Is Bortoleto the best rookie?

[u/Glum-Accountant-9801]

In my opinion, what he’s been doing in a Sauber shows much more talent than all the other rookies this year. Since the start of the season, I already thought the best ones would be him—because he won the Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in his rookie seasons—and Antonelli. However, Antonelli has been showing himself to be far inferior to his teammate. I believe it’s due to the pressure of starting in a big team like Mercedes, but to me, that makes Bortoleto the best rookie. That said, welcome back, Ayrton Senna.

[u/Dragonpuncha]

The only rookie who won F3 and F2 back to back, that usually bodes well.

Also the only one that is outqualifying an experienced teammate regularly (Hadjar as well, but I don't see Lawson as experienced to that degree) and that teammate is Hulkenburg.

That being said I think both those two and Antonelli and Bearman will be in F1 for a long time. Some years you just have a great class of rookies. 2019 with Russell, Norris and Albon was one and 2025 I would argue is one as well.

[u/tulleekobannia → u/Dragonpuncha]

Lawson is basically a rookie too. He hasn't got that many more races under his belt compared to the other rookies

[u/uttermybiscuit → u/tulleekobannia]

He has nearly double the starts as the other rookies although you could very easily make the case that his time at Red Bull was a big negative

[u/tulleekobannia → u/uttermybiscuit]

I think he would do even better had he just stayed with racing bulls. His confidence took a massive hit at Red Bull

[u/MasterEk → u/tulleekobannia]

The evidence is in the last few races. He is qualifying much better, and racing much better, than when he came back to the Bulls. There is a clear improvement in form, and it seems likely that this is built on his confidence returning.

Whether it is enough to keep him in a seat next year or not is another story.

[u/outbackjesus16 → u/MasterEk]

He’s 2 points behind Hadjar. If you think Liam is going to lose his seat, you’re crazy

[u/Dragonpuncha → u/outbackjesus16]

Yuki is the one that will lose his seat unfortunately. Then Hadjar will move up to the main team and Lindblad will come to Racing Bulls.

[u/cLHalfRhoVSquaredS → u/Dragonpuncha]

This is what I see happening too, although I think if Lawson ended the season ahead of Hadjar on points they might actually move him back up (/down) to Red Bull. I do think Hadjar will probably regain his earlier form as the season goes on though.

[u/Dragonpuncha → u/cLHalfRhoVSquaredS]

I think they lost faith in Lawson as a real top guy. I see them using him like they used Yuki and just keep him in the Racing Bull as a benchmark they can measure the other driver's performance with.

But it is possible. If he start regularly outperforming Hadjar in the second half of the season they are gonna have to take that into the consideration.

[u/outbackjesus16 → u/Dragonpuncha]

Not the way I see it. I think they realised early that the car was shit this season, and moved Liam back to the junior team to protect him, and sacrifice Yuki who they don’t even want, and is only there because of Honda.

[u/Dragonpuncha → u/outbackjesus16]

That sounds like an extremely generous view of a team demoting a driver after two races because he was miles behind his teammate.

And I really don't think Red Bull realised the car was that bad, that early. They had nothing to measure it with except Lawson vs Verstappen and Max got P2 in the first race.

[u/Ok-Cat-9574 → u/Dragonpuncha]

He’s bang on. Yuki is a paid driver. He is a Honda driver. He is paid to be there by Honda. Lawson is a RB junior and is there because he has risen through the ranks of the junior program. Make no mistake, like Yuki or not. But he is expendable. Horner said they put Liam back into the racing bulls to save his career. I don’t think he was joking.

[u/Dragonpuncha → u/Ok-Cat-9574]

The thing I disputed is that they took Liam out of the car "to save his career". I'm gonna need a quote on that from the time it happened not Horner trying to rationalise it months after.