Lewis Hamilton might...

Lewis Hamilton might have done his fair share of headline grabbing this year, but it’s easy to overlook that the Brit was just the vanguard for a bumper crop of rookie talent.

While the McLaren star was re-writing the record books, four other newcomers proved that 2007 will be remembered as an exceptional year for young drivers in Formula One.

And astonishingly, all the racers who began the year without a grand prix start to their name had scored at least one championship point by its conclusion. Lewis aside, perhaps the most remarkable 2007 debutant was Sebastian Vettel. The 20-year-old German ace had his first outing standing in for Robert Kubica at BMW in the US Grand Prix in June.

He was only 19 at the time, and hadn’t been in the car for two months, but still qualified seventh. Despite a scrappy first lap, he kept plugging away, eventually finishing eighth and eclipsing Jenson Button’s record as the youngest-ever GP points scorer.

Although loaned to BMW, Vettel’s contract was owned by Red Bull. So, when Scott Speed fell out with the Toro Rosso management, the drinks giant terminated Vettel’s deal with the German car maker, and put him into the hitherto backmarker team.

His speed really became apparent at the Japanese Grand Prix. Vettel qualified the Toro Rosso in the top 10, and fought up to third place in the race before crashing out. He made amends at the following round in China, where he finished fourth. “It was a fantastic effort, and it was made all the sweeter coming after Japan,” said team boss Franz Tost.

However, the rookie everyone was expecting to end the season fighting for the championship wasn’t actually Hamilton. It was Renault’s Heikki Kovalainen. “When I signed the contract, I thought I’d have a genuine chance to challenge for the title, and I wanted to be in Lewis’s position. But it didn’t happen,” said the Finn.

He struggled with the inconsistent handling of the R27 car, but recovered from a disastrous first grand prix to start racking up the points.

However, his car masked his true talent until the sodden conditions in Japan. There, Kovalainen was one of the stars, keeping eventual world champion Kimi Raikkonen behind to score Renault’s only podium finish of the year. Engineering chief Pat Sym-onds said: “That demonstrated what a good racer he is. Considering the performance of our car this year, he has put in some cracking drives.”

Another of the full-time rookies to stand out was Spyker’s Adrian Sutil. He also demonstrated his ability at Fuji, where he notched up the outfit’s only point of 2007. But it wasn’t his top performance.

“Adrian drove an excellent race there, but in Belgium he had a real stormer,” the team’s technical chief, Mike Gascoyne, said. Admittedly, the 24-year-old classically trained pianist could be wild, and spent a lot of the season spinning. But when he kept it on the track, he took the Spyker to positions it had no right to be in.

He was running as high as 12th at Spa before slipping back. “It was my best race of the season,” he recalled. “Until then, I was crashing a lot because I wasn’t used to racing at the back with a difficult car.”

Finally, the driver to make the biggest impact in the shortest time was Markus Winkelhock. The 27-year-old son of late GP star Manfred made his debut for Spyker in his home grand prix at the Nürburgring, after Christijan Albers was sacked... and ended up leading the race. Admittedly, he had started on intermediate tyres only seconds before it rained, leaving the rest of the field to slither about on dries, but he still withstood the pressure of being in front in his first-ever grand prix, and on home soil.

Gascoyne said: “It was a great first appearance. He did a very professional job, and while it was a shame we couldn’t get the car to the finish, I’m sure his dad would have been very proud of him.” There will be at least four other fathers beaming with pride down the pitlane.