Australian GP: Jack Doohan and Isack Hadjar crash as rookies face harsh introduction to F1

Sauber’s Bortoleto, the back-to-back F2 and F3 champion, had a promising start to his F1 debut but was another to be caught out by the rain on Sunday.

The Brazilian, 20, outqualified his more experienced team-mate Nico Hulkenberg but crashed late during the race and was forced to retire.

The rookie who bucked the trend was 18-year-old Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes who made his way through the field from 16th to finish fourth.

He did have a spin and was given a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from the pit lane, but that was later overturned.

The Italian became the third-youngest driver in F1 history and was “really happy” with the result and thanked the team for doing a great job at “guiding” him through.

Despite it being a tough day at the office for several of the rookies, they can be comforted by the fact that some of the more experienced drivers were also caught out by the conditions.

Last year’s winner Carlos Sainz, now at Williams, crashed on the first lap but was able to provide valuable strategic insight for the remainder of the race, helping team-mate Alex Albon to finish fifth.

Meanwhile, the most experienced driver in F1 history, 43-year-old Fernando Alonso, couldn’t avoid the wall either, crashing his Aston Martin to bring out the second of three safety cars.

The F1 calendar takes the teams to China next weekend and the rookies might be relieved to know that sunny and dry weather for all three days is the early forecast.