We begin Paul Crossling's Stars of Tomorrow feature with numbers ten and nine on the list - look out for a further two drivers to be featured each day until we reach number one on Friday.
Please contribute your thoughts on Pauls selections via the appropriate thread to be found in the predictions section, as I am sure this feature will provoke much discussion - the selections are surprisingly varied, and bound to be at odds with the views of many!
Here, then, are the first two selections:
10. Felipe Albuquerque
Where is he from?
Felipe Miguel Albuquerque is a twenty-two year old from Portugal. He was born on March 1 1985 in Coimbra.
What Has He Done?
Felipe started karting in 1993 at the age of eight as a joke but success soon followed and it became a serious career possibility. After winning two Portuguese Karting Championships he moved up into Spanish Formula Three with the help of Red Bull. In his first season in Spanish Formula Three he finished a respectable sixth in the championship, winning one race.
Also in 2005 another driver was fired from the Red Bull backed Motopark team running in the Formula Renault Eurocup. Felipe was given the chance to drive the car in the Eurocup race at Zolder and was the fastest of all their drivers, thus earning him the driver on a fulltime basis. After competing 14 rounds of the Formula Renault Eurocup he ended the season in fifth place - however he failed to win a race.
2005 was a busy year for him. As a result of his impressive race in Zolder he was also called up into the Motoparks Formula Renault Germany team. Here he also did 14 races finishing the season in third place after four race wins.
In 2006 he was again competing in the Formula Renault Eurocup, winning four of his 14 races on his way to becoming the champion. He was also racing in the Formula Renault North European Championship in which he continued his dominant 2006 by winning this championship as well. From 14 starts he took four wins.
What is He Doing Now?
In 2007 he has moved into the World Series by Renault championship. He is currently third in the championship after the opening five races. He has yet to win but has had a podium finish.
So far in his career spanning all championships he has started 73 races finishing 28 of them on the podium with 13 of them being wins.
It has recently been announced that he will make his GP2 debut at Silverstone on July 7 and 8 driving the Racing Engineering car vacated by the injured Ernesto Viso following his accident at Magny Cours.
My Prediction for the Future:
I personally don’t think that Felipe is good enough to make it into Formula One. So why include him in the Stars of the Future list I hear you say? He is on this list for one reason and one reason alone: his Red Bull sponsorship. We have seen recently that as long as you have Red Bull sponsorship you don’t need any talent to get on to the grid. Just ask Scott Speed. So I expect to see Felipe in Formula One as a tester next season
9. Alx Danielsson
Where is he from?
Alx Danielsson is a twenty-six year old from Sweden. He was born on April 1 1981 in Ostersund he is the oldest driver in this “Stars of the Future” countdown. His background is in alpine skiing where he was one of Sweden's top athletes, until he gave up in 1999 to concentrate on racing.
What Has He Done?
Alx began karting in 1998 and quickly moved into cars, making his Swedish Formula Ford debut in 2000 where he finished as the series champion with a total of 178 points after taking five wins from sixteen starts.
For 2001 he moved to Formula Ford in Britain. In his first of three seasons he was eighteenth in the championship and failed to win a race. In 2002 he returned and finished the championship in twelfth place after again failing to win any of his eighteen races. His third and final season in British Formula Ford was 2003 where he finished fourth in the championship after two wins from twenty races.
In 2004 he was racing in the Europe and Asia Formula Renault V6 championship. He scored just one win on his way to eleventh place in the championship. In 2005 he moved to the World Series by Renault. His debut season saw him finish fifteenth in the championship. He returned to the series in 2006 and became the champion with four wins from seventeen starts.
What is He Doing Now?
In 2007 Alx is competing in the Formula 3000 Euro Series. After the opening four rounds he is in fourth place in the championship following one win.
So far in his career spanning all championships he has started 132 races, and has finished on the podium 43 times, 25 of them wins.
My Prediction for the Future:
Alx says that his goal is to be in Formula One in 2008. I say no chance. He recently had his first taste of a Formula One car at Silverstone driving for Renault, part of his prize for winning the World Series in 2006. During that test he impressed quite a few of the big-wigs in the Renault family so if my prediction that Giancarlo Fisichella will be replaced by Nelson Piquet Junior for 2008, they will need a new tester and surely Alx must be near the top of the list.
Written by Paul Crossling on Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:27:58
[ Print View ][ E-Mail Article ]
