The real threat young drivers pose

Not many people agree with Felipe Massa that he was an entirely innocent party in that first-corner crash at the German Grand Prix. However, I do agree - although for entirely different reasons - with his sentiments that F1's top drivers had better be keeping an eye out for the young rising stars right now.

Massa may be talking about youthful exuberance causing a few too many first-lap crashes - although have there really been that many this season? But Hockenheim marked another step in a generation change that is going on right now.

The real question Massa should be asking himself is not why Magnussen has shown so little desire to back off with his aggression early in the races but just why the Dane is right up there battling near the front in the first place.

For just as Daniil Kvyat is doing a great job in his rookie season, that Magnussen has come in, knuckled down after some early-season frustrations in the wake of that brilliant debut in Australia and is now putting big pressure on Jenson Button, says everything about the excitement the young talent is bringing to F1.

Yet perhaps the greatest endorsement of the quality of F1's new generation had nothing to do with the rookie at Hockenheim. Instead, it came from Fernando Alonso, as he got involved in some pretty intense battling with Red Bull duo Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.

We had been thrilled a fortnight ago at Silverstone when Alonso and Vettel showed F1 off at its very best as they fought wheel-to-wheel for position. History seemed to repeat itself in Germany, when again Vettel and Alonso locked horns with some similarly spectacular stuff.

Ricciardo is 'unbelievable', according to Alonso © LAT

This time, though, Alonso faced a double Red Bull whammy as it was Ricciardo who dug deep with some brilliant defending, aggressive re-overtaking and a spirited fight in a battle that would leave the pair separated by just 0.08 seconds at the chequered flag.

And while it has been no surprise to hear praise being heaped on Ricciardo from his Red Bull bosses this year during a remarkable campaign, perhaps the biggest affirmation of the Australian's ability came from the way Alonso seemed to revel in their battle. To fight so close to each other - often with centimetres to spare between the Red Bull and Ferrari as they swooped through the two stadium sections - showed the tremendous amount of respect that exist between the pair.

Were Alonso to feel that Ricciardo was a youngster not to be trusted, one who getting too close to risked contact, then you can be sure he would have given him a wide berth on each occasion they came close. But it wasn't like that at all.

The intensity and closeness of their driving showed that Alonso had accepted Ricciardo in to the big boys' club: he is now a rival that he knows he can race to the very edge with, maintaining total belief that things will be played fairly and, more importantly, safely.

Ricciardo has certainly been one the surprises of the season, and his hard edge on track has not dulled his charm and cheeky sense of humour off it.

For a sport that gets complaints thrown at it regularly about drivers no longer having personalities, Ricciardo is certainly proving to be a total exception. He often opens his press briefings singing songs. He cracks jokes about how good looking, or not, he is. He was even hilariously captured on television trying to make his race engineer Simon Rennie laugh in the garage at Hockenheim with some ridiculous dancing. Rennie didn't crack.

F1 needs its young generation, and all the signs point to some great excitement about what is to come, and indeed what is happening now with Magnussen, Kvyat, Valtteri Bottas and Ricciardo piling more and more pressure on the old guard.

Times are changing. And Massa is right - the old boys are going to have to watch out more and more for the youngsters. But it's not for their crashes they need to be worried, it's their speed.