How the Brazilian GP was a baptism of fire for rookies

The Brazilian GP’s sometimes near-aquaplaning conditions were a huge challenge for all Formula 1 drivers, but even more so for the most inexperienced ones on the grid.

Among those with fewer than 10 grand prix starts, only Liam Lawson had previous experience in wet racing conditions – from his very first outing at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix, which had been a struggle for him.

Qualifying had already been tricky, with many drivers crashing out on a very wet track – both Williams and Aston Martin drivers in various sections, as well as Carlos Sainz, unusually, at the exit of the Senna S.

While both Franco Colapinto, due to his Turn 3 crash, and Oliver Bearman were out in Q1, Lawson put in a remarkable performance to grab fifth on the grid.

In the race Bearman spun when hitting Colapinto from behind on lap four – which he was penalised for – then had a 360° pirouette in Turn 7 when chasing Sainz on lap 36, nudging the tyre barrier. Lawson was spun around by Oscar Piastri in Turn 1 on lap 26, while Colapinto crashed out of the race in safety car conditions as the rain got worse.

Their pace was also poorer than their respective team-mates’ when comparable – Albon was unable to start the race due to both Williams cars sustaining damage in qualifying.

“We boxed to put inters on. It was undriveable, I think, the track. We shouldn’t have been driving at that point,” a “very sad” Colapinto said.

Franco Colapinto, Williams FW46

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / Motorsport Images

“We were, like, 15 seconds off the pace, and we also put hot inters on the car. We tried to keep the temps up, we were pushing, and there was a very big river there before the straight and I lost the car very, very aggressively there. So I was a passenger then.”

Lawson said he’d almost suffered the same fate.

“I nearly crashed the car probably 10 times,” the New Zealander commented. “It was very sketchy, but obviously the most important thing was staying on the track, and fortunately we were able to do that.”

Meanwhile, standing in for an unwell Kevin Magnussen, Bearman was painfully aware his performance had not been up to the expected standard.

“To be the best and to score points today, I needed to stay on track the whole time, and unfortunately, I didn’t do that,” the 2025 Haas driver said. “I made too many mistakes. So yeah, it’s definitely tough conditions, but I still wasn’t good enough today.

“But that’s good for me to learn new things. Doing a race in the wet is very rare in F1, so making the most of all of them and taking all of the laps is a great experience.

Oliver Bearman, Haas VF-24

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov / Motorsport Images

“Racing under these conditions is always tough, and I definitely learned a lot.”

Bearman was especially struggling on intermediate tyres, lamenting a lack of predictability in high-speed corners, which dented his confidence.

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu was well aware that the race was going to be difficult for his driver, putting his errors down to his inexperience but also blaming the repeated front-locking on the characteristics of the VF-24 – “not the best car in these conditions”.

“Ollie made, of course, too many mistakes today. He’s the first one to admit that,” Komatsu said. “After the red flag, I said: ‘Look, there’s so many things going to happen, you just need to stay on the track’. But he realised ‘OK, I’ve actually got pace’. He was just too eager, pushing too hard, going off twice.

“Then we told him under that safety car: ’Look, just calm down, you know, it’s OK. Just stay on the track. Still 31 laps to go, lots of things can happen, you just need to be there to pick it up.’ And then he’s driving better after that, but still inconsistent – he couldn’t put green sectors together. But again, that’s experience.”

Komatsu added that Bearman’s SQ3 appearance in dry weather on Friday had been “remarkable” and that the experience subsequently gained in wet conditions would be “priceless” for both the Briton and his team.

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team, Oliver Bearman, Haas F1 Team, Mark Slade, Race Engineer, Haas F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Expectations were kept in check for youngsters, and rightly so. After all, the last rookie to score a podium in the rain was, depending on the definition, Sebastian Vettel when he won the 2008 Italian Grand Prix in his first full Formula 1 season.

To find indisputable rookies achieving the same feat, you need to go back to the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton leading Heikki Kovalainen under the chequered flag.

Additional reporting by Oleg Karpov, Filip Cleeren and Jonathan Noble