Which F1 driver should compete in another category and where?

Verstappen in the WRC – Stuart Codling

Verstappen’s spectacular driving style is tailor-made for the World Rally Championship

Photo by: Tomasz Kaliński

With due apologies to the legions of gravel fans out there, what the rally world needs right now is a driver with massive talent, commitment and work ethic… but considerably younger than Sebastien Ogier.

Let’s face it, the fact that 41-year-old Seb recently took the lead of the 2025 World Rally Championship, despite running a part-time campaign, is a telling indictment.

Yes, Kimi Raikkonen didn’t exactly move the dial during his WRC ‘holiday’ in 2010-11. Trundling in towards the back end of the top 10 – or even outside – wasn’t quite what either the Kimster, his fans, or the WRC promoter wanted.

But his problem wasn’t want of talent, it was – close your ears, Raikkonen cultists – lack of work ethic and a failure to grasp that rallying means getting up early in the morning. His co-driver used to have to keep a stock of energy bars in the cockpit to keep Kimi awake.

What Max Verstappen would bring isn’t just a superbly reactive talent at the wheel, and a spectacular driving style, he would boss the boring-but-necessary stuff that is what separates the greats from the merely goods. He’d do his due diligence on the recce – probably wouldn’t even need a co-driver.

And perhaps that would be for the best – because, as we know, Verstappen has a bit of a short fuse. As a WRC pilot he would follow Francois Delecour in the grand tradition of greeting imperfect pacenote recitation with a tongue-lashing, but would he go as far as Gigi Galli and throw punches? It would be fascinating to see…

Leclerc to Le Mans – Kevin Turner

Ferrari is dear to Leclerc’s heart – and he’s already hinted at an enthusiasm for the world’s greatest enduro…

Photo by: Rainier Ehrhardt

Charles Leclerc’s love for Ferrari is clear and the marque has a ready-made frontrunner in the World Endurance Championship. The 499P Hypercar has won the last three Le Mans 24 Hours and, given Leclerc’s frustrations with the Italian team’s Formula 1 machinery, it could be a good boost for everyone to have a successful foray to the Circuit de la Sarthe.

Sportscar racing is growing in stature again at the moment, with several ex-F1 drivers part of the many manufacturer-backed programmes, and Leclerc has hinted at his enthusiasm before, so it all adds up.

There’s a stupid clash between the Canadian Grand Prix and Le Mans next year (why, why?!), so perhaps this is one for the future. Or maybe, if things aren’t looking good for Ferrari in the first year of the new F1 regulations, Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton might quite like the idea of being somewhere else come the middle of June…

Aside from winning an F1 title for Ferrari – and perhaps the Italian GP, which Leclerc has already done – it doesn’t get much better than winning Le Mans. Leclerc has long since shown that he has got on top of the tyre preservation and relentless race pace that are crucial in the WEC, and he’s already proven himself to be a good team player.

Plus, who wouldn’t want to see the eight-time GP winner really on it during qualifying around the high-speed 8.5-mile circuit? 

Russell in IndyCar – Marcus Simmons

Russell is a natural for IndyCar’s street tracks and the challenge of its ovals

Photo by: Penske Entertainment

Long before his F1 career, George Russell did a very special thing. Darkness was not far away on a late Friday afternoon in Macau; there were even some spits of rain.

Yet the then-18-year-old reeled off two laps in his Hitech GP Dallara-Mercedes quicker than the best anyone else managed to secure pole position for the Macau Grand Prix. Not only that, but he completed the sinuous mountain sector almost half a second faster than anyone had ever managed before in that era of F3.

Russell’s skill in threading his car so exquisitely across that sector suggests he would take to IndyCar’s street tracks like a duck to water. Similarly, the finesse required through the two kinks at the start of the Guia Circuit’s lap lends itself naturally to oval racing. And, as we’ve seen in the years since in F1, he’s a natural on road courses too.

Russell is ferociously intelligent out of the cockpit, and his comfort in taking on cerebral challenges is ideal for the strategy required for IndyCar success. ‘Can you eke out a couple more laps on the fuel? Can you make these tyres last?’ No problem. Here is potentially the natural successor to Scott Dixon – once his F1 career is over, of course.

Things didn’t go quite so well for Russell in Macau in the races. Hitech found its cars lacking in straightline speed, and he fell down the order to finish seventh. But he did a lot better with that team than would a certain Spaniard named Alex Palou in 2018.

Alonso in the BTCC – Jake Boxall-Legge

F1, Indy, Le Mans, Daytona, Dakar… The BTCC remains missing from Alonso’s CV

Photo by: JEP

Outside of F1, Fernando Alonso has driven in the Indianapolis 500, the Le Mans 24 Hours, the Daytona 24 Hours and the Dakar Rally. There really isn’t much that the veteran Spaniard hasn’t done across his 25-plus years in racing, although there’s one arena that comes to mind that he’s yet to become ensconced within. 

Here’s the premise: Nigel Mansell left F1 to race Indycars, with considerable success when he won the 1993 title in a Newman-Haas Lola. When 1994 wasn’t going quite so well, Mansell returned to F1 with Williams to seat-swap with David Coulthard after Ayrton Senna’s death, departed again part-way through 1995 after that disastrous McLaren stint, and then ended up in the British Touring Car Championship in 1998 – also with limited success [though everyone remembers Donington Park in the wet! – ed]. 

If Alonso wants to consider himself as one of the great multi-discipline racers of his time (he already is, but let’s stick with the jesting nature of this hypothetical) then he’s got to prove himself in tin-tops.

It’s the sort of lift the BTCC needs: someone with a massive profile to draw huge crowds, trade paint with Ashley Sutton and Tom Ingram at Croft, and complain that his hatchback wasn’t given the requisite space at Clervaux.

Yes, Alonso’s reputation would paint a colossal target on his back, but he’d surely relish getting stuck in on proper circuits with his brand of sarcasm and swashbuckling antics. Let’s hope that Jason Plato has the two-time champion’s number…

This article is one of many in the monthly Autosport magazine. For more premium content, take a look at the November 2025 issue and subscribe today. 

Verstappen had to compete in a GT4 Porsche Cayman at the Nurburgring in order to gain a licence for his GT3 race debut

Photo by: Nürburgring GmbH