Where are they now? The 10 youngest drivers ever to compete in F1

10. Chris Amon and Daniil Kvyat – 19 years and 324 days

Surprisingly, we start this list with two drivers tied in 10th place as Kiwi driver Chris Amon and Russian Daniil Kvyat were the exact same age when they made their F1 debuts.

Amon was a much-lauded talent from New Zealand but became best-known for his incredible bad luck – he ended his career without an F1 Grand Prix victory.

Indeed, his placing on this list would be higher had he not suffered some bad luck at his very first race. Signed to race with Reg Parnell, his teammate Maurice Trintignant’s car developed a technical issue and Amon had to hand his car over to the more experienced driver – meaning Amon’s debut was pushed back to the Belgian Grand Prix.

Securing a move to Ferrari in 1967 might have been a springboard for Amon, and he became one of F1’s most consistent frontrunners the following year. But relentless mechanical failures, including a cruel clutch failure 18 laps from the end of the Canadian Grand Prix when he was leading, meant Amon’s best finish was a second place.

His career slowly stuttered out throughout the 1970s, having made increasingly sporadic appearances for teams such as Matra, Tyrrell, BRM, Ensign, Wolf, and privateer entries.

While no stranger to the podium during his F1 career, Amon only ever won two races – both being non-championship events – but fared much better away from F1 with wins in endurance racing, the Tasman Series, and the Le Mans 24 Hours as a teammate to Bruce McLaren.

He achieved five pole positions, 11 podiums, and raced 13 different makes of car during his F1 career – a record that stands to this day.

While “unlucky” in the regard of his success, Amon himself refuted the suggestion that he was cursed, pointing out that he survived F1 during an era when this was far from a guarantee – he himself had become Ferrari’s only driver for a good chunk of 1967 following the tragic death of Lorenzo Bandini following a crash at Monaco.

He retired to his farm in New Zealand, and was revealed to be a personal trainer to Toro Rosso driver Brendon Hartley, shortly before Amon passed away of cancer at the age of 73 in late 2016.

Kvyat was 19 years and 203 days old when he took part in practice for the 2013 United States Grand Prix, and he got his official F1 start with Toro Rosso a few months later at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix and performed well enough that year to earn a promotion to Red Bull for 2015.

A strong, if somewhat unspectacular, driver, Kvyat was demoted back to Toro Rosso in the middle of 2016 as Red Bull promoted Max Verstappen. With Verstappen proving a revelation, Kvyat licked his wounds and attempted to rebuild his career in the midfield.

Towards the end of 2017, Red Bull had seen enough and opted to let the Russian driver go from their programme, only to re-sign him just over a year later to bring him back to Toro Rosso for 2019 – Kvyat had spent the interim year as a simulator test driver for Ferrari.

Trounced by Pierre Gasly at the renamed AlphaTauri squad in 2020, Kvyat was once again not renewed and, this time, there was no way back – he spent 2021 as a reserve driver for Alpine and has since carved out a career in endurance racing.

He currently races for Lamborghini in the Hypercar category of the World Endurance Championship.

9. Esteban Tuero – 19 years and 320 days

Argentinean F1 driver Esteban Tuero raced for just one year in Formula 1, perhaps rising too rapidly into the sport at a time when it was more unusual for teenagers to earn an F1 promotion.

Tuero had been part of an intensive development programme at Minardi, spending 1996 and ’97 carrying out plenty of testing to help the perennial backmarkers in their quest to move up the grid.

Tuero was given the nod to join Minardi in 1998, with little prospect of success as Minardi was equipped with an underpowered engine and not a whole lot of money.

It wasn’t all bad though – Tuero qualified for every race in 1998 but points never looked on the table.

At the final race of the year, Tuero was involved in a hefty collision with Tyrell’s Tora Takagi and injured his back – meaning he spent the winter recuperating. In early 1999, he announced his resignation from the team for personal reasons and returned home to Argentina.

Tuero has never fully confirmed the reasons for his decision to leave, but several theories have abounded – Tuero, being so young, was homesick and wished to return home to his family having spent most of 1998 living in isolation in Italy. Another theory is that he was tired of being constantly ridiculed by Argentinian journalists who were eager for him to replicate the successes of the multiple World Champion Juan Manuel Fangio.

Whatever the exact reason was, Tuero cut and run from F1 after just 16 races. He returned to Argentina to race in touring car championships, and has had a successful racing career at national level, but he never returned to high-profile single-seater racing.

8. Fernando Alonso – 19 years and 218 days

We could spend the next 10 thousand words writing about Fernando Alonso’s incredibly long F1 career, which started almost exactly 25 years ago at the time this article is published.

Testing the Minardi M199 at Jerez in late 1999, Alonso became the Italian squad’s reserve and test driver in 2000 and made his debut the following year. Managed by Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore, Alonso wasn’t likely to spent too long at the back of the grid if he impressed in his debut year and, with the Spaniard easily beating the more experienced Tarso Marques, moved to Benetton for 2002.

Within a few short years, Alonso was a double F1 World Champion after Benetton morphed into Renault – this catapaulted Alonso onto stints (with varying levels of success) at McLaren and Ferrari, as well as a return to Renault, before a very unlikely reunion with McLaren in 2015.

This stint at McLaren proved inglorious, with Alonso leaving F1 to do some soul-searching after 2018 – he won the Le Mans 24 Hours, entered the Indy 500, and took part in the Dakar Rally while finding himself over the next two years.

Returning to F1 with Alpine (the rebranded Renault team with whom he’d had his greatest success), he spent two years with Enstone before joining Aston Martin – the team he currently calls home.

Now very much the elder statesman of F1, Alonso hasn’t yet shown any signs of slowing down and, with Lawrence Stroll’s team investing heavily in its factory and in signing Adrian Newey to its technical staff, would anyone be brave enough to rule Alonso out of a dream third title two decades on from his first?

7. Ricardo Rodriguez – 19 years and 208 days

Ricardo Rodriguez was a Mexican racing driver whose F1 career was tragically brief.

Born in 1942 in Mexico City, Rodriguez made a name for himself in motorbike racing before switching to cars and became part of the Ferrari sports car team.

His deftness behind the wheel impressed Enzo Ferrari to the point he gave him a chance at the Scuderia in F1, and Rodriguez duly made his debut at the 1961 Italian Grand Prix – a race marred by tragedy for the crash that killed Wolfgang Von Trips and 15 spectators at the Parabolica. Rodriguez had qualified in second place for the race, just a tenth of a second behind Von Trips, but retired from the race due to a mechanical issue.

With Rodriguez concentrating on sportscars for most of 1961, he moved to Ferrari for a full-time effort in 1962, driving the Ferrari 156 whenever called upon to join the line-up.

Finishing second at the non-championship Pau Grand Prix, he finished fourth and sixth at the Belgian and German Grands Prix, as well as winning the 1962 Targa Florio.

But tragedy struck at Rodriguez’s home race in Mexico. Ferrari opted against not entering the non-championship Mexican Grand Prix at the Magdalena Mixiuhca Circuit and Rodriguez signed to drive a Lotus 24 for Rob Walker.

The right-rear suspension of the car failed at Peraltada and Rodriguez’s collision with the barriers killed him instantly.

Today, Rodriguez and his older brother Pedro – who was killed in a crash racing at the Norisring in 1971 – are remembered at the track Ricardo lost his life, which was renamed the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez (Rodriguez Brothers) in their honour.

6. Mike Thackwell – 19 years and 182 days

Like Esteban Tuero, Mike Thackwell was another driver who appeared to fall out of love with F1 after a brief career at the top level.

Born in New Zealand, he proved an amazing karter and, by his late teens, had already moved to Europe to race in Formula 3 and Formula 2.

His F1 debut came in 1980, driving for Arrows, taking part in practice for the Dutch Grand Prix. But his first race wasn’t to be until mid-season, when Tyrrell gave him a shot to race in the Canadian Grand Prix.

His first race came at the age of 19 years and 182 days, making him the then-youngest driver ever to start a Grand Prix – a record which wouldn’t be beaten for almost two decades (more on that driver soon!) – had Arrows raced him at Zandvoort, this would have been 19 years and 152 days (although this wouldn’t have changed his position on this list).

Caught up in a first-lap accident and with the spare car being given to Jean-Pierre Jarier, Thackwell’s debut was over as quickly as it had happened, and, after failing to qualify for the United States GP, he had to wait quite a while for his next chance.

An attempt at qualifying for the 1981 British Grand Prix was unsuccessful, and Thackwell was struggling to get a proper chance – not helped by uncertainty over his health after he suffered a massive impact in a testing crash at Thruxton.

With F1 bosses reluctant to take a chance on him, he turned back to Formula 2 in Europe and Japan. In 1984, he bettered his 1983 runner-up position in European Formula 2 to become the series’ champion, and F1 once again was a possibility.

In Canada, he replaced Jonathan Palmer at the RAM team and qualified in 25th place, ahead of teammate Philippe Alliott. But his race was over on Lap 30 as he suffered a broken turbo, and Palmber was back in from the next round.

Tyrrell took him on for the German Grand Prix, but Thackwell failed to qualify by just 0.055 seconds.

Becoming disillusioned as he couldn’t make his breakthrough, Thackwell pursued some nondescript racing in categories like Formula 3000 and some sportscar championships but, by the late 1980s, Thackwell had had enough.

Stepping away from professional racing, Thackwell has nonetheless led a very interesting post-racing life. He became a helicopter pilot, a gold miner in Australia, and also worked as a teacher in England where he now lives.

More on F1’s records and statistics

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5. Jaime Alguersuari – 19 years and 125 days

Thackwell’s record stood until the middle of 2009, when Red Bull called upon young Spaniard Jaime Alguersuari to replace the underwhelming Sebastien Bourdais in their Toro Rosso line-up.

Alguersuari had fared well in the junior categories, winning the British Formula 3 championship in 2008, and was competing in Formula Renault 3.5, in eighth place overall, when he got the Red Bull call.

Interestingly, Alguersuari finished off his season in Formula Renault 3.5 after getting his F1 chance, even returning to win his first race – from pole position, no less – the week after his Formula 1 debut.

But F1 didn’t immediately reward the young Spaniard, with his steep learning curve resulting in a best finish of 14th in Brazil. But the 19-year-old had done enough to be retained for 2010 and he showed marked progress in his first full-time season.

Scoring ninth place in Malaysia was followed by 10th at his home race in Spain and he was kept on again for 2011.

He went better again in 2011, scoring multiple points finishes across consecutive races in Canada, Valencia, and Silverstone, and finished seventh at the Italian and Korean Grands Prix.

But, despite all this and him outscoring teammate Sebastien Buemi, Red Bull opted to promote Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne for 2012 and Alguersuari dropped out of F1 – one of the harsher decisions made by Red Bull during its F1 history.

“It was a very quick phone call lasting just one minute. It was a very tough thing, and I didn’t understand why. I still don’t understand why even today,” Alguersuari told the Daily Star in 2023.

He briefly switched to Formula E but would later miss races due to a health scare, when he fainted after a Formula E race in Moscow.

Shortly after, he announced his retirement in order to concentrate on his second career as a DJ and music producer – he is now known as the electronic act Squire.

4. Lando Norris – 19 years and 124 days

Norris’ first participation in an official F1 session was at the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix, taking part in FP1 at 18 years and 284 days old.

But his official debut wasn’t to come until Australia the following year, when McLaren signed him as a race driver for the 2019 season. Rolling out in Australia, Norris was 19 years and 124 days old – enough to feature highly on this list, but behind other recent F1 debutants who had been even younger.

Norris has since made a name for himself as one of F1’s most promising talents, although victory eluded him until the 2024 Miami Grand Prix.

Signed on a long-term deal with McLaren after rising through the ranks with backing from the Woking-based team, Norris is attempting to land the team’s first Drivers’ Championship since 2008 at the time this article is published.

3. Oliver Bearman – 18 years and 305 days

British driver Oliver Bearman joined the Ferrari Driver Academy in 2021, and finished third in the Formula 3 championship in 2022.

Moving up to Formula 2 in 2023, winning four races during the season, Bearman made his first official F1 appearance as a test driver for Ferrari customer team Haas in 2023, driving in FP1 in Mexico and Abu Dhabi – he was 18 years and 172 days old for FP1 in Mexico.

His official debut came just 133 days later, and was entirely unexpected. Having been appointed as a reserve driver for Haas and Ferrari for 2024, Carlos Sainz came down with appendicitis during the weekend of the 2024 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Bearman was called up to replace the ill Sainz and duly impressed by finishing seventh at the first time of asking. He got another chance later in the season as he stepped in for Kevin Magnussen at Haas, serving a race ban, with Bearman finishing an impressive 10th.

Bearman will be on the grid fulltime in F1 2025, having been signed by Haas alongside Esteban Ocon. While he features on this list in third place, he is top of the list for youngest Ferrari driver ever thanks to his Saudi Arabia outing.

2. Lance Stroll – 18 years and 148 days

Son of billionaire Aston Martin F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll, the young Canadian was signed to be part of the Ferrari Driver Academy and, enjoying great success in junior categories – including winning the 2016 European Formula 3 Championship – earned himself a seat with Williams for 2017.

Lining up for the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, he was the sport’s second-youngest driver ever at the age of 18 years and 148 days.

Scoring his first career podium in Baku that season, he became the second-youngest driver ever to stand on an F1 podium, and the youngest driver in F1 history to finish on the podium in his rookie season.

Outscoring the more experienced Felipe Massa, it had been a dream start to F1 for Stroll. But 2018 proved more difficult, and he moved to Racing Point in 2019 after his father led a consortium to buy out the ailing Force India team to rename it Racing Point.

Over the seasons since, Stroll has remained with the Silverstone-based squad as it evolved into Aston Martin as his father moulded his F1 team. Stroll has become known for being inconsistent in his performances, with days of anonymity broken up by great performances such as his first pole position in treacherous conditions at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix.

He finished third at Monza and at Sakhir in the same season, but hasn’t returned to the podium since the team’s rebranding to Aston Martin.

Now racing alongside Fernando Alonso, the Canadian has struggled to match the highs achieved by the Spaniard but the future looks bright following the significant investments made by Lawrence into giving the team the best of everything – including signing Adrian Newey.

1. Max Verstappen – 17 years and 166 days

Verstappen made his first F1 appearance at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, taking part in FP1 at Suzuka for Toro Rosso at the age of 17 years and three days.

163 days later, he took part in his first Grand Prix for the same team and… the rest is history.

He holds multiple records due to his incredible success, such as being the youngest driver in F1 to score points, the youngest driver to win a race, youngest driver to finish on the podium, youngest driver to score a fastest lap… you get the picture.

Verstappen is now a three-time F1 World Champion, and is closing in on his fourth at the time of this article. Now in consideration as one of the sport’s all time greatests – if not the greatest – Verstappen’s records now extend far beyond the age-based.

Verstappen’s youth was such that, despite him taking to F1 like a duck to water, the FIA introduced new superlicence rules aimed at keeping drivers out until they turn 18 at the youngest.

This means that it is nigh-on impossible for a driver coming into F1 to beat any of Verstappen’s records – short of a driver turning 18 and immediately winning on debut (here’s looking at you Kimi Antonelli!), Verstappen’s records should stand for a long time.

His place on this list is also not in any danger of being beaten any time soon, with drivers simply not allowed to enter Formula 1 at such a young age so, without a rowback on the superlicence rules, this particular No.1 won’t be going anywhere.