Grading Rio Haryanto's Start to Life in Formula 1

Rio Haryanto became the final piece of Formula One's 2016 jigsaw puzzle in mid-February when, just four days before the start of winter testing, he was confirmed as a Manor Racing driver for the new season.

With a patchy record in GP2—each of his three victories in F1's official feeder series came in reverse-grid "sprint" races—it was obvious from the outset that Haryanto's signing had more to do with the size of his budget than the size of his talent.

A £10 million gift from the Indonesian government, as reported by Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble, certainly would have come in handy for a Manor team who had emerged from the depths of administration less than 12 months earlier.

Considering that Haryanto was placed alongside Pascal Wehrlein, widely regarded as a future Mercedes driver, and endured an interrupted testing schedule—including spins on his first two days behind the wheel of the MRT05 car—it was difficult to recall a driver entering F1 with such limited expectations.

But to his credit, Haryanto has kept his highly rated team-mate honest enough in the first half of 2016 to have enhanced his own reputation.

Following our analysis of Renault's Jolyon Palmer earlier this season, here's what we make of Haryanto's steady start to life in F1.

Statistically, the head-to-head qualifying battle between Haryanto and Wehrlein is—along with Nico Hulkenberg-versus-Sergio Perez at Force India—the most competitive on the grid after the opening 10 rounds, with the Manor drivers claiming five victories apiece on Saturdays.

A closer look, however, will tell you the Mercedes-backed youngster has been slightly more convincing in one-lap conditions.

While Haryanto's biggest time advantage came in Monaco, where he was 0.157 seconds quicker at a circuit his team-mate had never raced before, Wehrlein has twice beaten the No. 88 car by more than a second.

First came his almost superhuman effort in Bahrain, where Wehrlein was 1.384 seconds faster than Haryanto and later told the team's official website how disappointed he was "to miss out on Q2," before the Indonesian's spin at Turn 4 on his final run of Q1 in Canada allowed the German to enjoy a gap of 1.453 seconds.

And that's before you consider Wehrlein's defining performance of the year in Austria, where he equalled the team's best-ever qualifying result of 12th on an afternoon Haryanto was seven positions and 0.461 seconds behind.

With both drivers in their debut year, mistakes are to be expected, and Haryanto was offered something of an open goal following Wehrlein's qualifying crash in China, caused by the rookie error of activating the DRS on a damp patch of track.

Haryanto also drove reasonably well on Saturdays in Russia and Spain, qualifying within 0.064 and 0.194 seconds of Wehrlein, respectively, and the Indonesian even managed to post the sixth-fastest time in the final sector in European GP qualifying.

But if you're looking for a driver capable of causing upsets and potentially dragging Manor into the top-10 shootout for the first time in their history, Haryanto probably isn't your man.

While Wehrlein is 17th in the drivers' championship after securing the second points finish in Manor's history in Austria, Haryanto is rooted to the foot of the standings having failed to finish higher than 15th thus far.

Three retirements in Australia (driveline), Russia (first-lap collision) and Britain (spin) have hardly helped his cause, but the Indonesian has been brutally exposed in the races at times.

His most demeaning afternoon to date came in Monaco, where his struggle to retain tyre temperature as he repeatedly found himself slowing for blue flags saw Haryanto finish as many as four laps adrift of race winner Lewis Hamilton and two behind his own team-mate.

It was almost laughable that he was rewarded with his best result on a day he produced such a pitiful performance, and Haryanto's failure to cling on to the coattails of Wehrlein, whom he is yet to beat on track in racing conditions, has been the main theme of his season.

In the six races both Manors have made the chequered flag, only three times has Haryanto finished within two positions of his team-mate, with the Indonesian crossing the line four places behind 13th-placed Wehrlein in Bahrain.

The gap was narrowed to three places in the following round in China, but in the one race where the MRT05 car was capable of scoring points in Austria, Haryanto was six places behind his team-mate despite running ahead of Wehrlein, albeit on less durable tyres, within 30 laps of the finish.

As noted by Sky Sports' Ted Kravitz, Haryanto's celebration of Ramadan may have compromised his performances between the Canadian and Austrian grands prix, with the month-long fast having obvious effects on his preparations.

But the race days have undoubtedly been Haryanto's biggest weakness in the first half of 2016.

Between 2012 and '15, Haryanto spent four seasons getting to grips with the vagaries of Pirelli rubber in the GP2 junior series.

So it came as a surprise when, in May, he told the official F1 website how the tyres, which are "completely different" to those found in GP2, "clearly" represented the steepest learning curve upon his graduation to the pinnacle of motorsport.

Much of his bemusement with the behaviour of the F1 tyres, you suspect, can be linked to the vices of the MRT05, which—with a lack of rear downforce, as Wehrlein told the team's official website—has left Manor struggling with degradation all season long.

The car's tyre-chewing habit has made it difficult to judge just how adept the drivers themselves are when it comes to preserving their rubber. But Haryanto's extra experience seemed to give him a slight advantage over his team-mate in the early-season races, when he stretched his stints a little longer than the No. 94 car.

Wehrlein, though, is a fast learner, and the competition between the pair has been closer since the German managed to pull off two longer stints than his team-mate on the same soft-compound tyres in China.

The first indication of a seismic shift between the pair came in Monaco, where the struggling Haryanto rid himself of his initial set of ultrasofts after just 13 laps while Wehrlein made his last to the end after pitting on Lap 31 of 76.

Yet the differences between the Manor drivers can be encapsulated in the tales of two one-stoppers.

After a first-corner collision with Haas' Esteban Gutierrez in Azerbaijan, Haryanto pitted for repairs and with them got his solitary tyre change out of the way, committing to a 48-lap stint on softs. 

The plan backfired, and Haryanto was the last of the classified runners, a lap behind 17th-placed Marcus Ericsson, and later told the team's official website how his braking points were "changing every lap," such was the extent of his degradation.

When Wehrlein tried his luck with a single visit to the pits in Austria, meanwhile, he left the Red Bull Ring with Manor's first point in more than two years after completing a logic-defying 47-lap stint on the yellow-marker rubber.

Can you recall a single Haryanto overtake this season?

Neither can we, and it is telling that while Wehrlein has gained the most places of any driver on the opening laps—23 at an average of 2.3 per race—Haryanto, despite his low starting positions and the incident-packed starts in 2016, has moved up just one place, per F1 Fanatic.

With the Indonesian behind the wheel of the least competitive package on the grid, it is perhaps fairer if we judge Haryanto on his conduct in traffic and how he has adjusted from being a there-or-thereabouts driver in GP2 to a backmarker in F1.

The true test of that came in China, where he was elevated to the dizzy heights of eighth after Manor decided not to pit their cars during the early safety car period.

As the likes of Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel lurked in his rear-view mirrors, Haryanto was respectful, reluctant to cause any needless accidents with faster cars, to the point of being overawed by those around him.

He was promptly punted down to the comfort zone of 14th within a lap of the restart as Wehrlein, who recommenced from fourth place, ensured he lost only one position in the same period of time.

Perhaps the sight of the No. 88 car dropping like a stone through the field encouraged Haryanto to take a few more chances on track, with the Indonesian having the audacity to unlap himself from Button two rounds later in Spain.

Button's mocking of the Manor driver over pit-to-car radio—"I know he thinks he's quick but he's not," he was heard saying, per the official F1 website—seemed to remind Haryanto of his true level ahead of Monaco, where he was again too anxious to move aside for faster cars, causing all those issues with tyre temperature.

Haryanto's exploits in GP2 proved he can be an intelligent, calm and at times cunning racer, but a little more confidence and self-belief is required for him to demonstrate those skills on the grandest stage of all.

Does Haryanto truly believe he belongs in F1? Or does he view his stint with Manor as a once-in-a-lifetime experience?

With the exception of race day in Monaco, the 23-year-old has hardly disgraced himself over the course of the first 10 races, yet rather than taking full advantage of his opportunity, Haryanto—as the first-ever Indonesian to reach F1—seems content with just being on the grid.

His admission, per the official F1 website, that he thinks "wow" whenever he is "not far off" Wehrlein's lap time offered a worrying insight into his timid, meek mentality, giving the impression that Haryanto is more of a tourist than a highly competitive grand prix driver.

As reported by Reuters' Alan Baldwin, his sightseeing trip may soon come to an end, with driver manager Piers Hunnisett admitting Haryanto's sponsorship funds are set to run out after the 11th round of the season in Hungary.

Hunnisett and Co. launched a text-messaging initiative in Haryanto's homeland in an effort to allow their client to complete the campaign, with the driver recently revealing he is "quite confident things are going to turn out well," per Autosport (h/t Eurosport).

With Manor nursing a one-point lead over Sauber in the fight for 10th place in the constructors' standings, a willingness to replace Haryanto with a driver capable of keeping up with and beating Wehrlein on a more regular basis would be understandable.

But it would also be a shame if the learning experience of Haryanto, who told the official F1 website how he leaves every race "having inhaled things" he had never come across before, were to be cut short.

All timing and tyre data sourced from the official F1 website, the FIA's official website, the FOM television feed and emailed Pirelli infographics.

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