Lance Stroll
Having made waves as an 11-year-old who joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2009, Canadian Lance Stroll, son of billionaire Lawrence Stroll, stepped up to cars in 2014 after a successful karting career.
He began in the Ferrari-run Florida Winter Series, where he eventually got up to pace in a field comprising of many drivers with more experience. Stroll took two podiums before scoring a pole position in the final weekend, but a crash left him with a fractured wrist and ruled him out of the final two races.
Stroll then turned his attention to the Italian F4 championship. The FIA-affiliated series was in its inaugural year, and the Canadian signed up with Prema Powerteam, a team which has been highly successful in Formula 3. Given his karting results and the strength of his team, he expectedly began the season as the title favourite, and he delivered in style, becoming champion with two weekends to spare.
His biggest rival was teammate and former Ferrari junior Brandon Maisano, but due to age restrictions the Frenchman was not eligible for the main trophy. Still, the other opponents were formidable and Stroll thrived against them, with five poles and seven outright victories in the eighteen races he did.
He showed good racecraft as well, winning two reversed-grid races from ninth on the grid at Mugello and Vallelunga. He missed the last round due to injury, but the title was his long before then.
Stroll is set to emulate fellow Ferrari juniors Raffaele Marciello and Antonio Fuoco by sticking with Prema in a move up to the FIA F3 next year. It will be a much tougher test, but the 16-year-old has shown enough promise to silence any detractors who might have dismissed him as just a son of a rich father.
Aditya Banerjee