‘It’s impressive and exciting’ – Team principals laud F1’s motorsport ladder for preparing rookies

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director at Mercedes, also acknowledged the lack of preparation that the rookies – including Silver Arrows racer Antonelli – have had prior to making their debuts on the grid.

“It’s quite impressive the way that a lot of them can go from F2 or other feeder series straight into F1 and perform at a good level,” Shovlin explained. “To be honest, we’ve had so much focus on Kimi, we haven’t really been looking at everyone else.

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“With Kimi, we’re measuring him by where he is compared to George [Russell], where he is compared to the other drivers in the top teams. But yeah, there’s obviously a lot of talent there.

“It is difficult for them – when you’ve got one and a half days in Bahrain to get used to the new car, then you’re thrown into some of the situations we’ve had – the wet race in Melbourne, difficult circuits like China and Suzuka.

“They’re all quite challenging tracks. But I think it’s quite exciting for the sport to have so many new names coming into it.”