How did the 2023 F1 rookies fare in Bahrain?

By:

Jake Boxall-Legge

Mar 8, 2023, 9:36 AM

The new faces on the 2023 F1 grid experienced varying degrees of success in their first outing as fully minted full-time drivers. But how did the trio of Nyck de Vries, Oscar Piastri, and Logan Sargeant stack up, and what do the numbers tell us about their races in Bahrain?

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In many regards, it’s a lot more challenging to be a rookie driver in Formula 1 in the modern era. Testing is considerably more limited than it ever was, and the days of newcomers being granted endless track time in closed-door sessions away from the prying eyes of the media offered a low-pressure environment for them to learn their craft.

Consider some of the great rookie performances of the last 20 years, and the context of unadulterated odometer-ticking days at Jerez or Barcelona perhaps knocks some of the shine off – Lewis Hamilton’s podium first time out in Melbourne and Sebastian Vettel’s points-scoring run at Indianapolis were aided considerably by testing programmes and the days of third cars in practice sessions respectively.

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Jake Boxall-Legge F1 Writer

Jake studied engineering at university, as his original ambition was to design racing cars. He was bad at that, and thus decided to write about them instead with an equally limited skillset. The above article is a demonstration of that. In his spare time, Jake enjoys people, places, and things.