The three rookies of 2023: we ranked them!

1. Oscar Piastri

The only one of the rookies, Oscar Piastri has already scored points. Four, that is, at the Australian Grand Prix in his hometown of Melbourne. Of course, he had some luck in doing so, as the youngster (22) took full advantage of the chaos at the last restart. Anyway: the points were particularly welcome after a difficult start to the season.

Not that Piastri had finished bad races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but his McLaren is hardly moving forward. Moreover, an electrical problem caused Piastri to miss the chequered flag in his debut race. A week later, he did see it, yet he did not finish further than fifteen. Indeed, not a result to write home about for a team with such high ambitions. But he did finish ahead of Lando Norris, and your team mate is your biggest competitor (and point of reference).

Piastri showed his speed and scored points when the opportunity presented itself. For any team, that is a crucial attribute. Does it still need to improve? Definitely! Will Piastri take that step? We believe in that too!

2. Logan Sargeant

Logan Sargeant was not Williams' first choice to replace Nicholas Latifi. Still, no one at the English team will mourn that in the end it was not Nyck de Vries, but the American is in their car. In his career through the junior series, Sargeant was never the absolute standout, nor is he in Formula 1. Nobody expected that either.

Sargeant - in the wake of Alexander Albon - especially should not do crazy things in a car that is among the slowest in the field. His clumsy crash with De Vries in Melbourne was just plain stupid. With qualifying in Saudi Arabia - in which Sargeant (partly through his own fault) failed to set a time - he didn't give his calling card either. But we must not forget that Sargeant has far less experience than Piastri and De Vries.

Plenty of room for improvement for Sargeant, although he has certainly shown he is no slouch in Formula 1. To put it another way, Logan Sargeant is significantly better than Nicholas Latifi. The American is not as good as Piastri, but he has certainly not had as dramatic a season start as De Vries.

3. Nyck de Vries

Well, Nyck de Vries. Full of expectations, he started his ultimate dream, but the first weeks were a nightmare. Zero points, a teammate who is constantly ahead of him and driving a car that is probably the worst on the grid. If the Dutchman continues as he is, his first season in F1 could also be his last.

In Melbourne, De Vries really couldn't help it when Logan Sargeant tapped him off the track. Would it have mattered much at the end? No, because points had not been scored by the former Formula E champion in Australia either. Unlike Yuki Tsunoda, who left Melbourne with oh-so-important one point. A handsome performance, also because the Japanese driver - unlike De Vries - did not have access to a faster, new floor of his AlphaTauri.

The good news is: the season is still long and De Vries has shown himself to be a fast learner in other classes. The downside: AlphaTauri has been dawdling for a year and a half, and no successful further development of the car has been apparent in all that time. So the chances of De Vries being able to bring the malaise to an end with his current team are not very good.