The rising stars to watch in 2015

Formula 1's rookie class of 2015 garnered much attention before the start of the season, and Felipe Nasr, Carlos Sainz Jr and Max Verstappen are proving star pupils just two rounds in to the new campaign.

Such is the nature of top-level motorsport, though, there are already plenty of potential graduates waiting in the wings, and several of those are on the books of the leading F1 teams.

Roberto Merhi has been omitted from this list because he has already made the step into F1 as one of Manor's drivers, dovetailing it with his Formula Renault 3.5 title bid.

The Spaniard may well be a feeder series champion come the end of the season, but which of the current crop of would-be superstars are most likely to emulate his F1 move?

AUTOSPORT's correspondents picked out the 10 top talents set to star on the F1 ladder in 2015.

10. Nyck de Vries

FR3.5 title contender and McLaren junior
2014: Formula Renault Eurocup champion

Nyck de Vries arrives in Formula Renault 3.5 carrying high expectations. He rewarded the faith of backer McLaren by lifting last year's Formula Renault Eurocup and the ALPS championship, bringing to an end a three-year stint in the two-litre category.

A deal at team-of-the-moment DAMS is his reward, meaning he will be trying to give the Le Mans-based squad a hat trick of drivers' titles to follow in the footsteps of Kevin Magnussen and Carlos Sainz Jr. And both, of course, graduated to Formula 1 race drives as a result.

Indications from testing are that de Vries is still acclimatising to the FR3.5 Dallara, and the jump from FR2.0 should not be underestimated. It's worth noting that the FR2.0 category is the only one de Vries has raced in. DAMS must also build its understanding of the new-for-2015 low-downforce set-up configuration that will be mandatory in Saturday races this year.

9. Antonio Giovinazzi

European F3 title contender
2014: 6th in European F3

Don't be fooled into thinking that a Formula 3 European Championship success for Antonio Giovinazzi would be a dull win for a veteran against a field swarming with rookie talent.

Yes, it's the Southern Italian's third year in F3, but you have to remember that when he started his rookie season in the category his car-racing career numbered just eight race weekends.

Giovinazzi, whose racing continues to be funded by the Indonesian Jagonya Ayam initiative, lines up for his second year with Carlin needing to turn those flashes of blinding speed into a consistent campaign.

He's gone from a balls-out charger whose overdriving needed reining in to someone who, while still quite aggressive, is channelling everything into forward motion and quicker laptime, and has been flying in testing.

Nice guy 'Anto' also has a new super-motivated engineer in Matt Ogle, who desperately wants Giovinazzi to beat his 2014 driver, Prema-bound Jake Dennis, this season...

8. Felix Rosenqvist

European F3 title favourite
2014: 8th in European F3

A Formula 3 European Championship win probably won't make much difference to the amiable Swede's career, but could potentially stall the momentum of several others - unless they give him a damn good run for the title.

The Macau Grand Prix winner returns for his fifth season at this level, but his first away from Mucke Motorsport after joining the all-conquering Prema Powerteam.

That's a formidable partnership with the full support of engine provider Mercedes, which looks most likely to carry Rosenqvist's career forward beyond 2015 with a roof over his head.

Why not Formula 1? Mostly for finance reasons, his career has lacked limelight-grabbing momentum, and if you can't come up with an F3 budget you're not going to buy yourself into Bernie's circus.

No one doubts Rosenqvist's speed in an F3 car, and few are looking anywhere beyond him and Prema as the hot favourites for 2015.

7. Esteban Ocon

GP3 title favourite and Lotus junior
2014: European F3 champion

The volume of excitement over Max Verstappen's rise this winter was in stark contrast to the long-running silence over where the man who actually won the championship in which the Toro Rosso Formula 1 signing made his name was going to end up.

Drive after drive came and went without Esteban Ocon sealing it, before he eventually wound up in GP3.

It's hard not to see F3-to-GP3 as a sideways step (especially for the champion) at best, but he is at least with the ART Grand Prix squad that has won four of the five GP3 teams' titles so far.

And it was too easy to forget how well Ocon - himself an F3 rookie - started last season before the Verstappen juggernaut built momentum. He can't really afford to lose this championship, but he begins the year as title favourite. It's still a pretty safe bet he'll be catching Verstappen up in F1 before long.

6. Dean Stoneman

FR3.5 title contender and Red Bull junior
2014: GP3 runner-up

Dean Stoneman has bounced back from worse things than a heavy racing shunt. Few onlookers should therefore have been surprised when the Croydon-born driver went fastest in the final afternoon of Formula Renault 3.5 testing at Motorland last month, just three weeks after a mammoth accident at Jerez.

Stoneman, whose efforts in GP3 last year earned him a spot on the prestigious (and high-pressure) Red Bull junior programme for 2015, admitted that the level of work required after that Jerez crash essentially meant his pre-season really started in the second test.

The GP3 runner-up has all of the tools at his disposal for an attack on this year's FR3.5 crown, although Stoneman does form part of an all-rookie line-up at reigning champion team DAMS, where he joins Formula Renault Eurocup champion and McLaren junior Nyck de Vries.

However, as Robin Frijns (2012 champion), Stoffel Vandoorne (2013 runner-up) and Pierre Gasly (2014 runner-up) have proved, FR3.5 offers rookies a great platform to make waves from the beginning.

5. Alex Lynn

GP2 title contender and Williams development driver
2014: GP3 champion

Alex Lynn has packed a career's worth of twists into just over a year: Macau Grand Prix winner, taken under Red Bull's wing, GP3 champion, passed over for a Formula 1 chance, voluntarily extracts himself from beneath Red Bull's wing, joins champion GP2 team, secures Williams F1 development role.

In short, two career revivals within 12 months, punctuated by what many would have judged to be career suicide, but which turned out to be a masterstroke.

Lynn comes in to what he acknowledges will be a "golden" GP2 year without as much relevant experience (in GP2 itself or the more comparable FR3.5) as the other title contenders, but he's made a habit of surprising and doesn't think his rookie status means he should lower his expecations.

Canny and articulate off-track as well as rapid on it, he earned the respect of Lotus in his maiden F1 test and Williams hasn't put its faith in him lightly.

4. Raffaele Marciello

GP2 title contender and Ferrari junior
2014: 8th in GP2

The 2013 European Formula 3 champion had a disappointing rookie season in GP2 last year, in which he was too inconsistent to feature at the top of the standings.

But when things did go right, they went very right, with a triumph in the feature race at Spa the highlight, backed up by further podium finishes at Sochi and the Red Bull Ring. If he can join those dots of performance, then he could be a title threat.

But the switch from the Racing Engineering squad to Trident does mean that the Ferrari protege, and Sauber reserve, is with a team that has never had a serious run at the GP2 title.

That said, Johnny Cecotto Jr managed to take fifth in last year's championship and a couple of wins, and Marciello is adamant that Trident is capable of preparing a car to take on the category behemoths. If that is the case, he needs to be right up there.

3. Oliver Rowland

FR3.5 title favourite
2014: Fourth in Formula Renault 3.5

Red Bull junior Pierre Gasly took the rookie honours in Formula Renault 3.5 last year, but he ended the season without a victory while his former FR Eurocup title rival Oliver Rowland took two wins.

The Racing Steps Foundation-backed racer could have been a much bigger factor in the title race as well were it not for repeated reliability problems striking that even had eventual champion Carlos Sainz Jr gasping in sympathy towards the end of the campaign.

GP2 teams were interested in getting Rowland to make the switch to the F1 support series for 2015, but from the moment last season drew to a close he had his eye on putting right the misfortune of his rookie campaign in FR3.5.

He proved his side of the bargain last year, and by staying with Fortec Motorsports for a second season the onus shifts to the British team (and Renault's technical side) to produce a reliable enough package to allow him to deliver on his status as the pre-season title favourite.

2. Pierre Gasly

GP2 title contender and Red Bull junior
2014: Formula Renault 3.5 runner-up

Some point to the fact that Red Bull-backed Gasly failed to win a race on his graduation to Formula Renault 3.5 last year as an indication that he's not all he is cracked up to be. A more rational perspective is offered by focusing on his second place in the championship and haul of podium finishes.

Gasly has moved to DAMS for his first full season in GP2, and while his three outings with the ailing Caterham squad last year yielded little in the way of results (his best was 11th) the experience will be crucial.

The 19-year-old Frenchman also topped the recent test in Bahrain, albeit only by a whisker ahead of Vandoorne, showing that he unquestionably has the speed.

Whether he can adapt to the challenges of GP2 quickly enough to trouble Vandoorne is another matter. But whatever happens, expect him to become increasingly strong as the season progresses.

1. Stoffel Vandoorne

GP2 title favourite and McLaren junior
2014: GP2 runner-up

The McLaren junior is the clear GP2 title favourite, and with very good reason.

He finished as runner-up to Jolyon Palmer in his rookie season last year, with a run of four consecutive pole positions and quartet of victories hauling him ahead of Felipe Nasr. But for spending the first half of the year getting on top of the idiosyncrasies of the category, he might even have challenged for the crown.

Vandoorne stays with ART, a team that seems to have got on top of the qualifying weakness that held it back at times last year, so has continuity on his side. On top of that, he's a seriously fast and smooth driver who, at 23, has the maturity to avoid making mistakes.

The only real question mark is whether he can handle the pressure of having to win the title or be seen as a failure. History suggests he can.

THE WILDCARDS

IN GP2...

Mitch Evans. If the Kiwi's Russian Time team can provide a competitive car, Evans should be in GP2 title contention. It seems an age since Mark Webber's protege claimed the GP3 crown in 2012, but this will only be Evans' third season in GP2 and a race-winning campaign en route to fourth overall last year shows he has valuable experience at the front.

IN FR3.5...

Tio Ellinas. Alongside Matthieu Vaxiviere, Tio Ellinas has been one of the stars of pre-season FR3.5 testing. Cypriot Ellinas has been a frontrunner in everything from MRF to GP3, but hastily put together GP2 outings for MP Motorsport and Rapax last season were not conducive to producing results. At Strakka, Ellinas's season preparations have been stable, and his deal extends to a long term management arrangement.

IN EUROPEAN F3...

Jake Dennis. The Racing Steps Foundation protege switches from Carlin to Prema Powerteam for his second European F3 season. Dennis had eye-catching race form at times in 2014, but the fact that he never broke into the top four on the grid tells its own story. With Felix Rosenqvist as a team-mate to trade information with, Dennis will have a great chance to succeed.

IN GP3...

Marvin Kirchhofer. From the former East Germany, Kirchhofer had a strong rookie GP3 season in 2014 and will not be short of race mileage this year. He stays on for a second year with ART Grand Prix, and adds a European F3 campaign with EuroInternational, although GP3 takes priority. Kirchhofer must at the very least run new GP3 team-mate Esteban Ocon close - and that won't be easy.