Best rookie season ever?

[runshaw]

Originally Posted by amier

Damon Hill beat Prost many times in 1993 as well, Look at silverstone that year, Williams had to let Prost throught. I consider that his rookie season, the few races he did in 1992 was slow slow you may as well call it a F3000 car.

Think he got lapped 4 times at Silverstone in 92 with that Brabham!

[Teretonga]

How far do you want to go back in time?

Bruce McLaren in the late 50's with Cooper.
Baghetti in 61 with Ferrari 1.5 V6 (OK it was his first full year....)
Stewart in 65 with BRM, a car that was the only thing near the Clark Lotus 33and he won the Italian GP....

There are few years where rookies had a great car.
The Wendlinger example is a good one, the car better though than people gave it credit for.
Alesi for Kens Tyrrell Cosworth in 89(substitute driver) and 90?
Albereto's first year in F1?

Lewis has a good car now but it wasn't the best car at the first three races. Only at Monaco did it have a marked advantage. And now in Montreal where he beat the current WDC by over 3/10ths .....

lewis is very good. Inexperienced, still a novice but not yet walking on water....

[NiG_21]

Originally Posted by f1manoz

Frankly, the way the media bang about him constantly, he should have won a race by now.

And as if by magic... He did!

...go one, keep tell us he's rubbish...

[JamesH]

Best Rookie season by far is Lightening McQueen in the Piston cup. Showed a great deal of maturity in the three way end of season race off. He may not have won the race, but he certainly won the hearts of the Piston Cup fans

Tee Hee.

[Dutton]

You got that, right, JamesH.

He applied all the lessons he had learned in his recent hard-times off-track, and, as a result, stepped onto another level on-track.

Truly, Lightening is hero.

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by amier

Damon Hill beat Prost many times in 1993 as well, Look at silverstone that year, Williams had to let Prost throught.

Not so iirc. Damon retired whilst leading, then came Germany and again retired whilst leading, then came Hungary, Spa and Monza (if i'm not mistaken) where he won all 3, but should have been 5 on the bounce.

[Montague]

Well, Mario has a strong claim on being the driver best combining versatility and excellence in the modern era, but he was not exactly a rookie now was he . . .

[BootsOntheSide]

Damon's a grey area, because of the 7 races he entered with Brabham the previous year, albeit only qualifying for 2. The 3 races he won were all in the final 7 rounds of the season, although Spa and Monza were tracks he'd never previously raced at. If you are still a rookie before you race a competitive car, that would make Keke Rosberg and perhaps Graham Hill rookie World Champions.