FORMULA 1
ROOKIE WRAP
DAN KNUTSON takes a look at this season’s talented crop of rookie F1 drivers FOUR OF the 20 Formula 1 drivers this year are rookies: Alexander Albon, Antonio Giovinazzi, Lando Norris and George Russell. All of them except Giovinazzi have already been regularly matching or beating their experienced teammates in qualifying and/or the races themselves. Giovinazzi is no slouch either but needs a bit more time to prove his potential. The other three, meanwhile, are showing a good depth of talent. None of the four are typical “pay drivers” who bring a big chunk of sponsor dollars to their teams. Furthermore, all of them except Albon were already test/reserve drivers for F1 teams, plus did simulator work, and therefore come into their rookie seasons with F1 training. Read on for more on all four.
LANDO NORRIS Nationality: British Age: 19 Team: McLaren F1 Team Teammate: Carlos Sainz
AT AGE 19, Lando Norris – born 13 November 1999 – is the youngest of this season’s rookies. Unlike many drivers, he was more interested in motorcycles rather than karts. But after his father took him to a kart race, he decided that is what he wanted to do. At age seven he started racing them. He won the WSK Euro Series, the CIK-FIA European, the World Karting and the CIK-FIA Supercup championships in 2013. Then in 2014 he became the youngest ever driver to win British rookies Lando Norris has been the most impressive rookie so far.
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the CIK-FIA KF World Championship. He also made his car racing debut that year. Next came a string of championship wins: the MSA Formula in 2015, the Toyota Racing Series, the Formula Renault 2.0 NEC and the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, all in 2016. Norris followed that up with nine victories on his way to clinching the 2017 FIA F3 European Championship. Norris had only one victory in the 2018 FIA Formula 2 Championship but still finished runner-up to George Russell in the points. Having been a McLaren F1 test driver in 2017 and 2018, Norris was well prepared to make his racing debut in 2019. Still, it is a steep learning curve, and it took a while for Norris to build up his confidence. “Confidence in myself – that’s the thing I probably struggled with the most going to (the season opener in) Australia,” he reveals. “It was much better going to Bahrain, much more relaxed and I enjoyed it a lot more. I enjoyed Australia but I was so tense thinking about so many things, I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. So I didn’t make Melbourne as fun as Bahrain or China.” While he has posted better race results than teammate Carlos Sainz, Norris only gives himself a six out of 10 rating for the start of his F1 career. That’s because he made a few mistakes. “Ten is perfect,” he states. “Ten is going in and not making any mistakes, nailing everything, which n is never going to happen. China didn’t go to plan from C qualifying and the race. q Bahrain on a whole I would rate B as very good and Australia, knowing there was potential kn to get points if I was more experienced or did a better job ex than tha I did. Maybe it’s not as bad as it seems; there was just a couple of points here and there, there was more potential to do a bit better overall.” He was happier with the race in Azerbaijan where he finished eighth. “It’s always a bonus to make early impact,” he says of his first F1 races. “It’s good that I’ve done well for people on the outside but also for my own confidence from knowing I can do the job.”
ALEXANDER ALBON
Nationality: Thai-British Age: 23 Team: Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda Teammate: Daniil Kvyat ALEXANDER ALBON has a British father and a Thai mother. While he was born in England – on 23 March 1996 – Albon has a Thai passport and races with a Thai license. His father had raced and encouraged Alex to start in karts when he was eight. Albon competed in karting at various levels between 2005 and 2011. He won the World Karting Championship, the European Karting Championship, several British Karting Championships, and never finished lower than third in any of the kart series he participated in. He graduated to cars and Formula Renault 2.0 in 2012 and finished third in the Eurocup championship of that category in 2014. While he didn’t win any races in the FIA Formula 3 European championship in 2015, but he had four victories on his way to placing third in the 2016 GP3 series. His 2017 season in the FIA Formula 2 championship didn’t produce great results. But in 2018 he scored four victories and finished third in points after being in contention for the title. Albon was due to compete in Formula E this year. Then Daniel Ricciardo made
his surprise switch to Renault, Red Bull promoted Pierre Gasly from Toro Rosso to take his place, and so the latter team needed a driver. At the time Albon thought his chances of getting an F1 ride were over. “When I signed in Formula E it was a bit like okay, yeah, I didn’t get the opportunity, but I’m really happy to be in FE, it’s pretty much the next biggest thing there is for a single seater driver,” he recalls. “Then the call (from Red Bull) came.” So Albon’s path to F1 was a rocky one as he went from not even having an F2 ride early in 2018 to signing with Toro Rosso, in just eight months. He describes his F1 pre-season preparation as intense. “There was a lot of preparation to do,” he says. “You cannot believe how many books we’re given to read – just b the th steering wheel book was huge – and there were a lot of other things to learn.” th In pre-season testing it looked Alexander Albon was the least rated of the rookies but has thus far been very impressive.