One calls milk his favourite drink. Another has a champion's blood running through his veins. A third has put Poland on the Formula One map. And the fourth is trying to put the United States back on the Formula One map.

Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Scott Speed are the young drivers to watch in Formula One as the season draws to a conclusion.

``What is important in Formula One now is that the young drivers arrive,'' said Flavio Briatore, the boss of the Renault F1 team. ``I hope that in this group of young drivers coming into Formula One that we can find a star for the future.''

``There are several young guys in the pipeline,'' said Mario Theissen, head of the BMW-Sauber team. ``I think it is a very healthy development to take new guys into Formula One.''

Both Briatore and Theissen should know.

In 1991, Briatore jumped at the chance to take a 22-year-old German driver to Benetton after he made an impression at the 1991 Belgian GP for the Jordan team. Then in 2002, he took a 20-year-old Spaniard to test at Renault and moved him up to race driver the next year.

Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso have won the last six Formula One driving titles, with Schumacher taking five at Ferrari after two at Benetton. Alonso won last year for Renault.

Now Theissen is hoping to match that feat with 19-year-old Vettel and 22-year-old Kubica.

``They said on German television I am the next German driver to be able to do something,'' said Vettel, who turned 19 in July, looks about 14 and said his favourite drink is ``full-fat milk.''

``For me I don't really care about it because I am enjoying it,'' Vettel said. ``I have quite a tough program this year and do not worry about next year.''

Vettel has been enjoying beating his elders.

At the Turkish Grand Prix in August, at 19 years and 53 days he became the youngest to participate in a Grand Prix weekend by being the test driver for BMW in Friday practice. He posted the top time, eclipsing several veteran drivers.

Vettel won 18 times in 20 races in the German BMW championship in 2004. What happened the other two times?

``I came in second and third,'' Vettel said almost apologetically.

He was hired after BMW-Sauber dropped Canadian Jacques Villeneuve and Kubica became a race driver.

Kubica moved up to the starting role after Friday testing earlier in the season. At the Hungarian Grand Prix, he became the first Polish driver to start a race in Formula One history. He finished seventh, only to be disqualified because of an underweight car.

But he redeemed himself at the Italian GP two races later, coming in third.

``Now we have got Robert Kubica and I think with these young guys maybe they will mix up the grid. That is good for Formula One,'' Theissen said.

Theissen was the technical director at Williams when he gave Rosberg a Formula One test in December 2002. Rosberg was 17, the youngest to drive a Formula One car. Rosberg was on the starting line in the 2006 season opener at 20 for the Williams team and had the fastest lap, the youngest to do that, and he came in seventh.

He hasn't come close to either of those feats since, but isn't disappointed.

``It's been a relatively good season because my goal was to establish myself in Formula One and get a contract for next year, which also means that the team believes in me,'' Rosberg said. ``So I've achieved that and now it's really all about progressing together with the team.''

When he was growing up and needed advice, he only had to look across the dinner table. His father is Keke Rosberg, the 1982 world champion.

Finally there is the 23-year-old Speed, who started his rookie reason at Bahrain like Rosberg. He is the first American to race in F1 since Michael Andretti's short 1993 F1 season, which ended with him being unceremoniously dropped by McLaren.

Driving for Scuderia Toro Rosso, the second team under the Red Bull ownership, Speed has failed to score a point. He came close once. At the Australian GP in March he was eighth, then was dropped to ninth after stewards determined he had passed veteran David Coulthard under a yellow flag.

To add insult to injury, the stewards fined Speed US$5,000 for using abusive language to another competitor during the hearing.