The past figures F1’s returning drivers will hope not to emulate

Nikita Mazepin’s departure from the Haas Formula 1 team amid the fallout of the continued conflict in Ukraine brought an unexpected reprieve for Kevin Magnussen.

After 119 grand prix starts with McLaren, Renault and Haas, never bettering the second place he managed on debut in the 2014 Australian Grand Prix, Magnussen’s F1 career looked to have run its course by the end of 2020. Dropped by Haas boss Gunther Steiner, the Dane appeared set to follow his father Jan into a long career in sportscars.

But having cut ties with the Peugeot World Endurance Championship team and Chip Ganassi Racing in IMSA for what has been described as a multi-year deal with Haas, the 29-year-old now has a second shot at F1 – which is afforded to precious few drivers who slip off the grid. Following two points-scoring finishes in Bahrain and Jeddah, Magnussen has shown that not only did Haas spend 2021 wisely, but that he still has the talent to shine at the top level.

However, whereas Haas appears to have lifted itself off the bottom rung, the same cannot be said of Williams. Like Magnussen, Alex Albon has been given a lifeline back into F1 following a season in the DTM. So far, likely more due to a less than efficient car than his clear talent, he hasn’t shone, and blotted his copybook by clashing with Lance Stroll in the closing laps in Jeddah to earn himself a three-place grid penalty for Melbourne. Albon has, however, outperformed his team-mate Nicholas Latifi – who has been on a poor run of form that has earned him plenty of criticism.

The Canadian’s late crash in last year’s Abu Dhabi finale caused the safety car which swung the outcome of the title battle – although the actions of race direction that followed wasn’t his fault – and his second accident of the weekend in Jeddah after shunting out of Q1 also cost Sergio Perez what might have been a fine win.

Both Magnussen and Albon will need to keep up the pressure on their respective team-mates if they are to avoid joining the number of talented drivers down the years who, despite their ability, never quite made it at motorsport’s pinnacle and ran out of opportunities to get into better machinery.

Alex Albon had a tough Saudi Arabian GP, picking up a three-place grid penalty for a clash with Lance Stroll that he will serve at the Australian GP

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

I worked with several drivers that fit into this category. In some cases, their F1 careers were thwarted by problems beyond their control, although usually middling to poor machinery was a factor too. Many of them however did go on to achieve great success afterwards.

One of these is Emanuele Pirro, who is now a good friend of mine. We spent the two great McLaren years of 1988 and 1989 testing every two weeks or so in Japan, either at Suzuka or Fuji. A race-winner in Formula 3000, finishing third in 1985 and 1986, he had been snapped up by Ron Dennis to be a partner to Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. His feedback to both me, as the McLaren test engineer, and Honda was invaluable as we strived to develop both the V6 turbo engine and then the normally-aspirated V10, while also honing the chassis as new parts came along.

In 1989 Emanuele was recruited by Benetton to replace Johnny Herbert, who was then still struggling with his injuries from his 1988 Brands Hatch F3000 crash. But he found it hard to be competitive in an unreliable car and only scored two points at that year’s sodden final race in Adelaide. Spending two more largely fruitless years with the Scuderia Italia-Dallara team, scoring only one more point for sixth at Monaco in 1991, didn’t help his cause and spelt the end of his F1 career. However, it is well known that he used his talents to great effect in both touring cars and sportscars afterwards, going on to win the Le Mans 24 hours five times for Audi.

Unfortunately, Yannick seemed to have forgotten this advice and came in too fast, locking his brakes and taking out the refuelling rig and one of the mechanics. I will never forget the look on Keke’s face, who was waiting to take over the driving!

Unlike Emanuele, I first encountered Yannick Dalmas in sportscars when he was employed by Peugeot Talbot Sport to drive the 905 Group C sportscar. The 1986 French Formula 3 champion, Yannick had spent three uncompetitive years in F1 at the wheel of Larrousse and AGS cars when an unfortunate bout of legionnaires disease effectively finished his F1 career for good – although he made a mini comeback with Larrousse for two races in 1994.

Once I got to know Yannick, I realised that apart from being an extremely likeable character, he was somewhat unsure of his own talent. He needed a lot of reassurance and encouragement to achieve the best results. His team-mate during the first year that I worked at Peugeot in 1991 was 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg, who had been tempted out of retirement to help.

At one of the first races that year, we were racing at Monza using the fairly new pit complex, which had for some reason a band of concrete just outside the front of the garages. I had warned Yannick, who had started the race, that the concrete was quite slippery and to be careful when making his pitstop. Unfortunately, he seemed to have forgotten this advice and came in too fast, locking his brakes and taking out the refuelling rig and one of the mechanics. I will never forget the look on Keke’s face, who was waiting to take over the driving!

However, Yannick redeemed himself in 1992. Partnered by Derek Warwick, he became the World Sportscar champion and scored the first of his four Le Mans victories along with Mark Blundell. He remains involved in racing today, driving one of the safety cars in World Endurance Championship events.

Yannick Dalmas endured a tough time in F1 but went on to find great success in sportscars

Photo by: Motorsport Images

When I returned to F1 in 1993 after working for Peugeot, I first worked with Jordan – but the turnover rate that year was immense as we had Thierry Boutsen, Marco Apicella, Emanuele Naspetti and Eddie Irvine rotating through the second car. Boutsen had been one of my drivers in the Peugeot at Le Mans that year and had asked me to engineer him at Jordan to help out a certain young engineer by the name of Andy Green. Unfortunately, this was to be the swansong of Boutsen’s F1 career, and it finally ended when his clutch failed on the grid at the Belgian GP. We know that Irvine went on to great things at Ferrari, but sadly Apicella and Naspetti, thrown in at the deep end, floundered.

When I joined Sauber for 1994, I was assigned to engineer Karl Wendlinger, a tall Austrian driver who had showed real promise the previous season after a difficult 1992 at March. The 1989 German F3 champion, Karl had emerged as one of the stars in the Mercedes junior team, along with Michael Schumacher and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. He and Michael had been driving the Mercedes C291 in Group C when I was working at Peugeot, so we had already crossed paths. Things started well with a sixth place finish in Brazil and he came close to catching Mika Hakkinen for third in the tragic San Marino GP.

He was a very talented driver but unfortunately, our relationship didn’t last for long. His accident at the next race in Monaco could not have come at a worse time, as despite forced changes to the car following Imola, I felt that we were making progress with the set-up.

During practice, when exiting the tunnel, he moved too far to the right-hand side of the track to get a good line through the chicane and clipped the kerb with his right-rear wheel. This broke the rim and deflated the tyre, which sent him sideways into the barrier next to the escape road. The barrier had been protected by big plastic containers that should have been filled with water – but were not. The impact caused the car to tip sideways and Karl’s helmet hit the top of the guardrail, putting him into a coma.

He eventually recovered from his injuries, but it was clear when he came back to do a test with Sauber later that year that he had lost his confidence. After a few disappointing outings in 1995, he lost his drive – but had great success upon heading back to sportscars, winning the Daytona 24 Hours outright in a Viper GT car in 2000 and also taking Le Mans class honours twice. I met him again a few years later and was pleased to see that his personality had not changed one bit.

One hopes that Williams can sort its tricky FW44 car to give Albon the same chance as Magnussen to prove himself. George Russell wrung the neck of last year’s steed to frequently put it further up the grid and earn himself a move to Mercedes. Time will tell if either of F1 2022’s returning drivers will be able to find their way into a top car…

Karl Wendlinger's F1 career was effectively curtailed by his horrific Monaco GP crash in 1994

Photo by: Sutton Images