F1's rookie trio: a shining talent, one with rough edges, and another off the pace

Oh, and fast. Did I mention fast? Saudi Arabia was a race I expected all of the rookies to struggle at compared to Bahrain, seeing as the test had been on a the same track as the first race – not the most punishing venue when it comes to mistakes. Getting up to speed in Jeddah was a much tougher task, but Piastri made a mockery of that with an impressive Q3 appearance.

He didn’t get the result he deserved on that occasion due to a massively unfortunate front wing breakage after marginal contact fighting Pierre Gasly at Turn 2, but then Piastri stayed out of trouble to make amends with a slightly fortuitous eighth place at his home race.

Most importantly, he dealt with the pressure admirably on each occasion, and has arguably been McLaren’s biggest positive of the year so far.

Logan Sargeant

Points 0
Best finish 12th

Dare I say it, Sargeant had the opposite scenario to Piastri heading into this season. While his former Formula 3 title rival had generated headlines last season and arrived with significant expectations, Sargeant was already being written off in some quarters as a pay driver picked solely because Williams owner Dorilton Capital wanted an American in one of its cars.

That did Sargeant a major disservice, but at the same time helped ensure that he wasn’t subjected to the same sort of attention as Piastri in the build-up to his debut.

And a very good debut it was (right), as Sargeant missed out on Q2 by virtue of setting exactly the same lap time as Lando Norris but after the McLaren driver, before a really strong run to 12th in a Williams that has proven more competitive than expected.

The same is true of the Floridian: Alex Albon admitted during testing that his new team-mate had shown he will keep him on his toes. Team principal James Vowles was suitably impressed by the early signs and wanted to make clear that Sargeant had been a fully paid member of Williams since 2022 as the team invested in his potential, something he himself had also been interested in when analysing young drivers at Mercedes.

It paints a picture of a driver who has the raw pace to be a success but is still perhaps slightly behind Piastri in his development, with his rookie F2 year showing places of impressive performance but also lapses of control when things aren’t going smoothly.

And that’s pretty much how the second two races turned out, as Sargeant made a small but costly error in qualifying in Jeddah that left him starting at the back, and then saw a tricky Melbourne weekend – hampered by reliability issues early on – end when he ran into the back of de Vries on the final restart and somehow escaped a penalty.

Promising signs so far from the 22-year-old, but also clearly some rough edges that need rounding off.

Nyck de Vries

Points 0
Best finish 14th

In some ways it’s surprising to see de Vries at the bottom of the drivers’ championship given the fact he’s one of the most experienced rookies in some time, but that’s largely down to misfortune.

The first part is the challenge of having an AlphaTauri that is once again difficult to drive, one that Yuki Tsunoda is also having to fight with just to put himself in the frame for a single point. For De Vries, that that led to an underwhelming first qualifying session but a far more encouraging race. He still didn’t have luck on his side when gambling on used tyres for a late restart, though, as he ended up 14th overall.

AlphaTauri has seen the impressive work ethic that helped de Vries muscle his way into an F1 seat at the age of 28, but it hasn’t yet clicked on track. A lack of overall confidence is understandable for a rookie and could be highlighted as the reason for – by his own admission – not being aggressive enough during race restarts in Jeddah and losing ground, but Franz Tost turned the pressure up pre-season by saying he doesn’t view the Dutchman as a rookie…

A Formula E World Championship and experience in an IndyCar and LMP2 machinery adds to his skillset but also perhaps leaves de Vries needing a bit more time to adapt to his latest surroundings. He’s already shown at Monza last year that he can deliver if given a car he’s semi-comfortable with, but De Vries doesn’t yet have that at AlphaTauri.

He was the only one of the rookies not to have driven in Jeddah before, though, so always faced a tough task there, and making Q2 for the first time in Melbourne was a sign of progress. Plus, if he hadn’t been punted off by Sargeant he would have picked up a top-12 finish at worst.

But given his age, experience and Red Bull’s history with junior drivers, of the three rookies de Vries is probably the one who most needs to take another step when racing resumes.

To even write that is a sign of just how high-quality the grid is this season, because in such a competitive field being just slightly off the pace will translate into frustrating results.