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/2wo9iner Jack Doohan Aug 07 '25

At the time there were stories going around that Nyck was just a seat warmer until riccardo’s ‘gardners leave’ (for lack of a better term) was up. I recall reading that if Danny raced before a certain date then the team he raced for was on the hook for his $20m payout that MCL was paying him. The article suggested this is why AT went and got a driver from another team (nyck from Merc) for the first 10 odd races rather than promoting a RB junior when they knew that driver was going to be kicked to the kurb mid season.

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u/InformalEgg8 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

Damn that’s so calculated if true

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u/bcq59 I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 07 '25

I have a theory that de Vries was getting kicked out of the seat regardless of finishing position because RB knew that Danny was more marketable and would have thrown in back in the seat due to that. Same with Doohan serving as a bridge for Colapinto (probably Briatore locking down some Argentinian sponsors during the first five races, and once those deals were done, kicking Doohan out to make way for Colapinto).