When we were young...

Charles Leclerc, Alaxander Albon and George Russell in their karting days, on their way to Formula 1 stardom.

There's a strong sense of a changing of the guard taking place in Formula 1 at the moment, as a flood of new young talent prepares to take its place on the grid for the 2019 season.

22-year-old Alexander Albon has just been confirmed as the new driver at Toro Rosso, while Charles Leclerc will move up from Sauber to a prestigious spot at Ferrari at the tender age of just 21.

Younger still at 20 is Britain's George Russell. Fresh from winning the GP3 title in 2017 and now the Formula 2 title in 2018, he'll be joining Williams alongside the slightly older Robert Kubica in time to line up in Melbourne next March.

And if mention of their ages is making you feel very old, then take a look at this wonderful picture of the three of them from their earliest days competing against each other in karts, when they really were babes-in-arms!

Of course, another driver will be making his maiden start in Formula 1 next year, with Lando Norris stepping into the race seat at McLaren after veteran racer Fernando Alonso called time on his lengthy first stint in the sport.

We didn't want Lando to feel left out, so here's a bonus picture of the 19-year-old showing a prospective future team mate around the team's Woking headquarters a couple of weeks ago.

(Okay, it's actually part of a charity event in support of this year's BBC Children in Need fundraising drive. Worryingly, Pudsey the Bear was 'born' in 1985, meaning that at 33 years old he's probably already too old to make the jump to F1, even if he did slim down a bit!)

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.