See The Exciting Formula One Talent Pool
The Formula One seats are becoming increasingly more expensive and more exclusive. Despite this, the Formula One talent pool is full of young drivers who have incredible talent and skill. These new drivers dream of reaching their idols’ achievements and even surpassing them.
Most of the drivers in the Formula One talent pool are involved in programs for young and new talent. However, out of all these programs, two teams stand out: Ferrari and Red Bull.
There is a special dependency between these programs and large companies that sponsor their seats in Formula One. It works this way due to the high financing costs of training new drivers and buying their seats in the competition.
In this article, we’ll talk about the rising talents in the Formula One talent pool and the future stars of Formula One. And luckily, there are so many new and promising drivers who can continue the legacy of this sport.
Promising new drivers in the Formula One talent pool
Lando Norris
At the tender age of just 19 years old, this English driver aspires to follow his idol, Lewis Hamilton. He was the champion of the F3 2017 season, winning eight races. Additionally, he won second place in the world competition of the F2 season of that same year with the Carlin team.
Meanwhile, this young star is also in the McLaren Honda team where he is developing his skills. He’s expected to jump to Formula One sometime soon.
Charles Leclerc
This driver from Monaco met the expectations this year in his debut as a Formula One driver. He started in the Sauber team, with Marcus Ericson as his teammate.
Despite only being 21 years old, Charles Leclerc has extensive experience:
- World Runner-up in the Formula Renault 2.0, 2014.
- Runner-up at the Macao GP, 2015.
- GP3 World champion, 2016.
- Formula 2 Champion, 2017.
Adding to that, since 2016, he is also a part of the Ferrari young pilots program.
Pierre Gasly
This one is one of the strongest drivers in the Formula One talent pool. In 2018, he had his debut in Formula One as a Toro Rosso driver. However, the 2017 season was a challenging one for Pierre as he participated in the Japanese Formula and Formula E. He also replaced Carlos Sainz in the Renault team.
Alfonso Celis
At only 21 years of age, this young driver is part of the Telmex brand, racing in the Force India team. Also starting out competing in the karts category, he has a long record and has passed through many different categories. Some of these are Formula 3, Formula BMW and Renault.
Celis has had some contact with Formula One, during the Mexico Grand Prix 2017 free training sessions, in his home country.
Neil Verhagen
This 17-year-old driver has all the expectations of the Red Bull racing brand, which is no small deal! He raced with them in their young talent program for 2017 and did so again in 2018. And so, he is expected to jump up to the Formula One talent pool soon.
He holds the record for being the youngest driver to win the SCCA National Championship Runoffs. Additionally, he is currently racing in the Formula Renault 2.0, his second season in 2018.
Tatiana Calderón
This Colombian driver is the only woman on this list. She started out her driving career as a development driver for the Sauber team in the GP3 competition. She also started from karts and began racing at an early age, jumping up the categories quickly.
During her extensive career, and at only 25 years old, she has raced in all the categories that lead to Formula One. These are Star Mazda, Formula 3 and GP3. And so, this young woman represents women in this male-dominated sport.
After learning about this new talent, it’s clear that there’s a bright future in the Formula One talent pool. This is great news for Formula One fans because they will have some interesting new faces to watch out for over the next few years.