Three Successful Drivers That Could Have Made It In F1 But Didn't
F1Tuesday, 19 December 2023 at 03:00
Franz Tost concluded his team principal career in 2023 and reflected on three fast drivers he worked with that did not break through in Formula One.
You have probably heard it multiple times before, Formula One is the most competitive sport int the World as only 20 drivers can currently race on the grid at the same time.
In 2023, we have seen 22 drivers, but the reason for that is that Nyck De Vries got replaced in AlphaTauri by Daniel Ricciardo, who initially wasn't supposed to race, and then he suffered an injury and needed a replacement driver - Liam Lawson.
Nyck De Vries is an example of a driver who won a Formula E World Championship but did not succeed in Formula One. Franz Tost worked with multiple drivers similar to De Vries in his career and he recently said:
"Jean-Eric Vergne, I think he could have made a successful career in Formula 1, as well as Daniil Kvyat, both of them are really very, very fast. And Jean-Eric Vergne showed this also in Formula E, I think he won twice the World Championship."
Jean-Eric Vergne raced for Toro Rosso for three seasons but never got a chance to progress further. The same goes for Buemi, who spent exactly three seasons in the team but was then replaced.
"Sebastian Buemi sometimes showed good performance. He also won the 24 hours of Le Mans, so they were drivers in our team, they really had high skills."
New talented and promising drivers graduate from Junior series like Formula 2 every single year so everybody who gets a chance in F1 needs to show superb performance in order to keep their seat.
“They were then sorted out because another driver was coming and we simply don't have so many places, neither at Red Bull Racing nor at Scuderia Toro Rosso, Scuderia AlphaTauri. But from the skills, nearly all the drivers reached a quite high level."
Liam Lawson is an example of a driver who got a chance in F1 for a few races, showed super impressive performances and still did not get a seat for 2024 because the grid is just packed with immense talent.
On the other hand, the former AlphaTauri team principal said during the season he expects the Kiwi to be back on the grid at least by 2025.
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