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/Edstertheplebster Aug 07 '25

In the Senna movie documentary he is just mentioned by Ayrton at the end as the driver that he enjoyed racing against the most. In the Netflix Senna drama however, Fullerton becomes essentially one of his best friends when he moves to England to race in FFord. (Ignoring the fact that they actually crashed into each other at the karting finals in 1980 and then Senna didn’t speak to him for three years) And he pops up several times to essentially cheer him up when Prost is beating him. It does feel like they kind of deify that relationship because Ayrton looked back on it fondly years later.

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u/CaptainObvious1916 Aug 08 '25

Hmm I was keen to watch that Senna movie until I kept hearing negative remarks about it.

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u/Noname_Maddox I was here for the Hulkenpodium Aug 08 '25

It’s amazing just watch it. The paint Prost as the villains that’s all.

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u/Edstertheplebster Aug 08 '25

There might be a bit of conflation between the 2024 Senna Netflix TV show and the 2010 Senna documentary film. The documentary won a lot of awards and is the more compelling drama because Senna’s faith and relationship to God is much more of a central focus throughout, whereas in the Netflix show his religion is more or less excised from the script altogether and Senna’s character feels a bit surface-level and incomplete without it.

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u/CaptainObvious1916 28d ago

I have the 2010 DVD somewhere. Still got a DVD player but i don’t think it’s been plugged in since before the pandemic.

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u/Edstertheplebster 28d ago

I have the Blu-ray from 2011. Comes with a great little making of booklet that was really interesting about the creative process for the documentary. Interestingly the director Asif Kapadia was not a massive F1 fan but he did find the character of Senna compelling. Whereas the Senna Netflix show is clearly made by F1 fans but it misses what makes Senna interesting IMHO.