When Manor announced Pascal Wehrlein as a driver for 2016 many had flashbacks to a similar arrival back in 2013.
Three years ago a young Ferrari-backed driver called Jules Bianchi made his F1 debut at the then-Marussia team to give him some experience.
It was very clear after Sergio Perez had left the young driver stable at Maranello to join McLaren, Bianchi was being lined up as their next future star.
His promotion to Ferrari wouldn’t be immediate but much like when Massa was given a drive at Sauber in 2002, he would learn his craft before eventually stepping into a Prancing Horse.
Sadly the events of Suzuka 2014 meant we never got to see exactly how the story would end but during his time at Marussia, Bianchi made a huge impact.
He would always be the standout performer in Q1 and be there to take advantage of an unexpected situation. In Monaco, Jules would achieve his career-defining success taking his inferior Marussia and scoring a ninth-place finish, his and the team’s first points.
Many saw similar qualities in Wehrlein, a young driver backed by Mercedes gaining a footing in Formula One before moving to a seat in a Silver Arrow in a few years time.
Having won the DTM championship in 2015, his talent, much like Bianchi’s, was known and he was going to be the young star that took the relaunched Manor team forward.
There was an expectation that Wehrlein was going to be one to score Manor/ Marussia’s next points as a constructor and he did just that finishing tenth in Austria.
While the scale of Wehrlein’s result doesn’t quite match that of Bianchi’s much of that comes down to how the team has progressed.
The finances seem in good shape, they have an all-new car and with a Mercedes power unit much more was expected.
The German had given a glimpse of his skills earlier in the year finishing 13th in Bahrain, but in Austria, a track the 21-year-old knows well, he flourished matching the team’s best starting position of 12th in qualifying.
The race had looked to get away from him after two stints on the ultrasoft early on and falling to the back of the field due to pitting just before the safety car came out.
However, on softs for the rest of the race, Wehrlein managed his pace well and as others fell away he was 11th and closing on Valtteri Bottas.
While getting caught up with the fighting Mercedes meant he was unable to challenge Bottas for 10th, he inherited the position on the final lap as Sergio Perez crashed at Turn 3.
That was enough to promote him to 10th and create his own Bianchi moment.
“Under these circumstances, it feels great,” Wehrlein said. “In the middle of the race, I was thinking the race was done because we were so unlucky with the safety car.
“When I crossed the start-finish line, I looked at the screen and I saw my name in P10 and I thought it must have been Perez. I asked the team, I was lapped and I wasn’t sure what the rule is. So I asked if we managed to finish P10 or P11 and they said P10. Amazing.”
What Bianchi and Wehrlein’s results highlight is the role smaller teams that may not challenge for wins or even points at every race still have.
Yes, it may have led to the ‘pay driver’ culture most people hate, but they also give young drivers the chance to show off their skills at the highest level.
They also prepare the young drivers much better for future seats at top teams as is the case with Toro Rosso now for Red Bull and team’s like Sauber have done for Ferrari over the years.
Young talents like Wehrlein, however, don’t come around too often and he is certainly filling the role that Bianchi left behind in achieving what Manor set out to do and become a competitive midfield team in F1.
There is a sense of occasion too that Wehrlein should join Bianchi as the team’s only points scorers just two weeks before the first anniversary of Jules’ tragic death on July 17.
He is a driver still sorely missed by everyone and would have likely been gearing up to fulfil the dream of a Ferrari drive, given the speculation around the future of Kimi Raikkonen.
Now though we have Wehrlein starting out on his road to a seat at Mercedes and as he does so we can be sure that Jules looks down at what he does at Manor with a big smile on his face.
