5) Richie Stanaway
It was certainly a season of two halves for Richie Stanaway in 2014, with the Status Grand Prix driver being a genuine championship contender for the first half of the year, before dropping out of contention over the final three events, so much so he dropped all the way down to eighth in the championship standings.
On his full-time return to single seaters after an almost career-ending crash in a Formula Renault 3.5 series race at Spa-Francorchamps in 2012, Stanaway started the year strongly, with a podium first time out at the Circuit de Catalunya and another at the Red Bull Ring, before leading team-mate Nick Yelloly to a Status GP 1-2 finish at Silverstone, his first GP3 win since Belgium back in 2011.
Another win came in Hungary when he led from start to finish from pole position despite coming under pressure from the Arden International machine of Robert Visoiu for a large proportion of the race, and took his final podium finish of the season with a runners-up spot at Spa-Francorchamps.
His season began to unravel at Monza, when his car failed on him during race two while running inside the top seven, but it was even worse in Russia, when he was disqualified from qualifying for missing a weight check and being forced to start from the pit lane. Despite climbing to eleventh, his championship momentum had gone, and his chances ended completely in race two when he was the innocent victim of a first corner crash.
Despite his struggles towards the end of the year, Stanaway re-established himself amongst the best drivers in the junior categories, with the New Zealander also racing a couple of events in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series. He should be a shoe-in for either the GP2 Series or the World Series by Renault next year providing he wants to continue on his single seater quest, with both the World Endurance Championship and the DTM Series also possibilities.
