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F1 is a sport full of rockstars. Like everything else in life, however, this stardom does not last forever. In this sport, there is always a certain period that belongs to one driver and then as time passes on, the baton is passed on to the next generation.
Sometimes that has happened within the same team as well. In the sport's history, there have been many such instances where a young driver has joined the team, taken up the challenge, and beaten his more experienced teammate. Even this season, while there are only early indications of this happening, we are witnessing Lewis Hamilton facing a stiff challenge from George Russell. In this piece, we take a look at some such instances.
#1 Charles Leclerc beats Sebastian Vettel in Ferrari (2019 F1 season)
As a blue-eyed young driver who had stormed through every junior championship, Charles Leclerc impressed everyone with his driving in his debut season. While everyone rated him very highly, no one would have anticipated what the Monegasque was about to do in his debut season for Ferrari.
Teaming up with an F1 legend in Sebastian Vettel, Leclerc only took two races to lay down the marker when he took pole position in the Bahrain GP. In the race, he overcame a bad start to overtake his more experienced teammate, storming through to win the race. This was not a flash in the pan as, throughout the season, Leclerc proved himself to be the standout qualifier on the grid and picked up a memorable win in Monza. Leclerc ended up outscoring Vettel and took over as team leader by the end of the season.
#2 Lewis Hamilton beats Fernando Alonso (2007 F1 season)
Not many debuts are as impactful and as brilliant as what Lewis Hamilton had in 2007. Coming to McLaren as a rookie alongside two-time reigning world champion Fernando Alonso, Hamilton was expected to play the role of a supporting cast.
As it turned out, however, Hamilton was more than just that. In his debut F1 season, he became a legitimate title contender, scoring big points, pole positions, and even wins. In the end, Hamilton lost the title by one point but finished ahead of Alonso in the standings by the virtue of scoring more wins.
#3 Ayrton Senna beats Alain Prost in McLaren (1988 F1 season)
The epicenter of one of the biggest rivalries in the sport was when Alain Prost recommended Ayrton Senna as his teammate at McLaren. Senna joined the team as a dynamite of a qualifier that was still rough around the edges. He was expected to be faster than Prost on a single lap, but when it came to the race, the Frenchman was supposed to hold the edge.
As it turned out, that was not the case as the Brazilian was able to hold the edge in all the departments and would go on to beat Prost for the world title. It's common knowledge how the rivalry unraveled after that, but it was this very season where Senna, a young charger, beat Prost, a multiple world champion in F1.
