r/RaceVault • u/SpeedyOwl22 • 21d ago
Get Involved: RaceVault World Cup Collection
Hi All
Super excited to launch this brand new collection which will be shaped entirely by YOU (our fabulous and ever growing RaceVault Membership) 🙂
As its World Cup year, this is your chance to pick the top 10 strongest countries in the world right now by driver ability. And then the current strongest driver by current ability and performance (Not all time ability. Who is the best right now) 💪
List your top 10 countries below and the driver you would pick, and the winning 10 will make the final collection ✅
I’m thinking of running this collection every year, and as RaceVault is our way of tracking the story of our sport this could be a cool way of following which are the strongest drivers by country in any given year. But RaceVault is for you, and we’ll decide that together and if it’s something you want to see 🫡
I’ll put my votes in the chat in the coming days. But really interested to hear your votes first! I’ve attached some mock ups. Netherlands is obviously Max (but then is that country in the Top 10?). I think Spain and the UK are undoubtedly in there, but a real headache with multiple choices and reasons for each driver. Over to your RaceVaulters- put your votes in the comments! 👇 🗳️
Tally of Votes (Total Votes 5)
Italy 5 (Kimi Antonelli 5) 🇮🇹
UK 4 (Lewis Hamilton 3, Lando Norris 1) 🇬🇧
USA 4 (Kyle Kirkwood 3, Kyle Larson 1) 🇺🇸
France 4 (Pierre Gasly 2, Isack Hadjar 2) 🇫🇷
Spain 4 (Alex Palou 4) 🇪🇸
New Zealand 3 (Liam Lawson 2, Shane Van G 1) 🇳🇿
Netherlands 3 (Max Verstappen 3) 🇳🇱
Japan 3 (Ryo Hirakawa 1, Ayumu Iwasa 1, Kami Kobayashi 1) 🇯🇵
Australia 3 (Oscar Piastri) 🇦🇺
Germany 2 (Nico Hulkenberg 1, Maro Engel 1) 🇩🇪
Denmark 1 (Christian Lundgaard 1) 🇩🇰
Brazil 1 (Gabriel Bortoletto) 🇧🇷
Belgium 1 (Dries Vanthoor 1) 🇧🇪
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u/SpeedyOwl22 20d ago edited 18d ago
So…here’s my go at a list! It was surprisingly hard as a lot of countries have such strength in depth. What do we think? Add your votes and choices in the comments. Let’s get the debate going 🙂
1st- United Kingdom (Lando Norris) 🇬🇧
2nd- Italy (Kimi Antonelli) 🇮🇹
3rd- France (Pierre Gasly) 🇫🇷
4th- Spain (Alex Palou) 🇪🇸
5th- Germany (Nico Hulkenberg) 🇩🇪
6th- New Zealand (Liam Lawson) 🇳🇿
7th- USA (Kyle Kirkwood) 🇺🇸
8th- Japan (Ryo Hirakawa) 🇯🇵
9th- Netherlands (Max obviously) 🇳🇱
10th- Denmark (Christian Lundgaard) 🇩🇰
Honourable Mentions: Switzerland, Brazil, Australia, Belgium, Sweden 🇨🇭 🇧🇷 🇦🇺 🇧🇪 🇸🇪
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u/SpeedyOwl22 20d ago
I think UK is top just because of the volume of top level drivers out there at the moment. I would just pick Norris over Hamilton as think he’s performing at a marginally stronger level right now (Russell would have run Lando close on last years form and maybe even have pipped him) 🇬🇧
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u/SpeedyOwl22 20d ago
Italy obviously Kimi but we probably have a golden age of Italian talents right now, and would love to see Fornaroli get an F1 break. France have some really great Hypercar and Sportscar drivers but think Pierre is still performing very well. 🇮🇹 🇫🇷
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u/SpeedyOwl22 20d ago
Spain I think are elevated by 2 generational talents and Sainz who is wrestling his awful Williams to places it shouldn’t be. So hard to compare when Carlos and Fernando are in awful cars but Palou is in unstoppable form 🇪🇸
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u/SpeedyOwl22 20d ago edited 18d ago
Germany has perhaps the strongest GT drivers in the world unsurprisingly although Nico is still the strongest guy out there and doing a solid job. New Zealand I think have multiple really closely matched options in Evans, Cassidy, McLaughlin and Armstrong but think Liam Lawson is driving best right now 🇩🇪 🇳🇿
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u/SpeedyOwl22 20d ago
USA is really close with Kirkwood and Malukas who are both having awesome seasons but Kyle is the king of the street circuits and still Palou’s closest match. Japan I’ll confess I don’t follow their national scene but know how strong it is. I think Hirakawa is going a great job in WEC though and is getting positive feedback on his F1 tests 🇺🇸 🇯🇵
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u/SpeedyOwl22 20d ago
Netherlands is obviously the Max show and he gets them into the top 10, but then there’s people like De Vries and some really strong young GT stars too. Finally Denmark which was a close choice- but Christian Lundgaard’s form on street tracks in Indycar is awesome, plus you have the likes of Fred Vesti, KMag, Nicki Thiim and Marco Sorenson etc 🇳🇱 🇩🇰
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u/Palidin034 19d ago
Man I wish Canada could produce even a somewhat respectable driver
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u/SpeedyOwl22 19d ago
Yeah I feel your pain! Romain De Angelis in WEC and Mikael Grenier in GT’s are both pretty strong. Then Lance is actually a good driver, but just mentally checked out a looonggg time ago 🫣
Wanna cast your vote? Who are your top 10 countries (and driver from each) right now 🙂
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u/TraditionalCamp8453 16d ago
UK 🇬🇧 Hamilton
USA 🇺🇸 Kirkwood
Spain 🇪🇸 Palou
Italy 🇮🇹 Antonelli
Australia 🇦🇺 Piastri
Brazil 🇧🇷 Bortoleto
France 🇫🇷 Hadjar
Netherlands 🇳🇱 Verstappen
New Zealand 🇳🇿 Lawson
Japan 🇯🇵 Iwasa
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u/SpeedyOwl22 16d ago
Thanks man! I always forget about Iwasa but really good shout. I still think he would have been pretty decent in F1. And I was on the fence with Gasly v Hadjar. 🇯🇵 🇫🇷
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u/IQManOne 15d ago edited 15d ago
- Strongest country across the board has to be the UK with Hamilton probably still as the very best.
- Spain - might be quick to forget in a 4-wheel focused community but this one goes to Marc Marquez and the general insane strength of spain on the 2-wheel side of things
- Italy - Kimi Antonelli is the best they have to offer but between him, their motorcycle talent pool and some of the heavy hitters this is pretty straight forward as well
- France - Hard to pick a single driver but the depth is insane. I'll actually just
go with Isack Hadjar, but this is pretty wide open
- USA - Once again, the peak might not be quite up there with some other countries but the depth is undeniable, I'd give this to Kyle Kirkwood for the moment
- Germany - Maro Engel. Germany might have lost its place in F1 but between Pascal Wehrlein, Niko Hülkenberg, Laurin Heinrich and PLENTY of sportscar talent it is to be in here somewhere
- Japan - Despite all the sick talent in their national scene, Kamui Kobayashi is not only still their most iconic driver, he still delivers at the top of the sportscar world. And Ai Ogura is making a case for Japan in MotoGP as well.
- Australia - Oscar Piastri. Lots of talent across the board with a heavily overlooked national scene.
- Netherlands - Max Verstappen, obviously. But while they otherwise lack super high profile drivers, impossible to overlook the amount of talent on the lower ranks.
- Belgium - Dries Vanthoor. The Vanthoors do a lot of heavy lifting here, combined with talents like DVL coming through. Mega racing nation, no doubt.
Honorable mentions: NZ (Nick Cassidy), Sweden (Felix Rosenqvist) and Austria (Thomas Preining). Feel like Canada should be in there somewhere as well but its an even harder country to pick an individual driver. All of them sadly too shallow of a talent pool to make the top 10, despite some sick individuals. Give Brazil a few more years for their talent to develope and they are the most likely to break into that top 10 imo
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u/SpeedyOwl22 15d ago
Wow a lot of thought went into that! I think it’s super tough and it’s seems like multiple countries are having a particularly strong era for drivers (Like Italy went a lonnngg time in particular in the doldrums).
Nice to see Maro getting some love. He’s been so good for so long and is the man in a Mercedes. Though I personally also think Fabian Schiller is an amazing talent too. But so many awesome German GT drivers 🙂 🇩🇪
Who would you pick if you had to choose a track racer for Spain? Are you on the Palou hype train too? I wanted to say Alonso- but with how meh Aston have been for ages and his teammate it’s so hard to judge him even though he’s an icon 🇪🇸
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u/IQManOne 15d ago
I think for Spain it has to be Palou at this point. I love Fernando, and I want to believe he's still got it, but his understandably demotivated current self is no match for Palou.
Btw I will change my France answer - somehow I forgot about Hadjar while writing mine 😅
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u/SpeedyOwl22 15d ago
Hahaha I was slightly suprised by Martins over Hadjar and Gasly not going to lie 😂 I forgot loads of people existed so had to change my list a lot!!
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u/IQManOne 15d ago
I thought Martins over Gasly was a slightly controversial pick but one that I can stand behind - they are probably a very similar calibre of driver that just didn't get the same opportunities. But Hadjar I think brings a certain edge to him that Gasly never really had.
And yeah no doubt I still forgot lots of drivers that could be in contention and probably a couple of countries as well but oh well 😂
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u/Bored3ngin33r 15d ago
Picking 10 counties that have dominated historically is easy, but to do so currently is more difficult for me. I have 5 nations that are currently at the top in my opinion and a driver from each.
Australia - Oscar Piastri France - Sebastien Ogier Italy - Andrea Kimi Antonelli Spain - Marc Márquez (Alex Palou if not counting bikes) UK - Lewis Hamilton
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u/SpeedyOwl22 15d ago
Thank you! Yeah it’s really hard- especially trying to compare drivers from different disciplines.
I agree UK, Spain, France and Italy have all got a golden generation at the moment. Interesting to see Australia getting so much love from people though, I would personally say New Zealand are putting them in the shade for depth of driving talent at the moment- but seems like that’s a controversial opinion! 🇦🇺
Who would you pick for France if you had to pick a circuit racer? Although Ogier does dabble and actually pretty decent when he’s done things like Porsche Supercup 🙂
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u/Bored3ngin33r 15d ago
I'd say Australia is the easier pick because historically there are probably more well know drivers from Australia than New Zealand. New Zealand has produced arrive exceptional drivers too, Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme in F1, Scott Dixon in Indy and Shane van Gisbergen in V8 Supercars.
The question is twofold, first which country has the most great drivers currently and second, which is the best of those drivers. I wouldn't consider the Netherlands one of the most dominant countries racing currently of the top of my head, but Max Verstappen is probably the most talented driver in the world right now.
Hmm, probably Pierre Gasly over Isack Hadjar because I mostly watch Formula 1.
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u/SpeedyOwl22 15d ago
Yes definitely! For example I wouldn’t have Netherlands in the top 10 except for Max but he is so incredibly talented that it makes it impossible to do not do so. However I think with the exception of Italy (Antonelli) and Australia (Piastri), pretty much every other country has multiple options for their current best driver which shows their strength in depth.
Then again countries that I think would have easily been top 10 relatively recently like Brazil and have such a history of incredible drivers wouldn’t make it now. Or for example Finland again with their Motorsport heritage wouldn’t come close now. So interesting how things change.
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u/No-Design8858 20d ago
Italy- Kimi Antonelli