5 Exciting Young Drivers Who Are Destined for Formula 1

Up until last season, modern-day Formula One had generally been dominated by the familiar faces.

On any race weekend, it had been a given that a selection of the "Big Five"—Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen, who have a combined total of 10 world titles—would fight among themselves for grand prix wins and, ultimately, championships.

In 2014, however, there was a sense that the guard was just beginning to change.

With three race victories for Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo almost instantly went from relative obscurity to staking his claim to the most complete driver in F1, while multiple podium finisher Valtteri Bottas confirmed his status as a potential future world champion.

And there are more on the way.

The junior categories are currently jam-packed with exciting young talents—many of whom have existing links to current Formula One teams—who are just waiting for their opportunities to shine and to eventually displace the likes of Hamilton and Alonso as F1's heroes.

From GP2 title favourite Stoffel Vandoorne to F3 champion Esteban Ocon, here are five stars of tomorrow who are destined to arrive on the grid in the coming years.

Stoffel Vandoorne

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Belgium's Stoffel Vandoorne is set to be the next graduate of a McLaren young driver scheme that has in previous years provided F1 with two-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Kevin Magnussen.

Vandoorne was Magnussen's closest rival in Formula Renault 3.5 in 2013, winning four races—including three in succession—in the first half of the season. 

However, a double-retirement in Austria at the midseason stage represented a change in fortune, with the Belgian failing to win another race and Magnussen securing the title and a 2014 McLaren seat.

Yet even as Magnussen was being paraded as a full-time F1 driver, McLaren's high hopes for Vandoorne were made obvious, with BBC Sport's Andrew Benson reporting last January that the team were "considering" the youngster as an option for 2015.

Without the instant jump to F1, Vandoorne moved into GP2 last season and made an immediate impression, winning on his debut in Bahrain before stealing second place in the standings from Felipe Nasr.

The 22-year-old then had the honour of being the first driver to complete some official running with Honda's new power unit, driving the McLaren MP4-29H/1X1 in the post-season Abu Dhabi test.

Remaining in GP2 for a second year in 2015, Vandoorne—driving for the same ART team who took Hamilton to the 2006 crown—will begin the campaign as title favourite as he knocks even harder on the F1 door.

Esteban Ocon

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Max Verstappen was the junior name on everyone's lips in 2014, but the Dutchman didn't even win the series in which he competed last season.

That honour went to Esteban Ocon, the French teenager whose nine wins saw him claim the European Formula Three title with three races left to run. The Normandy-born driver is a protege of the Lotus F1 outfit and had several experiences behind the wheel of top-level machinery toward the end of 2014.

Ocon completed a two-day test driving Lotus' race-winning 2012 car at Valencia, before impressing in a 2010 Ferrari at Fiorano, in October.

After obtaining a super licence, the 18-year-old drove for Lotus in the first practice session for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and then represented the team at the post-season test at Yas Marina.

Although, at the time of writing, Ocon's plans for 2015 remain undecided, Autosport's Marcus Simmons has reported that his management—who have firm links with Lotus—is planning for him to compete in either GP2 or Formula Renault 3.5 as he steps closer to what should be an inevitable F1 debut in the coming years.

Pierre Gasly

Another 18-year-old Frenchman, Pierre Gasly has every chance of becoming the next graduate of the Red Bull Junior Team.

Gasly outperformed Ocon in 2013 to win the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship, taking three victories and reaching the podium in over half of the season's 14 races.

The Rouen-born star switched to Formula Renault 3.5 in 2014, but despite finishing second in the drivers' standings behind Carlos Sainz Jr., Gasly was the only member of the top seven who failed to win a race.

What he lacked in terms of winners' trophies, however, he made up for in consistency, with the Red Bull-backed teenager finishing in the top 10 in all but two of the campaign's 17 races and making eight trips to the podium.

In the latter stages of '14, the Frenchman dabbled in GP2 and participated in six races for Caterham Racing but failed to score a point.

That brief experience in F1's feeder series, though, should come in handy in 2015 when the Frenchman races in the competition on a full-time basis for DAMS.

Alex Lynn

With the demise of the Marussia at the end of 2014, Britain lost one of its three representatives on the grid as Max Chilton vanished along with the team. 

That leaves just Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button to fly the nation's flag in 2015, but the world champions could soon have another compatriot for company.

After dominating Formula Renault UK in 2011 and winning the prestigious Macau Grand Prix from pole position in 2013, Alex Lynn followed in the footsteps of Valtteri Bottas and Daniil Kvyat by securing the GP3 crown last season.

Having ticked most of the boxes that a youngster could wish for in their junior career, the Essex-born driver—a rarity in the sense that the 21-year-old is a British member of the Red Bull Junior Team—will make another step up in class in 2015.

Lynn—who took part in the post-season F1 test for Lotus at the end of 2014—will compete in GP2 for the same DAMS outfit who have signed Gasly, his Red Bull stablemate, with their inter-team battle effectively a direct shootout for a future Toro Rosso drive.

Raffaele Marciello

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Raffaele Marciello has been forced to settle for a reserve role with Sauber for 2015, but he is almost certainly more talented than both their race drivers, Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

The Zurich-born Italian, according to his official website, racked up over 80 wins in a karting career that saw him claim two Swiss championships in 2005, his debut year in racing, as well as the Champions Cup in '06.

After switching to cars in 2010, Marciello was signed by the Ferrari Driver Academy—a scheme that since its formation in '09 has produced the likes of Sergio Perez and Jules Bianchi—but it was not until 2012 that he began to attract the attention of the wider motorsport community.

"Lello" won more races than anyone en route to second place in the European Formula Three series before dominating the championship in 2013 with 13 victories and 19 podium finishes in 30 races.

A move to GP2 followed, but the assurance of the previous year deserted the 20-year-old as he endured an untidy 2014, although the youngster's sole victory at Spa—for which he had to hunt down Vandoorne in tricky conditions—highlighted his potential.

Marciello piloted a Ferrari in the post-season test and is set for more experience with F1 machinery in 2015, with Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn announcing that the Italian will participate in some grand prix practice sessions.

All statistics in this article, unless stated, have been taken from Wikipedia.

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