Three drivers on the 2026 grid are doing this for the first time, and by the standards of most rookie seasons they are doing it well. Arvid Lindblad is 11th in the championship. Gabriel Bortoleto is outscoring a team-mate with 230 starts. Franco Colapinto cried in the Alpine garage at Monza after a mistake cost him a shot at the front, which tells you the opportunity was real. Here is where each stands after 13 rounds, and what the next ten need to show.
Arvid Lindblad, Racing Bulls: 29 points, 11th
Lindblad’s season has been shaped by events at the senior team. He arrived at Racing Bulls when Isack Hadjar was promoted, lost his team-mate Liam Lawson to Red Bull when Hadjar was injured, and has spent three rounds alongside a recalled Yuki Tsunoda. Through all of it he has been the best of the rookies on points, 11th in the standings with 29, and quick enough on Saturdays to make Racing Bulls fifth in the constructors’ table and best of the rest. He was publicly “a little bit disheartened” to be passed over for the Red Bull call-up in favour of Lawson, which is the right attitude for a junior in that programme. The 2027 question is whether Red Bull promotes Hadjar, keeps Lawson or jumps to Lindblad, and every clean weekend he delivers makes the third option harder to dismiss.
Gabriel Bortoleto, Audi: 10 points, 14th
The 2024 Formula 2 champion is leading Audi’s debut season on points, with 10 to Nico Hülkenberg’s six. That matters more than the raw number. Hülkenberg is one of the grid’s most respected calibration drivers and Bortoleto has beaten him in a car that has been the eighth-fastest at best, while learning circuits he had never raced on. The Race noted this week that Audi’s first F1 protégé, in the junior categories, is on the brink of extending a title streak, and the works team’s willingness to fight the FIA over a single point at Monza shows how much it values each place. Bortoleto is contracted and secure. His first home race at Interlagos in November will be a major moment for a country that has waited since Felipe Massa for a driver to follow.
Franco Colapinto, Alpine: 21 points, 12th
Colapinto is the rookie with the most to prove and the most to cry about. He had a partial season with Williams in 2025 and a fresh Alpine deal this summer, and the Monza weekend was both his best and his worst: a car quick enough to run at the front after Pierre Gasly’s shock pole, and a “big mistake” of his own that wasted it, followed by a fight with Max Verstappen for which he later apologised to the team. Twelfth in the standings on 21 points is a respectable return in a car that has been inconsistent, and Gasly has said Alpine’s fight with the teams ahead is “realistic”. Colapinto’s task is consistency. Alpine has kept faith so far.
What the rookies say about 2026
Max Verstappen has used the quick adaptation of Lawson and Tsunoda to argue the 2026 cars are “too easy to drive”, and the rookies’ points totals could be read the same way. The kinder reading is that the modern ladder, described in our guide to becoming an F1 driver, produces drivers who arrive better prepared than any generation before them, with simulator hours and testing kilometres their predecessors never had. Three rookies in the points by round 13 is evidence for both arguments. The drivers themselves, understandably, prefer the second.
Frequently asked questions
Who are the 2026 rookies?
Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls), Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi) and, in his first full season, Franco Colapinto (Alpine).
Which rookie has scored the most?
Lindblad, with 29 points and 11th place after 13 rounds.
Is Bortoleto ahead of Hülkenberg?
Yes, 10 points to 6 after 13 rounds.
Will they keep their seats?
Bortoleto and Colapinto are expected to. Lindblad’s future depends on Red Bull’s second-seat decision.
