How drivers waiting in the wings can still make their presence count in F1

Remember the golden age of unlimited testing? Formula 1 teams had absolute freedom to spend their time between races pounding around Silverstone, Barcelona or Paul Ricard, such was the level of resource that went into running a separate test programme.

It was invaluable, until restrictions slowly began to creep into the regulations and effectively ended the practice on cost grounds moving into the 2010s. There’s nothing quite like the real thing, but today’s teams have simulators and test rigs to fill some of the void left by testing.  

But it means that the days of a professional test driver are long gone. An equivalent of Luca Badoer racking up tens of thousands of miles around Fiorano in the latest Ferrari, or Alex Wurz and Pedro de la Rosa trying not to crash an unsuccessfully experimental McLaren, simply do not have space to exist.

In their place, we have the nominated reserve driver: those who sit on the sidelines, kept match-fit in a simulator or in Testing of Previous Cars runs, but apparently spend their days staring wistfully at a screen, clouded by their desire to be one of the lucky 22 to sit at the F1 table. Yet they must be ready to jump in at a moment’s notice, lest illness or ill-fortune befall one of their team’s main drivers.  

We can boil down the categories of reserve driver to two different profiles: one is the battle-hardened professional, with tons of F1 experience but temporarily without a drive as the previous year’s driver market didn’t shake out as planned. The other is the precocious youngster, perhaps a top performer in F2 but unable to carve a way into F1 as a result of market forces – or with links to a junior programme with no immediate route into the main team. 

But there’s more to their role than sitting around and waiting for a free seat to appear. It’s part of the job, sure, but there’s plenty to do between thumb-twiddles to keep them occupied… and, crucially, hungry for any opportunities that come their way. 

Mercedes reserve Bottas took on mentor-style role for 2025 F1 rookie Antonelli

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / LAT Images via Getty Images

The duties expected will vary depending on the driver’s experience. If they’re a seasoned pro and well-versed in the ways of F1, the way that they work won’t differ too much: they’ll help out on the simulator, work with the engineers, suggest ideas for set-up direction, and add to the driver feedback.

Take Valtteri Bottas, for example; once he’d lost his Sauber drive, Mercedes leaned on him for a year to help its development back at base and also operate as something of a mentor to then-rookie Kimi Antonelli.  

When the Italian hit something of a slump in his first year, Bottas helped him navigate the noise. Back then, Antonelli credited Bottas with being “always there for me, trying to give me advice, especially when he sees that I’m struggling a little bit”, using the Japanese Grand Prix weekend as an example.

Bottas also fulfilled something of an ambassadorial role, as had Daniel Ricciardo during the Australian’s six-month stint as Red Bull’s official ‘third’ driver

In his first visit to Suzuka, Antonelli had been over a second down on George Russell in FP3, and consulted the Finn in the lead-up to qualifying. Net result: Antonelli cut that gap to under 0.25s at the close of Q3.

Bottas also fulfilled something of an ambassadorial role, as had Daniel Ricciardo during the Australian’s six-month stint as Red Bull’s official ‘third’ driver; there is an element of sponsorship gladhanding to a non-race role, especially for a well-known and well-liked figure. 

For those drivers who suit the young up-and-comer profile, the roles reverse to some degree. In this situation, a more youthful reserve will be present at driver meetings and given the opportunity to soak up the exchange of ideas like a sponge. During Ollie Bearman’s reserve days at Haas, his presence and his feedback – especially in FP1 outings – impressed Haas boss Ayao Komatsu to the point where his F2 results at an off-the-boil Prema Racing were almost an irrelevance.  

Lawson, here in Singapore, did a great job during his 2023 five-race AlphaTauri stint

Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images

The Briton demonstrated that, beyond TPC runs and the occasional FP1 outing, it’s important for the reserve driver in question to show their proactivity and attempt to understand everything about how the team operates. McLaren reserve Leonardo Fornaroli – the reigning F2 champion – has impressed team boss Andrea Stella in a similar fashion. 

“We have appreciated massively his attitude as a person and as a driver,” says Stella. “He is actually a very interesting character. He looks timid but by far he is the most proactive driver in asking the engineers, he goes around with his notebook, takes notes and as soon as he has an idea he shares it.  

“When he gets in a car, be it a simulator, or in the TPC testing car or here in an FP1 session, he is fast. I am very happy with the aptitude, the speed, the consistency, and Leonardo is certainly an asset for Formula 1 in the future.” 

Sometimes, a reserve driver will get the chance to put themselves in the shop window, and it is imperative that they seize it. Nico Hulkenberg did just that with Racing Point back in 2020. After losing his Renault drive, Hulkenberg did a sterling job as deputy when Sergio Perez and, later, Lance Stroll were ruled out of a handful of races with COVID. 

The first of two Silverstone races was a miss after he lost the use of the clutch before the formation lap, but the German then qualified third at the following week’s 70th Anniversary GP, later finishing seventh. He then finished eighth as a replacement for Stroll at the Nurburgring, and two years later demonstrated that he still had ‘it’ when replacing an ill Sebastian Vettel. Would he have got the Haas drive, and the later move to Audi, without that?  

Liam Lawson similarly impressed when replacing Ricciardo at AlphaTauri in 2023, outqualifying Yuki Tsunoda in his third outing at Singapore and later finishing ninth to secure his first brace of F1 points. The Kiwi did such a good job over his five-race spell that he was called up again at the end of 2024 to replace Ricciardo at the team – now RB, later Racing Bulls – for good. After just 11 races, Lawson was driving for Red Bull – but that precipitous rise did not end particularly well and he went back to the Faenza squad. 

Hulkenberg proved his worth at Racing Point, qualifying third for the 2020 70th Anniversary GP

Photo by: LAT Images via Getty Images

If a driver manages to upgrade a once-in-a-lifetime chance into a full race drive, they must continue to impress or risk an earlier-than-planned exit. This was the fate of Stoffel Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries; both former McLaren juniors, the two had startlingly good debut races as deputies, but never kept the ball rolling once a full-time seat became available.

Vandoorne outqualified Jenson Button when covering for an injured Fernando Alonso at the 2016 Bahrain GP, en route to finishing 10th. But once the Belgian got to the big time, he never set the world alight – and the same was true of de Vries, called up to Williams for the 2022 Italian GP when Alex Albon was suffering with appendicitis. 

There, de Vries qualified 13th, ahead of team-mate Nicholas Latifi, started eighth thanks to a spate of grid penalties, and used the straightline prowess of the Williams FW44 to clinch a stunning ninth on his debut. This almost single-handedly earned him a role at AlphaTauri for 2023 to replace Pierre Gasly, but he was consistently beaten by Tsunoda and was prised out of his seat after 10 races by a returning Ricciardo. 

Tsunoda had no real-world experience of the new cars, and now had to acclimatise to the smaller, lower-grip machines and the complex hybrid systems onboard

When Tsunoda lost his F1 drive at Red Bull to Isack Hadjar at the close of 2025, the team valued the Japanese driver’s inputs enough to keep him around as a reserve. He was hence in the same position that Albon had to contend with over 2021, waiting in the wings for an opportunity to return to the grid, which arrived when Hadjar fractured his wrist in training prior to the Dutch GP. Lawson was whisked out of his Racing Bulls drive to replace his former team-mate, elevating Tsunoda into the now-vacant seat. 

Tsunoda had no real-world experience of the new cars, developed to the 2026 engine regulations. He’d left F1 having largely driven cars capable of generating terrifying levels of load in high-speed corners, and now had to acclimatise to the smaller, lower-grip machines and the complex hybrid systems onboard.

He had a ballpark idea of what to do once strapped into the VCARB 03 thanks to his efforts in the simulator, which yielded an impressive run at Zandvoort where he qualified just a tenth shy of Arvid Lindblad – and ran in the top 10 until Gasly snatched back the final point on offer. 

Bearman greatly impressed Komatsu with his feedback and attitude at Haas in 2024

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“Physically and in terms of my mind, I think I was sharp enough,” says Tsunoda. “I was training almost every day for a long time. I’ve done four TPCs and within that, I was doing five races. I had a good experience and good laps in those TPCs. 

“I was around the track quite a lot this year with Red Bull Racing. I wasn’t necessarily giving lots of feedback to them because I was more with the engineers receiving the feedback from the drivers. I was involved in every meeting and if I found something different with my perspective, I would say something. But it’s more like just being around, watching what they’re doing and doing simulator sessions to understand the regulations.” 

It’s true that a reserve role is certainly not a guarantee of a future race drive in F1 – just ask Theo Pourchaire or Felipe Drugovich – but it’s not the consolation prize that many perceive it to be. As Bottas has shown, his year at Mercedes as a reserve was the springboard back onto the grid with Cadillac. Esteban Ocon managed the same trajectory to land a Renault seat in 2020, and Albon replaced George Russell at Williams after a year spent on the sidelines with Red Bull. 

A year behind the scenes can often be beneficial to a driver who has lost their seat, offering them a new perspective on a team dynamic and new ways to contribute to the overall goal of developing F1’s fastest car – or supporting the next wave of talents. It’s a chance to show that they deserve to be back on the grid or, for a potential newcomer, a chance to demonstrate their value to a potential suitor and increase their negotiating power if a seat opens up. 

As Tsunoda says, “it’s definitely better having this opportunity, rather than not having any opportunity”. And, for a driver like Fornaroli – and Bearman before him – having a year as a reserve opens up opportunities to test F1-level machinery and become fully ‘embedded’ in a real-life F1 environment. At the very least, it ensures a driver has a foot in the door…

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the October 2026 issue and subscribe today.

Red Bull’s regular crowd-pleasing demos (here in a 2011 RB7 in San Francisco) are all part of Tsunoda’s job

Photo by: Chris Tedesco/Red Bull Content Pool