F1 Fanatic

Of the current field only:

Perez: This guy has it. Will be a World Champ in F1 and hope he does well.
Hulkenburg: As above.
Dan Riccardio & JE Venre: Both have great potential & speed. The comments of Dan faster in Quali and Vernge a better racer, while true to date dont really matter are dismissed- they will find thier feet and both will be great!!!
Grosjean: Wont get there. Will play ‘Gerhard Berger’ to the above, unfortunatley. I hope I am proved wrong on this one!!!
Pastor: Well who bloody knows :) Could mix it, or could do fast laps in quali then SFA!! This guy could be a champ or pushed out like KK!! ??

@Garns

they will find thier feet and both will be great!!!

I think that is very optimistic to say the least.
Look at the current great drivers: Hamilton, Vettel and Alonso. While they have slightly different strengths, they are all three fantastic both in qualifying and in the race.
None of them has at any point in their career been outright bad at something. They have been lacking, but mostly in terms of consistency, judgement and so on. Skills which are relatively easy to improve as you get experience.
Speed seems like a much harder skill to improve on. While they all do, I haven’t seen a driver go from bad to great in that aspect.
I think Ricciardo and Vergne are in the same boat as Algersuari and Buemi before them. One fast in the race, one fast in qualifying. Neither of which changed, and both of them turned out to be worthless for larger teams.

Oh, those poor group of drivers. Rubens Barrichello, David Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher, Giancarlo Fisichella, and Jarno Trulli. Poor because they were never given a championship shot. At the end of 2000, these drivers were right behind Schumacher and Hakkinen in the pecking order.

However, for one reason or another, they never became world champion. Schumacher went on to dominate the next 5 years, and once Michael and Mika were finished (Well, Hakkinen was sort of finished in 2000 anyway), a new young force of Alonso and Raikkonen would dominate the next 3-4 years, and eventually all these men would sink into insignificance.

I’ve actually said this a number of times on Dutch forums. Guys like Fisichella and Trulli, but even guys like Panis and Alesi were all said to be future world champions at some point in their careers. I think it’s also one of the reasons I’m not too happy about Vettel winning 3 times in a row. People usually diminish Schumacher’s competition (and those drivers’ careers) in every aspect, but I’m sure Mika Hakkinen wasn’t the only guy out there who could beat Schumacher in equal(ish) cars.

This has me thinking that a large portion of the current crop, such as Perez, Hulkenburg, Grosjean, Rosberg, Maldonado and Di Resta; who are today seen as logical choices for future champions, will for one reason or another never reach their full potential anyway.

While I agree it might be hard for them to win titles, I think some drivers might fill the gap Alonso, Raikkonen and Button are bound to leave in 3-5 years time. I think guys like Di Resta, Rosberg, Bottas, and anyone entering the mid-field the coming years might be able to win races at least. Vettel and Hamilton are bound to stay for a while, but Perez, Maldonado, Hulkenberg and Grosjean seem like the kind of drivers who might string a championship season together at a top team.

As for other series, I think guys like Frijns, Bianchi, Razia might end up winning races at midfield teams and moving to top teams if they’re not too old when the current crop leaves, but I’m absolutely certain Da Costa will be a successful driver. If he can take Vettel’s spot or challenge him at RBR, he might very well ensure I’m completely wrong about the other guys winning races.