Watching Le Mans 24 Hours sees forgotten name after long forgotten Formula 1 name appear on your TV screen. It is a stark reminder as to what a brutal game motor racing’s highest echelon is.
Kamui Kobayashi, who competed for Toyota, Sauber and Caterham claiming a career best third place in the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, is one example of a talented driver who should arguably still be Formula 1 but is now applying his trade in endurance racing. He is just 30.
Likewise Will Stevens, who got just 18 starts in F1 (in a slow Caterham and Manor Marussia) during 2014-2015, could have arguably been given more opportunities considering his tender years. Still only 25, the Brit won the GTE Am class last Sunday.
38-year-old Anthony Davidson (former Minardi, BAR, Super Aguri) and Kazuki Nakajima (32-years-old and a Williams driver between 2007-2009) were also in the field. Former Toro Roso driver (2009-2011) and current Formula E star Sébastien Buemi shared a Toyota at Le Mans with that duo.
Buemi, a year younger than Sebastian Vettel, does maintain a ‘test driver’ role at Red Bull but it is massively unlikely we will ever see him in competitive F1 action again. And the same can be said for another relatively young former F1 driver who was on display at Le Mans: Vitaly Petrov (Renault, Lotus, Caterham 2010-2012) who finished third in the 2011 Australian Grand Prix.
Other Le Mans 2017 drivers of interest included Bruno Senna (HRT, Lotus, Williams 2010-2012); 27-year-old Jean-Éric Vergne (Toro Rosso 2011-2014); Karun Chandok (HRT, Lotus 2010-2011) and 31-year-old Nelson Piquet jnr (Renault 2008-2009).
Unquestionably the term ‘longevity’ and ‘F1 driver’ rarely belong in the same sentence. So when rumours are abound that the F1 career of current Renault driver Jolyon Palmer is on life-support, you better believe they are true.
Now, unlike Premiership football managers, Formula 1 drivers are normally excused from the embarrassment of mid-season sackings. But, when a lack of performance is embarrassing both the driver and the team, the term ‘drastic times requires drastic measures’ comes into play. In a 28 race F1 career Palmer’s best result is a single tenth placed effort. To quantify that his current Renault teammate has bettered tenth in four of his last five starts.
But it is more than poor form figures – in practice, qualifying and races – that suggest Palmer’s days are numbered. It is news that Robert Kubica has been testing for Renault, recently completing a whopping 155 laps at Valencia, outpacing the team’s junior driver, Sergey Sirotkin, in the process.
Now aged 32, and unsighted in F1 since his 80 race career was brought to an end in February 2011, Kubica was always considered to be a driver of the highest calibre winning the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix and claiming 11 other podiums before a crash in a rally car left him partially disabled in his right arm.
Given the surplus of former F1 drivers with far less candles on their birthday cake, and with a host of young wealthy drivers always simmering in the melting pot which is GP2, Renault’s interest in Kubica with his conceived disability is intriguing.
But it is also romantic and a story Formula 1 would love to cultivate to appoint where the seed is germinated, grows and then blooms. Alas Palmer looks set to wither die – look out for him at Le Mans 2019 at the latest.
