With the confirmation that Sergio Perez will depart Red Bull at the end of the season, he joins a rather long list of drivers who never saw out their intended contracts.
Let’s take a look back at The Merry Band of Somewhat Recent F1 Rejects. I’ve gone back to 2010, because if we go back any further than that – we’re going to be here forever, and I had to draw the line somewhere.
2024 – Sergio Perez, Red Bull
Perez joined Red Bull in 2021, partnering Max Versappen through their record-breaking (so far) four consecutive championship run. After an initial 4th in the championship in 2021, Perez found his stride and improved to 3rd and then 2nd in the following years.
In 2024 however, his form took a dive and he finished 8th in the championship, 285 points behind teammate Verstappen. Red Bull decided they wanted to make a change, and after the final race of the season announced that Perez would not be in their car for 2025.
2024 – Daniel Ricciardo, VCARB
Having himself replaced Nyck de Vries, who also didn’t see out his contract with VCARB, then Alpha Tauri, many expected Ricciardo to be the dominant driver in the team, being paired with youngster Yuki Tsunoda, the Honey Badger struggled to find his form, and was unceremoniously released by Red Bull after the 2024 Singapore GP.
A combination of lacking performance and team politics cost Riccardo his seat in favour of rookie Liam Lawson. 2023 deja vu, anyone?
2024 – Logan Sargeant, Williams
Sargeant has the somewhat dubious honour of never having finished in the top 20, in a 20 car championship. He made his debut in Formula 1 in 2023, where he finished 21st with 1 point, and in 2024 he finished 23rd. Williams cited Sargeant’s progress not having been convincing enough to keep the seat, but there is little doubt that a couple of recent, expensive crashes affected the decision as well.
Sargeant was replaced by Argentinian driver Franco Colapinto, who immediately made a mark in the paddock, and brought a handful of new sponsors to Williams.
2023 – Nyck de Vries, Alpha Tauri
At the start of 2023, Pierre Gasly left Alpha Tauri in favour of Alpine, making room for double Formula E World Champion Nyck de Vries at Red Bull’s junior team. Naturally expectations were high, but after the British GP, Alpha Tauri announced they were replacing de Vries with Daniel Ricciardo.
De Vries had failed to score any points, and had a season best finish of 12th when he was let go. Ricciardo did two races before breaking his wrist, and himself being replaced by Liam Lawson while recovering.
2022 – Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren
Ricciardo’s 2nd entry on this list. He was originally contracted to continue racing for McLaren in 2023, but the team announced in August, that he would depart at the end of the season by mutual agreement. Riccardo has since stated it was less mutual than it was made out to be.
The team and Ricciardo never really clicked on track, and they weren’t able to get the consistent results they were hoping for, resulting in the two parting ways.
2022 – Nikita Mazepin, Haas
Originally contracted for 2022, on the eve of the season – quite literally – Haas ripped Mazepin’s contract up and brought back Kevin Magnussen. A decision that caused the team to be sued by Uralkali, Mazepin’s father’s company, who had agreed to be the title sponsor of the team in exchange for his son getting a seat.
His short career was anything but impressive. He started it out by crashing on the third corner of his first race.
2017 – Jolyon Palmer, Renault
Palmer joined Renault in 2016, and was contracted to race for the team in 2017 as well. However after the Japanese GP, the team announced that they had replaced him with Carlos Sainz – an announcement Palmer himself had to read in Autosport, rather than being told by his then Team Principal Cyril Abiteboul.
2017 – Daniil Kvyat, Toro Rosso
Having been demoted from Red Bull in 2016, Kvyat was on borrowed time in the organisation already. Prior to the Malaysian GP, Red Bull announced that GP2 Champion Pierre Gasly was going to take the seat. Kvyat had a short comeback after Carlos Sainz made a mid-season swap to Renault, and Toro Rosso were short on drivers. So Kvyat replaced his replacement for the United States GP, as it conflicted with the final round of Gasly’s Super Formula campaign.
After the race Kvyat was released entirely from the Red Bull programme, and the remainder of the season saw Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley in the Toro Rosso cars.
2016 – Rio Haryanto, Manor
Haryanto joined a cash-strapped struggling Manor team in 2016. After the German GP the team announced he would be replaced by Esteban Ocon, for the simple reason that the team needed money to keep operating and Ocon brought more cash that Haryanto did.
Despite making the change, Manor went into administration at the end of the season, and didn’t return to the grid in 2017.
2015 – Roberto Merhi, Manor Marussia
While Merhi wasn’t technically replaced, he still gets a spot on the list. Merhi was on a “short term contract” with Manor, which, translated, means he didn’t have the funds to pay for the full season. Before the Singapore GP, Manor announced that he would split the remaining 7 races with Alexander Rossi – Rossi doing five and Mehri doing two of them. As with Haryanto it came down to simple finances: Rossi offered more money than Merhi did, and so the two shared the car for the latter part of the season.
2014 – Max Chilton, Marussia
Another driver who wasn’t technically replaced, but still didn’t see out his contract. The Marussia team was securing funding to operate on a race-to-race basis, and after the Russian GP that year, the wallets were empty and the team missed the final three races.
The team went into administration and was rebranded as Manor Marussia for the following season, having secured new ownership.
2011 – Nick Heidfeld, Renault
Heidfeld, who was brought in as a replacement for Robert Kubica after his horrific rally accident during the off-season, raced for Renault until the Hungarian GP, when the team announced that he would be replaced by Bruno Senna for the remaining 8 races, citing a lack of performance and development as the reason.
Heidfeld contested the team’s decision in court, but to no avail. Senna replaced him from the Belgian GP.
2011 – Narain Karthikeyan, HRT
Daniel Ricciardo makes a 3rd appearance on this list, as he replaced Karthikeyan at HRT for the British GP. HRT had worked out a deal with Red Bull, who wanted to test our Ricciardo in preparation for giving him a seat at either Red Bull or Toro Rosso.
Karthikeyan made a one-off return appearance at his home Indian GP that same year, replacing Viantonio Lizzuzi.
2010 – Karun Chandhok, HRT
HRT in 2010 was a wild place. The team had four drivers signed to a race contract: Karun Chandhok, Christian Klien, Sakon Yamamoto and Bruno Senna, picking their driver combination prior to each weekend. Senna and Chandhok were the preferred starters in the first part of the season, with Senna only being replaced once, by Yamamoto at the British GP and then finishing out the remaining races in one of the HRT cars.
Chandhok had started every race up until the German GP, when he was replaced by Yamamoto for the next four races. Then Klien did a race. Then Yamamoto did two, And then Klien did two more.
Chandhok would sign with Lotus as their test driver for 2020, and got to do a single race for them at the German GP, where he replaced Jarno Trulli.
2010 – Pedro de la Rosa, Sauber
Heidfeld had driven for the team in 2009, but didn’t get his contract extended for 2010. Instead the team brought in de la Rosa and and Kamui Kobayashi. De la Rosa never really got the hang of the car and only scored points once before being replaced by Heidfeld for the final five races of the season.
