Daniel Ricciardo is the latest driver to be released, with Liam Lawson replacing him for the rest of the season. Photo courtesy of F1.
NHU-HAN BUI | STAFF REPORTER | hbui@butler.edu
Overtime, or “OT,” is an opinion column series where the Collegian takes national sports headlines or polarizing topics and gives them a Butler-centric angle.
The driver market — nicknamed “driver carousel” for the constant rotation of drivers — is always a hot topic in Formula 1 (F1). With ten teams and 20 seats on the grid, competition for a chance to race in F1 is high. Reserve drivers languish on the sidelines as they wait for an opportunity to come their way.
During the month-long summer break and the offseason, the grid enters what fans call “silly season,” aptly named for the rumors that surround teams and drivers as they enter contract talks and negotiations. However, this does not restrict teams from changing drivers at any point during the regular season.
Mid-season driver changes are not rare in F1. In a fast-paced sport where teams constantly upgrade their cars for a better chance at points, not keeping up means falling behind as others get faster. Sometimes, keeping up means releasing drivers and finding new ones.
The latest case of the driver carousel came after Visa Cash App RB (VCARB) dropped Daniel Ricciardo just four days after the Singapore Grand Prix on Sept. 26. Fans were given no announcement that this would be Ricciardo’s last grand prix, but there was heavy speculation that he would no longer be on the grid after post-race interviews showed him tearing up.
With Ricciardo being one of the most beloved and well-known drivers on the grid, the announcement caused heavy frustration and sadness throughout the community. However, for VCARB, this is nothing new.
Racing as Minardi before being bought by Red Bull, VCARB has been known as Toro Rosso and AlphaTauri in the past and operates as a sister team to Red Bull Racing. Red Bull has become notorious for switching drivers in and out of their teams throughout the years, promoting whoever they believe will give them a better shot at points.
The most notorious case was when then-rookie Alex Albon joined Toro Rosso in 2019. After 12 races, he was promoted to the Red Bull team to replace Pierre Gasly. Gasly was also promoted to Red Bull at the start of the season to replace none other than Ricciardo, who chose to leave after five years with the team. With Max Verstappen as Red Bull’s prioritized driver, the team wanted to consider lineup options for the future but their decision to demote Gasly was met with heavy criticism.
Junior P1 pharmacy major Ally Barath dislikes the constant change of drivers at the Red Bull teams and believes the drivers are not given enough time to grow.
“I just [cannot] be a fan of a team that constantly does not support their drivers’ development,” Barath said. “They put [a new driver] in the car and if they suck, they’re gone [and] someone else is in. That is not how you [develop] a good driver, you have to stick with someone.”
However, mid-season driver changes can also be justified by teams if a driver is not performing well or produces results that are significantly worse than their teammates. Logan Sargeant was another driver released during this season, with Williams dropping him for Formula 2 (F2) and academy driver Franco Colapinto.
Joining the team during the 2023 season, Sargeant struggled during his time at Williams. Over 37 races, he only scored one point — which came after two post-race disqualifications boosted him to 10th — compared to teammate Albon’s haul of 31 points. While he continued to come close to points, the team ultimately decided to drop him after one and a half seasons. His results have been subpar compared to Albon and his penchant for crashing has cost the team money and time.
Many teams make driver changes in cases similar to Sargeant’s. If a team finds themselves starting to trail behind, they look at the car first. If the car isn’t the problem, then all eyes turn to the drivers.
Ricciardo came to VCARB in the 2023 season to replace rookie Nyck de Vries, who was dropped after 10 races. Even though he missed five races with a broken wrist, he was able to keep up with teammate Yuki Tsunoda, scoring six points in seven races. However, during the 2024 season, the situation changed. Ricciardo only scored 12 points in 15 races compared to Tsunoda’s 22. In the end, the team called time on his season and brought in reserve driver Liam Lawson.
In a sport where the stakes are already high, the added pressure of possibly being dropped can be detrimental to drivers’ mental health. Although bad performances can also be attributed to factors outside of their control, the blame all falls on the driver in the end.
Liesl Rozeboom, a sophomore psychology, neuroscience and German triple major feels that while the car can be blamed for performance issues, the pressure still affects drivers negatively.
“Not performing well, you can attribute part of it to having a bad car, but at the end of the day [teams] do reserve the right to boot people off,” Rozeboom says. “[And] I’m sure that’s scary. I feel like [the pressure] could also motivate them to do better but as far as mental health goes, it could be a slippery slope.”
Barath also agrees that pressure can affect them negatively, but thinks that drivers who perform well and build a strong reputation for garnering podiums will feel less of a burden to mess up.
“[For] someone like Max Verstappen [who won three championships in a row and] will have a seat for as long as he wants, I think the stress definitely decreases because if you mess up one or two races, teams are still going to want you,” Barath said. “But that goes to making a positive name for yourself, like Max or Lewis Hamilton, all those people who you know are going to have a seat.”
While the changes are difficult decisions for teams, drivers and fans, there is also a silver lining. When changing drivers, teams usually opt for a junior driver in their driver development program. For those younger drivers, this is their chance to show they have what it takes for a seat in F1.
Senior biology major Sara Hunstad thinks that while mid-season driver changes can be unfair, they are necessary because they give junior drivers a chance to show they have what it takes.
“It’s the same as benching someone [in any other sport],” Hunstad said. “At the same time, when it’s just two people on a team that’s very high profile, it’s a high-pressure situation. Part of why it needs to happen [is because] there’s a lot of young drivers [and] mid-season driver changes are their first chance to show their skills at a [F1] level. [Since] driver contracts are multi-year, there’s not a lot of room to get into F1 so [driver changes] offer a lot of opportunity for [a seat].”
Lawson has been a reserve driver for both Red Bull teams since 2022 and saw success in Formula 3 (F3), F2 and Japanese racing series Super Formula. After Ricciardo’s injury, he was able to sub in for five races and surprised everyone by beating Tsunoda in four of the five races. If he delivers the same level of results for the last six races of this season, Lawson presents a strong case for why he deserves an F1 seat.
Drivers should also be given an ample amount of time to prove themselves worthy of a seat. Red Bull gave de Vries and Gasly only 12 and 10 races respectively and neither had enough time to adjust to the car before they were gone. On the other hand, Sargeant was given one and a half seasons and saw little improvement.
“I think teams should wait until at least halfway through the season,” Barath said. “And even then, I feel like [the driver] has to be significantly worse than their teammate to be booted. If all the fans were thrown out of loop [from the change] then I think it’s bad.”
While fans can disagree and criticize the decision to change drivers, the teams are ultimately responsible for making changes that they believe will help them win or prevent them from falling further behind. While we have not seen the last mid-season change, hopefully, teams will give drivers ample time to adjust to the fast-paced and high-pressure environment in the future before deciding that it’s time.
