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New generation of drivers impress: Has F1 become too easy?
- Ludo van Denderen
Formula 1 is the absolute pinnacle of motorsport, with the most advanced and fastest cars in the world. Yet in recent months, Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto, two youngsters from Formula 2 - where they compete with different cars - have entered Grands Prix with virtually no experience and proved to be immediately competitive. Is that the sign of F1 cars becoming too easy to drive?
Big and heavy, these are the characteristics of an F1 car Williams team principal James Vowles thinks of first when talking about the current generation of Formula One cars. Cars built up by parts full of technical marvels, with a lots of downsner, and they are often difficult to get them in the correct window. According to Vowles, to compete at the highest level with these cars requires a driver to have many important qualities.
Williams replaced Logan Sargeant with Franco Colapinto following the Dutch GP, and since then, the Argentinian youngster has impressed. "I think what you're seeing in both cases (including Olver Bearman) is actually the drivers were exceptional. I can guarantee you if I jumped into it, it'd look like a mess. It's a lot of preparation in the background. It's a lot of simulator work. It's a lot of psychological training. It's a lot of what a young driver or academy programme should bring to a driver in that circumstance. But it's also down to their natural talent that's coming through. And I think in both cases, there's a huge amount of it which is carrying them," Vowles said.
Formula 2 proves excellent learning ground
Ferrari also have an impressive young talent in the 19-year-old Bearman, who scored on both of his appearances in 2024 in Saudi Arabia and then in Baku. The Briton will make his full-time debut next year with Haas F1. "It's probably also coming from the fact that F2 is a good preparation," says Ferrari's team principal, Frederic Vasseur. The Frenchman states that the increased number of F2 weekends in feeder series could only help the youngsters: The more experience a driver can gain, the better he can develop his qualities.
"The main issue for me is not the speed, because the speed, you can find a couple of drivers with a good speed. It's more to manage the weekend and to not do mistakes. And at the end of the day, if you remember that Jeddah, for example, with Ollie, that I was mega impressed by the job done by Ollie, but even more with the fact that he didn't do any mistakes on the start, pit stop, all the procedures that you have into the car to drive the car quick," Vasseur concluded.
This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi
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5 October 2024
