The rise of the British rookies
Formula 1 needed new driver blood and in its 2019 intake it may just have a found a trio of future winners. We assess the impressive debut seasons of Alex Albon, Lando Norris and George Russell
The 2001 Formula 1 season saw the debuts of three drivers who would go on to play a key role in shaping grand prix racing over the following seasons. Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya went on to win 60 grands prix and three world championships between them – numbers that could have been far bigger given the talent of the trio. The 2019 season may look a little like 2001 when you glance back at the history books in a decade or so.
In March’s Australian Grand Prix, Lando Norris, George Russell and Alex Albon all made their F1 debuts and went on to make a big impact with their performances. But the most remarkable story was that of Albon, who in July 2018 was coming to terms with the fact that his F1 dream was probably over having signed a three-year deal to race for the Nissan e.dams Formula E team. Toro Rosso, which was set to lose Pierre Gasly to Red Bull and had lost faith in Brendon Hartley, then came calling and, in November, Albon’s F1 seat was finally official after he had been extracted from the e.dams deal.
Albon’s reputation grew over the first half of the season. While there were a few too many crashes, he bounced back from them well – notably after shunting heavily at the last corner in FP3 in China and missing qualifying, recovering to finish 10th. In all, he notched up five points finishes in the first half of the year, peaking with a great run to sixth at Hockenheim in his first experience of an F1 car in the wet that was overshadowed by team-mate Daniil Kvyat’s fortuitous podium.
With Gasly struggling badly, Albon was given a shock promotion to Red Bull for the second half of the season. In just a year, he’d gone from the brink of F1 oblivion to one of the best seats on the grid. During the second half of the season he was a more consistent scorer than Gasly, only finishing behind any of the midfielders at Monza and Interlagos, where he was booted out of second place by Lewis Hamilton’s late move.
“It’s a very strange feeling because it hasn’t really hit me,” says Albon of his astonishing rise. “It’s like I’m floating around through my first year – I don’t really feel like I’m aware of anything, which I think is a good thing because I don’t feel the pressure. I’m sure over the winter I’m going to reflect about it and have time for myself. It’s very crazy to think about, I think people forget that while I am in Red Bull it’s still my first year and it will take time. But it’s getting there.”
Albon impressed with his mental strength, putting any setbacks behind him, and looked entirely at home at this level. The key now is that he closes the gap to Verstappen – on average in qualifying he was only a tenth closer than Gasly was and was still just over four tenths off – and irons out the little errors that have often led to him not fulfilling his potential over a weekend. But he has enormous potential if he can deliver consistently and, with a year of experience under his belt, will take a step forward next season.
Of the three rookies, Norris perhaps had the most conventional debut season. In midfield-leading Mclaren, his pace immediately caught the eye with a Q3 place in Melbourne in March – although his run at a points finish was thwarted by spending too long stuck behind Antonio Giovinazzi after an early pitstop – then an accomplished sixth in Bahrain. That convinced the rest of F1 he was ready, if there were any doubts given his excellent junior formula CV and FP1 performances for Mclaren in 2018, as well as himself.
“If I was going to be good enough, simple as that,” he says when asked if he had any doubts on the eve of his first season. “I didn’t know if I was going to be quick enough, going up against a driver [Carlos Sainz] who’s done four years in F1, against so many good drivers. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do a good enough job every time so I just didn’t believe in myself much. But I already gained a lot of confidence from Australia and in Bahrain.”
Norris did more than just keep up. Three times he ‘won’ the midfield race, and it would have been more but for a catalogue of misfortune that arguably made him the unluckiest driver on the grid.
He was taken out by Daniil Kvyat in China, a slow-burning hydraulic problem that he did well to manage turned seventh into ninth on the last lap in France, poor strategy and a virtual safety car cost him points in Britain, pitstop problems denied him points in Hungary and Mexico, and an agonising late failure cost him a certain fifth place in Belgium.
His season did trail off a little, a combination of Sainz becoming ever-stronger and Norris heading to a run of unfamiliar circuits at the end of the year. But he almost finished seventh in Abu Dhabi, only to be ambushed by Sergio Perez on the last
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“Albon impressed with his mental strength, putting any setbacks behind him, and looked at home at this level”
lap. After the race, Norris was appalled that he hadn’t been harder in battle, indicating he still felt he had much to learn. But as he pointed out, the regular peaks were impressive.
“The good things I’ve done this year were much better than I thought I could ever do, which I’m happy with,” he says. “But there are other things I would’ve loved to do better. I’m being harsh on myself because I want to just be a better driver.”
The most difficult newcomer to judge is Russell. Stuck with the least competitive car the Williams team has ever produced, he was unable to score a point – although he was unfortunate that the one time a Williams did score, at Hockenheim, was one of only two races where Robert Kubica finished ahead. But while Kubica proved to be a questionable reference point, Russell was emphatically superior in qualifying, beating Kubica every time, with an average advantage of 0.575s – a testament to his consistency.
While Russell wasn’t tested in the cut-and-thrust of the midfield, the Williams team had no doubt that he was extracting the maximum from the car – even if inevitably the capriciousness of the tyres meant that his performances had a little of the inconsistency you’d expect from a rookie.
“I’ve been blown away by George,” says deputy team principal Claire Williams. “Unless you are inside this team you don’t really know how hard it has been. From the get-go, he has behaved in a way that you could say is exemplary because it’s been tough for him, not having a car that he would like to have.
“It has also been tough for him seeing his peers that have graduated from F2 at the same time get into machinery that is far more competitive than he’s got. He doesn’t get to race with anybody on a Sunday yet he gives it everything he’s got. He’ s one of those drivers that, when he does have a car, he’s going to really light things up. We see him on a Saturday in qualifying, he gets in that car and the boys gather around the TV screens and they’re excited about watching him. It’s a bit like Nigel Mansell, he just extracts everything that he possibly can and yes, it might be a second off getting into Q2, but he’s still banging in some pretty impressive laps.
“And outside the car as well, considering this was his first year, the knowledge that he has on how a Formula 1 car works and what’s going on with it and to translate that into useful information that the engineers can then use to develop has been impressive. It’s like he has been racing in F1 for more than five years.”
Russell’s season had a little of the 2001 Alonso-at-minardi vibe, with no results but showing consistently that he has enough about him to be a force in F1. He deserves a car to show what he can do.
It’s impossible to say which of the three has the brightest future, although on balance Russell was perhaps the most impressive by a slender margin. But there’s no doubt that all three will be significant players next season, and should remain so in the years to come.
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“Norris did more than just keep up – three times he ‘won’ the midfield race”
“Russell is one of those drivers that, when he does have a car, he’s going to really light things up”