Early days for our present champions
One quarter of right this moment’s grid had not but been born in 1998. McLaren’s present pairing of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri have been but to reach into the world, as have been their fellow 2024 drivers Zhou Guanyu, Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto.
However what of those that have been round again then? Coincidentally, there have been three world champions on the grid originally of 1998 – Schumacher, Hill and Villeneuve – which marks the identical variety of title winners which can be energetic in 2024 – step ahead Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
So what have been the champions of right this moment doing again in 1998? Effectively, Alonso, Hamilton and Verstappen have been 17, 13 and one years outdated respectively, so Verstappen’s racing profession wouldn’t begin for an additional few years.
Alonso had been climbing the ranks in karting world championships and would go on to make his single-seater debut in System Nissan in 1999.
Hamilton, in the meantime, had additionally been impressing in karting, a lot in order that he joined the McLaren Younger Driver Growth Programme in 1998 – three years after famously telling Ron Dennis at an awards ceremony that he would in the future drive one among his automobiles. The remainder is historical past.
Drives just like the one seen within the video under have been serving to the Briton to catch the attention, with the teen going from the again of the sphere to win a System Junior Intercontinental karting race at Buckmore Park in Kent, England.
