![]() There are more ‘what ifs’ around this line-up – recruited when Tyrrell’s final race-winner Michele Alboreto got a Ferrari offer and Danny Sullivan headed for CART Indycar – than almost any other F1 team-mate pairing. ![]() But it was his sheer speed, how he mentally handled the whirlwind of joining the F1 grid with backmarker Marussia not upper-midfielder Force India, and the contribution his technical feedback made that cemented his growing reputation. He wasn’t even supposed to be in this line-up, only getting a surprise chance via engine supplier Ferrari when intended racer Luiz Razia’s money stopped flowing during pre-season testing – just after Bianchi had lost out on a potential Force India drive to Adrian Sutil.īianchi’s 13th place at Sepang proved to be the difference in Marussia’s tail-end battle with Caterham that season. With Jordan under the ownership of Midland and struggling from the effects of several years of underinvestment when Monteiro and Karthikeyan arrived, neither had the machinery to shine. They worked hard for little reward before their partnership was broken by the arrival of Sakon Yamamoto and his half-a-million dollars per race. Senna didn’t even drive the car until free practice in the Bahrain opener and Chandhok not until qualifying! 6 – Bruno Senna/Karun Chandhokīoth Senna and Chandhok graduated from GP2, where they had won races, to HRT for 2010, but didn’t have the machinery to do anything other than toil at the back of the grid. Neither Albers nor Friesacher counts as a remotely bad driver.Īlbers arrived in F1 as a DTM star with national titles from junior single-seater racing behind him, while Friesacher – compromised by the after-effects of a serious karting injury – had been faster in F3000 than his championship positions suggested.īut despite the crazy events of Indianapolis 2005 meaning both are F1 points scorers, there weren’t many occasions either in their Minardi time or Albers’ subsequent Midland/Spyker seasons when they made a pressing case for deserving bigger F1 chances. There are drivers ahead of this mid-2000s Minardi pair in our list by virtue of the strength of their team-mates who would be behind both the duo if this was an individual ranking. ![]() So we ranked them – based on a mixture of what they achieved in those debut seasons, and the ultimate potential of the two drivers combined. It’s decided that Formula 2 champion Mick Schumacher and F2 race winner Nikita Mazepin represent its best long-term strategy, as much for the financial boost involved as their future potential, so it’s beginning the season with a combined total of zero grand prix starts in its driver strength.ĭiscounting anomalies from F1’s early years, situations such as a team having two rookies within a larger line-up or a one-car team with a rookie driver, there have only been seven previous occasions when a team has begun a season with two rookies. Haas goes into the 2021 Formula 1 season with something very rare: an all-rookie line-up.
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