The 6 best F1 driver swaps

Michael Schumacher – Benetton

It’s no coincidence that most of the drivers on this list became multiple-time world champions, the primary reason for any team to make a bold driver switch mid-season is because they’re aware they have an opportunity to put a genuine star in their car. That was certainly the case with a young and relatively unknown German driver who had made his name in German Formula 3 and the World Sportscar Championship.

Michael Schumacher made his debut with Jordan as the emergency replacement for the imprisoned Bertrand Gachot, but his immediate pace in a car he had hardly driven on a Spa circuit he had never raced on confirmed his immeasurable talent. In the two weeks between the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix and the following Italian Grand Prix, Benetton had made the decision to pay off Roberto Moreno to make room for Schumacher.

From that moment on he was destined to become a superstar. He finished fifth on his Benetton debut, beating his three-time champion team-mate Nelson Piquet, and he outqualified the Brazilian driver four times in five races.

It was unfortunate for Moreno, who had made his own impact at Benetton a year earlier when he replaced the injured Alessandro Nannini and finished second in his first race for the team, but there was no doubt that opting to put Schumacher in the car was the best choice for the team. The German duly repaid that trust with a pair of world championships in 1994 and ’95, and went on to become the most successful driver in F1 history.

Max Verstappen – Red Bull

By the time Max Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull, he was certainly not considered an unknown quantity. Quite the opposite in fact, the Dutchman had already been fast-tracked into F1 by Red Bull as a 17-year-old with only a single season of car racing under his belt. He spent his debut season with Toro Rosso and gradually honed his craft, becoming a regular points scorer during the second half of the season. But it was not so much his own performances as those of Daniil Kvyat that opened the door for Verstappen to step up to the Red Bull team.

Kvyat had been involved in a couple of high-profile incidents with his team-mate Sebastian Vettel, in which the German four-time champion had branded Kvyat a ‘torpedo’ for his overly aggressive overtaking attempts. The final straw for Red Bull was a double collision between Kvyat and Vettel that saw the latter end his race in the barriers at turn three.

The decision was made to swap Kvyat and Verstappen, giving the then-18-year-old a chance to prove himself in a top team for the first time. Expectations were high, but Verstappen eclipsed them all to win on his Red Bull debut with an assured drive to see off race-long pressure from Kimi Räikkönen, Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo.

He went on to take a further six podiums through the rest of 2016, and gradually developed to become the dominant force in the sport. His unprecedented run of form in 2022 and 2023 has already confirmed him as one of the most successful drivers of all time, and he still has plenty of time to achieve much more if he so wishes.

Robert Kubica – BMW Sauber

We’ll never know quite how successful Robert Kubica could have been, his terrible rally crash robbed us all of his best years, but he still did enough in his truncated career to justify Mario Theissen’s decision to call him up to a race seat at BMW in 2006.

Jacques Villeneuve was reaching the end of his own career and his performances for BMW were disappointing team bosses. He was rather unceremoniously dumped out of the team after the German Grand Prix and replaced by Test Driver Kubica. After being disqualified from seventh on debut in Hungary, it didn’t take long for him to confirm his ability with a podium finish at his third race at the Italian Grand Prix.

Over the following four seasons Kubica developed his reputation as one of the best drivers on the grid. He finished fourth in the 2008 drivers’ championship with a victory in Canada and six other podiums, and was closely linked with a move to Ferrari in 2010 before his horror-crash in Andorra.

We have no doubt that move would have materialised eventually, and chances are we would have one day referred to Robert Kubica as an F1 world champion, his impact at Sauber was certainly a precursor to that.

Sebastian Vettel – Toro Rosso

Sebastian Vettel’s career followed a strikingly similar path to Michael Schumacher. He advanced to F1 with the support of BMW, and made his debut for the German manufacturer before Red Bull exercised its contractual hold over him to bring him to Toro Rosso mid-way through the 2007 season as a replacement for Scott Speed.

Things had not worked out for the American, and after several incidents and mistakes he was released by Red Bull following the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. Vettel made a steady start for the team that sat ninth in the constructors’ championship, but he showed a first glimpse of his promise at his sixth race when he made the most of a one-stop strategy to finish fourth in the wet at the Chinese Grand Prix.

A year later, he was a regular points scorer and confirmed his stardom with a remarkable victory at the 2008 Italian Grand Prix. The Toro Rosso car was working well in more wet conditions and he won by a comfortable margin after qualifying on pole, a concept we’d get used to as his career unfolded. Two years later, Vettel won the world championship for the first time.

Mika Häkkinen – McLaren

Mika Häkkinen’s early F1 career threatened to get messy after he’d got himself onto the grid at the dwindling Lotus team. He’d dragged an uncompetitive car to several points finishes in 1992, but his next move was not immediately obvious. An admin error at Williams scuppered his chance to join the reigning constructors’ champions for ‘93, so he made approaches to both Ligier and McLaren that bosses at Lotus attempted to block. After a lengthy dispute, Häkkinen was eventually allowed to complete a move to Woking.

He joined initially as the team’s Test Driver with Ayrton Senna and Michael Andretti filling the two race seats, but Andretti’s season got off to an awful start with four consecutive incidents. While Senna was battling Alain Prost for the world title, Andretti was struggling to even finish a race. Patience with the American eventually ran out, and Ron Dennis made the decision to replace him with Häkkinen with three races of the season to go.

The Flying Finn’s impact was immediate, as he outqualified Senna at the first time of asking in Portugal, and was running strongly in third place before he crashed out on lap 32. He righted that wrong at the next opportunity with a podium finish in Japan.

Häkkinen was unfortunate that his arrival at McLaren coincided with the team’s mid-‘90s slump in form. But his patience was rewarded in 1998 when Adrian Newey designed a car that dominated the championship. He was finally able to fulfil his potential, and duly became a two-time world champion.

Franco Colapinto –Williams

It remains to be seen what impact Franco Colapinto will have on the world of F1, but the start he has made to life at Williams has been impressive. After just three races, he has already scored more points than Logan Sargeant, the man he replaced, managed in 37 races, and received notable praise from Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez for his performances on track.

Sargeant never quite got a handle on F1. He struggled to tame his Williams car, and never managed to string together a run of decent form. He was regularly half a second off the pace of his team-mate Alex Albon, and his incidents in practice and qualifying were too frequent. His big smash at Zandvoort proved to be the final straw.

Colapinto was brought in for the next race at Monza and didn’t hang around getting up to speed. He bedded himself in with a clean weekend to finish 12^th, and followed it up with points in his second race in Baku. After reaching Q3 and outqualifying Albon to start ninth, he raced well to hold off Hamilton and come home in eighth. He was right on it again in Singapore, matching Albon for pace and this time holding off Pérez for long periods before eventually having to settle for 11^th.

We know for sure Colapinto won’t be racing at Williams next year, he’s set to make way for Carlos Sainz Jr., but the fact that his name has been linked with the vacant Sauber seat for 2025 is a just reward for what has been an impressive cameo.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.