Young Driver & Riders : The Future Stars & Champions

Rizal   11/04/2014 09:08:00 pm   balap   2 comments  

Youngsters in both two and four wheel racing have a significant role these days. In some championships, like F1 and motoGP, there are number of youngsters given chance to compete in the top flight level despite their young age.

Daniil Kyvat

Hey Daniil, it's not a gun!

The 19-year old Russian pilot sees this season, 2014 as his debut in Formula 1. Daniil is one of the drivers in Red Bull young driver development program and has been there since his first years in motosport. The Ufa-born driver is guided by the Austrian outfit since he was in F3. In 2013 he won GP3 Series and signed with F1 team Toro Rosso for 2014. 

 

in 2014 Bahrain GP

With Red Bull Racing’s ‘younger brother’ Daniil became the second youngest driver to race in F1 history after Jaime Alguersuari in Hungary ’09 at 19 years and 125 days old. He races very well in his first season, as a regular finisher in mid-table. For 2015, Daniil will be promoted to RBR. He will take Sebastian Vettel's seat as the German joins Ferrari.

Max Verstappen

Yes, he drove an F1 car at a very young age

This is a big news! A 17-year old teenager gets an access to drive an F1 car and even he joins the free practice session! This happened at 2014 Japanese GP where Max, whose old man is a former F1 driver from Holland, Johanes ‘Jos’ Verstappen, became the youngest lad ever to drive an F1 car in age of 17. Isn’t that cool, is it????

 

Dominating the Euro F3, Max will step up to F1

If I tell you from the start, Max -who is still a skool boy- inherits the racing talent from his daddy who raced in F1 in the Nineties to 2005. His daddy and Red Bull forged him from his childhood days. Joining Red Bull Academy, Max enters European F3 Series in 2014 and becomes title challenger. Max, who also competes the series with Indonesian young talent Sean Gelael, won many races and lead the classement and becomes the strong contender for the title.

Max is confirmed to race in F1 with Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2015. If so, then he will break  Jaime Alguersuari's record. Many can’t hardly wait to see the action of the boy whose recruiting becomes a sensation in F1 world.

Maverick Vinales

And this is from the world of two wheels a.k.a motorcycle racing. A year ago, he still competed in moto3. Now he’s in moto2 and next year he’ll be in motoGP, the world’s premiere class. 

The 2013 moto3 Champion

Celebrating his first world title

Maverick debuted in moto3 class in 2011. He was only 16 but his performance was exceptional. The following year he got into Top 10 and in 2013 he left the class as the world champion with 3 victories. 

Maverick in action. No, you're not watching a blockbuster movie from the 80s

In 2014 Maverick signs with Pagina Amarillas HP 40 Pons Kalex. He won in Argentina, Germany, Australia, and Malaysia. Until the penultimate round, Malaysian GP, his position in the classement is 3rd.

Maverick, whose brother-in-law races in moto3, Isaac, receives an offer from Suzuki and the Japanese factory team get his signature on their contract offer. Well, well, well, how cool can he go in next season in motoGP class???

Jack Miller

Tim LCR Honda make decision that could put a ‘wow!’ on your mouth. Team owned by Lucio Cecchinello sign an Australian wonderkid rider....who he might be? You’re right, he is Jack Miller.

Yeah ! And you can take a selfie after this, Jack

Should you not know Jack Miller : Born in Australia 19 years ago and now he races for Red Bull KTM Ajo in moto3. Qatar 2012 was his first race. At that time he rode a Honda, property of RTG Honda and raced for the team for 2 seasons. Then in 2014 he moves to the Austrian side. Jack is dubbed as the new Casey Stoner, seen from his riding style, achievements, and the talent.

 

Can he go far like Casey? Let's see!

His extraordinary talent makes many teams racing for his signature, but a shocking offer comes from a motoGP team, LCR. The Monaco-based firm recruit the ¼ litre class rider, which is not a common process. Normally, from moto3, a rider steps up to the moto2 class, so Jack takes a leap over 2 classes. Many doubt his experience and competency, but some encourage him to adapt quickly with the super-fast machines in the 1-litre class.

FYI, this class leap once happened in 2009 season. 2007 125cc World Champion Gabor Talmacsi skipped 250cc class and signed with JiR Honda motoGP. The Hungarian rider replaced Yuki Takahashi who quitted in the mid-season due to lack of sponsor funding.

Marc Marquez

 

The Baby Alien

Such a lie if you say you don’t know this boy. I make an exception cos what I tell you here in this section is a champion, contrast to the post title saying “The Future Champions.” This is a flashback of his early days of his career.

Yeah mate, this lads's so fast!

Few knew him when he first raced in 2008, in 125 cc class. In 2010 Marq was crowned World Champion. Took a step up to moto2, the rookie kid already became strong competitor for the title in 2011. Unfortunately, injury problems said “no” to him and Stefan Bradl from Germany won the series. In 2012, Bradl promoted to motoGP and Marc redeemed himself. He was only 19 when he clinched the moto2 trophy

 

Clinched the title after injury denied him in 2011

2013 season was Marc’s first venture in motoGP. He raced for Repsol Honda, the team he still races for this season. Astonishing pre-season results translated to the real race results and he won the championship in his maiden season. 

 

Now the helmet's on his left hand

Marc broke ma-ny records from the youngest race winner, youngest polesitter, youngest classement leader, and the youngest back-to-back motoGP Champion, and others. All those landmarks achieved by the rider with the number 93 in age of 21! So far he has won 4 world titles, such as 2010 125cc World Champion in the age of 17, 2012 moto2 World Champion (19), 2013 motoGP World Champion (20) and 2014 (21). Now that’s crazy!