Firings, contract battles, and aborted returns: When F1's summer breaks were interesting

It's been a quiet summer in the world of Formula 1; there are just a few days left before the suncream stupor ends, and the Zandvoort weekend kicks off with a surplus of tangerine t-shirts lining the stands. Even so, there's still a chance that a healthy clod of interesting news lands on our laps and offers plenty of talking points in the Netherlands other than the usual holiday chatter. Potentially.

Let's see how today goes, shall we?

When the calendars were comprised of 16 races or fewer, F1 would play right through the summer and be sewn up by October. Nowadays, you need the full four weeks to recharge; with 24 races, long-distance triple-headers enveloped with them, the paddock folks would get burned out pretty quickly without it. 2001 brought the start of the three-week August gap to split the German and Hungarian races, which persisted until 2009 - four weeks split Hungary and Valencia. It's become a much-needed concession to those who work hardest in F1.

Indeed, the legions of teamwear-garbed personnel who work in an engineering capacity in the factory are also returning from a mandated two-week shutdown. With a cacophony of beeps, the CNC machines will have been started up this morning, and the wind tunnels will have spooled up into life after a brief inhale and a wheeze of carefully manicured airflow. Outside, a group of technicians will share a chat about the summer over a snozzberry vape and an americano - F1's factories are abuzz once again.

Although team communications, finance, and legal departments are not subject to the same shutdowns, it appears the prevailing theory has been to wait until the summer is over before indulging in the larger announcements. And why wouldn't they? Since members of comms teams will overlap on holidays, the sensible approach would be to not overload those holding the fort while colleagues take a well-earned break.

Pragmatism reigns, but one did hope that something unbelievable would disseminate into the global news streams and shatter the silence. But since that's not been particularly forthcoming, perhaps it would be more fun to delve back into the summers over the past 25 years where big stories did break before "race week" - or even, before the declaration of "race week" became a thing. Let's jump into our patented time machine and reminisce together.

2001: Alesi reunites with Jordan after Frentzen firing

Alesi was all-smiles in his reunion with EJ

Photo by: Jordan Grand Prix

Just two years before things soured in 2001, Jordan and Heinz-Harald Frentzen had looked like kindred spirits. In the Irish-registered, Silverstone-based squad, Frentzen had found a warm and familial atmosphere, one that was highly competitive but tightly bonded by years of struggle before the slow growth towards the front of the pack. In Frentzen, Jordan found a driver who was quick and committed, but needed an arm around the shoulder after a bruising two years at Williams. And, perhaps most of interest to Eddie Jordan, Frentzen was cheap.

After offering a feel-good outside bet at the 1999 title, Frentzen and Jordan subsequently went into decline. 2000's EJ10 was quick but unreliable, and the team hoped that works Honda engines for 2001 would reinstate its upward trend. Instead, the team had found itself falling behind Sauber and battling against fellow Honda-runners BAR for scraps of points. Frentzen started the year well with a shot at a podium in Melbourne, but was dumped off the road by Rubens Barrichello, and his qualifying form subsequently began to slip versus Jarno Trulli.

Jordan then sacked Frentzen days before his home grand prix at Hockenheim, promoting Ricardo Zonta into the line-up for the race. What followed was essentially a swap deal between Jordan and Prost; Jean Alesi was drafted into Frentzen's old car, and the German went the opposite way to partner Luciano Burti. "This is a dream come true," Alesi said at the time. "I won my last title with Eddie in F3000, and although there have been some chances to drive for him since, they have never become reality."

Alesi had driven with Eddie Jordan Racing during his title-winning F3000 season in 1989, but the two parted ways a race early as the French-Sicilian had already started to dovetail his year with a Tyrrell drive in F1. 12 years later, Alesi was back on the scene - in a move that was announced in the three weeks between Hockenheim and the Hungarian Grand Prix.

At Jordan, Alesi scored one point with sixth at the Belgian Grand Prix, and then bowed out from F1 after the Japanese Grand Prix as he and Kimi Raikkonen collided. Frentzen found brief refuge at Arrows for 2002 when Prost went under, before his new employers also ran out of cash; a drive with Sauber for 2003 concluded his time in F1. He now spends much of his time sharing behind-the-scenes posts of his time in F1 on The Site Formerly Known As Twitter which, for any fan of F1 in the late 90s/early 2000s, should not be missed.

2004: Williams announces Button signing for 2005

Button celebrated pole at Imola with BAR chief David Richards - then months later, were caught in a contractual wrangle

Photo by: Sutton Images

After qualifying third for the German Grand Prix in 2004, Jenson Button was hit with a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change. Regardless, Button roared through the pack and ended up capturing second - just 8.3s off Michael Schumacher. With three weeks before the next race in Hungary, Button went on his summer holiday. All seemed serene.

Thus it was a considerable surprise to everyone, especially BAR, what happened next. Button's manager John Byfield had sent BAR team principal David Richards a letter, detailing that Button would be at Williams in 2005. Indeed, Button had signed a deal with Frank Williams for 2005 to partner Mark Webber, but he'd also had an option taken up in his contract to remain at BAR.

Button contended that Williams was a works team with BMW engines, while BAR wasn't viewed as a manufacturer despite its exclusive supply of Honda engines; the Somerset native felt the manufacturer team had the best prospects. As the Briton later revealed in his book Life to the Limit, he was unaware that Williams and BMW were due to split at the end of 2005. Either way, the summer serenity had been smashed. Williams broke the news over the radio that Button was on the move - apparently, on the tip-off that BAR had planted the story in one of the following day's newspapers.

Richards, as was his wont, refused to back down; BAR was in the midst of its best season in F1 yet, and Button had been a key component of that success. Button, meanwhile, had his head turned by the idea of rejoining the team with whom he'd made his F1 debut in 2000, before being loaned out to Benetton. BAR felt that, in already possessing a signed contract for 2005, that it would easily win any battles in front of the Contracts Recognitions Board - and indeed, the CRB (we'll be hearing more from them later) decreed that Button must race for the team in 2005.

As it became apparent that BMW was plotting to leave Williams for 2006, Button no longer found this attractive. Having dispensed with Byfield's services, Button employed Richard Goddard to extricate him from the mess he'd made and keep him at BAR/Honda for 2006 and beyond. It took Button buying himself out of that contract to preserve the status quo - and avoid a sliding doors moment that may well have cost him a world title chance with the team when it later became Brawn.

2009: Schumacher plots Ferrari comeback; neck injury rules him out

Schumacher mentored Massa through 2006, and was due to replace him after the Brazilian was injured in 2009

Photo by: Mark Capilitan

Felipe Massa's horror accident at 2009's Hungarian Grand Prix, where the Brazilian was hit in the face by a loose spring from Rubens Barrichello's rear damper, had put him on the sidelines for the rest of the year while he recovered from initially life-threatening injuries.

For Ferrari, there was an obvious choice to replace Massa: seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher. The German had occupied a role as an advisor at the team - although it had long been suspected that Schumacher never wanted to retire to begin with. To fill his time, he had begun racing in the IDM Superbike series, although sustained a neck injury during a testing crash at Cartagena earlier in the season.

This injury was in recovery but, when Schumacher got the call-up to Ferrari, he hoped that the injuries sustained in Cartagena - fractures to the seventh vertebra, the base of the skull, and a left rib - would have healed in that time. Unfortunately, it was not so; long-time tester Luca Badoer thus took the seat for two races. The Italian was distinctly off the pace, however, and Giancarlo Fisichella was sprung from Force India to take the seat after his Belgium heroics.

But the situation had refuelled Schumacher's desire to get back into F1 - leading to him making a less-than-successful comeback with Mercedes in 2010.

2014: 16-year-old Verstappen signs race deal with Toro Rosso

Red Bull announced that it would place Max Verstappen in Toro Rosso's 2015 line-up in the summer of 2014 - when he was just 16

Photo by: Sutton Images

A prodigy in karting, Max Verstappen - son of ex-F1 driver Jos - had precipitated something of a tug of war during 2014. As the big F1 teams began to fill their junior ranks with future prospects, both Mercedes and Red Bull wanted to acquire Verstappen's as-then free services as the youngster impressed in his first year of F3. Red Bull's offer of a race drive for 2015 at Toro Rosso, something Mercedes was in no position to offer, had swung it.

Barely out of school, Verstappen had been racing karts the year before stepping up to F3. More pertinently, he'd leapfrogged Carlos Sainz in the Red Bull pecking order - the Spaniard was in control of that year's Formula Renault 3.5 Series, but got his shot anyway as Sebastian Vettel prompted Daniil Kvyat's promotion from Toro Rosso.

Surely, it was far too early for Verstappen. When the Limburger made his first appearance for the team in FP1 at Japan that year, he'd just turned 17 - and immediately proved he could hack it by finishing 12th in that session, 0.4s off Kvyat's time. He got two further chances in the US and Brazil, placing 10th and sixth respectively in the opening weekend practice runs.

Perhaps it wasn't the most seismic piece of news on this list, given Verstappen's path to F1 scarcely seemed in doubt, but it has arguably been the most important.

2018: Ricciardo to leave Red Bull, Alonso "retires" from F1

On your bike! Ricciardo got a fond farewell from Red Bull in 2018 - he found his way back there in 2023 as a third driver

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

This was the first big-money move to be played out on Netflix's Drive to Survive, the-then embryonic notion of an F1-themed documentary series that eventually hurled the championship into the global zeitgeist. Ricciardo, who had become Red Bull's de facto lead driver after Vettel left for Ferrari, had maintained an edge over Verstappen over their first two years together. In 2018, however, Verstappen's talent was continuing to grow and he was starting to assert himself over the perma-grinning Australian.

Ricciardo wanted number one status, and figured he wasn't going to get that at Red Bull. At the time, Red Bull had considered the Renault engines in the back of its car its Achilles heel, engines that it would soon be rid of - Honda had improved prodigiously with Toro Rosso over 2018. Thus, it was amusing from that standpoint that Ricciardo threw his lot in with Renault, much to Christian Horner's chagrin.

When Fernando Alonso announced his "retirement" from F1 a week or so later, it set off a chain of events that would later unfurl through the rest of the season. Carlos Sainz moved from Renault to McLaren, as Lando Norris was promoted to the team. Pierre Gasly was promoted up to Red Bull, as Brendon Hartley made way for the returning Daniil Kvyat. Toro Rosso also prised Alex Albon out of his Nissan Formula E contract; the Anglo-Thai had been a part of the Three Amigos that led the line in F2 that year, along with Norris and George Russell - who was blooded at Williams after winning the F2 title.

Albon made waves in the following summer, as he and Gasly swapped places ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix in 2019. As for Alonso's retirement, it lasted all of two years before he was tempted back by Alpine for a third spell at the Enstone team. He's still in F1 today at the age of 44, and in no hurry to retire for a second time.

2022: Vettel retirement, Alonso's Aston move sets up Alpine-McLaren tussle over Piastri

One last dance: Vettel celebrates the end of an F1 career that contained four titles and 53 wins

Photo by: Erik Junius

In truth, Sebastian Vettel's announcement that he would retire actually emerged during the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, but the announcement that Fernando Alonso would replace him did not land until the following Monday. Alonso had been expected to continue his deal with Alpine, but instead was lured to the Silverstone squad for the 2023 season.

Alpine thus hurried an announcement through that reserve driver Oscar Piastri would be promoted for 2023. Piastri famously refuted that with a tweet stating that he "will not be driving for Alpine next year" - and instead had been signed by McLaren in place of Daniel Ricciardo.

The CRB (they're back!) agreed with McLaren, recognising that the only contract Piastri had was with the Woking squad. It sensibly decreed that Alpine's terms sheet did not count as a contract; before Alonso forced the team's hand, it had been attempting to farm Piastri out to Williams for 2023. Rather than ensuring that its own processes were in order, Alpine took aim at Piastri (whom it had planned to leave on the sidelines) for a perceived lack of loyalty.

“When you provide so much to a driver, it's almost tradition that you get back in return the driving of that driver for you," mourned former CEO Laurent Rossi, as then-principal Otmar Szafnauer claimed that the team was better off without the Australian.

"Thinking that Oscar had a contract with us and the Contract Recognition Board saying something different was a process we had to go through," Szafnauer said in the aftermath. "We had to go to the CRB and then get a resolution. That's life, that's why you have bodies that judge in if two sides think differently.

"I'm happy that our driving pairing with Esteban [Ocon] and Pierre is better than it would have been if we had won that case."

Ricciardo agreed to depart McLaren for 2023, presumably with a hefty payoff, but found his way back into F1 midway through 2023 as he replaced Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri. Piastri's decision to link up with the papaya team has been, one could argue, moderately successful - while the chiefs who fumbled his contract at Alpine have since been replaced several times over...

Please release me, let me go: Alpine let Piastri slip through its fingers in 2022

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images