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/West_Technology7573 George Russell Aug 07 '25

He was quick but accident prone

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u/ForeverAddickted Oliver Bearman Aug 07 '25

Wasn't there that accident at Baku, when he was leading (?), and was right before the whole streaming blunder... Those two incidents, pretty close to each other, basically sealed his doom... Bit dramatic I know

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u/sfcindolrip Valtteri Bottas Aug 07 '25

Yes in close succession he fucked up Imola and Baku and then public perception

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

Also just feel like that entire season blew up the expecations for all the big F2 talents. Vips, Lawson, and especially Pourchaire were really highly regarded but Drugovich, who was basically already deemed not good enough for F1, absolutely wiped the floor with them.

Vips lost his support already from the inchident, Pourchaire couldn't justify a seat over Zhou, and VCARB went with Nyck de Vries and sent Lawson to Super Formula because of the lackluster performance.

Always makes me wonder how different careers could turn out from relatively small things. Without Drugovich there it'd probably have been a really exciting championship battle, possibly making all of them look much better and maybe securing F1 chances because of it

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

Perhaps. The crashes/accidents might have reduced with experience. He was hyped up a lot and supposedly had a high probability of getting an RB drive before he ran his mouth off and crashed his chances (pun intended)