While Lando Norris and George Russell will arguably start the 2018 Formula 2 season as the two main championship favourites, it would be naive to not consider another Formula 1 junior as a serious title challenger.

Nyck de Vries, superseded by Norris as McLaren’s biggest protegee outside of F1, has the potential to emulate Pierre Gasly’s transformation between his first and second years in the series.

Gasly went from a disappointing debut season filled with frustration to emerging as the champion in one of the closest GP2 seasons ever.

The similarities between the journey of Gasly and de Vries thus far are undeniable upon closer inspection.

Both drivers won the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship in successive years in 2013 and 2014. It’s rare to find a champion of that series who hasn’t gone onto greatness in recent times.

The pair graduated to the 3.5 series a year after taking the 2.0 crown. They failed to win the championship, Gasly was shaded by current Renault F1 driver Carlos Sainz Jr in 2014, while de Vries was beaten by the more experienced Oliver Rowland and Matthieu Vaxiviere in 2015.

Both had disappointing following seasons.

Gasly joined GP2 full-time in 2015 with DAMS, following a part-time campaign with Caterham the previous year. He took pole three times and scored four podiums. The race win eluded him for a second successive year, and the win-drought became a real cause for concern.

It coincided with the meteoric rise of Max Verstappen, and soon Red Bull’s attention drifted away from the Frenchman. For his second season in GP2, he was forced to find the majority of the budget himself and his future with the outfit was unclear.

“I am just trying to find a solution because I’m struggling a bit, we are not sure about the budget, I am still looking for sponsors,” Gasly said after ending his debut GP2 season eighth in the drivers’ championship.

“Red Bull don’t pay for everything. Next year [2016] they won’t be able to pay for everything and so I need to find sponsors and it’s quite difficult.”

De Vries found himself in a similarly difficult situation, overshadowed by a number of drivers over the past two years. In his sole year in GP3, he was incredibly quick but inconsistent, out-pointed by ART Grand Prix team-mates Charles Leclerc and Alexander Albon, ending up sixth in the drivers’ championship.

This came a year after fellow McLaren protegee Stoffel Vandoorne obliterated the GP2 field in 2015. He graduated to F1 full-time in 2017, while McLaren was quick to snap up Norris. Many were surprised that de Vries remained for 2017, with McLaren’s eggs clearly moving baskets.

Norris then won the European Formula 3 title with two races to spare, while de Vries began his maiden F2 voyage with the inconsistent Rapax team. Rapax was the shock winners of both titles its maiden season in 2010 but failed to finish inside the top five again.

Things looked immediately promising, however, with de Vries qualifying on the front row alongside his former team-mate Leclerc. This would only translate to a 10th place finish though, with de Vries suffering from what would be a common obstacle throughout 2017; tyre wear.

He dropped like a stone in both races in Bahrain, then scored just one point in Barcelona despite qualifying third for the opening race. A clumsy crash in the sprint race wouldn’t be the last error of the year.

Winning the Monaco sprint race was a well-deserved reward after a tough opening couple of weekends, and showed his race-winning potential, albeit on a track in which the benefit of the reserve grid is at its greatest. He followed it up with a second place in the Baku feature race but slumped to just points finishes in the next five races.

After a double podium in Budapest, he swapped seats with Louis Deletraz, moving to Racing Engineering for the final four rounds of 2017.

Their partnership began with a sprint race podium and he followed it up with a front row start at Monza. However, he collided with Leclerc, costing him a potential maiden feature race win. His season ended with a whimper (and a clumsy collision) in comparison to his earlier success – one fourth, one-sixth place and a fastest lap the only highlights.

His 2017 could be characterised by missed opportunities. Finishing seventh in the drivers’ championship didn’t do for a driver who had the third-best qualifying record (only 0.1 positions on average behind Rowland) and some of the best race craft.

Driver error, team shortcomings and chunks of bad luck were to blame, but there is no reason why de Vries can’t iron out these inconsistencies particularly with a team like Prema.

Gasly also lots major points in his first year in the series through similar reasons to de Vries. A pitstop error ended his hopes of a maiden victory in Monza, as well as been one of many victims of some questionable driving by Norman Nato in the season-opener.

When he allied with Prema, those inconsistencies were not completely eradicated. But few drivers had a trouble-free 2016 amid one of the craziest GP2 seasons of all time. What was improved was the understanding of the Pirelli rubber, which so often cripples drivers in their rookie seasons.

With this improved tyre knowledge, coupled with the fact that Pirelli is set to make harder tyres this year, one of de Vries’ biggest Achilles heels could have been diminished.

Moreover, Sean Gelael will provide little in the way of intra-team competition, which de Vries is no stranger to. He was only out-qualified by a team-mate on one occasion in 2017.

Prema’s eggs are firmly in de Vries’s basket, with tyre conservation less of a factor in 2018, and some strong testing promise, there is no reason why McLaren’s other superstar junior can’t surprise everyone.