We may only be four races in to the 2013 season, but it
doesn’t take long to make an impact in Formula 1.
Bahrain was perhaps a more challenging weekend for him and we failed to see the speed shown in the opening three races. However I don’t think that is hugely surprising, it was just his second time driving at the Bahrain International Circuit and the Caterham car looked more competitive over the whole weekend, his car was just not 100% suited to the track.
However he has managed to impress more in comparison to his team-mate, Briton’s Max Chilton. He perhaps went into the season with a barrage of hype and expectation resting on his shoulders. So far Max has failed to match those expectations but he still has plenty of time to learn. One thing is for certain, he has struggled more than Bianchi and despite blaming his troubles on lack of experience that is not a viable excuse when your team-mate (who has similar levels of experience) is out-pacing you by nearly a second per lap.
I may have jumped the gun with judging this year’s rookie line-up but from first impressions, they look to be struggling. Chilton is a fine example of this but it is not uncommon, it’s a completely different way of racing in comparison to feeder series like GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5. Also we have to remember that testing if fairly limited, something that has perhaps hampered the drivers in these opening few rounds.
Valtteri Bottas is another driver with a lot to prove, he was hailed as the Williams F1 Team’s golden boy when he was their test driver in 2012. The Finn managed to drive the car in a fair few FP1 sessions but so far he has failed to turn heads, make people take notice of him and his talent.
However I don’t think that is down to driver talent or inexperience. Bottas is one of the best prepared of any rookie on the grid this year, although they have all had their fair share of driving F1 cars. However the Williams FW35 has so far proved to be very, very poor to drive. Both racers have said it is a tricky beast to tame. With rubbish tools at his disposal, I don’t think we should judge Bottas by his finishing position but perhaps by comparing him to someone with equal machinery.
His debut was difficult to say the least, crashing out in tricky qualifying conditions to line up 18th. The race was better and he stayed out of trouble to take a rather unspectacular 13th place finish. He bettered that with another mediocre drive to 12th in Malaysia before crashing into Adrian Sutil’s innocent Force India in China.
After his almighty error in China, he was completely off the radar in Bahrain. The Sauber driver finished 18th and behind Charles Pic’s Caterham in what was a very poor showing indeed. So far in 2013 we have failed to see the feisty, fast GP2 driver of 2012. It may be too early to make a full judgement but so far I have not been impressed at all.
Someone who has been similarly unspectacular is Giedo van der Garde. As the teams second driver he missed out on the upgrades that were fitted to team-mate Charles Pic’s CT03. That was part of the reason why he finished behind but so far this season he has not shown the standout pace and speed of Bianchi, something quite a few people expected.
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| (c) Marussia F1 Team |
The sport welcomed five new drivers to its family and with
open arms, but who has impressed so far? I take a look at how the newbie’s have
fared so far and who has turned heads for the right and wrong reasons
respectively.
Formula 1 is a tough industry to crack, so to make it in the
sport and to get there in the first place you need the talent and speed. That
is a fact. However with the sport now being more reliant on money, “pay
drivers” are moving to the forefront. We have seen a fair few promotions for
this season and most of them bring the cash (something that is hugely important
for the smaller teams), but can they bring the results too?
We have plenty of time to find out, but for now it seems
that only one 2013 rookie has managed to turn heads for both his talent and
funding. That driver is Jules Bianchi. After being rejected by Force India in favour
of experienced Adrian Sutil, his talent and funding was snapped up by Marussia
after they lost their cash boost from Luiz Razia.
It was bye bye Razia and hello Bianchi but with just a few
weeks until the season opener it really was very swift deal indeed. Of course
this effectively hampered his preparations for the season ahead but looking at
his results in the opening four races, you wouldn’t think that he had only
driven the car 136 laps in the Marussia car. He finished 15th on his
debut and posted the 11th fastest lap in the process, very
impressive indeed. Bianchi then backed up his impressive first race with a 13th
place finish in Malaysia and
another 15 place in China.
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| (c) Marussia F1 Team |
Bahrain was perhaps a more challenging weekend for him and we failed to see the speed shown in the opening three races. However I don’t think that is hugely surprising, it was just his second time driving at the Bahrain International Circuit and the Caterham car looked more competitive over the whole weekend, his car was just not 100% suited to the track.
However he has managed to impress more in comparison to his team-mate, Briton’s Max Chilton. He perhaps went into the season with a barrage of hype and expectation resting on his shoulders. So far Max has failed to match those expectations but he still has plenty of time to learn. One thing is for certain, he has struggled more than Bianchi and despite blaming his troubles on lack of experience that is not a viable excuse when your team-mate (who has similar levels of experience) is out-pacing you by nearly a second per lap.
I may have jumped the gun with judging this year’s rookie line-up but from first impressions, they look to be struggling. Chilton is a fine example of this but it is not uncommon, it’s a completely different way of racing in comparison to feeder series like GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5. Also we have to remember that testing if fairly limited, something that has perhaps hampered the drivers in these opening few rounds.
Valtteri Bottas is another driver with a lot to prove, he was hailed as the Williams F1 Team’s golden boy when he was their test driver in 2012. The Finn managed to drive the car in a fair few FP1 sessions but so far he has failed to turn heads, make people take notice of him and his talent.
However I don’t think that is down to driver talent or inexperience. Bottas is one of the best prepared of any rookie on the grid this year, although they have all had their fair share of driving F1 cars. However the Williams FW35 has so far proved to be very, very poor to drive. Both racers have said it is a tricky beast to tame. With rubbish tools at his disposal, I don’t think we should judge Bottas by his finishing position but perhaps by comparing him to someone with equal machinery.
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| (c) Williams F1 Team |
Bottas has so far finished every single Grand Prix,
something Maldonado can not proclaim. The Venezuelan took to the gravel trap in
the opening round and then suffered a mechanical problem whilst running close
to Bottas in Malaysia.
He finished behind his rookie team-mate in China
before finishing ahead, but not by too much, of him in Bahrain. So a
pretty mixed bag for both drivers but I predict better things to come for
Bottas.
If he can continue to match Maldonado throughout the year I
think he can be happy with his performance. However someone who looks to be consistently
slower than his team-mate is Esteban Gutierrez. The Mexican has constantly been
behind his more experienced Sauber team-mate and has failed to score a single
point’s finish, compared to Nico’s two point’s finishes in Malaysia and China.His debut was difficult to say the least, crashing out in tricky qualifying conditions to line up 18th. The race was better and he stayed out of trouble to take a rather unspectacular 13th place finish. He bettered that with another mediocre drive to 12th in Malaysia before crashing into Adrian Sutil’s innocent Force India in China.
After his almighty error in China, he was completely off the radar in Bahrain. The Sauber driver finished 18th and behind Charles Pic’s Caterham in what was a very poor showing indeed. So far in 2013 we have failed to see the feisty, fast GP2 driver of 2012. It may be too early to make a full judgement but so far I have not been impressed at all.
Someone who has been similarly unspectacular is Giedo van der Garde. As the teams second driver he missed out on the upgrades that were fitted to team-mate Charles Pic’s CT03. That was part of the reason why he finished behind but so far this season he has not shown the standout pace and speed of Bianchi, something quite a few people expected.
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| (c) Caterham F1 Team |
One thing I can say about the Dutch driver is that he has
been consistent. He has so far managed to get caught up in some rookie
incidents but he has finished each race and been close to the cars in front,
even if that is last place. Without the rookie errors (which we have yet to see
with Bianchi and Bottas), he could have finished ahead of the two Marussia’s in
Bahrain.
So who is the top rookie title holder so far? In my eyes,
Bianchi has impressed the most so far. The least? I would pick Gutierrez but
only because my expectations of him were high before the season kicked off and
so far he has yet to meet them.
It seems a few of you agree with me too. I tweeted the
question “which F1 rookie has most and least impressed you this season?” and
the responses were similar to my eventual conclusion.
My Vloging partner Chandni Patel (@ItsChandniPatel) agreed
with me, naming Bianchi as the most impressive rookie so far and Gutierrez as
the least. Steve (@OnlySteveH) cited Bianchi as his top rookie but felt Chilton
had been disappointing so far, saying that Bianchi had “put Chilton in the
shade.” Those are just a few views expressed and it's a hot topic in the sport.
The newcomers certainly have a lot to prove and we have not seen
the best of them. However a fair few of them need to buck up and start
performing otherwise their F1 careers could be put in jeopardy.
1 comment:
How can you say Bottas is the best prepared rookie when Bianchi has driven three different cars (one top car, one middle field car and one backmarker car), has driven successfully in many different high level feeder series (including GP2 and F3.5) and having been a test driver for Ferrari and Force India?
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