes drive was announced at Monza in 2024: “I have many numbers that I like, but 12 is a special one, also because of an idol.

“I’ve been using it since F4 so it always went well with 12, so no reason to change it for next year.”

14 Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin

A moment of fate connected Fernando Alonso with the number 14, going way back into his junior career, and when asked why he picked his race number, there’s no reason why he would have picked anything else.

He explained: “When I was 14 years old, the 14th of July, and with the go kart number 14, I was World Champion. From that moment I had no doubt that 14 is my number.”

You can’t say fairer than that.

16 Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Charles Leclerc did not appear to get his first, or even his second choice of race number when he arrived in Formula 1.

He had hoped for #7, but that was taken by Kimi Raikkonen at the time, and his second choice was believed to be #10, but that was in use by Pierre Gasly, so he instead opted for #16 – as “one plus six is seven”. Simple enough.

18 Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

Lance Stroll admitted to being “a little bit superstitious” about his choice of number 18, as it was the number he ran while winning titles in Formula 3 and Formula 4.

“I’m a little bit superstitious, not very superstitious but little things like that are important to me,” he said.

“I’ve just stuck with it ever since and I don’t want to change.”

22 Yuki Tsunoda, VCARB

Another of the ‘not-quite-first-choice’ numbers, Yuki Tsunoda runs with the number formerly used by 2009 World Champion, Jenson Button.

Tsunoda said he wanted the number 11 initially, having used it in karting, but as that was taken by Sergio Perez when he joined the grid in 2021, he opted to double it and run with 22 instead.

23 Alex Albon, Williams

A big Valentino Rossi fan, Alex Albon has raced with helmets inspired by ‘The Doctor’ at certain events since his arrival in Formula 1.

He also used the MotoGP legend’s famous number 46 in his karting days, but explained he did not want to do the same in Formula 1, writing on Twitter (now X) prior to his arrival on the grid: “I’ve always been a Rossi fan but since I can’t replace the doctor himself, I thought I’d have half of it.”

27 Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber

The number 27 is famous in the Formula 1 history books, most notably through Gilles Villeneuve’s period of success with Ferrari, while Ayrton Senna also ran it to title glory with McLaren in the 1990 season.

Nico Hulkenberg, reportedly at least, has an altogether more personal reason behind running with it, however, as it’s the dates in his birthday added up (August 19th, or 19+8).

30 Liam Lawson, Red Bull

There are personal reasons behind Liam Lawson’s choice of #30, which he was able to use after running #40 while standing in for Daniel Ricciardo in 2023.

He revealed a mentor of his from his karting days ran with #30, and said ‘our number’ is now in Formula 1 as a result, revealing in a video for VCARB on Instagram: “[30] wasn’t actually the very first number I drove with, that was 18, but [in] my first year of go kart racing, I moved into a team, and there was a guy who looked after me, who became like my hero, my idol, when I was a kid in go karts, and he ran with number 30 – so I picked number 30 because of him.

“He taught me everything about go kart racing when I was younger and then basically I held that number all the way through until today. and I’ve told him as well that I’m bringing our number into Formula 1 and he’s ****ing stoked!”

31 Esteban Ocon, Haas

Like his former team-mates Gasly and Alonso, Esteban Ocon chose his number for Formula 1 after a particularly successful year while running with the number 31.

He took the Championnat de France title in the Minime category in karting in 2007 while using it, a year he regards as the best of his career while in the junior series, which prompted Ocon to choose it when he reached Formula 1.

44 Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton famously drove his early karting races with the number 44, and when the chance came to choose his own race number, 44 was his choice.

He also explained there was more than one connection to the number, saying: “When I was eight, we got a really old go kart and it was owned by, like, five or six different families.

“It was from the back of the newspaper. My dad got this kart, rebuilt it and we had to enter our first race and my dad didn’t know what number to use. And on the number plate of his car was F44.”

55 Carlos Sainz, Williams

Like Norris, Sainz opted to make the most of the situation in front of him by turning the lack of availability of his preferred number, 5, taken by Sebastian Vettel when he arrived, into a marketing opportunity.

“One S is one five. The other S is another five. So, it’s a 55,” he explained.

“My favourite number is number five. Sebastian Vettel had the five, so I had to change.”

63 George Russell, Mercedes

George Russell races with the number 63 on his car as that seems to be the ‘family number’ among the Russells.

His older brother, Benjy, was a karting champion in his own right and ran with the number 63, and George kept it going in his junior racing career before eventually graduating to Formula 1.

81 Oscar Piastri, McLaren

Like many on the grid, Oscar Piastri used the number 81 going back to his karting days – though he explained he had used the number 11 for his first races because the kart shop he went to at the time only had the number 1 in stock, and it had to be a one or two-digit number used.

He added on the In The Fast Lane podcast: “Then we entered, I think it was the Victorian state titles, and somebody had already entered as number 11.

“I don’t know what inspired me to pick 81 but I changed the first one for a number eight, and it stuck ever since. So, there you go!”

87 Oliver Bearman, Haas

Like Russell, there is a family connection behind Oliver Bearman’s choice of number 87 as he joins Formula 1 full-time in 2025.

He explained to media including PlanetF1.com when he was announced as a Haas driver: “It’s the number that I’ve raced since the beginning.

“It’s a number that my dad raced with because I’m born on the 8th of May and my brother on the 7th of August, so 87 was the number of choice and that will continue to be the case.”