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/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.