Best Rookie in F1

[CHT]

Who would you ranked as the best rookie in F1?

[wesley123]

Jacques Villeneuve or Lewis Hamilton.

[raymondu999]

I'd say Lewis Hamilton is probably your best bet. He had speed *and* consistency from the word go.

[wunderkind]

I'd say Hamilton, Raikkonen, and Michael Schumacher.

I think most of us remember Hamilton and Raikkonen's respective debut tests.

Schumacher's first test with Jordan was also nothing short of spectacular. Eddie Jordan and Gary Anderson had to tell him to slow down because they only had one gearbox. Andreas de Cesaris was baffled by Schumacher's speed.......The rest was history.

But I'd say H-H Frentzen and Karl Wendlinger also belong to that category. Though I'm not sure if they would have won Championships. Frentzen came close in the Jordan but mechanical failures stuffed his chances. Wendlinger's unfortunate accident at Monaco put paid to his promising career. Jochen Neerpasch and Domingos Piedade both rated Frentzen as the most talented and the fastest. Schumacher was a strong driver but needed time in the car. Wendlinger was the cerebral one and drove intelligently. Frentzen was so good that he was summoned by Ayrton Senna for a coffee and was subsequently signed by Williams. It was a pity that Patrick Head was too much of a "Hard Ass" and never got the best out of Frentzen.

[beelsebob]

No question, Lewis Hamilton. No one else has come so close to winning the WDC against such strong opposition in their rookie year.

[CHT]

Actually I wont rate LH as the best rookie ever because I think LH is perhaps the most well equipped and prepared F1 rookie we ever had. However I must say that LH is perhaps the most exciting driver since JPM.

[SilverArrow10]

Before reading the posts I was thinking the best Rookie of this year, jules bianchi would be my pick. Lewis Hamilton for the best of all time but I do agree he had the best equipment, but it was the competition that he had, he may have had the best car but he had the two time world champ, the flying fin and a good massa to beat first, and he almost did it. If only he won in China he would have had the most wins in his rookie year and become champion.

[Robbobnob]

Ayrton Senna had a spectacular rookie season in 1984 with Toleman, a very uncompetitive car yet he managed 3 podiums, including the infamous 2nd place at Monaco in the wet, chasing down Prost at a matter of seconds per lap.

Schumacher was a sensation for Jordan in 91.

Undoubtedly Lewis had a fantastic debut season, but it must be considered that he was in undoubtedly the fastest car on the grid at the time.

It's also easy to overlook other drivers such as Stewart who drove to 3rd in the Championship in his debut year behind Graham Hill and Jim Clark.

I dont think its as simple as being able to pronounce any single driver as the 'Best' rookie in F1, but as usual with racing the cream will always rise to the top.

[Straggler]

Ayrton Senna had a spectacular rookie season in 1984 with Toleman, a very uncompetitive car yet he managed 3 podiums, including the infamous 2nd place at Monaco in the wet, chasing down Prost at a matter of seconds per lap.

Just want to add something up. Seems like you (and almost everybody else) forget that in this particular Monaco Grand Prix, Stefan Bellof (a rookie just like Senna), who was on top of all the only one driving a naturally aspirated car in the race, finished the race third after starting dead last and all of the time had been closing on both Senna and Prost at a matter of seconds per lap ... So in this point of view Senna's accomplishment in this GP wasn't that unique for a rookie.

On the topic ... its impossible to compare rookies from different years driving different cars ... Of course you can do it, but it always will be a subjective comparison. To have a fully objective compariosn you need to compare rookies just like this years Chilton and Bianchi.

[Robbobnob]

Bellof had a naturally aspirated engine in the wet, long story short the turbos were famous for being peaky with their torque curve as soon as the pressure spiked, making them very prone to wheelspin and oversteer on corner exit. A naturally aspirated engine had a much smoother torque delivery and in the completely saturated conditions it was able to control the amount of wheelspin and traction off the corner much better, where the turbos werent able to use their full boost maps in order to save the car from spinning out.

Bellof was the only NA car which qualified for the race and therefore had a massive advantage over the rest of the field, and while he crossed the line in 3rd place he was actually disqualified in retrosepctive due to their use of the Lead ballast water cooling system in which Tyrell would replace the water cooling for the engine with a mix of lead shot and water to meet the minimum weight at the end of the race.

The long and the short of it, Bellof drove to 3rd across the line with a car which was more driveable and lighter than the opposition.

[Websta]

Obviously not the best, but Kamui Kobayashi was impressive enough in his two races for Toyota that he landed a seat an non-sponsored seat at Sauber. That probably was the most impressive rookie outing in the last four or so seasons, but can't really count as a full rookie season.

Alonso's rookie season with Minardi was pretty impressive.

But I would agree with Hamilton - if not for the smallest gravel trap in the world, he could have been WDC in his rookie season with reigning 2WDC Alonso in the same car and against the two highly competitive Ferraris. He came out and immediately performed on the same level as the best in the sport. The fact that he managed this in a McLaren (talk about pressure) against a 2xWDC driver makes this even more impressive IMO.

[seventhsin]

Im very anti LH, but even I'll admit his debut year in F1 was outstanding.

[ChrisF1]

People seem to forget that Senna clouted the barrier the lap before the red flag at Monaco, and that the rear suspension apparently collapsed when being moved by the team after the race was over.

[Slife]

Guieseppe Farina

[Sebp]

What about Jackie Stewart in the BRM, 1965? 5 podiums including 1 win at Monza plus 2 more points finishes out of 10 races. Pretty impressive imo.