28 replies to this topic

[Marklar]

1. I think it's a question worth asking for

2. I needed an excuse to post this video 

Edited by Marklar, 11 December 2019 - 17:04.

[Clrnc]

This is seriously tough. All 3 done well

[HeadFirst]

This is seriously tough. All 3 done well

 

I agree. You have 3 rookies, one in a top car, one in the bottom car, and one in the mid-field. They are teamed with a top driver, a mid-field (but possibly under-rated) driver, and a driver returning after a long absence due a debilitating injury. It is a "seriously tough", if not impossible task, that I see no objective way to accomplish this.  

[noikeee]

The one we barely saw on TV and finished bottom of the standings. He's quietly pretty damn good - okay his team-mate is essentially a handicapped man, but 21-0 in qualifying, routine much better race speed, and occasional fiesty battles with cars above the class of the Williams were all very good signs.

[messy]

The three are absolutely neck and neck in my view, actually.

Russell
+ Absolutely slaughtered his team-mate
+ Very popular at Williams
+ Consistent and few mistakes I recall
- Team-mate’s level completely unknown but probably pretty poor
- Was trundling round in a car way slower than anything else
- Poor starts and first laps gave him work to do far too often

Albon
+ Feisty, elbows out style a breath of fresh air
+ Impressed greatly within RB to get the promotion and didn’t look overawed there either
+ Matched Kvyat very impressively in the first half
- Struggled to get anywhere near Max at Red Bull
- Gasly jumped into his STR and immediately did much better than him there
- A few too many crashes and adventures in free practice.

Norris
+ Great performance out of the box to outqualify Sainz so regularly
+ Was genuinely unlucky not to score many more points
+ self depreciating attitude a real breath of fresh air, lovely lad
- Sainz improved and edged Norris by every measure in the second half
- too cautious by half wheel to wheel and generally dominated by Sainz on raceday
- maybe a bit self-critical for his own good?

All three 7.5/10.

To be honest, I’d give Russell the edge on gut instinct because he’s the one who’s the hardest to assess.

[pitlanepalpatine]

All 3 did well but on instinct I'll give it to Norris. Gio isn't a rookie even if he drives like one 

[dissident]

Russell is really difficult to judge, but I suspect he might be the quickest out of the three.

 

Albon didn't look much faster than Gasly at RB, so I'm going with Norris since he did pretty well against a solid team mate.

[messy]

All 3 did well but on instinct I'll give it to Norris. Gio isn't a rookie even if he drives like one 

Giovinazzi had only done what, two races before this year? That makes him a rookie in my book.

And in fourth place, obviously.

[Marklar]

I actually put Albon at a more distant third place. Before he had a much better team mate than anyone else which is obviously not a fair comparison especially if he gets thrown in mid-season he didnt really impresse that much against Kvyat either, and he also did more typical rookie errors than the others (who surprisingly did very little). To his credit though, Russell and especially Norris got a lot more testing before this year, while he never drove a F1 car till february, so considering that it was good again.

Between Russell and Norris it really depends on how you rate Sainz and Kubica. Being in the midfield and against a good driver Norris got naturally more attention, had more chances to impress but his limitation are also getting much easier exposed. I give Russell the edge though. He definitely put the Williams a couple of times in postitions where it had no business to be.

[TomNokoe]

Russell wins the video 👆

But man, (and I say this as a 24 year old), they're just kids!!

[Sterzo]

What's really impressive is that all three of these guys have already established themselves as serious F1 drivers. (And the video; that's impressive too!). Very hard to compare based on this season; if you'd asked at mid season I would have said Norris, but Sainz has rather put him in his place in the second half. For several years I've suspected Norris is the most talented of the three, but is less resilient than Russell. (For example, Norris had a period in F3 when his starts were poor, though he still won the championship). Albon is maybe not quite up to either of them.

[KWSN - DSM]

I have Russel and Norris higher than Albon, all 3 made good, I have Russel as best based on his domination of Kubica, with tie-breaker being beating Norris in F2.

 

[Quickshifter]

Norris' points do not truly reflect the season he has had. China, Spa, Canada, Hungary, France, Germany, Silverstone, Suzuka, etc where he was either got hit, had poor strategy, reliability issues, poor Pitstop or engine failures. He was nervous at starts in the beginning but has improved his starts and first lap immensely in the second half. Has not made any rookie errors and has always shown the ability to soak pressure without fuss. His tyre management and general race pace has improved but still some way to go. Clearly the rookie with most promise so far.

Russel has had a good season but hard to rate his season. Albon has made loads of errors and generally been half a second behind Max both in qualifying and race pace. So he is not even in the contest when compared to the other two.

[mangeliiito]

I do not remember the whole season but did Lando ever crash? In Singapore he impressed me so much, and the consistency will come.
George is so hard to judge, a shame really that Williams wasn't faster and he got Kubica as a teammate. We really don't know how much Kubica struggled and how much he lost compared to last time around.
Alex probably looks the best from the outside, but his season is filled with mistakes. He wasn't dealt an easy hand, but he also was the one who lost most front wings. I love his video, but he impressed me least.

[A.Fant]

I think Russell might be a match for Norris in terms of talent and potential, but I think in terms of performance this season you have to give it to Norris considering what he did next to a very strong teammate in Sainz. Being in the by far slowest car with Kubica as his teammate Russell could hardly have done much more than he did, but the circumstance prevents him from proving enough for me to put him ahead of Norris.

[johnwilliamdavies]

I'm failing to see what everyone is seeing in Norris. He was in clearly the 4th best car on the grid, up against Carlos Sainz, who has never shown that he's one of the top drivers, and yet how many times was Norris cruising around in 6/7/8th place? Rarely. He spent most of the races going backwards. 

 

Russell will probably have the best career of the three 3, but I'd give the award to Albon. No experience at all of F1, promoted to be teammate with a generational talent, and yes, he was 0.4 seconds off, but he didn't fall apart like Gasly, and he wasn't frightened of "optimistic" overtaking manoeuvres. 

[absinthedude]

I'm failing to see what everyone is seeing in Norris. He was in clearly the 4th best car on the grid, up against Carlos Sainz, who has never shown that he's one of the top drivers, and yet how many times was Norris cruising around in 6/7/8th place? Rarely. He spent most of the races going backwards. 

 

Russell will probably have the best career of the three 3, but I'd give the award to Albon. No experience at all of F1, promoted to be teammate with a generational talent, and yes, he was 0.4 seconds off, but he didn't fall apart like Gasly, and he wasn't frightened of "optimistic" overtaking manoeuvres. 

 

 

As another poster pointed out, Norris lost what could have been his best results through no fault of his own on several occasions. He'd have ended the season very close to Sainz were it not for these misfortunes. Sainz has his own good track record and really seems to have thrived at McLaren...unless you assume that the McLaren Renault was better than either driver made it look.

 

I can see reasons to choose any of the three guys really. I do see GIO as a rookie, as he completed considerably less than half a season prior to 2019....but I'd also put him 4th. A couple of decent drives and he looked better during the second half of the season but he never got to grips with Kimi...who is about 124 years old now. 

 

Norris impressed me, did he crash even once in an accident that was his fault? The signs are there that he's got what it takes. 

 

Albon impressed me too, especially how he didn't fall apart when promoted to RBR and given his lack of experience and mixed record prior to F1. Sure, he wasn't on Max's tail but surely nobody expected him to be? He also wasn't afraid to try moves, the vast majority of which were justified. 

 

Russell of course whitewashed his team mate except that one race where by luck Kubica and Williams scored a point. It's difficult to impress in a car that is significantly behind every other car, but George did so. However there remains a question mark because we don't know how he'd do in a decent car nor how good or poor Kubica was. 

 

On balance I'm going with Albon but all three were very good for rookies....I could justify choosing any of them. GIO just wasn't on the same level apart from a couple of races. 

[Spillage]

I went for Russell because I think he deserves it after a tough season, but to be honest they all look about the same level to me. None of them looks mega impressive, but all show plenty of potential.

Going forwards if they're going to be WEC level I expect to see Norris starting to beat Sainz regularly, Albon mixing it with the big boys every week and Russell thumping Latifi.

[Ali623]

Kinda hard to rate them tbh, since they were in three very different situations.

 

Albon seemed okay in TR but slightly getting beaten by Kvyat, moved to RB and struggled as expected but I guess it could have been worse. Really, next season will give us a better indication.

 

Norris was also decent, generally did better in qualifying than in the race. Scored less than half the points of Sainz and was generally behind him.

 

I think Russell basically did all he could, easily beat his teammate (although hard to judge how bad Kubica was)

 

For me, Russell looked the best, followed by Albon then Norris.

[CSF]

Can we have a top 10 rookies ever?

[goldenboy]

Like what I see in Norris. Safe pair of hands and a lot of room to grow. No stupid rookie bonehead moments. I think he made Albon look a bit bonkers. Plus he's a meme lord lol.

Didn't pay enough attention to Russell but similar story I think.

All 3 are such an excellent addition to F1 so I don't even care about who was better this year, just really thankful that the future looks interesting with those 3.

[Requiem84]

It was tough to chose between Russell and Norris.

 

In the end I voted Russell. 

 

Beating any driver 21-0 is special, even if it is a poor driver. To keep that gap to Kubica so consistent indicates to me that Russell in any case was also very consistent. Consistency usually is something rookies struggle with, so it's extra strong he did this. 

 

Albon made too many mistakes and didn't really get closer to Max. Norris seemed to start very strong and then go a bit backwards vs Sainz. Also, he receives a minor comment for beeing too careful in at least the battle with Perez in AD. 

 

Problaby the strongest triplet of rookies on the grid. When did we have a year with multiple rookies who were all quite strong right out of the gate? 

[SenorSjon]

1) Russell

21-0 in qualifying against a former race winner. Yes RK was slow, but he didn't drop the ball. Had a character building season at the back and kept his chin high

Made only one real error (Singapore crash), but has to work on his poor starts. Usually he lost the first part of the race behind RK, but when he was let(?) by, he gapped him quite considerably. I rate Russell hihgher than Norris since Russell won F2 convincingly and Norris only had one win in that year. 

 

2) Norris

Solid season with few mistakes. The McLaren was a top 5 car, so easier to pick up points. Didn't beat his teammate though.

 

3) Albon

Wasn't that impressive against Kvyat, while Gasly got his mojo back and gapped Kvyat more. Also a lot of pracitce crashes and zero overtakes on a top 3 car. He has a similar gap towards Verstappen as Gasly had. If he doesn't speed up, he is in trouble.

 

I don't rate Gio as a rookie.

[johnwilliamdavies]

I was glad to see that the team principles in their top 10 drivers of the year poll came to the same conclusion as me: Albon, Russell, Norris. 

 

Whereas the random people posting on Autosport forum saw it as: Norris, Russell, Albon.

[KWSN - DSM]

I was glad to see that the team principles in their top 10 drivers of the year poll came to the same conclusion as me: Albon, Russell, Norris. 

 

Whereas the random people posting on Autosport forum saw it as: Norris, Russell, Albon.

 

Forum scores one over the Team Principals.

 

[alframsey]

All of them did great, I can't pick. But what a great bunch of lads they are, truly a joy to see how well they get on and their rapport and good sportsmanship is brilliant.

[Beri]

All of them were amazing and solid drivers who have earned their spot.
Yet I have a slight favor for Albon, who had never driven an F1 car before February this year.
In the end, driving next to Verstappen and not drown, that's good stuff.

[baddog]

No idea about Russell and neither does anyone else I think.

 

Lando did very well to be in sight of Sainz

Albon did well to get promoted so early and shows fight, but still some questions on speed/qualy

 

Id give it to Albon I think, but its close to Lando.

[ElectricBoogie]

Great points by everyone.
With Russell, considering his pace advantage, somewhat worrisome to see him seemingly be done by Kubica more than once, before the latter slipped on race pace, strange mechanicals, whatever. First lap racecraft matters. He may well get better. Otherwise, he carries himself in a way that give no reason suspect him any less than top tier material.

Norris is a great kid, and gets really close to a well groomed and now experienced Sainz. Is Sainz is for some the driver of the year, Norris is a bit of a Hamilton rookie and can be the only choice.
But I wrote beforehand that Sainz would cost McLaren 3 tenths versus Alonso, possibly more by the end of the season. And I with Norris so close, I cannot just distance myself from that assumption. The car was that good and then some. Let's not pretend Sainz would now somehow whip Ricciardo and that Red Bull got him all wrong.

Albon outside the car did so well. In a group of cars he didn't seem out of place, but seemed to be hurting his tyres more or just extending himself more and eventually losing pace. Good F1 driver, but not the best of his draft so far. Lucky to be here, lucky to be promoted as that was about Gasly not him. Gasly was immediately better at Toro Rosso so Albon is not a better driver, just better at dealing with that situation, plus RB will have been easier on him.

Should a top team lose their ace driver and need a replacement and only the rookies are available, it will have to be Russell for me. Seems like someone to rely on.