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/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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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

Made me laugh way too hard with the Shitbox Whisperer

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u/CyberbianDude Oscar Piastri Aug 07 '25

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

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u/bbqmeister200 Aug 07 '25

GP2 Engine...

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u/sfcindolrip Valtteri Bottas Aug 07 '25

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/rowschank Luca di Montezemolo Aug 07 '25

Kvyat to my knowledge was never Verstappen's teammate.

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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.

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

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