Who made the best (and worst) start to their new F1 team?

Eight drivers – including three rookies – competed for a new Formula 1 team in Bahrain for the first time, but which of them had the best start?

In the shortest F1 test before the season, the drivers only had 1.5 days to circling the Bahrain International Circuit in order to get their cars under control before the new season. This was a big challenge for the newbies and those who switched teams over the winter.

Who impressed the most on their first race weekend with their respective new teams?

Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunoda, who was promoted to AlphaTauri after a single season in Formula 2 to replace Daniil Kvyat, had already started his rookie F1 campaign surrounded by hype after finishing the tests with the second fastest time. The Japanese youngster continued to attract attention when he impressed on his F1 debut with a great performance at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

While Tsunoda struggled to complete a lap good enough to get into the third quarter on medium-weight tires and placed him 13th on the grid, he delighted with his bold, combative style on Sunday. Tsunoda enjoyed an “emotional” fight with two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and took a lunge in Lance Stroll on the last lap to secure ninth place and score points on his debut.

Tsunoda’s performance marked himself as a future star, which led to great praise from F1 boss Ross Brawn, who described the 20-year-old as “the best rookie F1 in years”.

Our verdict: 9/10

Daniel Ricciardo made a decent debut for his new team when he got off to a good start to his McLaren tenure.

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The Australian had qualified sixth on Saturday to oust his teammate Lando Norris, but it was Norris who got the upper hand on race day after building muscles in front of Ricciardo on the first lap. Ricciardo was seventh, three places and 20 seconds behind Norris.

McLaren later announced that Ricciardo’s performance had been hampered by ground damage early in the race when he was hit from behind by Gasly. Without the “substantial” loss of downforce, Ricciardo would probably have come much closer to Norris.

Our verdict: 8/10

Sergio Perez entered the campaign with arguably the greatest pressure on his shoulders when he was signed to Red Bull as Max Verstappen’s new team-mate – a seat that has been something of a poisoned goblet in recent years.

An overwhelming qualification failed Perez as he battled for pace on the medium tire and finished only 11th in the second quarter, but the Mexican recovered on race day. Perez dealt impressively with an engine problem on the formation lap that prompted him to pit-start with a calm head before storming through the field to save a strong fifth place.

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Perez admitted that he will need to adjust his driving style as he continues to get used to his RB16B, but once he’s fully up to speed we can expect the F1’s newest race winner to take the lead.

Our verdict: 7.5 / 10

After his winter switch from McLaren to Ferrari, Carlos Sainz had made a solid, if not spectacular, start to his Ferrari career after being extensively outdone by team-mate Charles Leclerc, who clinched a stunning P4 in qualifying.

Sainz had already admitted earlier in the season that it would take him a handful of races to reach Leclerc’s level as he got used to his new team. Being overly cautious at the start to avoid ending his first race with Ferrari prematurely meant Sainz gave himself more work than he was mixed into the pack, but he recovered well.

The Spaniard fought his way back to eighth place and nearly caught McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo in the end as he finished two places behind Leclerc to give Ferrari an encouraging colon on a flawless debut after the misery of 2020.

Our verdict: 7/10

Fernando Alonso

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso returned to Formula 1 with excitement after a two-year break in Bahrain. The first race of his comeback, however, ended prematurely after a stray sandwich bag got stuck on his brakes and acted as a catalyst for the F1 61st DNF of his career.

Despite driving with titanium plates in his jaw that he broke in a bike accident the previous season, it looked like Alonso had never been away as he dragged his alpine car into the third quarter for a strong ninth place on the grid. The race went downhill and overheated brakes affected his pace before retiring at the middle distance.

The Spaniard gave promising initial signs despite his failure to do so. The 39-year-old vowed he and his renamed team would be entertained year-round once he hit 100%.

Our verdict: 7/10

Mick Schumacher

Thirty years after seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher made his F1 bow, Mick Schumacher followed in his legendary father’s footsteps and made his own debut in the sport.

Expectations for Schumacher were realistically low as Haas’ challenger for 2021 will contest the season largely undeveloped against his uncompetitive predecessor from 2019, but the reigning Formula 2 champion got off to a good start in Formula 1.

The only flaw on his debut was a spin on Turn 4 from an early safety car, but that was Schumacher’s only mistake of the weekend. The German recovered well and came in 16th and declared that he was “90% satisfied” with his performance. All in all a solid first Grand Prix.

Our verdict: 6/10

Sebastian Vettel would have hoped to banish some of the bad memories of the bad end of his Ferrari tenure when he started again with the renamed Aston Martin squad, but he made a miserable debut in green.

The four-time world champion felt very much on his backfoot on the first race weekend after his testing program was hampered by a number of reliability gremlins, and he went on to scramble to get his new car under control.

Vettel finished in a low 15th place after receiving a 10-second time penalty at Turn 1 for clumsily ramming Esteban Ocon’s Alpine on the back. What followed was a terrible qualification in which the German was eliminated with the 18th best time in the first quarter. A grid drop if the rules for the yellow flag are not followed.

It may be too early to write off Vettel after just one race, but it still wasn’t the start he’d hoped for in a year of trying to rebuild his reputation.

Our verdict: 3/10

ALSO SEE: Would Hulkenberg be a better choice for Aston Martin than Vettel?

Nikita Mazepin

Another driver who made a disastrous debut was Haas newbie Nikita Mazepin, whose F1 promotion had been controversial before it even began after his well-documented and hideous actions late last year.

The Russian experienced a flawed first race weekend as he spun to the slowest time in practice and twice in qualifying before turning three corners in his F1 debut when he came to power too early from Turn 2.

The order that Haas team boss Günther Steiner had given his two newcomers for the first race was clear. bring the cars home, but Mazepin failed spectacularly.

It was the shortest debut in F1 in nearly two decades. Even Felipe Massa’s short time as world champion in 2008 lasted longer …

Our verdict: 1/10