It is now Friday!, after a long week counting down you have seen eight drivers named, now it is time for numbers two and one.
2. ESTERBAN GUTIERREZ
Where is he from?
Esterban Gutierrez is from Argentina, born on August 5 1991 in Buenos Aires.
What Has He Done?
Esterban started in career racing in America in Formula BMW USA where he was second after claiming four wins leading to a place in the Formula BMW World Final, which resulted in a disappointing twenty-fifth place finish.
For a South American to be successful in Formula One he needs to move to Europe as soon as possible, Esterban made that move for 2008 and began racing in the new Formula BMW Europe created by the merger of the British and German Formula BMW championships.
He won half the races during the season taking seven out of fourteen possible wins and in the end cruising to the title that he had lead since the second weekend.
He ended his season with another appearance in the Formula BMW World Final finishing third this time.
His career statistics: 38 race starts, 11 wins, 22 podiums and 13 poles.
What is He Doing Now?
On January 5th it was announced that Esterban would be stepping up to the Formula Three Euroseries for 2009, he is joining champion team ART Grand Prix as one of their four drivers, another two already being featured in the 2009 Stars of Tomorrow and the other (Adrian Tambay) only just missing out on a place in the top ten.
My Prediction for the Future
For a long time Esterban was going to be number one, and I am sure he would have been a very good number one but, then McLaren Formula One entered into a working relationship with Force India and as a result he was pushed down to number two (see below).
Throughout his great season I have become more and more impressed with him and after fifty years, Argentina finally has a new guy that can be successful in single-seater Motorsport. He has to move to Formula Three in 2009, his decision as to which championship and which team will go a long way to deciding his long team success.
1. PAUL DI RESTA
Where is he from?
Paul Di Resta was born in West Lothian, Scotland on April 16 1986, at the age of twenty-two he is the oldest driver in Stars of Tomorrow history, some seven years older than the youngest.
His cousin in Scottish racing driver Dario Franchitti, the former Indycar and Indianapolis 500 Champion winning both in 2007.
What Has He Done?
Paul is now well known for his touring car racing with his DTM exploits but his career started in Formula Renault 2.0 UK back in 2003. He won a race in that year and was seventh in the championship. He followed that up with four wins and third place in 2004.
He then made the move to Formula Three Euroseries finishing tenth in his rookie season but an impressive fourth in the Masters of Formula 3 still held at Zandvoort at this point.
In 2006 his won the championship with five wins and the Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort, a perfect year could have been capped off with victory in the Macau Grand Prix, however he failed to finish the race.
With no GP2 seats becoming available for him in 2007, he was force to move to the German Touring Car Championship, known as DTM he finished fifth in his first year with no wins and then second in 2008 with two wins and was just pipped to the title in the last race of the season.
During his Formula Three Euroseries days, and even during his time in DTM he was a sporadic and rare test driver for the McLaren Formula One team, but was never officially given the job of test driver.
His career statistics: 104 race starts, 13 wins, 34 podiums and 15 poles.
What is He Doing Now?
With the McLaren “agreement” with Force India in Formula One is was expected that Paul would be placed in a race seat with the team or a GP2 team, Current Force India drivers Giancarlo Fisichella and Adrian Sutil both appear to be safe so Paul is expected to become a Force India test driver in 2009 with a drive in GP2 thrown in.
My Prediction for the Future
OK, so this may be cheating at bit. We all know how highly rated he is by McLaren and with their working relationship of Force India a Formula One drive seams as if it will come sooner rather than later for Paul, with at least a GP2 drive expected this year.
However he has not raced in GP2 or Formula One, despite many testing days in both categories and (according to the official McLaren Formula One website) he is not an official test driver for the team, therefore he has not invalidated himself for selection on this list, so technically it is not cheating to include him although you all read this list to find the next big unknown superstar.
Written by Paul Crossling on Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:41:49
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