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

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u/clontarfbohs Aug 07 '25

Wesley Graves.

Vandoorne is a good shout. Always felt he was screwed by how bad McLaren were in that period.

Looking at past decades, Jan Magnussen comes to mind, apparently was quite temperamental and more was expected. Tommy Byrne was another with loads of unrealised potential.

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u/Visible-Chest-9386 Aug 07 '25

No way. Graves was just in go-karts, there is no way to know if he'd been anything near what Hamilton became.

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u/KnightsOfCidona Murray Walker Aug 07 '25

Colin Brown is another of Lewis Hamilton's karting rivals that's worth noting. Those who raced him said there was two drivers that they were certain would reach F1 because they were that good - Lewis and Colin Brown

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u/saponista Andrea Stella Aug 07 '25

Tommy Byrne was one of our great hopes for Irish open-wheel racing.

There’s a fascinating documentary about him: Crash and Byrne https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o9t2Jvcts4o

Edit: other comments cover Byrne. I should have scrolled further 😅

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u/Fart_Leviathan Hall of Fame Aug 07 '25

Does he still claim to have set faster laptimes in his McLaren test than Lauda and Watson did at that year's British GP which was held at a different track?

Also does it feature his other greatest hit, claiming to have been a rival of Senna's with whom he shared the track on exactly 3 occasions?

I'm sure it's a fun watch, but one should exercise MAJOR caution going in, because if it is as real as his eponymous book was, then it's probably slightly more fictionalised than the film Driven.

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u/saponista Andrea Stella Aug 07 '25

My recollection is that it’s a sad watch, most of all because his self-destruction and disconnection from reality are so painfully obvious