Does F1 Have a Rookie Problem?

In the immediate aftermath of Oliver Oakes's resignation as Alpine team principal, the outfit promoted Franco Colapinto from his reserve role into Jack Doohan’s seat, with Doohan filling Colapinto’s role as reserve. This prompts the question; does F1 have a rookie management problem?

Formula One’s reputation as a cutthroat sport is no secret. Perform, or else. But we’ve seen a lot of driver swaps in recent years after drivers were given only a handful of races to prove themselves. Red Bull is notably at the top of this list given their history with No.2 drivers, but not all of said drivers were rookies.

Nyck De’Vries was out after only ten races for Alphatuari (Racing Bulls) in 2023. Liam Lawson, while still in F1, was demoted to Racing Bulls from Red Bull after only two races this season. Jack Doohan is now part of that group, with only six races to his name. And oddly enough, Colapinto could join them, because his runway of performance is only five races as it stands right now.

Alpine's Dysfunction

Doohan didn’t get off to a hot start, with DNFs in Australia and Miami, never finishing higher than 13th in a Grand Prix. He did outqualify Pierre Gasly in Miami, but a Lap 1, turn 1 crash negated that hard work.

But their move to Colapinto is puzzling, and it’s not because of his racing history. Colapinto has high highs but also suffered multiple crashes toward the end of his stint with Williams last year. So while he has had his own slip-ups, that’s not my main concern. The news he is being given five races is a bit concerning. So Doohan got six races, and Colapinto gets five. What if Colapinto does just ok? Does he win the seat or get replaced by Doohan anyway? If he struggles, do you replace him with Doohan again? What keeps them from replacing Doohan a second time? It’s not a vote of full confidence by Alpine for Colapinto, but a vote of “let’s find out”.

What Does History Show?

Contrasting the likes of De Vries, Lawson, and Doohan, there are many rookies who are given plenty of opportunities to produce. Logan Sargeant was given a year and a half to show he could stick in F1, but he just couldn’t. The same goes for guys like Mick Schumacer and Nicholas Latifi. They had plenty of chances to improve, but didn’t show enough.

But of course you have drivers like George Russell and Oscar Piastri who showed enough in their rookie years they were given more chances to show what they could do. Piastri and Russell are both race winners. Then you have Kimi Antonelli, Ollie Bearman, and Isack Hadjar who are producing consistently in F1 this year. Now, Colapinto will get another shot to show what he’s got.

So while some rookies are given a bit of a short leash, I don’t think that we have a rookie management problem as a whole. Most are given plenty of time to show what they’ve got. Some are almost given too much time.

Most of the culprits of these early/mid-season switches in recent memory are from two teams: Red Bull and Alpine. Red Bull has always been this way, but Alpine has had a management problem for years now. And unless they can find stability, we could see the team continue to cycle through drivers much like Red Bull, but in this case, they don’t have a junior team to send them to. So even though the leash might be longer than Red Bulls, it’s almost more brutal.

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