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“We definitely have to read it: I remember getting the manual; it is literally a book this thick,” said the grinning 23-year-old, holding his hands about 10 centimetres apart.

“I don’t like reading, but I had to read that one. There’s many switch changes that you have with all the buttons on the steering wheel, but then there’s other menus in there where multiple switch changes unlock other menus. Basically, it’s just about understanding all the combinations of things that you have do — it’s very complicated.”

Learning the intricacies of their new steering wheel represents only one in a number of challenges facing first-year drivers at the pinnacle of motorsport.

The last step on a ladder up through feeder categories, the move to F1 takes huge leaps in several areas.

“All the steps on the way to F1, are all quite a natural progression, and then the step to F1 is just times 100 on so many levels,” Lawson said.

“On the technical side, it’s obviously much more advanced than everything else, the speed of the cars is incredibly fast, and the team of people you’re working with is much larger. It’s just everything upscaled by a lot and then there’s media as well — it’s everything like that and quite hard to prepare for.”

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team rookie Oliver Bearman, 20, found it difficult to explain the final leap in terms that road car drivers can understand, because even the lowest level’s car performance far outpaces anything on the street.

“A Formula 4 car is like nothing you would ever experience on the road; it’s indescribable how amazing that car is,” said Bearman, who made his F1 race debut with Ferrari in the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after one of the team’s regular drivers, Carlos Sainz, was diagnosed with appendicitis that required surgery.

“Then you double it by going to Formula 3. You do the same to Formula 2, and then the step from F2 to F1 is like 10 times — it’s the biggest step of all — and gets you to the most incredible cars out there.”

And getting the most out of those incredible F1 cars can prove elusive to a young driver.

Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team’s Kimi Antonelli, who turns 19 in August, has definitely ridden a roller-coaster in his rookie season, driving like a steely veteran and shining on some weekends while looking like an inexperienced and impetuous teen on others.

He drove an impressive race in June’s Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal to score his first career podium and then took out reigning four-times world champion Max Verstappen with a race-ending, first-lap mistake two weeks later in Austria. He also struggled to understand the softest compound in tire supplier Pirelli’s stable, and could not find speed in his car on some tracks earlier in the season.

His Mercedes team curtailed media interviews to help him cut the noise and focus on driving, while the young racer looked to a familiar face for advice and reassurance.

“My dad is a big rock for me. He’s been there, teaching me everything since I was very little, since karting,” Antonelli said of his father, a former Italian sports car racer.

“I feel it’s very important to have someone like him at the track, especially in my rookie season in F1, because it’s a completely new world — super intense and difficult — it’s like being in water full of sharks: If you don’t perform, you get eaten.”

Lawson knows all about the sharks. He took over for an underperforming Daniel Ricciardo at Racing Bulls with six races left in the 2024 season before being promoted to the Red Bull team to start 2025. After two subpar performances in 2025, he found himself replaced by Yuki Tsunoda and back with the Racing Bulls. That demotion looks great compared to Alpine rookie Jack Doohan, who failed to impress his bosses and now watches from the sidelines as another driver, Franco Colapinto, occupies his F1 seat.

While driving for a top team does increase Antonelli’s profile, a dimmer spotlight with a smaller team often gets traded for other issues not faced by outfits higher on the grid.

“I wouldn’t say its necessarily easier or harder to be up or down the grid, because every team has its own challenges,” Bearman said.

“The higher up teams have a faster car that’s easier to drive in a way where, for us, we have a more difficult car to drive. OK, the pressure isn’t on us, but it’s more difficult to put a result together.”

Veteran driver Nico Hulkenberg feels that F1’s recent surge in popularity also means more pressure because many more eyes now stare at the fishbowl.

“It’s a much bigger stage,” said the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber driver who scored his first career podium in the 2025 British Grand Prix on July 6.

“It’s harder when you come in now with how the sport has developed and grown. It was a bit smaller and a bit more chilled back then [in 2010].”

The growth also extends to the travel schedule. F1 only ran 19 races when Hulkenberg joined the series which grew to 24 this year and goes from mid-March to early December.

For his part, Bearman chooses to look on the bright side of the long season.

“Although I spend a bit too much time on planes than I probably would like, we get to see some incredible places that I would never be able to visit as a normal 20 year old,” he said.

“I’m very lucky and happy to have this experience, so all the jet lag is worth it. There’s a few tired days, but it’s certainly worth it.”