Grading Felipe Nasr's Start to Life in Formula 1

We weren't quite sure what to expect of Felipe Nasr when he was confirmed as a Sauber driver for the 2015 Formula One season.

The Brazilian's presence alone, as a new face in the paddock, was enough to return some interest to Sauber, who had lost all sense of purpose with journeyman Adrian Sutil driving one of their cars in 2014, failing to score a single point for the first time in team history.

The very fact Nasr rejected offers from the likes of Red Bull and Gravity as a teenager, as he told Sky Sports, suggested he had plenty of natural talent.

Yet there was evidence to suggest he would not be the man to turn the team around.

He was beaten to last year's GP2 championship by Jolyon Palmer, who was unable to secure a full-time F1 seat despite his triumph, and he was pipped to second place in the final standings by Stoffel Vandoorne, a rookie.

If neither Palmer nor Vandoorne could land a place on the grid for 2015, just what hope was there for Nasr?

With Sauber's 2015 car painted in the colours of Nasr's personal backer, Banco do Brasil, which provides the team with between £10 and £12 million in sponsorship funds, according to the Guardian, it was easy to dismiss the Brazilian as another pay driver taking advantage of another struggling team.

But after making a strong, if not seamless, transition to F1 across the opening eight races of the year, it is clear Nasr is worthy of his place at the pinnacle of motorsport.

After we analysed and graded the other rookies in the 2015 field, 17-year-old Max Verstappen and Scuderia Toro Rosso team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr., here's what we make of Nasr's start to what should be a long F1 career.

Nasr has consistently had the edge over team-mate Marcus Ericsson in qualifying this season and, after the Austrian Grand Prix, leads the Swede 6-2 in the head-to-head battle.

Both drivers have reached Q3 on two occasions, with Nasr qualifying ninth in China and Austria, circuits where Sauber's Ferrari power unit came in handy.  

The team's gradual tumble down the pecking order since the start of the season means it has been increasingly difficult for the drivers to shine on Saturdays, but according to F1 Fanatic, Nasr is around 0.21 seconds quicker than Ericsson over one lap on average.

His most impressive qualifying performance to date arguably came in Australia, where after a challenging buildup to the weekend, Nasr was 0.9 seconds quicker than his team-mate in Q1 and came within 0.1 seconds of pipping the Mercedes-powered Lotus of Pastor Maldonado to a place in Q3.

That, in truth, has been the only occasion Nasr has come close to transcending the level of his car—often a telltale sign of an elite driver—with the Sauber pair qualifying within two positions of each other at no fewer than six events, confirming the performance baseline of the C34 chassis.

It would, however, have been fascinating to see what Nasr could have achieved in Canada had he not thrown his car into the wall in third practice, a foolish mistake that compromised his qualifying session on a day when he should have made the top 10.

We have seen promising flashes of raw speed from Nasr, but regularly beating Ericsson is the minimum requirement at this stage.

At the time of writing, Nasr is the top rookie in the drivers' championship and currently sits 11th with 16 points to his name.

With more points than multiple podium-finisher Sergio Perez and 2012 Spanish GP winner Pastor Maldonado, and just three points adrift of eighth-placed Red Bull driver Daniil Kvyat, Nasr's company in mid-table illustrates how impressive his start to his debut season has been.

The bulk of Nasr's points came in the season-opening Australian GP, where according to ESPN F1, he secured the best debut finish by a Brazilian driver with fifth, withstanding race-long pressure from Daniel Ricciardo.

Nasr's calculating, Jenson Button-esque ability to read a race has also seen him finish in the points in China and Monaco, where he recovered well after starting toward the rear of the field.

According to F1 Fanatic, he has finished ahead of Ericsson in all but one of the seven races both Saubers have completed, with the Brazilian ahead of the Swede by a massive 213 laps in the inter-team battle.

If there's one area where Nasr has struggled so far this season, it is tyre management. It is unclear whether that is down to the Brazilian or his machinery.

Nasr is adamant the issue is with the car, telling Crash.net on the eve of the Spanish GP how the C34's lack of downforce has resulted in the rear tyres overheating.

As well as affecting Sauber in Spain, particularly on the traction-dependent final sector, the problem was undoubtedly at its worst in Malaysia, a race hard on tyres at the best of times.

While every other finisher succeeded with two or three-stop strategies, Nasr made four visits to the pit lane en route to 12th place, including a middle stint on the hard-compound rubber that lasted just 10 laps.

To put that into perspective, Carlos Sainz Jr., who spent longer than anyone on hards at Sepang, made the compound last 23 laps.

Sauber's current tyre struggles are a far cry from 2012, when the team were particularly easy on their rubber and secured four podium finishes.

In the modern era of F1, when teams without a fast car must simply have a workable one, the C34's tyre-chewing tendencies leave Nasr and Ericsson short of options when it comes to fighting through the pack after qualifying down the order.

One of the defining moments of Nasr's final season in GP2 was his thrilling, wheel-to-wheel battle with title rival Jolyon Palmer in Hungary.

And while the Brazilian has not yet had the chance to replicate that fight in the Formula One arena, he has offered glimpses of his overtaking prowess in his short grand prix career to date.

His shrewdness was evident from the moment he leaped off the line in Australia, where he held the outside line at the first corner—always a wise option at Albert Park—to end up sixth after surviving being wedged between Pastor Maldonado and Kimi Raikkonen.

Also impressive was his pass on Felipe Massa in Bahrain. With DRS at his disposal, Nasr opted to remain on the outside of the corner rather than risking his race by forcing his way down the inside of Turn 11, encouraging Massa to take a defensive option.

This resulted in the Williams driver running wide on exit, allowing Nasr to simply switch back and claim the position.

His hard, fair and all-too-brief squabble with Romain Grosjean in Austria must also be considered a highlight, but Nasr's first-lap collision with Raikkonen in Malaysia—where he carelessly placed his front wing in a gap that was always closing at the final corner, giving the Ferrari a puncture—was a typical rookie error.

In many ways, Nasr's start to life in Formula One has been just as impressive as those of Verstappen and Sainz.

Like his fellow rookies, he has exceeded expectations in the first eight races of his career and already appears at home in F1, emerging as Sauber's lead driver despite his team-mate's extra year of experience.

Admittedly, the Brazilian has not been quite as spectacular as the Toro Rosso youngsters, but this is not so much a flaw as a reminder of just how smooth his adaptation to the pinnacle of motorsport has been.

The Felipe Nasr of pre-season testing—"a bit rough, inconsistent," according to F1 journalist James Allen—is unrecognisable from the polished, refined Felipe Nasr we have seen throughout the first phase of the campaign, suggesting the 22-year-old's rate of development has been stronger than his fellow first-timers.

As he builds experience, the mistakes he made in Malaysia and Canada will be extinguished and Nasr will become a solid, dependable, no-frills F1 driver.

Many pay drivers come and go without a trace, but Nasr, it seems, is here to stay.

All results and statistics, unless stated, have been taken from the official Formula One website and emailed Pirelli infographics. 

Follow @OllieHarden