Best drivers who have never driven in F1

[landogeorgelewis1]

For me it's Paffett,

it still amazes me that no-one's taken a chance on him when you consider the likes of Petrov and Van der Garde get into teams above him. As a massive fan of Gary's i'm baffled at why teams are so reluctant to take him on. He's on par with di Resta in terms of talent and he'd offer massive amounts to any team in the testing terms.

I still hope Di Resta finds a way to a top team and that Paffett can take his seat at Force India and show us what I know he is well and truly capable of been able to do .

 

[Incubus]

Tazio Nuvalori, achille Varzi Bernd Rosemeyer take your pick.

I'm surprised this list doesn't include pre-war Grand Prix drivers would have achieved the same prowesses had the thing been called F1 already.

 

[Olivier]

A couple of Sportscars drivers; Christophe Bouchut and Bob Wollek

 

[Bill Boddy]

Richard Seaman, he drove for Mercedes Benz, also winning several races during his short career.

 

[Jos the Boss]

Gotta be Vale, I think he came second to Loeb in the Monza rally by not a long way so he has talent of four wheels as well it seems and I think he came sixth in a test in 2008 or so

 

[no-FIAt-please]

Robert Wickens has won his first DTM race now. He also won the 3.5 series when JEV was in it, surely he should at least be considered for a drive in today's F1. Money talks though .

 

[Fenderman]

By current F1 recruiting standards ...... yes. By my personal and speculatively high selection criteria ... er .... not quite.

p.s. But who the fuck am I to judge

 

[snowy]

Edit. Spoilt for choice but as a biker it would have been great to see the MotoGP GOAT up against the F1 GOAT but too late now, Voted for Rossi anyway.

OT: Rossi vs Schumacher vs Loeb head to head on each others Championship winning equipment would make an interesting night at the O2 arena.

 

[Raikkonen&Redbull=PartyTime]

The guy I am about to propose has nowhere near the pedigree of others being mentioned here, largely because his career has barely got off the ground. Why it hasn't got off the ground is something I am struggling to work out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Malvern

How is it possible that such a dominant career in junior formulae has not landed this guy a drive in a more prestigious series? It seems he managed to get a seat in the British Formula Ford Championship at the last minute, but for a guy who owned this series 2 years ago what would the point be?

I'm not trying to tip the guy for future greatness, truth be told I'd never heard of him before a random Wiki search conducted 5 minutes ago, but is this an example of how not having financial backing, even at a very junior level, causes many potentially great talents to be lost to the sport?

 

[Fenderman]

Relatively speaking he's quite a late starter. To still be doing FF in 2011 at age 22 is a bit tame really. For example two drivers of the same age aiming for seats in 2014 were somewhat higher up the career path - Robert Wickens (Formula BMW USA 2005) and Jules Bianchi (Formula Renault 2.0 by 2007) - before Malvern even secured his first FF championship.

Following a lead and nicking stat's from the Wiki, older drivers chances of entering F1 also face the age obstacle posed by historical precedent:

Youngest F1 race winners:

1 Sebastian Vettel 21 years, 73 days 2008 Italian Grand Prix
2 Fernando Alonso 22 years, 26 days 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix
3 Troy Ruttman[3] 22 years, 80 days 1952 Indianapolis 500[3]
4 Bruce McLaren 22 years, 104 days 1959 United States Grand Prix
5 Lewis Hamilton 22 years, 154 days 2007 Canadian Grand Prix
6 Kimi Räikkönen 23 years, 157 days 2003 Malaysian Grand Prix
7 Robert Kubica 23 years, 184 days 2008 Canadian Grand Prix
8 Jacky Ickx 23 years, 188 days 1968 French Grand Prix
9 Michael Schumacher 23 years, 240 days 1992 Belgian Grand Prix
10 Emerson Fittipaldi 23 years, 296 days 1970 United States Grand Prix

... the top three youngest F1 champions:

1 Sebastian Vettel 23 years, 134 days 2010
2 Lewis Hamilton 23 years, 300 days 2008
3 Fernando Alonso 24 years, 59 days 2005

I trust that answers your question Raikkonen&Redbull=PartyTime

 

[Bill Boddy]

Just as well Fangio didn't get a seat then, oh, hold on,,,,

 

[RasputinLives]

Robert Wickens has won his first DTM race now. He also won the 3.5 series when JEV was in it, surely he should at least be considered for a drive in today's F1. Money talks though .

whilst money does talk I can't help.but notice a theme with drivers. Both Robert Wickens (3.5 series champion 2011) and Robin Frinjs (3.5 series champion 2012) are huge talents who would be great to see in F1. I can't help but notice that both these drivers won their respective titles on the last race of the series by using, shall we say, strong arm tactics to take their opponents out of the running. The victims/runners up of these events were JEV and Bianchi who both got F1 drives whilst Frinjs and Wickens have had to beg spots in lesser series hoping to still catch the eye.

This could be a coincidence of course but it might indicate that such mentalities might make teams/sponsors shy of backing an individual.

 

[snowy]

Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell both won their first GP aged 32...

...which is 23 backwards...

 

[Fenderman]

Ah, the age before ageism flipped to favour the young ...

What I was perhaps clumsily trying to illustrate is that even going back through F1 history many of the chaps were into F1 and clocking up an F1 race win before they even hit age 24. I could have posted stat's to further show the current trend of ever younger drivers entering F1 with at least a couple of years in the key feeder series - of somewhat higher level than Formula Ford - but did not want to clog up the thread with stuff peeps can find for themselves.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Damon Hill was perhaps the last of the truly late starters to win F1 GP's and an F1 championship. With kids starting as young as they do these days an "oldie" 20 something will need to be very seriously special to leapfrog said feeder series (i.e. Renault 3.5, GP3 and GP2).

 

[snowy]

The relative implosion of British Formula 3 has had an effect not just on British talent but new talent in general. It was more important and influential than F3000 ever was and GP2 ever will be.

 

[Fenderman]

I did consider adding that to my list of examples but confined it to the current top three international feeder classes. Even today we have new blood coming up who have performed in Brit F3 including 2009 champion Daniel Ricciardo and 2010 champion Jean-Eric Vergne and it would be nice to see Felipe Nasr another Brit F3 champ' come into F1 in the not too distant future.

There's another Brit' hopeful, Jack Harvey - last years Brit' F3 champion could be someone to watch out for. He's currently 4th in the GP3 championship so another season there and/or a move to GP2 with some better results might see him in F1 in the future. He's only 20 so another two to three years up the ladder is not unreasonable.

Apologies for veering away from the OP, by the way. Kind of relevant though?