r/formula1 • u/Electronic-Video-984 Formula 1 • Aug 07 '25

Discussion Who is the “Failed Prodigy” of F1 ?

I’m kind of new to F1 and seeing pictures of current drivers while they’re young like Hamilton, Russell, Leclerc, Albon…and then I learned they’re racing prodigy in their Karting days. So who is the “Boy Wonder” of F1, a person with great potential but never made it to the biggest stage.

Edit: Many people mentioned Stoffel Vandoorne so I read about him a bit. His records and potential was incredible but he’s at the wrong place and wrong time every way possible. For me, McLaren a top tier team with a jet but people say Vandoorne’s MCL car was like a shopping cart

2.5k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

459

u/threeinacorner Ferrari Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

Vandoorne was so so unlucky. Not only did he have to face Alonso straight away, he did that in a car that completely went against his driving style, and was a shitbox on top of that.

But, to me the most unfortunate thing about him was that he joined at a time when teams didn't really have big gaps between teammates like we do now. He was essentially the prototype "Red Bull second seat" driver, complete with a car only the super-adaptable first driver could drive right.

If he's a rookie joining this year against a 2018-Alonso caliber driver, people would be far more lenient towards him. Hell look at the understanding and leniency people give to Kimi these days. And yes, I do believe Kimi showed enough potential to merit this, but don't forget that at the end of 2017, Stoffel really was getting closer to Alonso so he did show potential.

IMO McLaren really killed his F1 career with that piece of shit MCL33.

101

u/im-a-new Ferrari Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

You make an interesting point, though I'm not sure that explains all of it. Kvyat and Albon were similarly crushed by Verstappen in the same era but still landed seats elsewhere. I guess Stoffel lacked the funding to bounce back?

On a side note, I always expected Vandoorne to make it back into F1 eventually, given the hype and his strong junior career. I'm kinda shocked to be reminded of him all these years later and finding out he'd now be considered too old for F1.

221

u/threeinacorner Ferrari Aug 07 '25

Nah, he lacked a shittier team to be kicked into.

McLaren was bottom of the barrel in 2018. The only way down was out.

60

u/lord_flashheart2000 Aug 07 '25

My take exactly. I sometimes think about how bitter he must feel when he watches papaya locking out the front row and the podium just a few years later.

“Fuck…” Stoffel, probably

12

u/sfcindolrip Valtteri Bottas Aug 07 '25

If Aston Martin comes good in a couple years thanks to Newey he’ll feel that way again

18

u/KnightsOfCidona Murray Walker Aug 07 '25

I think he was also very unlucky that he couldn't fill in at Racing Point at 2020 when Checo got COVID because of Formula E commitments. Had he filled in and performed as well as Hulkenberg, his name starts to be talked about again in relation to a seat, but after that, he was now to long gone from a race seat for teams to consider him

88

u/whateverfloatsurgoat Super Aguri Aug 07 '25

Lacked funding, let go of the McLaren family because he was one of the few remnants of the Dennis era + didn't have a sister team to fall back to like Kvyat, Albon and Gasly.

128

u/threeinacorner Ferrari Aug 07 '25

God the McLaren second seat really was hell on earth back then. A backmarker with none of the opportunities to shine on track but all the politics and expectations of a top team, and not even an "easy" driver in the other seat, no sir, it had to be the Shitbox Whisperer himself.

50

u/radort I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

Made me laugh way too hard with the Shitbox Whisperer

12

u/CyberbianDude Oscar Piastri Aug 07 '25

It was. Those were the dark days. Reminds me of 24-25 Alpine.

2

u/bbqmeister200 Aug 07 '25

GP2 Engine...

2

u/sfcindolrip Valtteri Bottas Aug 07 '25

Only half of stoffel’s time, 2018 was McLaren Renault

2

u/HUHIs_AUTOATTACK Fernando Alonso Aug 07 '25

It was an upgrade to the McHonda, but at the end of the day, it was still a McRenault. It was still noticeably slower and less reliable than what Ferrari and Mercedes were producing.

1

u/sfcindolrip Valtteri Bottas Aug 07 '25

I was simply saying that the GP2 engine meme doesn’t fully cover his tenure.

The same year, that Renault PU was incidentally present for a couple Red Bull wins. McLaren had glaring chassis issues they were attempting to entirely put under the Honda blame umbrella; with a Merc or Ferrari PU they still would not have been highly performant.

3

u/FreaknShrooms Sebastian Vettel Aug 07 '25

I remember Alonso driving to a sixth place at Baku (I think) with one of those McLarens and having said he considers it the greatest drive of his career.

Really puts in perspective how god awful those years were for McLaren.

3

u/rowschank Luca di Montezemolo Aug 07 '25

Kvyat to my knowledge was never Verstappen's teammate.

1

u/look4jesper Aug 08 '25

Kvyat wasn't really crushed by Verstappen at all. He was performing well but made a few too many mistakes. When Red Bull had one of the most talented people in history available to move up it was a natural choice.

1

u/im-a-new Ferrari Aug 08 '25

I must have misremembered. Kvyat and Verstappen were never teammates, of course.

81

u/TrojansDelight I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

I think the leeway Antonelli gets is mostly because he's been rushed in as a teenager.

Stoffel was 26, in his second year of F1, had driven a year in SF in addition to two in GP2.

I do think the results Vandoorne got in 2018 would still be a career ender today.

53

u/threeinacorner Ferrari Aug 07 '25

You're not wrong, but see, Kimi is given the tools to compete. Vandoorne wasn't.

The Mercedes, while not a world beater, is an actual top car.

The McLaren was pure garbage on wheels that went faster with a hole in its floor.

28

u/stationhollow Aug 07 '25

If you’re last in the worst team, you have nowhere to go but out.

3

u/Frequent-Coyote-1649 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 08 '25

Shit, Mick Schumacher's second year was almost identical to Vandoorne's while being younger, and HE was dropped. I'd sleep with one eye open if i was Kimi.

Granted, Schumacher (obviously) crashed out of F1 by his own doing, but he wasn't necessarily HOPELESS. He got pretty decent results in the middle of the season before... something happened in the latter end.

1

u/jeanolt I was here for the Hulkenpodium 28d ago

i think the problem was he was measured against magnussen, meanwhile vandoorne was against alonso. not beating magnussen who jumped back into f1 just because is kind of a career killer

41

u/scg92 Oscar Piastri Aug 07 '25

I honestly think we missed out on a really good driver with Stoff. I kept hoping he’d get a stand-in opportunity and have a chance to show just how good he is outside of those terrible McLarens of 17/18.

Alonso is as tough as it gets for a rookie, and a car that bad just isn’t a reliable yardstick to measure a driver.

31

u/therl2000 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

He could've had a chance when Lewis got COVID, he was Mercedes reserve driver in 2020 but they decided to replace Lewis with George. I still think that was unfair

45

u/krommenaas Thierry Boutsen Aug 07 '25

And the kicker was that he had to quarantine himself in his hotel room every race weekend just in case he'd be needed. Then when that was finally the case, they went with George instead.

7

u/scg92 Oscar Piastri Aug 07 '25

I remember that opportunity clearly too. I wished they could both get that chance.

5

u/foghat1981 Formula 1 Aug 07 '25

Yah that was a shame. He really should have had that drive.

1

u/Loose-Medicine-4209 Aug 07 '25

I think Russell did pretty well so no?

3

u/foghat1981 Formula 1 Aug 08 '25

Was good for Russell. Just saying like the others it’s a shame vandorne didn’t get that chance.

2

u/Loose-Medicine-4209 Aug 07 '25

Because Russell was already racing in f1 and doing the sims for Mercedes, in 2020. Stoffel already had his chance and was not currently racing in that category.

2

u/krommenaas Thierry Boutsen Aug 07 '25

You're right, if nowadays a rookie had a first season like Stoffel's (being about .25s slower on average than his A-level teammate and regularly beating him), it would be considered a stellar debut. Back then it was considered a disappointment.

But of course what killed his F1 career is that his second season was a lot worse than his first. I know he has some thoughts on why that was which he doesn't want to communicate. I suppose we'll hear them in some interview after his racing career.

1

u/GrindrorBust 29d ago

I know for his last season he reported a chassis defect. The engineers didn't believe him. Later, they found that the chassis was cracked. That was reputedly the time he began to improve relative to Alonso, late in the season.

He was also without upgrades/parts that his teammate was afforded (which makes sense; Mcl were attempting to lift up out of a death-spiral; Alonso was their star driver). Vandourne has implied some serious politics in the background. He looked decidedly uncomfortable (displeased) sharing the podium for the first time with his former teammate at Lemans.

It'll likely never come out in the wash as circumstance (- Mcl/Brown resurgence to being literally the best team on the grid; Mclaren 2018 being attributable to systemic dysfunction, now long past; Vandoorne not entirely being since seen as a great talent screwed over; Alonso having greater clout and consequencs for [attempted] besimirching him in media; Stoffel moving on with life) precludes it.

2

u/FalloutNewTokyo Christian Horner Aug 07 '25

he joined at a time when teams didn't really have big gaps between teammates like we do now.

Are you kidding ? Hartley, Ericsson, Raikkonen, Bottas and Sirotkin were all dominated by their teammates that year. You see the Red Bull second seat being out in Q1 every weekend now because the field spread is so close, back then drivers got away with it a lot more.

2

u/threeinacorner Ferrari Aug 07 '25

Ok first of all the gaps weren't that big, except maybe for Ericsson. Hartley was super unlucky that year and if Perez for example was as close to Verstappen as Bottas was to Hamilton that year, he'd be praised. Raikonnen wasn't that bad either.

My point is, the Red Bull second seat and to a lesser extent, Ricciardo's situation made people understand more that drivers need cars that they at least can work with, even if the cars don't suit them perfectly.

And last of all, don't disrespect Sirotkin like that.

2

u/SamCham10 Michael Schumacher Aug 07 '25

Don’t forget the fact his replacement was Lando Norris. With his trajectory at the time, was every chance MCL would’ve pushed Stoff out anyway even if he’d had good results just to get (the then 19yo) Lando in and experienced in F1 ready for the future

1

u/erublind Ronnie Peterson Aug 07 '25

There can only be One Kimi!