F1 rookie number selection causes uproar - should the system be changed?

Since 2014, F1 has allowed drivers to race under a number of their choosing, but a recent number-based controversy has shed light on where fans might not be entirely happy with the current system.

With 2025 rookies Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan claiming the numbers five and seven, respectively, there has been a backlash online from fans who do not wish to see the old numbers of their favourites adorned on a different driver's car.

The furore from the swathe of disgruntled F1 fans has brought the contemporary approach back into focus, with many calling for storied or famed numbers to be retired from use.

Currently, a previously-allocated number re-enters circulation two years after it was last used. For example, when Nico Rosberg retired at the end of the 2016 season, his number six was unavailable until 2019.

Nicholas Latifi picked it up the following year, and it is now selectable again after the Canadian left F1 following the 2022 campaign.

Prior to adopting the current method, car numbers were determined by the finishing positions in the previous season's constructors' championship, as had been the way since 1996. (Before that, the reigning drivers' champion's team swapped with the previous title winner to claim the numbers one and two.)

Whilst Doohan is taking Kimi Raikkonen's number seven, Sebastian Vettel fans, in particular, were displeased with the F2 champion giving the number five a second act in the modern era of F1 numbering.

The only numbers not readily available to drivers is the number one, which is reserved for the drivers' champion if they so wish to use it - as Max Verstappen does - and the number 17, which was retired to honour the late Jules Bianchi, who raced under it in 2014.

But, given the achievements of drivers such as Vettel, should F1 introduce number retirement on a more general basis, to better recognise its greatest talents?

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