In the event of an injury to a driver or, more specifically to this year, a driver falling ill, there must be a replacement driver available for teams to use as a backup to make sure that all 20 drivers are on the grid and teams get a shot at maximum points.
This particular topic has come up in the news recently – with now seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton missing his first ever race since entering the sport, Mercedes have called upon young Williams driver George Russell to take the reigns of Hamilton’s car for the weekend – leaving Jack Aitken to replace Russell.
Throughout F1 history, there’s been many instances of replacement drivers but here are some of the best – and how they came to be.
Michael Schumacher
Many people don’t realise that Michael Schumacher’s first foray into Formula 1 was actually to replace a driver who had been sent to prison.
Yes, one of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time only got his start after Bertrand Gachot – one of Jordan’s two drivers – had been sentenced to 18 months in prison following an unsuccessful appeal over an aggravated assault case.
Schumacher was quick to claim his stake in Formula One, seemingly undeterred by all of the drama surrounding his debut. Just a week before the race had even started, Schumacher impressed team owner Eddie Jordan, lead designer Gary Anderson and team manager Trevor Foster enough during a test drive at Silverstone that Jordan signed Schumacher from Mercedes.
Having convinced Jordan that he knew the track of his first race well – the infamously challenging Spa de-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium – when in actuality he had only watched the race as a spectator. He learnt the track the weekend of the Grand Prix by riding around the circuit on a fold-up bike that he’d brought to the track.
However, he impressed the press, fans and everybody in the paddock by qualifying seventh – tying Jordan’s season-best grid position and out-qualifying his teammate, an 11-year veteran of the sport in Andrea de Ceasaris.
Unfortunately for the young German, his race ended far too prematurely as clutch problems from the start of the race led to a lap one retirement. Despite a short end to the beginning of his F1 career, no-one knew what Schumacher would go onto achieve in the sport, as he eventually became a seven-time World Champion, a feat only matched by Lewis Hamilton.
Jenson Button
Jenson Button had actually been retired for almost a year when he replaced Fernando Alonso at the 2017 Monaco Grand Prix – but was still contracted to be McLaren’s reserve driver.
When the Spaniard decided to try his hand at driving in the Indianapolis 500, which was scheduled for the same weekend as the Monaco Grand Prix, racing director Eric Bouillier asked Button to come out of retirement for one final race around the streets of Monaco – a race which he’d won back in 2009 when driving for Brawn GP.
Button practiced in the team’s simulator instead around a previous circuit as he felt he wouldn’t learn anything, nor ‘get back into the groove’, without driving around a street circuit.
Despite qualifying in ninth, the Brit started at the back of the grid due to a 15-place grid penalty due to McLaren opting to change both the MGU-H and the turbocharger. Button’s return would ultimately result in a retirement – falling due to suspension failure after colliding with Pascal Wehrlein, which left the young German’s car lying vertically on the wall at Portier.
Sebastian Vettel
The third World Champion on this list, Sebastian Vettel made his Formula One debut at the United States Grand Prix in 2007 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, replacing Robert Kubica who suffered a sprained ankle and a concussion in a heavy crash during the previous race – the Canadian Grand Prix.
Having been confirmed as BMW Sauber’s test driver at the start of the year, he made his full F1 debut that weekend in the States, qualifying in an impressive seventh.
The 19-year-old’s race pace was even better, and despite finishing eighth, he became the youngest driver to ever score points in a Formula 1 event and began on his journey toward four world drivers titles.
Luca Badoer
Luca Badoer is famous in Formula 1 for two things. Having the record for the most races without ever scoring a point, and his rather terrible return to F1 in 2009.
To sum up Badoer’s return, it was quite frankly terrible. He was bought in by Ferrari to replace the injured Felipe Massa, and he was set for his first race in over 10 years.
At his first race in the ’09 season, the European Grand Prix in Valencia, he was over three seconds back from leader Rubens Barrichello. During the three practice sessions, Badoer was caught speeding in the pitlane four separate times, which led to a total fine of €5,400.
In qualifying, he finished dead last – over 1.5 seconds back from Jaime Alguersuari in 19th. During the race, he was hit by Romain Grosjean on the first lap and finished 17th out of 18. Ferrari confirmed he would be racing in Spa in the next weekend.
Badoer qualified last again in Belgium, but at the start of the race, Badoer avoided accidents on the first lap and finished in 14th place, last of those drivers to finish the full race distance.
He was quickly replaced by Giancarlo Fisichella for the Italian Grand Prix – and didn’t score a point in the five following races.
Nico Hulkenberg
This 2020 season has been hectic so of course it’s seen its fair share of driver replacements due to Covid-19, and Nico Hulkenberg has replaced two different drivers this year.
With both the British Grand Prix and the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix being held at Silverstone on the horizon, Racing Point driver Sergio Perez was confirmed to have been found positive for coronavirus – leading the team to phone up Hulkenberg who was relaxing at home in Germany.
He qualified in thirteenth during the British Grand Prix but would not get a chance to race due to an engine failure on the grid line-up. He would get another chance the next weekend, and he qualified a brilliant third, behind both Mercedes drivers.
During the race, he would drop down to seventh, but still finished strongly. He would be called again by Racing Point when their other driver Lance Stroll fell ill the weekend of the Eifel Grand Prix. A home grand prix for Hulkenberg did not go well in qualifying where he finished dead last in 20th. However, his race went incredibly well – the German finished eighth and was voted ‘Driver of the Day’ by fans watching the race.
