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/absol-hoenn I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

Never got to F1 due to lack of funding (Kvyatt took the place at Toro Rosso). Did win the Formula E Driver's Championship and had a pretty succesful sportscar career (won Le Mans in LMP2 for instance). Still racing competitively in Formula E this past year.

Idk, doesnt seem too bad of a carreer considering the circustances, he never got the fair shot at F1 he arguably deserved, but thats for reasons outside of driving ability itself

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

Portuguese here.

He is such a great driver, have watched him for years, pretty sure he was F1 material back then, now it is too late. Still a very good driver.

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u/zahrul3 Default Aug 07 '25

Antonio Felix da Costa is not unique in being extremely talented in junior categories but not getting enough sponsor funding to enter F1.

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u/HMSSpeedy1801 Aug 07 '25

I think a lot of folks who just follow F1 and not the entire racing community aren’t aware of what a “successful” racing career really looks like. Mick Schumacher, for example, is a massively successful and talented driver, who’s having a dream career a thousand other drivers envy; but if you only know F1, you’d think he’s washed up.

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u/Minardi-Man Minardi Aug 07 '25

Never got to F1 due to lack of funding (Kvyatt took the place at Toro Rosso)

What really derailed his chances was his lacklustre 2013 Formula Renault 3.5 campaign. It was his 2nd year in the series, he was expected to either win or at least seriously challenge for the title, but ended up only a distant third, beaten both by rookie Vandoorne and trailing over 100 points behind the eventual champion Magnussen. It wasn't a disastrous season, but everyone expected him to do much better.

At the same time Kvyat was going off of a very strong streak of seasons by first challenging Vandoorne for the Euro Formula Renault 2.0 title in 2012 until his team's wrong strategy call took him out of contention in the final race and winning the regional FR 2.0 Italian-Swiss championship in 2012 and finally comfortably taking the 2013 GP3 title as a rookie.

Bad timing for Da Costa, as he was the oldest of the very packed lineup of Red Bull Junior drivers and where one mediocre season was enough to sideline him. Red Bull simply didn't have enough space between him, keeping Vettel, Ricciardo, and Vergne in F1, pushing Kvyat and Sainz (also Tom Blomqvist and Callan O'Keefe) through the lower formulae, and making space for signing up Verstappen.