The challenges in getting a new driver up to speed in F1

In times gone by when there were many more teams on the grid than today, it was fairly common to see numerous changes to the driver line-up at the final few races of a Formula 1 season as enterprising team owners completed short-term deals to keep their outfits on the grid. The penultimate race of the tumultuous 1994 season, at Suzuka, featured no less than five changes - one of them, JJ Lehto rejoining Sauber after a confidence-jarring year with Benetton, in a car I engineered - while three drivers made their debuts at the same race one year before, including a confident Ulsterman who would earn himself a punch from Ayrton Senna...

Of course, the circumstances around last weekend's changes for the Sakhir GP were anything but the norm. Pietro Fittipaldi, grandson of Emerson, was replacing the injured Romain Grosjean at Haas, while Jack Aitken was driving the Williams normally campaigned by Mercedes junior George Russell, who had been given the golden opportunity of driving Lewis Hamilton's W11 with the world champion sidelined by a positive test for COVID-19.

What transpired was something that some only dream of. Russell dominated the race, but a rare pitstop mistake by the team and a slow puncture after he had recovered to second with a sequence of passes - including one on team-mate Valtteri Bottas - meant he came away a frustrated ninth.

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"He overdelivered on Friday, he overdelivered yesterday in qualifying in just a few hundredths away from Valtteri, and he overdelivered today," said Toto Wolff on Sunday. "His racing was unbelievable."

The radio communications between Russell and the team showed just how complex the modern day F1 cars are, as he battled with switch settings and brake balance adjustments he was unfamiliar with compared to his usual car. On top of this, as Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin alluded to, "it's been made difficult [for Russell to adapt to the car] by the fact that we've not had such a tall driver for a very, very long time". Having to wear racing boots too small only added to his challenges.

In 1990, when Gerhard Berger joined McLaren, we had a similar problem in that he was so tall compared to Senna and our previous driver Alain Prost. We had a season long battle with different pedals and a resculptured dash panel to provide clearance for his knees, as well as changing the throttle scroll (the mechanical link to the butterflies) due to his lack of pedal movement.

So, what is it like from an engineer's point of view, working with new drivers? Obviously at the beginning of a racing year you have plenty of time to talk through the layout of the car and make adjustments to the seat, pedals and steering wheel positions, but when you have replacement drivers during a season you have to make do and adapt on the fly.

Therefore, the first requirement is probably patience, especially with inexperienced drivers. A lot will depend on their talent, understanding of English (the primary language in F1, unless you work at Ferrari) the ability to take advice on board and a mechanical know how. I have worked with drivers who, when faced with an adjustable anti roll bar mechanism, wouldn't know which way to adjust it to combat understeer or oversteer.

The cars back then were nowhere near as complicated as current machinery, but all the same the Jordan was a difficult car to set up due to its monoshock front suspension and rather fragile Brian Hart engine

The ability to work with the team as a whole can also make a huge difference. Most mechanics respond well to a driver who will take time to go round and say, "good morning" or "thank you", but I have seen so many drivers who get out of their car and just walk away. Good drivers will take the time to study and understand data, know where they can take more speed in corners or make time by braking later. This is where a good relationship with his engineer can bring dividends.

In 1993 I had been asked by Thierry Boutsen, who I had engineered that year at Le Mans when he drove the Peugeot 905, to oversee the Jordan F1 car he'd been signed to drive as a replacement for Ivan Capelli. Due to my commitment to Peugeot, I couldn't start with Jordan until the French GP which that year was at Magny-Cours. Unfortunately, following that, Thierry became increasingly disenchanted with Jordan and the lack of results, so when he had clutch failure on the line at Spa it was the final nail in the relationship. He quit F1 for good, thus leaving a vacancy in the team.

For the rest of the season, I had a succession of replacement drivers beginning at the Italian GP in Monza with Marco Apicella, a stalwart of F3000 who had tested a Minardi the previous year but concentrated on Japanese F3000 in 1993.

You have to understand that the cars back then were nowhere near as complicated as current machinery, but all the same the Jordan was a difficult car to set up due to its monoshock front suspension and rather fragile Brian Hart engine. Also, we didn't have an army of back-up engineers who were looking at all aspects of the car's behaviour, or a lot of data to pore over.

However, Apicella was not as tall as Boutsen, so accommodating him was only a matter of a new two-part foam seat. There was really only the car set-up for him to adapt to, and it looked promising in first practice when he was quicker than Rubens Barrichello in the sister Jordan. However, having qualified in 23rd place and being near the back of the grid, he only made it to the first chicane where he was unfortunately eliminated in a multi car pile-up. Sadly, it was his one and only start in F1.

Another Italian Formula 3000 graduate, Emanuele Naspetti, was then drafted in for the next grand prix in Estoril. A really charming and talented driver who had raced five times for March in 1992, he was also again thrown in at the deep end due to Jordan's need to fund the team. He adapted as best he could, but like Apicella only managed to qualify in 23rd place. An engine failure put paid to his effort.

Then came one Eddie Irvine, for the Japanese GP. Another Eddie and another Irishman full of the blarney! He was already racing in the Japanese F3000 series, so knew Suzuka well and was full of confidence. He was very good with his feedback of how the car was reacting and between us we managed to get the car handling well.

He surprised us all by qualifying eighth on the grid and made a superb start due to his knowledge of the circuit and went round the outside of several drivers in Turn 1. His debut will be remembered for his audacious move on Senna to unlap himself during the second part of the race, which Ayrton thought was out of order when he confronted Eddie afterwards... At least he scored a point by finishing in sixth place. However, in the final round at Adelaide, his bravado was his undoing when he crashed in practice and also in the race.

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In 1994, I was faced with a similar scenario when at Sauber. Having started the season with Karl Wendlinger (another tall driver by the way), he suffered a bad crash during practice in Monaco and was replaced by Andrea de Cesaris. Andrea was well known for having big accidents, so it was with trepidation that we took him on. He was perhaps the most difficult driver I have had to work with as he complained about everything, wouldn't listen to advice and then had lacklustre results. Out of the nine races, he only finished once, but at least scored one point in sixth place at the French GP in Magny-Cours.

For the last two GPs of that season, Sauber replaced him with Lehto, a very likeable and smiley Finn who had endured some troubled times after injuring his neck during pre-season testing. He had returned to racing with Benetton at the ill-fated Imola race but was involved in a startline accident when he stalled and was hit from behind by Pedro Lamy. There was always a question mark over his fitness, but his bravery and outright speed were evident. His first race in torrential rain at Suzuka ended with an engine failure, but subsequently he put in a strong performance in Adelaide to finish in 10th place.

De Cesaris was perhaps the most difficult driver I have had to work with as he complained about everything, wouldn't listen to advice and then had lacklustre results

So, while it may seem easy from the outside for a driver to step into a car that has been honed over several seasons for a regular pedaller - especially in Russell's case, the fastest car in F1 history - this is far from the truth. One has to applaud Russell's achievement for, although he has tested with Mercedes in the past, he had never driven the current W11 and had to unlearn plenty of traits needed to hustle the far less sophisticated Williams.

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As Shovlin points out, "every year as you're looking where we can squeeze something here and there, and work on the packaging and put a bit more performance on the thing, it becomes a less and less comfortable environment for a guy who's a bit over six feet tall". That he was able to pull away from Bottas in the race, underlines just what a talent he is.

From my own point of view, I feel privileged to have briefly worked with Russell when I engineered his drive in the Palmer F2 car during the 2014 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award test at Silverstone, which he ultimately won. He certainly did know what advantage the adjustable anti roll bar would give him!