To be honest it was not stellar year for rookies and thus Pascal Wehrlein getting the accolade was almost a given before the season began.
In the end he did a solid job for Manor, scoring their only point of the year was the highlight. But it must be said that despite his top billing ahead of his rookie season, he did not trounce pay driver Rio Haryanto when the pair were teammates during the first half of the season.
It is also hard to judge Wehrlein relative to Esteban Ocon, who was drafted into the team to replace Haryanto after the summer break. And quite interstingly Force India saw something in young Ocon which prompted them to sign him for 2017 ahead of Wehrlein.
We thus need to compare his performance relative to the other rookie, namely Jolyon Palmer. The Englishman endured a tough first year at the pinnacle of the sport. He particularly troubled early on in the year, but turned things around in the latter half enough for Renault to keep faith in him.
Stoffel Vandoorne’s one race for McLaren, substituting for injured Fernando Alonso, was special but his rookie season will be in 2017.
In the end Wehrlein ticked all the boxes for the award.