Ups and Downs for Youth at Formula 1's Season Opening Race

Up and down the grid the new young crop of drivers in the F1 of the post-Michael Schumacher era had highs and lows, putting the accent very definitely on youth and (in)experience.

While Kimi Raikkonen, at 27, is at the older end of the young drivers, he certainly dominated from start to finish to win in convincing style in his Ferrari. Behind him, the youngest ever double world champion in history, Fernando Alonso, 25, proved he can change to a new team, McLaren-Mercedes, and carry his talent intact with him. But his teammate, Lewis Hamilton, a 22-year-old rookie, by finishing third - and leading Alonso for most of the race - quite simply had the best performance for a rookie in his first race since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996. That was a nice big piece of history being written, as Hamilton also has a great deal of extra pressure on him as he races under the spotlight as the first driver of mixed white and black parentage in F1.

Poor Felipe Massa, 25, had so many problems that the pre-race favorite can only forget the race - he started last after having an engine change and prior to that he had a problem with his gearbox - but still, he finished sixth.

But the most unfortunate case of the young rookies today was certainly Heikki Kovalainen, 25, who took part in his first F1 race, taking over from Alonso at the Renault team. He qualified 13th, rose into the points, made mistakes, spinning around and handing a points holding position to Massa, before finishing 10th.

"This may have been my Grand Prix debut, but to be honest, there is very little to remember from it – and lots to forget," said Kovalainen. "I didn’t have a great race: there were too many mistakes, and my performance just wasn’t controlled enough. I had hoped to be able to move up through the field and gain positions. Straight away from the start, though, I was struggling even to hold on to other cars. My feeling right now is that the next race cannot get a lot worse."

Unfortunately, Kovalainen's team boss, Flavio Briatore, was not very amused either, judging by what he told the Reuters reporter after the race: "Heikki's performance? I think everybody was watching on TV. I don't need to protect anybody. It was rubbish," Briatore told Alan Baldwin, the regular Reuters F1 correspondent. "We know the guy is good. Because his performance was so bad, it was not him. Maybe it was his brother. We will try to get the real Heikki for the next race."

Lewis Hamilton at the Australian Grand Prix, where he finished his debut F1 race in third position. Photo (c) Vodafone McLaren Mercedes