Just a day after it was announced that Lewis Hamilton would be the cover athlete for F1 25‘s Legendary Edition, the cover stars for the standard edition of the game have been revealed. As revealed through the official X account of EA Sports F1, Carlos Sainz of Williams, Oscar Piastri of McLaren, and Ollie Bearman of Haas will be the cover stars for the standard edition of F1 25.

This announcement seems to have taken fans of the F1 games, as well as the racing series itself, by surprise, as neither Sainz, Piastri, nor Bearman are who many would consider to be premier drivers in F1. Though Sainz is coming off a multi-year stint with Ferrari, he currently drives for Williams, who are expected to be a part of the mid-pack at best, despite their strong start to the 2025 season. Despite making some improvements, Haas is still earmarked as being backmarkers by many pundits. Piastri’s selection makes sense as McLaren has looked strong for several seasons and should be competing for a Constructor’s Championship in 2025. However, he’s still not the best driver in his team — Lando Norris owns that distinction.

Granted, this could be a marketing thing for EA Sports. As we already know, Ferrari’s Hamilton has already been revealed as the Legendary edition for F1 25. So maybe different tiers of the game will be represented by different tiers of drivers.