Mid-season driver changes….some of the best and worst!

With the limited number of teams in modern Formula One we have seen a very static driver market over the past few seasons (apart from Red Bull drivers!) and over the years the more successful teams have stuck with a winning formula over a number of seasons, proving more often than not that consistency is a major factor in success.

However there were times in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s that teams have, for a number of reasons, had to bring in substitute / replacement drivers during a season. At the worst of times this has been due to drivers being injured, and even sadder dying, as happened in 1994, but has also been for financial reasons (teams requiring pay drivers), because drivers have been fired or suspended or for many other reasons.

Jordan (1993) Simtek (1994) and Lotus (also 1994) lead the way with six drivers each over the course of these respective seasons. Jean Alesi (1989), Johnny Herbert (1990) and Roberto Moreno (1990) for me made a massive positive impact in their substitute roles….Alesi at Tyrrell in particular, although Moreno scored a fine 2nd for Benetton in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix when he replaced the injured Alessandro Nannini….and Johnny Herbert because I’m a biased fan of his!

Replacement drives have also played their part in causing upsets in other ways; Jean-Louis Schlesser colliding with Ayrton Senna at Monza, 1988 allowed the Ferrari due of Berger and Albereto to score a famous 1-2 at their home grand prix only days after team founder Enzo Ferrari passed away.

Several teams brought in (no pun intended) drivers with sponsorship to keep their teams afloat financially including March, Larrousse, Lotus and Jordan…..although there are many other teams who have needed to do the same. At times the size of this money has had no relationship with the speed of the drivers, leading to a sometimes unfair label being created about pay drivers not being worthy of a Formula One drive.

Johnny Hebert doesn’t fall into this “pay driver” bracket, but has made a number of substitute appearances over his F1 career – at Lotus in 1990 (replacing the injured Martin Donnelly), again at Lotus in 1991 (replacing Julian Bailey and Michael Bartels inbetween racing in Japan and winning Le Mans for Mazda) and again in 1994 jumping from Lotus to Ligier and on to Benetton…..quite the swap around!

My personal favourite was the one race per driver at Jordan in late 1993. Ivan Capelli raced alongside Rubens Barrichello for the first couple of races, after which Thierry Boutsen took over the next ten races. For the Italian Grand Prix he in turn was replaced by Marco Apicella, then Emanuele Naspetti for the Portuguese race and finally Eddie Irvine for Japan and the season ending Australian Grand Prix.

Of the five drivers only Eddie Irvine scored a point (apart from Barrichello) and was retained for the following two seasons with the team.

A lack of testing, or in these modern times a driver getting time on the simulator, is always going to hamper a driver making a one off appearance, and over the years many drivers who bought their way into a race or two would have tested over the course of the race weekend. Maybe in part this allows us to identify the real talent that some drivers possess, where they can simplistically tighten their belts and put in a great lap time.

Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher were masters of this, but also went on to make themselves the main focus within their teams increasing their chances of success. Whilst I am a fan of Johnny Herbert his reappearance in Formula One in 1990, having been dropped by Benetton in 1989 and making a couple of appearances for Tyrrell later that season, might (at a stretch) fall into a similar bracket.

With limited testing (ie. none, although he was racing in Japan in Formula 3000) his qualifying and race performance was almost as strong as team mate Derek Warwick. Not quite as strong in his 1994 Lotus-Ligier-Benetton swaps, but sufficient to lead to a full time drive in 1995.

My last driver worthy of mention is Jan Lammers – in 1992 at the ripe old age of 36 Jan returned to Formula One for the March team. It was ten years since he last raced at the sports top level, competed in the last two races of the season and was even signed for the subsequent season which didn’t happen as the team went bankrupt!

A certain Fernando Alonso will be making a “Jan Lammers” style return to the sport next year for Renault / Alpine at the even older age of 39. Age is just a number, but will Alonso stay for his 2 year contract ? Only time will tell.