The Formula 1 class of 2023 has a lot of drivers that have raced against each other throughout their careers. One such group that exists on the grid includes Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris, and Alex Albon. So when asked to pick the future world champion among his peers, Leclerc picked two of his friend and left one out.

Leclerc was put on the spot, back in 2020, in an interview with Sky Sports F1. The Monegasque took his sweet time to pick a future world champion apart from himself to answer the question. However, after plenty of deliberation and long pauses, Leclerc picked two of his friends but left one out.

When the question was posed to Leclerc, he instantly communicated the difficulty of the question. He said, “It’s a difficult one because we’ve all grown together as you said and I think we’ve pushed all of us together and I think we are still improving race after race. Choose one is very difficult”

However, after long pauses and a lot of deflections, Leclerc chose his two champions, “George and Alex, I would say probably, but I don’t know. I think it’s all very, very close.”

Read More: Charles Leclerc Takes Over the Internet With Just One Picture With a New Friend

Russell and Albon got the nod, but the Monegasque left out Norris from his list of future champions. Leclerc explained how he had not raced alongside Norris a lot during karting, which was the reasoning behind his answer.

Regardless, a difficult question for a driver, especially when he has to pick among his friends. Moreover, these four are friends beyond the grid as well.

Charles Leclerc, Alex Albon, George Russell, and Lando Norris form the dynamic quartet

The four have been friends for a long time and have the same interests off the track as well. One shared interest is gaming together which the fans thoroughly enjoyed on Twitch, the streaming platform.

However, the group disbanded and hasn’t gotten back to streaming in a long time. Alex Albon became the messiah for the fans when he teased a reunion of the Twitch Quartet.

“I had dinner with George yesterday, we did talk about doing more streaming, and I know George is down, so we just need to convince the other two (Charles / Lando) to do it as well,” revealed Albon in a recent live stream.

WATCH THIS STORY: Alex Albon’s Crazy Bet Gets Williams Racing to Dye Their Hair Red

It’s rare to see such bonds in a ruthless sport like Formula 1. Let’s hope they can keep this bond throughout their careers even when they’re fighting for world championships.