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This season, Formula One grid is filled with many young drivers and many of their names were unheard a few years ago, but there are only two of them who are making their debut in their Formula One career. Surprisingly, both of them are French drivers and 22 years old. They are:
Jean-Eric Vergne | Torro Rosso
The young French driver became popular after he won the British Formula three championships in 2010 by securing 12 victories and with six races remaining in the season. He also set the fastest lap times on all three days of Young driver test in 2011 with the Redbull RB7, which eventually led to his seat in Torro Rosso for the 2012 F1 Season.
Charles Pic | Marussia F1 Team
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The GP2 driver made his debut at the wheels of a Formula One car in 2011, driving for Marussia Virgin Racing at the young driver test held at Yas Marina Circuit. After the conclusion of the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, Pic was confirmed to drive in the 2012 F1 season with Timo Glock has his partner.
Let us assess their performance in the first four races of the season:
Race finishing positions
AUS | MAL | CHI | BAH | |
Jean-Eric Vergne | 11 | 8 | 16 | 14 |
15 | 20 | 20 | DNF |
Round One | Australian GP
For Vergne, his first race was quite a spectacle. He dropped to sixteenth place in the opening lap and had to fight his way to the top but was trapped among slower cars, but was benefited by the safety car period which allowed him to pass Di Riesta. Alas on the last lap in the final sector, he pushed hard and made a mistake costing him his tenth place. But overall, his car was faster than other mid contenders and they were competitive the entire weekend.
Charles Pic on other hand drove a brilliant race without any faults. Despite a few problems at the beginning and at the end, he finished 15th, in spite of the fact that he is a debut driver driving a debut car which never participated in pre-testing sessions.
Round Two | Malaysian GP
The race gifted those with the best strategies. Fortunately, Vergne was one of them and his strategy of staying on inters till the red flag period helped him gain positions. After the safety car period, he played safe and finished eighth place and scored the first points of his F1 career.
Whereas for Pic, he had to prove the cars reliability in the wet conditions and he successfully fulfilled his task of finishing the race. He held Kovalainen for a long time, but at the end had to give up and settle for 20th place.
Round Three | Chinese GP
Vergne had modifications done to his car set up under Parc Ferme rules and hence had to start from the pit lane. The Torro Rosso drivers ran on different configurations and Vergne had to settle for 16th place.
Pic finished 20th again but the Marussia cars reduced their gaps to the Caterham cars and hence were happy with their progress.
Performance comparison
| Jean-Eric Vergne | Daniel Ricciardo | |
| Qualified ahead | 0 | 4 |
| Average qualifying gap | +0.644s | - |
| Finished race ahead | 3 | 1 |
| Laps spent ahead | 194 | 32 |
Round Four | Bahrain GP
Vergne’s struggle in qualifying continued as the car was slower in the qualifying than in the race. Bad Qualifying had sealed his fate and he could not achieve anything better than 14th in the race. Fit with Ferrari engines, they seem to share their problems with Scuderia Ferrari.
Pic enjoyed a strong form in the practice and qualifying but on race day, he faced his first DNF in his career after he retired with a problem in the Air Valve System on lap 24.
Performance comparison
| Charles Pic | Timo Glock | |
| Qualified ahead | 1 | 3 |
| Average qualifying gap | +0.327s | - |
| Finished race ahead | 0 | 3 |
| Laps spent ahead | 32 | 154 |
Clearly, Vergne is struggling in Qualifying and is half a second slower than his team mate. He needs to assess it quickly and become competitive to survive in Formula One. But a positive note is his race performance is been better than his team mate and if he solves his issues, he can be a serious rival to Di Riesta and Perez.
Charles Pic has been driving it safe in the first quarter of the season and he needs to pull his socks as the season continues. His main challenge begins now and the world will watch whether he takes a step ahead or remain at the same level.
Concluding, both the drivers are very talented and must push harder to obtain better results. Best of Luck to their future endeavours!
