At last weekend's race at Melbourne, four drivers with whom you may be unfamiliar each took their inaugural Formula One start: Pastor Maldonado, Paul Di Resta, Sergio Perez and Jerome D'Ambrosio. In this post, allow me to tell you how they reached the pinnacle of motorsport, how they're likely to get on this year and what kind of future our sport may hold for them.
Pastor Maldonado
As with most South American drivers, Venezuela's Pastor Maldonado made the trip to Europe to make his name in motorsport, competing in low-level Italian series before coming within a technical infringement of winning the World Series by Renault in 2006. He moved up to GP2 with Trident Racing in 2007, finished only eleventh in the points standings after breaking his collarbone, but finished an impressive fifth place for Piquet Sports in 2007. Strangely, he then found himself outshone by his less experienced teammate and eventual champion Nico Hulkenberg the following season at ART Grand Prix, but after returning to the renamed Rapax team in 2010, Maldonado finally took the GP2 title on the fourth time of asking. All in all, a solid, albeit not a sparkling record in the junior formulae in comparison to his forerunners as GP2 champion.
Ironically, Maldonado's F1 berth at Williams has come at the expense of his former ART stable-mate Hulkenberg, whose impressive performances last year have led to accusations that the Grove-based team has chosen cash over talent in its unpopular decision to dump the young German. Obviously, Maldonado does bring considerable financial backing from PDVSA, the state-owned Venezuelan oil company, to the table, but sponsorship and talent don't have to be mutually exclusive. Indeed, few would have predicted that the rookie would have out-qualified his teammate Rubens Barrichello, the most experienced driver in the history of the sport, on his debut. Though it would be very surprising to see Maldonado best the Brazilian over the course of an entire season, expect more than the odd occasion where Maldonado gives Barrichello a serious run for his money, particularly at Monaco where the Venezuelan has a formidable record in the junior formulae.
As for the future, it seems likely that Maldonado will remain put at Williams for at least next year; unless he seriously underperforms, the team will in all likelihood be eager to hang on to the PDVSA cash he brings. Of course, where he can progress from there largely depends on the success he enjoys at Williams. If he was to consistently outdo Barrichello next year (assuming the pair remain teammates), his market value would receive a considerable boost. Sadly, his options thereafter would still look to be somewhat limited, given the elite crop of drivers currently occupying the plum seats of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren. Maldonado would have to prove with either Williams or a similar midfield squad that he has what it takes to compete at that standard before being given the chance to mix it with the very best of them.
Paul Di Resta
Britain's latest in a long line of F1 talent, Paul Di Resta has taken a rather unorthodox route to reach the highest level. After competing in British Formula Renault and taking the 2006 Formula Three Euroseries title ahead of a certain Mr. Vettel, rather than making the leap to GP2, Di Resta began a rather successful career racing in the DTM (German Touring Cars) championship. Taken under the wing of Mercedes-Benz, Di Resta turned more than a few heads by finishing fifth in the 2007 championship in a two-year old C Class. This led to his promotion to the most up-to-date machinery for 2008, at last taking the championship in 2010 alongside testing duties for Force India. His impressive performances in practice sessions, no doubt along with some casual nudges from Mercedes-Benz, their engine supplier, led to Di Resta being confirmed alongside Adrian Sutil for 2011.
There was a sizable degree of competition for the Force India seat, with incumbent Vitantonio Liuzzi, and the unemployed Germans of Nick Heidfeld and Nico Hulkenberg all vying for the place that eventually went Di Resta's way after much winter-time speculation. Now it's up to the Brit to prove himself worthy of that seat, and by last Sunday's evidence he looks to be just that after keeping Sutil honest for most of the race, even out-qualifying him as fellow debutant Maldonado managed with his own teammate. As per the Venezuelan however, for Di Resta to beat his more experienced colleague would be something of a tall order. If he can regularly get the better of his fellow rookies Maldonado and Perez in what is considered to be an inferior car however, that could definitely be considered a job well done for the Scot.
With the spectre of Hulkenberg, Force India's current reserve driver, looming large however, Di Resta's future at Vijay Mallya's team is far from certain. That's exactly where his Mercedes-Benz connections may one day just come in handy though. Di Resta is already understood to be available as a reserve at Mercedes GP should the need arise (with Hulkenberg filling the void left at Force India), and if the Brit were to be dropped by Force India, there's a strong chance Di Resta could become the German manufacturer's official reserve, or perhaps even second driver alongside Nico Rosberg when Michael Schumacher decides enough is enough. With such machinery at his disposal, we will hopefully discover whether Di Resta has what it takes to succeed Hamilton and Button in Britain's lineage of F1 heroes.
Sergio Perez
Originating from Mexico, Sergio Perez, like Maldonado, came to Europe to ply his trade by competing in Formula BMW and then obliterating all comers in the 'National Class' (for older-spec cars) of the British Formula Three series. Having come not far away from depriving Jaime Alguersauri of the main 2008 British Formula Three crown, Perez progressed to GP2 the following year for the Arden team, but failed to make much an impression save for two podiums at Valencia. Luckily, he was scooped up by the crack Addax squad for 2010, only coming second in the title run-in to the far more experienced Maldonado in a mightily impressive campaign. On the strength of this record, arguably Perez would seem to have more potential than either the Venezuelan or Di Resta, and events at Melbourne last weekend would equally strengthen that assertion.
The Mexican was the only driver in the field to get away with making a solitary stop to change tyres, whilst all the other finishers either made two or three visits to the pits. That means Perez completed a hefty 38 laps on soft rubber, even having enough pace to beat teammate Kamui Kobayashi to the chequered flag before the extremely unfortunate disqualification of both Sauber men. Though it's been speculated that the Sauber is one of the kindest on its tyres of this year's cars, Perez's knack for keeping his tyres in good shape could prove invaluable over the course of the season. If he can keep up the kind of form demonstrated a week ago, then don't be at all surprised if Perez can outscore Kobayashi this season and truly mark himself out as one to watch.
If Perez does indeed do that, then a move to Ferrari in 2012 isn't out of the question. It's no secret that current Ferrari number two Felipe Massa is under pressure to improve this season or else seek alternative employment; Perez could be an attractive replacement. He is part of Ferrari's young driver scheme after all, and he'd be a perfect fit – initially he could hone his skills whilst taking a subordinate role to Fernando Alonso, before either mounting his own title challenge with the Prancing Horse or elsewhere if his contract forbids him from doing so. His form at Sauber this year will naturally dictate his options for next year, but if Perez continues to shine in the way he did at Melbourne, the above scenario could well become fairly close to reality.
Jerome D'Ambrosio
After conquering the Formula Renault series in his native Belgium, Jerome D'Ambrosio proceeded to hone his skills in the equivalent French and Italian championships. After moderate success, he finally reached GP2 via the unusual path of the little-known Euroseries 3000 (now known as Auto GP) and International Formula Master championships, the latter of which he won commandingly in 2007. He was signed up by the French DAMS team in GP2, finishing eleventh in the points with two podiums in his first season in 2008. He moved up to ninth with three podiums the year after, but despite a win at Monaco in 2010, the Belgian slipped back to eleventh. However, four late-season Friday practice outings for Virgin Racing were enough to see D'Ambrosio promoted to the race seat alongside Timo Glock in 2011.
Like his predecessor Lucas Di Gassi however, D'Ambrosio finds himself in something of a predicament. Driving the least competitive car in the field bar the Hispania, and with such a highly-rated teammate as Glock in the other side of the garage, he is going to have precious few opportunities to prove himself. After a year in similar circumstances (with a much more impressive GP2 record as well), Di Grassi has found himself out of a race seat in 2011 after an anonymous season with Virgin last year – a fate that could easily befall D'Ambrosio. Beating Glock, or indeed anybody but the two Hispanias appears to be fantasy for the Belgian at the moment, so all he can hope to achieve is to consistently bring the car home not too far adrift of those ahead.
Luckily for D'Ambrosio however, he is part of the Gravity management scheme, which provides him with a valuable link to the Renault team. The Anglo-French outfit would be able to give the F1 fraternity a far clearer idea of his skill, but with the team ascending the ranks of the pecking order, competition for the two seats is likely to be rife when the contracts of Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov expire at the end of next year. If Virgin dispense with him, the best D'Ambrosio could expect is to become the Renault reserve driver for 2012 with a possibility of a race seat in 2013. That's quite a big ask though, particularly as the casual observer will be tempted to write him off if things fail to improve at Virgin. But to do so would be a tad unfair. Those in the know will reserve their judgement of D'Ambrosio until he is able to get behind the wheel of something more competitive than the Virgin he drives this year.
Don't forget to vote on the poll to have your say as to which of this year's rookies will come out on top in the championship standings. Check back on Saturday morning for a round-up of the qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix, a race that promises to be a thriller.
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