While we focus attention on the current crop of Formula One drivers and where they are positioned in the championship, it should be noted that there are a number of young guns who are pressing for a spot in the premier league.
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One of those is 19-year-old Charles Leclerc, of Monaco, who is currently competing in the second tier World Formula Two championship.
Leclerc leads the championship by fifty points after seven rounds and 14 races from British driver Oliver Rowland.
And with four rounds to go his form suggests he will go onto win the title.
Leclerc finished second in the Formula Renault Alps championship in 2014, first in the 2016 GP3 championship and was inducted into the Ferrari Driver Academy in March last year.
He was then given the opportunity to drive for the Haas F1 team, who use Ferrari customer engines, in Friday practice sessions at four of the GP meetings last year with impressive results.
On Tuesday, he drove the current specification Ferrari F1 car at the Hungaroring circuit.
Not only did Leclerc record the fastest time but he got within six-tenths of a second of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.
Vettel set his time the following day in the same car that he used to win the Hungarian GP on Sunday.
He got within six-tenths of a second of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.
He would have been a lot more familiar with the circuit and the car, which he has been driving all season.
With speculation that the struggling Sauber team will become a second string Ferrari team, similar to the Toro Rosso and Red Bull arrangement, the big question is will Ferrari push for Leclerc to get a full-time drive at Sauber?
If so which of the current Sauber drivers will find themselves on the driver market for season 2018?
Marcus Eriksson has only scored points (finished in the top 10) on five occasions in 51 races since joining the team in 2015 – hardly a record to be proud of.
His 22-year-old teammate Paschal Wehrlein has scored two top 10 finishes in as many starts for the team.
However, it should be remembered that he has only contested 31 GP races in his career and his first season in 2016 was with the disastrous Manor team.
The other option is to replace both drivers, if the Ferrari arrangement comes to fruition, in which case Leclerc’s fellow Ferrari Driver Academy inductee Antonio Giovinazzi could also be in the frame for a call up.
The 23-year-old Italian has already replaced the injured Wehrlein twice this year and did a workman like job on both occasions to hold him in good stead.
KUBICA ON SONG
Robert Kubica’s performance in testing on Wednesday in the current-model Renault F1 car at the Hungaroring circuit proved to be very successful
In a 2017-specification GP car for the first since a rally crash in 2011, the 32-year-old completed more than 140 laps and recorded the fourth-fastest time – 1.4 seconds slower than Vettel, who was fastest on the day.
“I was happy but not 100 per cent happy with my drive. The biggest difference is this car has nothing similar or the same as the 2012 specification cars I have tested recently,” he said.
Kubica pulled up very well physically despite completing the equivalent of two GP race distances.
What happens next is up to the Renault team.
