by Topher Smith and Alex Johnston
For this piece, Topher Smith and I are taking a look at drivers who we believe deserve a go at racing in Formula 1. We've each picked three drivers, and gone into a little bit of detail about their careers and why we believe they should be sampling F1 machinery on a regular basis.
Topher’s choices
Felix Rosenqvist
Seriously, how is it that Felix Rosenqvist hasn’t even tested a Formula 1 car?
The Swede has one of the most impressive junior careers I’ve seen. He’s won titles in Formula Renault 2.0 Asia in 2008, both Formula Renault 2.0 Sweden and Formula Renault 2.0 NEZ in 2009, won the Masters of Formula 3 and the Macau Grand Prix twice each, and obilterated the European Formula 3 Championship in 2015 against a field that featured the likes of Formula 1 stars Charles Leclerc, George Russell and Alex Albon, reigning Formula E champion Jake Dennis, and Mahaveer Raghunathan.
Following his 2015 triumph he tested GP2 machinery and looked set to move up to the final step before Formula 1, but ultimately found himself with Mahindra Racing in Formula E and from the offset was a challenger as he won races as a rookie and mounted a title challenge in his sophomore year.
Two full seasons of the all-electric series was enough for Rosenqvist to attract attention from America and Chip Ganassi signed him up for the IndyCar Series in 2019, where once again it didn’t take long for him to become a race winner.
Success has been a bit more difficult to come by for the Swede in recent years, but you take one look at his results on the way up the ladder and it begs the question: how has he not even tested a Formula 1 car?
Nick Cassidy
There is a unique place in history that Nick Cassidy holds and that is that he is the only person to have won the Japanese Triple Crown: Japanese Formula 3, Super Formula and Super GT. Add on top of that two Toyota Racing Series titles and a championship in V8SuperTourers Endurance, plus the most recent Formula E vice-champion.
Much like Rosenqvist, it baffles me that Cassidy hasn’t tested F1 machinery but in the New Zealander’s case it’s even more curious as he is a Red Bull athlete. One would have thought with his affiliation and track record that a test would be a mere formality, yet somehow it never happened.
Cassidy is just simply fast in anything he gets into. His karting career was lit up with titles and he’s won races in almost every championship he has ever entered. More recently, he won races in DTM in his first full season and has become a force to be reckoned with in Formula E, where it is expected that 2024 could see him win his first world championship.
There seems to be no signs of Cassidy letting up his form any time soon, and I’ve wondered for a while how Red Bull can still be considering options for its AlphaTauri F1 team when the Kiwi is right there and in the form of his life.
Scott Dixon
Do I really need to explain why Scott Dixon should be in F1? Alright, if you insist.
Six-time IndyCar champion. 55 race wins. 135 podiums. 32 poles. Race wins in 19 consecutive seasons. NINETEEN. The guy has talent and longevity in spades.
Of course there’s no concrete way of discerning whether that would have translated to a hypothetical Formula 1 career, but with those stats one does have to wonder what he could have achieved if Williams had taken him further, the team electing against signing him after a couple of tests because it didn’t want to employ a rookie.
If only they had known how good Dixon would turn out to be…
Alex’s choices
Jake Dennis
Formula E’s current champion gets the nod for me here. Dennis demonstrated his class in the 2022/23 season with Avalanche Andretti as he took 11 podiums and 2 wins from 16 races in a heated battle with ex-F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein and the aforementioned Nick Cassidy for the season nine title in the series.
He’s made a great career himself so far, winning in multiple series including European F3, GP3, and GT’s as well as sampling other series such as DTM and ELMS.
He’s due to make his F1 FP1 debut in Abu Dhabi and with one Red Bull and two Alpha Tauri seats potentially up for grabs at the end of 2024 for the 2025 season and Dennis actually bedded into the team as Red Bull’s Development Driver since 2019, could he actually represent an interesting and valuably experienced option for the team, so the chance hasn’t yet gone for the 28 year old Brit. Although the last time Alpha Tauri plumped for a Formula E champion, it didn’t go so well…but we’ll see.
Kyle Kirkwood
One of IndyCar’s brightest talents, Kyle Kirkwood is one of the names tipped to become an Andretti driver if and when the team actually join F1.
Kirkwood’s junior career is something to behold, as he won the title on each step of the ladder up to IndyCar - US F4 in 2017, F3 Americas Championship AND US F2000 National Championship in 2018, IndyPro 2000 Championship in 2019 and Indy Lights(now Indy NXT) in 2021 before stepping to IndyCar in 2022.
In 2023, he switched from AJ Foyt to Andretti Autosport and took two wins for the team in impressive fashion at Long Beach and at Music City, Nashville. Adding to that, he’s also collected wins in the IMSA series in America, showcasing his ability to compete in different cars.
If indeed Andretti do join Formula 1, Kirkwood may be ahead of the likes of Colton Herta for that spot on current form.
Felipe Drugovich
I’m a believer that young drivers deserve chances, especially if they actually win the feeder series championships they compete in.
Felipe Drugovich surprised a few when he joined F2 with MP Motorsport at first in 2020, given he’d never impressed at F3 level.
Immediately though, Drugovich caught the eye, winning a sprint race on the opening weekend. He’d win two more races that season, ending ninth overall and moving to partner Zhou Guanyu at Virtuosi for 2021, but failed to win a race and moved back to MP Motorsport in 2022 and seemingly felt right at home.
Drugovich would win five races, the F2 title and join the Aston Martin set up, where he is currently the reserve driver. It remains to be seen whether or not he’ll get his chance in F1 but the way in which he developed himself over a couple of years is testament to the fact that if he can apply himself and trust in his own confidence, F1 could not just be a dream, but a reality. Could he be the first GP2 or F2 champion not to race in F1 since Fabio Leimer back in 2013?
📸 Image credits: Formula Motorsport Limited, Nick Cassidy, NTT IndyCar Series.
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