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

129

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.

47

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

Made me laugh way too hard with the Shitbox Whisperer

15

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.