The next big thing

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Well, as the title suggests, these are 5 drivers I think are exciting talents for the future, primarily in F1:

1 - Kevin Magnussen
Goes without saying
2 - Anthoine Hubert
11 wins from 21 races in the French F4 series suggests something special. 128.5 points clear of the rest of the field (which looked pretty talented to me) suggests something even better. Look out for his name.
3 - Matt Brabham
Well, he's a Brabham, and he's got the Star Mazda win record. Watch out for him, as he created a stir in his FR BARC Winter Series outing(s?) last year.
4 - Raffaele Marciello
The next Italian winner for Ferrari is my bet right now. Things could change...
5 - Pierre Gasly
France seems to be having a huge resurgence in talent. Could be something special.

[Go_For_Pole]

Frijns, Ellinas, Vandoorne, Marcielo, Ocon and Urrutia

[Beryl]

Marciello, Fuoco and Rovera.

[Marcus666]

Gonna bump this thread.

Although I have no facts about the talent level in British Formula Ford but:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Br...la_Ford_season

24 wins out of 30 by Dan Cammish?!

[Hawkwood]

An excellent record, winning every race he entered.
However, he has been in FF since 2009 and finished 3rd in 2010.
So he's been at this level a hell of a lot longer than the rest.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

I think Juan Rosso is the most exciting prospect from Brit FF. His driving at Brands was masterful, and given he didn't race at the Brands opener his driving was even more impressive.

Great to see that Kvyat has got his superlicense.

[FIRE]

Max Verstappen

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Verstappen has been impressive.

Jake Hughes and Charlie Robertson from the United Kingdomland look promising.

Ben Barnicoat, who'll move to FR BARC for the Autumn Cup, looks amazingly impressive and Jack Harvey reckons he'll be a very exciting prospect, with the McLaren backing and all that. Maybe he'll follow in the footsteps of Hamilton and Magnussen.

[Peat]

It's whoever can keep career momentum.

Will be looking very closely at Marciello next year.

Frijins is a great talent but i fear he's run out of puff financially.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Frijns is better than a lot of the current F1 drivers on pure merit, but that isn't enough right now. Frankly on pure merit than the Hulk would be WDC quite a few times by now...

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Frijns is better than a lot of the current F1 drivers on pure merit, but that isn't enough right now. Frankly on pure merit than the Hulk would be WDC quite a few times by now...

Nah, perfectly capable of wins but to suggest mutliple titlist is jumping the gun at the moment. We can assume loads of stuff about quick drivers but cannot make a proper judgment until the circumstances allow.

What's to say Nico isn't another Frentzen, after his superb efforts with Sauber everyone thought he was going to murder the grid when he got the Williams gig and look what happened....

I still think Sainz jnr is developing nicely. The speed and control is there but now he needs that hammer it out every lap mentality needed for F1 these days.

Mind you I thought Blomqvist was going to be mega but he has petered out a bit in F3.

[jobdone]

George Russell is meant to be very hotly tipped, and expected to move into cars this year.

[cappra250]

Vandoorne will be the 'big' one. Quite impressive to challenge Magnussen in your rookie year.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Then again, Jules Bianchi had been at the front of GP2/FR3.5 for a few seasons and Frijns beat him first time round in FR3.5 last season.

Russell was impressive in the FR Eurocup rookie tests., as was Max Verstappen.

Matevos Isaakyan I'd love to put on here, but his pace in French F4 has made him doubtful for F1, even though his racecraft was, for me, eye-catching. I'd like to see him continue racing just so I can watch him race!

The issue with Vandoorne is that he has done too much too fast and it actually could end up wrecking his career. If he had a FR3.5 season like Magnussen's rookie season, then he wouldn't be as highly rated and expectations and pressure wouldn't be as high. However, he is an exceptional talent.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Now Alex Lynn has taken the Macau GP win that rankly he should've won after last year's incredible show, I think he'll have a boost of confidence.

He would have been Euro F3 champ if 2 frontrunners from the previous season didn't remain, and surely Lynn deserves a move up with Rosenqvist and Marciello.

[Peat]

Stonking performance from Lynn.

Glad to see a glitch in the Marciello Matrix. He is human afterall.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Ben Barnicoat could easily by a name for the future looking at what he did in the FR Autumn Cup...

[kipper]

Originally Posted by Biscuits In A Red Bull

Ben Barnicoat could easily by a name for the future looking at what he did in the FR Autumn Cup...

Barnicoat did well at Rockingham; however, I think it may be a little premature to judge his potential based on this event given the quality of the field in terms of quality and quantity.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Thought I'd restart this thread for 2 reasons. 1 - the amount of young promising talent unearthed this season, and 2 - I don't like seeing my threads die

Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen have really been killing it in F3 so far this season, and both look like they could go the whole way, whilst Marciello and Vandoorne's GP2 adventures have shown a lot of promise. Carlos Sainz Jr looks like F1 potential, whilst Olly Rowland and Pierre Gasly are looking very strong.

Lower down the ranks, Dennis Olsen has been very good in the FR Eurocup for a rookie, challenging for the title, whilst Matevos Isaakyan has outshone some very promising youngsters in the FR Alps series. It's anyone's guess from the FR NEC field!

As a fan of French F4, the 2 names to watch for are Joseph Mawson and Lotus junior Dorian Boccolacci, whilst 14-year-old Gjergj Haxhiu is expected to achieve great things. George Russell and Arjun Maini look promising from the BRDC F4 field, whilst Ferrari junior Lance Stroll is already being talked about as "the special one" in Maranello, as he leads the Italian F4 series.

Alex Palou Montalbo has impressed everyone in his graduation from karts into the Euroformula Open series, whilst Lando Norris, 14, is a pacesetter in the Ginetta Juniors series.

Anyone got anything else to add?

[Go_For_Pole]

Stroll special?!

[Mekola]

Lance Stroll is a Canadian driver, member of the Ferrari Driver Academy. The youngest one, if you don't consider the pretender Kevin Felippo :P

[kotkot]

To the Eurocup list I'd add Bruno Bonifacio and Kevin Jorg from the frontrunners, none of them have significant Formula Renault (or racing) experience, yet they are race winners already. The best Formula Renault rookies in Eurocup are Callan O'Keeffe, who is set to prove Red Bull wrong and Anthoine Hubert, who finally looks like a successful French F4 champion graduate. After Vandoorne.

In Alps karting graduate Charles Leclerc, managed by Todt, is also pretty good. NEC is super-competitive but Ben Barnicoat is spending his debut season in cars so his second position is impressive.

I don't know if you left GP3 out on purpose, but Alex Lynn is starting the season the way Kvyat ended it. If he keeps it up, he will be the leader Red Bull Junior either because Sainz moves to F1 or because he failed to deliver.

Glad to see Stanaway back in single-seaters, he can be the biggest challenger of Lynn. Kirchhofer invaded Germany, now it's a matter of time when we see him on the podium and Tuscher is pretty good, especially considering he didn't race last year.

In FIA F3 I would also mention three other names. Fuoco and Dennis both having great rookie seasons, they will go for the title if they stay next year. Also Santino Ferrucci, the young American, who can reach the top ten by the end of the season.

In French F4 Lasse Sorensen, little brother of Marco, is a frontrunner, coming straight from Formula Ford Denmark and the British/Swiss Felix Hirsiger is also impressive, despite racing there for the second year in a row (he is still only 16). Neither Orudzhev nor Isaakyan had chances for the title in the past two years, but then they turned out to be talented, so Denis Bulatov in sixth should be one to watch.

Will Palmer started his single-seater career promisingly, I expect a good career thanks to his father.
Mikkel Jensen, Maxi Gunther and best rookie Tim Zimmermann are the best ADAC drivers.
Another Australian, Anton De Pasquale is really good in FR1.6 NEC and James Munro is smashing the Formula Pilota China field.
Pedro Piquet dominates the not-really-competitive F3 Brazil championship, but I expect him to be successful when he comes over to Europe.

[bella]

yeah, kevin jorg's doing well, though if you rate him then you should probably include levin amweg too. he's not far behind at all. i don't really rate bonifacio massively, but perhaps i need to look harder. agree with you about hubert, but i'm not sure about callan o'keeffe.

sorensen SHOULD be whipping everyone in french f4 given he already has decent car racing experience, and hirsiger's not doing a bad job at all either. he appears to have the cash behind him to have a decent crack at the series above f4 too.

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

I completely forgot to mention GP3 and the FR1.6 categories, as well as Asia. Lasse Sorensen looks good, but both Mawson and Boccolacci have won 2 races in their debut car racing seasons as well, and Mawson (another Aussie) was even more impressive as a) it was the first race of the season, b) he doesn't have big-name sponsorship and c) he mastered the changeable conditions. I really hope he can deliver, because right now he looks like he could be a good prospect.

Lynn probably should've moved up into FR3.5 or GP2 for this season, having spent 2012 being a frontrunner in what looks like British F3's final top-class season, and then being the best rookie in Euro F3 last season, winning at Macau as well. But as it is he's comfortably the best in a talented GP3 field.

I agree about Santino Ferrucci. His Norisring showing was very impressive.

BRDC F4 also has Gaetano di Mauro - Barrichello's prodigy - who is with a new team to the series and at Snetterton, drove really nicely, especially to secure a 5th in race 3, defending from championship leader George Russell for the entire race successfully, and Russell has shown that he can overtake.

It seems that 2014 has shown that there are plenty of quality talents in motorsports...

[Biscuits In A Red Bull]

Originally Posted by bella

sorensen SHOULD be whipping everyone in french f4 given he already has decent car racing experience, and hirsiger's not doing a bad job at all either.

Yet car racing rookies Boccalacci and Mawson have been doing the job.

And to the French F4 outsiders, races 1 and 3 mean far more than reversed-grid race 2.