page_title: 2015 Formula One World Championship
section_title: Driver changes
hierarchical_section_title: 2015 Formula One World Championship / Teams and drivers / Driver changes
caption_attribution_description: English: Sebastian Vettel at the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix.
context_page_description: The 2015 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 69th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2015 Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars, recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Twenty-two drivers representing ten teams contested nineteen Grands Prix, starting in Australia on 15 March and ending in Abu Dhabi on 29 November as they competed for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships.
  Lewis Hamilton was the defending Drivers' Champion after securing his second title at the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. His team, Mercedes, began the season as the defending Constructors' Champion, having clinched its first championship title at the 2014 Russian Grand Prix.
  The calendar featured two significant changes from the 2014 season. The first was the return of the Mexican Grand Prix, held for the first time since 1992.
context_section_description: The driver line-ups saw a couple of changes prior to the 2015 season and one more prior to the Singapore Grand Prix. Fernando Alonso replaced Kevin Magnussen at McLaren, returning to the team after he last raced for them in 2007. Following an accident during pre-season testing, Alonso withdrew from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, and Magnussen returned as his temporary replacement. Sebastian Vettel left Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2014 season after six years with the team and nine years with its wider junior development programme to join Ferrari in place of Alonso. Daniil Kvyat was promoted to Red Bull from Toro Rosso to fill the vacated seat.
  Toro Rosso changed their entire line-up: along with Kvyat joining Red Bull, the team chose not to renew Jean-Éric Vergne's contract. Vergne went on to compete in the Formula E Championship while also becoming a Ferrari development driver. They were replaced by the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion Carlos Sainz Jr. and the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship third-place finisher Max Verstappen. The latter became the youngest driver to make a Formula One début, at the age of 17 years, 164 days when he started the season.
  Esteban Gutiérrez and Adrian Sutil were released from Sauber, where they were replaced by the former Caterham driver Marcus Ericsson and the GP2 driver Felipe Nasr. Gutiérrez and Sutil went on to join Ferrari and Williams respectively as reserve drivers.
  Manor Marussia also had two new drivers: They employed the former Caterham driver Will Stevens to drive for his first full season in the sport, while another former Caterham test driver, Roberto Merhi, was signed to a short-term deal while he also drove in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. Max Chilton relinquished his seat, joining the Indy Lights championship, while Jules Bianchi was in a coma at the start of the season and ultimately died from injuries sustained at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix. Alexander Rossi was later drafted in by Manor Marussia to make his Formula One début at the Singapore Grand Prix, replacing Merhi. The Spaniard returned to the team for the Russian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix, sharing the car with Rossi for the remainder of the season.
  Kamui Kobayashi went on to race in the Super Formula series in Japan after the folding of Caterham left him without a drive in Formula One.
caption: Sebastian Vettel (pictured in 2012) left Red Bull Racing – the team with which he won four World Drivers' Championships – at the end of the 2014 season to join Ferrari.
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