Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc came through the Ferrari Driver Academy having already demonstrated, in Formula 2, the combination of raw pace and emotional intensity that would define his Formula 1 career. His 2018 debut season with Sauber — a backmarker team — was a consistent exhibition of extracting far more from the car than its machinery entitled him to, regularly matching and occasionally beating well-funded midfield teams in a car that had no business keeping up with them. Ferrari signed him for 2019.

His first year at Ferrari produced his maiden race wins in both Belgium and Italy within the space of a fortnight — two circuits with enormous significance to the team and its fan base. The Monza win was particularly theatrical: Leclerc qualifying on pole, managing a race against Hamilton's Mercedes, crossing the line in tears while the tifosi erupted. At 21, he had become the first Ferrari driver to win at Monza since Michael Schumacher in 2006.

The subsequent seasons brought pole positions — Leclerc has an extraordinary natural qualifying ability, consistently extracting every tenth the car is capable of and occasionally finding more — but the championships that should have followed from his pace were obstructed by a combination of car reliability failures at critical moments, strategy errors by the Ferrari pit wall, and the appearance of Red Bull's dominance from 2022 onward. The 2022 season, in which Leclerc led the championship after the first two races, was the closest he has come to a title that many observers believe his talent deserves.