Written by Mario Rodríguez, Edited by Gabriel Tsui
Since its rebrand in 2017, Formula 2 has seen 20 drivers graduating to full-time seats in Formula 1. As is the case in all feeder series, these young drivers are keen to impress their teams with their performances, leading to the hard and often chaotic racing many fans adore.
And many of those who follow these feeder series find it interesting to analyze and guess who the next superstars of motorsport will be, surrounding the young drivers with hype before they step into an F1 car.
But not all stars shine as bright as the others. Some drivers, despite great talents, never got a chance to prove themselves at the top level of motorsport.
This is a list of F2 drivers I personally expected to see in F1, but ultimately haven’t achieved that goal. I’m only considering drivers who have raced full time in the series, and listing them in no particular order.
Robert Shwartzman
A driver who has recently left the Ferrari Driver Academy, Shwartzman established himself as a top young prospect after his dominant F3 season with Prema in 2019, taking the championship 54 points ahead of teammate Marcus Armstrong.
He stayed with Prema for his F2 debut in 2020. He made an immediate impact in Austria, taking third place in his first feature race.He won in the second feature race at Red Bull Ring, dedicating it to his father, who had passed away due to Covid.
Another win in Hungary saw him lead the championship in the first few rounds. After that, he couldn't keep up his dominant start, though he was able to take four more podiums, three of them wins, finishing 4th in the standings, while teammate Mick Schumacher won the title.
The Russian-born racer took two wins and eight podiums in 2021, his final F2 season, where he finished 2nd in the championship, behind his teammate yet again, this time being eventual champion Oscar Piastri.
After leaving F2, Shwartzman became Ferrari’s test and reserve driver, making two free practice appearances with the Italian team in 2023 and two more in 2024 with Sauber. He was one of the rumored drivers to replace Antonio Giovinazzi in 2022 after he left Alfa Romeo, but the team opted to sign Guanyu Zhou.
He also competed in the 2024 World Endurance Championship, partnering Yifei Ye and Robert Kubica in the privateer No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, where they took the win in the Lone Star le Mans race in COTA. Shwartzman left Ferrari at the end of 2024 and returned to Prema for their first IndyCar season alongside Callum Ilott, the next driver in the list.
Callum Ilott
Ilott started progressing through the feeder series ranks as a Red Bull Junior Team Member, and was signed by Ferrari following his breakout season in 2017.
He also made his F2 debut in the same season, racing with Trident in the Silverstone weekend. He started racing in the series full time in 2019 with Charouz, taking two podiums and finishing in 11th place in his rookie season.
The Brit signed for UNI-Virtuosi in 2020, partnering Guanyu Zhou, and fought for the title until the last round at Abu Dhabi, ultimately finishing in second place 14 points behind Mick Schumacher.
He was also scheduled to take part in a free practice session with Haas in Germany, but it was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions.
Ilott became a test and reserve driver for Ferrari in 2021, as well as a reserve for Alfa Romeo. Like Shwartzman, he was also linked to the 2022 seat with Alfa Romeo, and he currently competes in IndyCar, where he’ll partner the Russian in Prema in the upcoming season.
Jüri Vips
The Estonian was once regarded as one of the Red Bull Junior Team’s top talents. Vips made his F2 debut in 2020 for DAMS as a mid-season replacement for the injured Sean Gelael, and achieved a best result of 3rd place in the Mugello sprint race, before Gelael returned.
2021 was his best season in F2, with six podiums and two wins taking him to sixth place in the championship, three places and 17 points ahead of Hitech and Red Bull academy teammate Liam Lawson.
2022 saw Vips take the wheel of an F1 car in an official session for the first time, replacing Sergio Pérez during Free Practice 1 at the Spanish GP. However, it all went wrong in June of 2022, when the Estonian used a racial slur during a live stream on Lawson’s Twitch channel. He was suspended and later expelled from the Red Bull Junior Team.
Given the number of driver movements within Red Bull during the last few years, Vips could have been promoted at some point.
Vips finished his final F2 season in 11th place, with five podiums and a win, and made his switch to IndyCar in 2023, where he has made sporadic appearances with Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing since.
Victor Martins
Martins arrived into F2 as a member of the Alpine Academy and the newly crowned F3 champion with ART, where Martins emerged victorious from a breathtaking final round in 2022, when 7 drivers had a chance to take the championship.
He stayed with ART for 2023, making the step up into F2 and partnered with eventual champion Théo Pourchaire, as Martins made an immediate impact with podiums in the first two sprint races in Bahrain and Jeddah.
Eight more podiums would follow, including a feature race win in Silverstone, finishing the season in 5th place and as the best rookie.
After that season, he was regarded as one of the main contenders for the 2024 title. However, his sophomore season was plagued with reliability issues and accidents, as he completed the season in 7th place. However, an F1 chance opened when Esteban Ocon announced his departure from Alpine at the end of the season.
The team opted to promote Jack Doohan instead, and later announced Franco Colapinto, Paul Aron and Ryo Hirakawa as reserves. Martins will compete in his third F2 season with ART in 2025, and with so many drivers ahead of him (while Colapinto has been rumored to be replacing Doohan soon), his F1 chances seem to be low.
The case of the champions
Felipe Drugovich and Théo Pourchaire are currently the only F2 champions to not land an F1 seat.The Brazilian made his F2 debut for MP Motorsport in the delayed 2020 season, alongside Nobuharu Matsushita, and it took him only two races to achieve his first win in Austria after starting from a reversed grid pole position. Two more wins and a podium would follow, and he finished the season in 9th place.
Moving to UNI-Virtuosi in 2021, he finished the season eighth in the standings, but with fewer points and four podiums.He returned to MP the following season, where he showed consistency and experience throughout the season, securing the title before the last round.
Drugovich then signed for Aston Martin as a reserve driver, but despite free practice and testing appearances, it doesn’t seem like the Brazilian could be promoted any time soon, with Fernando Alonso performing well, Lance Stroll having strong ties with the owners and other drivers being rumored as potential signings.
A similar case happened to Pourchaire. After his strong performance in the second half of the 2020 F3 season, where he fought for the title, the Frenchman competed in F2 for three years with ART, taking a total number of six wins and 20 podiums.
He finished fifth in his first season, second in 2022 and finally won the championship in 2023.
Pourchaire then became a test and reserve driver for Alfa Romeo, but was never promoted to a full time seat. Following both Zhou’s and Bottas’ departure from Sauber, he was rumored to take one of the spots, but the team opted to bring in the experienced Nico Hülkenberg and the newly crowned F2 champion Gabriel Bortoleto.
Now having left the Sauber academy, Pourchaire’s F1 chances seem to be over for now. Though, things can change quickly in this sport. The example of Nyck de Vries, who had to wait for three years after his championship before being given a shot at F1, can give both Drugovich and Pourchaire some optimism.
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