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The Abu Dhabi GP saw three drivers potentially racing their last race in F1, with another having seen his career in F1 end in flames a couple of races before. Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, Alex Albon and Romain Grosjean are the names in question, joining several others (Hulkenberg, Alonso, Vandoorne, Ericsson, Hartley, Sirotkin and Kubica) to have departed from the grid since the end of 2018.

Of those, only Fernando Alonso has been able to secure a return to the sport on a full-time basis, returning to the Enstone team for 2021. So my question is a simple one: of the other ten, will we see any of them driving full-time (so excluding Hulkenberg-esque substitute appearances) in F1 again?

Quick heads up: Thread title might cause people to vote the opposite way round

I voted Hulkenberg, with the only real possibility for me in joining alongside Schumacher at HAAS, or replacing Kimi at Sauber. Those are two real options. I think the rest, like many drivers in the past, will whistle away and pursue other interests. I really hope Vandoorne gets another go, but where would he realistically go? Maybe Williams considering his ties with Mercedes, but would he even take that?

I think Hulkenberg's opportunity has come and gone sadly. All the teams decided that there were better options available, and once that happens and you're past a certain age it's hard to see it not continuing to be the case in future years.

I'd be looking at which seats are potentially vulnerable and where the teams might look for a replacement. In this regard I think the most likely returnee would be Albon to Alpha Tauri if Tsunoda flops or if Gasly decides to pursue opportunities elsewhere, with his performances attracting admirers and the door to the senior team looking firmly shut for him.

Other teams I expect would pick up one of the emerging talents from F2 or a current driver who's left another team.

Schumacher forever#1 wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 13, 2021 5:52 pm

Quick heads up: Thread title might cause people to vote the opposite way round

I voted Hulkenberg, with the only real possibility for me in joining alongside Schumacher at HAAS, or replacing Kimi at Sauber. Those are two real options. I think the rest, like many drivers in the past, will whistle away and pursue other interests. I really hope Vandoorne gets another go, but where would he realistically go? Maybe Williams considering his ties with Mercedes, but would he even take that?

Guilty.

I don't think we'll see any if these full-time again.

I think probably Albon, and only Albon. But it could easily be none of them.

I don’t see any of them being good enough or rich enough to get back in. We’ve seen plenty of talented drivers pushed out over the years by silly season musical chairs. Hulk is the best of the bunch and without a couple of Covid cases he’d be a forgotten man by now. They’ll be the next Di Resta, Kobayashi and Kovalainen.

I think Albon will probably end up back at Alpha Tauri at some point. He looks by far the most likely to get back into F1 full time. There's still an outside chance for Hulkenberg most likely back at Williams for 2022.

I can't even imagine any of the others coming back. There are some decent drivers on the list, but none proved to be anything special in F1 except Kubica before the injury.

Option "none" is missing.

Albon is too valuable to the Thai side of Red Bull to be let go. I suspect he'll be back at Torro Rosso in 2022.

Albon has the best chance but I would rate it as no better than 50/50 so I didn't vote, apparently Red Bull are going to run a DTM team were they are going to match up Albon against Liam Lawson, I'm not sure what this means for Lawson's single seater career, maybe he's going to dovetail this with F2?

The impression I have is that this is the last chance saloon for Albon, he has to beat Lawson who is a highly rated driver. However I'm not sure the AlphaTauri seat is on the cards for Lawson if he beats Albon, he still probably has to do well in F2 plus Yuri Vips has also to be seen in the reckoning who will also be racing in F2 as teammates with Lawson I believe, It looks like Red Bull are staging some head to head match-ups.

Albon is the only realistic option, Nico - I think has missed his opportunity. As for the remainder, there's pretty much no reason a current F1 team would look to them as an option.

Schermerhorn wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:07 am

Albon is too valuable to the Thai side of Red Bull to be let go. I suspect he'll be back at Torro Rosso in 2022.

This

Battle Far wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:09 pm

Schermerhorn wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:07 am

Albon is too valuable to the Thai side of Red Bull to be let go. I suspect he'll be back at Torro Rosso in 2022.

This

I disagree. He wasn't too valuable to let got the first time.

He wasn't valuable enough to take back until they absolutely had to.

He wasn't too valuable to dump out of F1 this time.

Albon may be back but he's hardly been treated as a commodity Red Bull values highly.

mikeyg123 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 15, 2021 5:58 pm

Battle Far wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 15, 2021 3:09 pm

Schermerhorn wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 14, 2021 9:07 am

Albon is too valuable to the Thai side of Red Bull to be let go. I suspect he'll be back at Torro Rosso in 2022.

This

I disagree. He wasn't too valuable to let got the first time.

He wasn't valuable enough to take back until they absolutely had to.

He wasn't too valuable to dump out of F1 this time.

Albon may be back but he's hardly been treated as a commodity Red Bull values highly.

Yep agreed. Wasn’t massively sold on the Thai connection being a reason for Red Bull not wanting Perez back in the second half of last season.

Albon might be back for 2022, probably depends on how Vips does and whether Gasly can find a seat somewhere else but I hope if he does come back we remember Albon was pretty good in his half season at Toro Rosso in 2019 and was fairly equal with Kvyat as a rookie, and it isn’t just put down to him being Thai.

I think kvyatt is the only one. I still think he is worthy of a seat somewhere in the midfield. I think HAAS could of beem a good fit or alfa

Too bad we can't vote for Hamilton on this. As time rolls on, one begins to wonder if...

DFWdude wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 24, 2021 2:28 pm

Too bad we can't vote for Hamilton on this. As time rolls on, one begins to wonder if...

I would guess that he would easily win the poll.