The Ruthlessness of the Rookie and Scholar Relationship in Motorsport

Opening the doors to rookies of the motorsporting world is imperative for the survival of each series on a skill and fan basis. They're able to hold different experiences from every other part of the world and exchange the knowledge that they have into constantly developing teams alongside a level of expertise from veterans of the sport. This reflects almost exactly how the 2007 Formula One season panned out in McLaren between newbie racer from Stevenage Lewis Hamilton and 2 time world champion Fernando Alonso.

Current boss at the time, Ron Dennis, had a lot of faith in the young drivers career after interacting with him at a very young age. Hamilton knew he wanted to drive for the team that his hero Ayrton Senna drove for and confidently went up to the team boss, explaining that he wanted to drive for them one day. Dennis jokingly responded "Phone me in nine years" (planetf1.com).

The suspected favouritism of the team definitely shadowed a cloud over the Spanish driver and did in fact take it personally; perhaps you've heard of 'Pitlanegate'? During the Hungarian race of the same year, both drivers managed to reach Q3 in order to try and steal pole position, however it seems Alonso may not have been practicing his pitstops like the rest of the engineers and mechanics. As he came in for the final run, he was the first to be pitted for a new set of tyres in a double stop but sat in the box for an extra 10 seconds as the team tried everything they could to wave him off. Hamilton essentially acted as a sitting duck, allowing the veteran 2 seconds to spare to the line while the rookie missed out on his opportunity for another shot at a faster time. Results? Alonso: P1, Hamilton: P2. As you can imagine, Ron Dennis was not a happy man.

Although time and time again, this will always be a vicious cycle that constantly repeats itself. Alonso admits that he was "intimidated at the beginning" by Michael Schumacher, holder of a 7 world title streak which the rookie eventually ended in 2005 and 2006. Funnily enough they had their own spat with each other in qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix in 2006, where the German had locked up the car into the Rascasse corner, then claiming that he "hesitated to move and finally stalled" (formula1.com). This in turn ruined Alonso's fast lap and would've placed him 2nd on the grid if it wasn't for the FIA's decision to penalise Schumacher and send him to last place. In this scenario, Alonso had the final say as he went on to win for the first time at this circuit.

Now let's trail back to what was said earlier: Fernando Alonso soon broke Michael Schumacher's championship winning streak, sound familiar? Much like what happened to his former counterpart, Lewis Hamilton with Dutch driver Max Verstappen, although he wasn't a rookie by the time he was still the first person to overthrow the English driver even amongst the likes of Charles Leclerc or Lando Norris who could've shown great promise if it wasn't for the absolute dominance of the Mercedes aura. Alas after an eventful season in 2021, it all came crashing down through multiple clips with each other like at Silverstone and Monza which contributed to the difficult relationship between drivers and even the teams themselves ever since that final race in Abu Dhabi.

It makes you wonder if another rookie in the future will pose an even greater threat to the current champion like himself and all of those before him?

Elbows Out

Think of a MotoGP rider, go! I bet that either Valentino Rossi or Marc Marquez came into your head. Even if your not a fan of the category, this ultimately boils down to the grounds of their fierce rivalry which I'm sure is what you recognise the names from. From a relationship that started off at a decent turn when the rookie Marquez joined in 2013, this all changed in the 2015 season where things would soon turn sour after turmoil in Argentina and Assen eventually playing into the hands of Jorge Lorenzo, the number 99 who was Rossi's teammate at the time. It made the media question to The Doctor whether he thought Marquez was playing as "Jorge's squire" (motogp.com).

Things would go even further to explode in Malaysia where Rossi supposedly kicked Marquez from his bike around Turn 14 after they spent most of the race fighting for 2nd place. I have my own opinions of this battle that I will keep quiet but one thing for certain is that you never risk the safety of another rider on track, this is never someone else's right to take. The mind games were all over the place with Rossi pitting Marquez against the stewards at his 'inappropriate behaviour' and even having to add security for numbers 93 and 99 for the final two rounds of the season due to serious threats received by the Italian's fanbase.

Some may say this is a case of being spiteful to younger riders but it doesn't go without saying that almost every motorsport personnel in their career has had some head-knocking with rivals. At least some more than others. Valentino Rossi had his own mind games with Jorge Martinez back in the early stages of his career in 1996 when he was riding in the 125cc class. Valentino admits that after the first race in this season in Malaysia, ironically the same track 21 years prior to the incident mentioned above, the Spanish rider came into his pit box "very, very angry and screaming..." after an accident between the two caused the Martinez with 37 wins to his name to crash. Rossi was convinced it wasn't at all his fault but to a failure with the bike in front that forced him into a mistake.

"The older riders always clip the wings of the young." Rossi emphasises further. Sounds familiar in a sense and perhaps history will constantly repeat itself.

This goes to show if anything could happen between Marc Marquez and newcomer, Pedro Acosta in the 2024 season of MotoGP. It's fair to say that the 8 time world champion has had difficulty in the most recent years with his factory Honda bike however now turning to the Gresini Ducati where improvements are being made, he sits 3rd in the driver standings at the time of this post being articulated. Most notably in this instance, Acosta is the highest KTM rider currently amongst the pack points wise, scoring in every grand prix so far this season with only a single DNF at Le Mans.

As hopeful as some fans would be to see another hat-trick being pulled like in 2013, I don't think it's possible for the rookie to win the championship under the likes of Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati who has proven his dominance this year so far, however we could equally see a battle between the Gresini and GASGAS for a podium position in the standings.

However there has been a decline of rookies being added to Formula One in recent seasons with the 2024 season containing the same drivers as the end of the previous year. Since 2020, only 8 rookies have joined Formula One with only 4 of these drivers managing to hold onto their seats, a 50 percentage so why is such a pivotal sport only now taking the easy road in terms of re-signing current drivers?

The Failing That Is Stopping Formula One From Risking More Rookies

No motorsport category is ever going to be perfect but one factor that is affecting the competition of Formula One racing is surprisingly its own point system. For almost all of its 74 year history, all drivers points has counted towards the constructors championship, of course discounting 1950 to 1957 where this wasn't a leaderboard. This means it is crucial for all drivers to be performing at an experienced level, taking advantage of whatever they can grasp onto within the limitations of the car and team.

Emanuele Pirro who held a brief period as a F1 racer spoke to GP Racing in this months edition, explaining that "having two cars scoring when reliability was an issue was rewarding to those (cars) that were more reliable" (gpracing.com). In older days of racing, this would be imperative to score the maximum points, although most would argue that reliability isn't so much of an issue as it was in the 20th century with the advancement of technology and team scale that is used in the sport today.

Arguably one of the drivers with the most difficult job in the category is Sergio 'Checo' Perez who drives the second seat next to Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing. Having finished every race so far in 2024 except Monaco, the Mexican driver offers "experience and efficiency" to the team (gpracing.com) and at least in Australia after Max's DNF in lap 3 of the race, was able to contribute 10 points to the constructors after finishing 5th behind one of the newer drivers, the home-boy Oscar Piastri. In this circumstance, the gamble for the papaya team had paid off; different conversations could be had about Logan Sargeant at Williams and even more so Nyck de Vries at the former known AlphaTauri who most recently joined and left the sport in 2023.

The same can be said from the recent news of Nico Hulkenberg's move from Haas to Sauber in 2025, which will become Audi in 2 years time. Being a newly established provider, they are most likely going to want a driver that has that experience to rack up points in consistent results and doesn't cost as much as a someone that would be crashing like a learning rookie. However, Pirro further explains that drivers like this show "no sparks" and couldn't compare to a new hot-shot youngster that has the ability to improve over the course of a few seasons.

Formula One could take a leaf out of MotoGP's book which they now share the common factor of having commercial rights held by Liberty Media. This is where only the top performing rider's points are contributed to the constructors championship in the sprint races on Saturday and the main races on Sunday (for example, these would go to Ducati, KTM, Aprilia, Yamaha and Honda), allowing them to take the risk of hiring new rookies from Moto2. This is purely because it allows them to learn from more experienced riders as a teammate and a group because a few points can be lost to a DNF or low scoring position on the odd occasion, although it affects their own gain of popularity. As mentioned previously about the figures involving rookies being added to arguably the biggest category of motorsport at 50%, this compared to a whopping 14 riders joining MotoGP since 2020, with 10 managing to keep their positions at a 71.4 percentage shows an amazing contrast.

By using this system if only the best driver gets added to the constructors, it would provide more flexibility to add a younger driver and put less pressure onto the teams by allowing the occasional mistake and negotiation. Let's hope that we could see the likes of reserve drivers like Jack Doohan (Alpine Renault) or Ollie Bearman (Haas Ferrari), who has already proven his skill during the Saudi Arabian grand prix weekend this season, join these ranks whether or not this system would even be considered. Besides after what is Red Bull's most successful season last year, it seems that the Dutch champion would've won the constructors without the help of his teammate after scoring 575 points alone next to the lowly Mercedes total of 409 with both Hamilton and Russell in contention.

This all relates to people who have no interest in motorsport knowing of these rivalries through consuming media and contributing to the growing number of fans each season like the burst in MotoGP in 2015 and recently Formula One in 2021. After all, you knew who Marquez or Rossi were when mentioned earlier, didn't you? It seems that without these big flashing headlines, the number of individuals joining the 'hype-train' becomes substantially less. Formula One teams could possibly focus on younger faces to sustain a fanbase although this isn't to say that this is the only factor either; just a small piece of a bigger picture.

On the other hand, they aren't rookies in the 2024 season for Formula One but the game is being shaken up as Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc take spectacular wins ahead of the Dutchman; arguably making race weekends seem that more exciting without there being one dominant class as was observed for most of last year. It's all about the fierce competition that is well received by fans, something that makes them wait in anticipation for each race weekend; it's the reason why we love this type of sport so much.

However there is nothing more exciting than seeing a rookie come into the field and prove their worth amongst some of the greats, confirming that each series is constantly evolving through each era. Besides there's something fascinating about watching inexperienced individuals slowly build up their ranks and respond to the heroes that they grew up watching by staring them in the face with a single reply of: "I'm the face of this sport now."