The challenges in getting a new driver up to speed in F1
At the Sakhir Grand Prix, the trio of Jack Aitken, Pietro Fittipaldi and George Russell all had unfamiliar machinery to contend with. Tim Wright explains what it's like bedding in new drivers from when mid-season replacements were more commonplace…
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In times gone by when there were many more teams on the grid than today, it was fairly common to see numerous changes to the driver line-up at the final few races of a Formula 1 season as enterprising team owners completed short-term deals to keep their outfits on the grid.
The penultimate race of the tumultuous 1994 season, at Suzuka, featured no less than five changes – one of them, JJ Lehto rejoining Sauber after a confidence-jarring year with Benetton, in a car I engineered – while three drivers made their debuts at the same race one year before, including a confident Ulsterman who would earn himself a punch from Ayrton Senna...
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