Nov 20, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Visa Cash App RB driver Liam Lawson (30) during media availabilities at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

formula-1

Sacked! A History of Shortest Formula 1 Driver Stints

Take a look at some drivers who could not achieve a long career in Formula 1.

Nov 20, 2024; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Visa Cash App RB driver Liam Lawson (30) during media availabilities at Las Vegas Circuit. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Liam Lawson lost his seat at Red Bull Racing in the 2025 Formula 1 season. Lawson was a rookie talent who emerged as one of the best in F1. In his inital stint as a replacement driver, Liam Lawson was making moves. He raced in the much slower and underdeveloped VCARB car to bring in points for the team when needed. Lawson got a chance to partner Yuki Tsunoda in the latter half of the 2025 Formula 1 season. He managed to compete fair and square against the Japanese driver even beating him on many occassions.

Red Bull decided to choose Liam Lawson for the vacant seat beside Max Verstappen in 2025. Lawson has lost his seat after underperforming in two races for Red Bull. He will join Racing Bulls for the remainder of the season, starting at the 2025 Japanese Grand Prix. Yuki Tsunoda will pilot the Red Bull in his stead.

Formula 1 is considered a very competitives sport. There are many drivers who have faced unreasonable and harsh results in their F1 career. Out of these drivers, some drivers face a brutal defeat mid-season. They are sacked from the team and never called upon again. In a sport as cut-throat as Formula 1 its not easy for an unerperforming driver to keep his seat. Liam Lawson has officially join the list of such drivers. He has faced a terrible disappointment which can arguably become the defining moment of his career.

But, Liam Lawson is not the only one to face such a fate in the “pinnacle of motorsports”. Here are five drivers who had the shortest F1 stints of their career-

5. Nyck De Vries (AlphaTauri- 10 races)

If you were to sum up Nyck De Vries’s open-wheel racing career in a nutshell. It would look something like this-

Wins Formula E championship
Wins Formula 2 championship
Joins Red Bull Junior team in Formula 1
Underperforms and leaves

Nyck De Vries technically suffered the same fate as his peer Liam Lawson. He came in as a substitute driver for AlphaTauri and Williams in the 2022 season. De Vries scored points for Williams in absence of their trump card. Unfortunately, he caught Red Bull’s attention. In a magnificient display of cruelty, Red Bull sacked him from their underperforming junior team. His crime? Not being able to perform well against Yuki Tsunoda for the first half of the season. De Vries was hailed as the driver who suffered worst due to Red Bull, until Lawson’s arrival.

4. Yuki Ide (Super Aguri- 4 races)

At the age of 31, Yuki was the oldest rookie of the Formula 1 grid in 2006. But to the utter dismay of F1 community, not everybody can perform like Fernando Alonso at the age of 31. His team boss went from appreciating him to outright blaming his racing. Ide used to understand English more than he understood his own F1 car (he didn’t understand both). Yuki Ide spent his first few races spinning out and creating a new racing line. However, FIA decided that they had enough. Immediately, he found himself with a revoked Super License from FIA (imagine being so bad, you earn a ban).

3. Luca Badoer (Ferrari- 2 races)

Luca Badoer can be considered a prince whom even Tifosi couldn’t crown. Ferrari drivers have a knack for becoming the favorites. Ferrari may have disappointed their fans, but Tifosi still support them with loyalty. For the Tifosi- “Ferrari is the religion and Monza is their temple”. However, even this loyal fanbase could not support Badoer. He filled as Felipe Massa’s replacement. Massa is no slouch and he was the favorite for winning the 2007 driver’s championship. Naturally, it was expected that Luca would be on par with him as his replacement. However, unlike Massa, Badoer simply finished last and second last in a race as his replacement. Its fortunate that Ferrari let him go, otherwise, who knows what would happen to their fans in the concurrent races.

2. Markus Winkelhock (Spyker- 15 laps)

There are short F1 stints and there are smaller F1 stints. Next up, we have the penultimate level of failed F1 stints. Markus Winkelhock’s F1 career can only be described for one sentence. He raced at the European Grand Prix in his debut race in 2007. He was also leading the race before making a wet tyre gamble due to rain. A hydraulic failure meant that his car retired after 15 laps (so did he).

1. Andre Lotterer (Caterham- 1 lap)

Andre Lotterer raced at the Belgian Grand Prix replacing Kamui Kobayashi. He started the race and retired after the first lap. That’s it- what more do you expect.

But no, Lotterer is actually a celebrity in World Endurance Racing. He is a three-time champion of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and two-time World Endurance Champion. Maybe, he just faced bad luck in a car without roof.

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I work as a Writer at The Playoffs specialising in NHL, Formula 1 and Motorsports. I got into online journalism a couple of years ago. I used to be an intern for a website managing their Formula 1 content and then I served an entire year as a contractual writer.