F1 Fanatic

Autosport’s opened voting for its Rookie of the Year award but I wondered you thought deserved that title? In F1 and then also across every series?

Yeah, I tend to include those in their first full season. Though how is Hulkenburg doing worse than Petrov and the others?

1. Kobayashi
2. Hulkenburg
3. Alguersuari
4. Chandhok
5. Senna
6. Petrov
7. Di Grassi

1st – Kobayashi
2nd – Alguersuari
3rd – Petrov
4th – Chandhok
5th – Di Grassi
6th – Hulkenberg

I go fully with daykinds suggestions but for me the 3 in there than have done the best are

Hulkenberg-i know he has had some bad moments but he has been quite solid.
Kobayashi-Impressed at his performance in Japan so he goes on the top 3
Alguersuari-MASSIVE improvement on last season he has turned into a decent driver for the Toro Rosso team

no one, there are all/will be pants!

at best journeymen

sblot

Kobayashi and Alguersuari have impressed me most. Di grassi, Hulkenberg and Petrov from time to time. Chandhok would sit somewhere in the middle as he’s only had half a season.

Alonso and Webber drove the worst cars on the grid in their first year, so weren’t really able to show us what they were capable of on a regular basis, just as a few of the rookies this year are.

Some of them in better machinery than a Virgin or HRT (like Kobayashi, Hulkenburg) have shown at least some potential, so therefore it’d be just naive to write them off to the extent you just did in only their first season.

A couple of them looking very good in their first season (as you even pointed out) isn’t the same broad statement as “all will be pants”, which was what I was responding to. Give ‘em a chance first, then write ‘em off Scribe/sbl.

Thought I’d finally do mine as I was a bit pressed for time before.

1/ Hulkenberg. Barely any testing but sometimes he’s bang on Rubens pace if not faster. That is very, very rare to see I feel. His racing has been all over the place though and that so nearly made me put my second choice first.

2/ Petrov. Sometimes off the pace but has the hardest team mate of all the rookies. His sometimes daft mistakes have cost him the top spot. He’s a pure racer, had a great Hungary weekend and usually gets blinding starts. He has something he just needs more consistency and more mileage. If he gets the Renault seat for a second year hopefully it’ll give him a boost.

3/ Kobayashi. A pure racing machine but his qualifying performances have sometimes been dreadful even compared to Pedro. He’s also had a few races and testing which doesn’t mean mcuh but every little helps. Could be a star one day and he’s made the most of all his Sunay’s but sometimes because his Saturday’s or so poor he has to go crazy.

4/ Jaime. I don’t really count him as a rookie but I may as well as others have stuck him in. I thought I saw some promise in him but he’s still at times really struggling just against Buemi after more than a year. STR doesn’t have the best history of managing its drivers but I did expect more. He showed aggression at Aus and Spain but apart from that and maybe some raw speed at Singapore I’ve forgotten about him.

The rest. Too hard to judge but probably Senna then Karun then Lucas.

In the other series:
Hulk, Pet, Kob, Bianchi tied with Bird, Kimi and then I can’t remember the other rookies :P