Drivers are often reluctant to speak too highly of their team mates, but Fernando Alonso lavished high praise on his fellow Aston Martin racer after joining the team for 2023.
As Lance Stroll’s father owns the brand both of them race for, Alonso’s comments won’t have hurt when it comes to ingratiating himself with his new team. But as the two-times world champion pointed out, he knew the young Stroll long before he arrived in F1.
Moreover, as Alonso has often noted, no driver is ever going to become world champion without a car capable of getting the job done. That’s something a lucky four might get in any given season.
So, given the right hardware, how many of the drivers on today’s grid have shown enough potential that we could confidently regard them as champions of the future?
The race winners
Two new drivers joined F1’s race-winners club last year, meaning half of the grid head into the season having won at least one race. Leaving the three existing champions out of it, which of the seven drivers who’ve already won a race are the likeliest future title winners?
Charles Leclerc finished runner-up to Max Verstappen in last year’s world championship. He can point to more shortcomings on his team’s side than his own performances which hurt his chances of taking the title last year.
His team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr out-scored him in 2021, and after a rough start last year was closer to the pace over the second half of the year. He picked up his breakthrough win at the British Grand Prix. In the penultimate round, Brazil, George Russell took his first win, and gave notice of his title-winning potential by out-scoring seven-times champion team mate Lewis Hamilton.
Sergio Perez narrowly failed to beat Leclerc to second in the standings last season. But although he won two times, that achievement was dwarfed by team mate Verstappen’s record-breaking 15 wins.
Alpine has a pair of one-time race winners in Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. However the driver on the grid who has won the most races without taking a title, Valtteri Bottas, will need a big step from Alfa Romeo if he is to improve on the second place he achieved in the 2019 and 2020 world championships.
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The podium visitors
Four other drivers on the grid know how it feels to stand on the podium, if not win a race. Of these, the strangest example is undoubtedly Kevin Magnussen, who reached the rostrum at his first attempt but hasn’t returned in the 140 races he’s contested since then.
Stroll also reached the podium early in his career, at just his eighth start. He returned there twice in 2020, and Alonso believes he has it in him to do more, given a competitive enough car.
Lando Norris served notice of his potential last year by taking the sixth podium finish of his career in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, which was significant for being the only rostrum appearance all year by a driver from outside the all-conquering trio of Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes. Alexander Albon delivered two podium finishes during his 2020 season at Red Bull, but team mate Max Verstappen took 11 in the same year plus two wins, and Albon was replaced at the end of the year.
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The points scorers and newcomers
The driver who holds the record for most F1 starts without a podium appearance is back on the grid this year. Nico Hulkenberg was tipped by some as a future champion when he arrived in F1 following his back-to-back title wins in the Formula 3 Euro Series and GP2 (now Formula 2).
The other three drivers with points but no podiums have barely made one-third the number of starts between them as Hulkenberg has: Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Nyck de Vries. The latter impressed by scoring one of Williams’ five points scores last year in his sole appearance for the team at short notice at Monza.
That sole start aside, De Vries is one of three newcomers on the grid this year. Oscar Piastri arrives with similar expectations on his shoulder to Hulkenberg 13 years before him, having scored Formula Renault Eurocup, F3 and F3 title wins in consecutive seasons between 2019 and 2021. While Logan Sargeant arrives in F1 with no prior titles to his name, he can take solace in the fact that nor did his team mate Albon, nor reigning champion Verstappen when he arrived seven seasons ago for that matter.
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I say
Of the 17 drivers on the grid that haven’t won a world championship yet, one stands out as having the combination of ability, youth and access to a sufficiently competitive car to be the safest bet to deliver a title at some stage: 24-year-old race-winning Mercedes driver George Russell. He may be up against a formidable team mate in Lewis Hamilton, but the seven-times champion is 14 years older than him and isn’t going to race on at the height of his powers indefinitely.
Both Ferrari drivers belong high on the list as well, though their team has not delivered competitive equipment as consistently as their silver rivals. They may also face a sticky problem in the future: There’s often not much to choose between them in terms of raw speed and ability.
Of the rest, Norris immediately stands out as a driver with future champion potential. Ocon’s strong season against Alonso last year also marks him out as a driver who deserves to be named in the company. I’m not yet convinced Alonso’s latest team mate deserves to be mentioned in similar tones, but 2023 may yet prove the season which changes that.
You say
Which of the drivers in the 2023 field who haven’t won a world championship do you regard as potential title-winners? Cast your votes below and have your say in the comments.
Which F1 drivers do you regard as potential champions?
- Logan Sargeant (0%)
- Alexander Albon (1%)
- Yuki Tsunoda (0%)
- Nyck de Vries (2%)
- Nico Hulkenberg (1%)
- Kevin Magnussen (1%)
- Lance Stroll (1%)
- Zhou Guanyu (0%)
- Valtteri Bottas (1%)
- Lando Norris (23%)
- Oscar Piastri (8%)
- Pierre Gasly (2%)
- Esteban Ocon (2%)
- George Russell (27%)
- Carlos Sainz Jnr (7%)
- Charles Leclerc (24%)
- Sergio Perez (2%)
Total Voters: 81
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