Where are they now? The last 10 F1 drivers to be sacked during the season

Logan Sargeant might have lost his job at Williams partway through the 2024 season, but he’s not the only Formula 1 driver to have faced a mid-season sacking.

Today, we’re looking at the most recent 10 drivers to have been fired partway through a season — and following up on where they are now.

The last 10 F1 drivers to be sacked during the season

Nyck de Vries (2023)

Nyck de Vries was a shock signing to the 2023 AlphaTauri lineup, where the Formula 2 and Formula E champion would race alongside Yuki Tsunoda. Sadly, he was never able to meet the high expectations placed on him by the team and was heavily criticized for his performance. After 10 races, he had scored zero points to Tsunoda’s two, and after Silverstone, de Vries was fired and replaced by Daniel Ricciardo,

De Vries returned to Formula E for the 2023-24 season, where he finished 18th overall in the championship with Mahindra Racing. He’s currently competing with Toyota Gazoo Racing in the World Endurance Championship; with one win and a second-place in the books, his team currently sits third overall in the championship.

Jolyon Palmer (2017)

Jolyon Palmer, son of former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer, joined Formula 1 with Renault full-time in 2016 and part of 2017. However, he struggled to hit his stride in the series and never performed particularly well — leading to Renault announcing that he’d be leaving the team ahead of the United States Grand Prix. Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr. would instead be leaving his team to take Palmer’s spot.

Since he departed Formula 1 as a driver, however, Palmer has made a successful career as a media pundit. He joined BBC Radio 5 and is now one of the lead commentators on F1 TV, with his own show called Jolyon Palmer’s Analysis.

Daniil Kvyat (2017)

As a Red Bull junior driver, it was only a matter of time before Daniil Kyvat made it to Formula 1. But, as a Red Bull junior driver, he needed to perform well and quickly in order to retain his place. He joined Toro Rosso in 2014 before being promoted to Red Bull in 2015, then demoted back to Toro Rosso in 2016.

However, late in 2017, Toro Rosso announced that Kvyat was being dropped entirely from the team, to be replaced by Pierre Gasly — only to have to call Kvyat back for the US Grand Prix when Carlos Sainz Jr. left Toro Rosso to join Renault, and when Gasly had to finish off his Super Formula obligations.

Kvyat returned to Toro Rosso in 2019 and 2020, but to no great effect. Instead, he’s now competing in full-time a Lamborghini hypercar in the World Endurance Championship and has picked up a handful of NASCAR rides.

Rio Haryanto (2016)

Rio Haryanto’s F1 career was unfortunately short and uninspiring. He joined Manor Racing in 2016, but Haryanto didn’t make it the full season before the team demoted him to reserve driver due to the fact that his promised sponsorship from the Indonesian Ministry of Youth and Sport had been blocked by Parliament. Esteban Ocon took his place.

Haryanto moved to sports car racing in Asia for 2018 and 2019. He has since taken up a career in professional golf.

Nick Heidfeld (2011)

Nick Heidfeld long held the record for most Formula 1 podiums and second-place finishes without securing a victory — an impressive feat for a career that began all the way back in 2000 with the Prost team. However, late in the 2011 season, Lotus Renault opted to replace Heidfeld with Bruno Senna after it became clear the German was struggling.

Heidfeld moved to endurance racing as well as to Formula E for several years. This year, he and former Mahindra FE boss Dilbagh Gill announced the creation of FG Series, which appears to be an electric open-wheel racing series similar to Formula E.

More from F1 history:

👉 F1 driver sackings: The most brutal firings and bitter disputes in F1 history

👉 The eight most expensive penalties in F1 history: Which team has paid the largest amount?

Pedro de la Rosa (2010)

Spanish Formula 1 driver Pedro de la Rosa contested 107 Grands Prix for teams as diverse as Arrows, Jaguar, McLaren, Sauber, and HRT — and he’s the only driver on this list who was sacked and still managed to find a seat with a different team!

Sauber dropped de la Rosa in 2010, replacing him with Nick Heidfeld after the Italian Grand Prix. De la Rosa served as a Pirelli test driver, a McLaren reserve driver, an HRT driver, and a Ferrari reserve driver.

Today, de la Rosa is an Aston Martin F1 ambassador, a technical and sporting advisor to the Techeetah Formula E team, and an analyst for DAZN.

Sebastien Bourdais (2009)

Champ Car champion Sebastien Bourdais left American open-wheel racing to join Scuderia Toro Rosso for the 2008 and 2009 seasons — but at the halfway point of his second season, it was over. Bourdais had struggled to match the pace of his rookie teammate Sebastien Buemi, and Toro Rosso summarily replaced Bourdais with Jaime Alguersuari.

Bourdais sued Toro Rosso, which settled for $2.1 million. Bourdais then headed back to America to continue a successful IndyCar run. He also joined the IMSA endurance racing series and competes each year at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Nelson Piquet Jr. (2009)

Nelson Piquet Jr. was fired by Renault partway through the 2009 season. An incensed Piquet referred to Flavio Briatore as his executioner… and in the aftermath, he took his former team to task by informing the FIA that his crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix hadn’t been an accident at all: Briatore and engineer Pat Symonds told Piquet to crash to give Fernando Alonso a shot at victory.

It marked a messy end to a 23-year-old Piquet’s Formula 1 career. Afterward, he competed in both NASCAR and the World Rallycross Championship before securing the inaugural Formula E Championship in 2014-2015.

Today, Piquet Jr. races in South America’s Stock Car ProSeries, as well as with the TCR World Tour and the European Le Mans Series.

Scott Speed (2007)

Scott Speed made history when he joined Formula 1 in 2006, as he became the first American F1 driver in over a decade. However, his time in the spotlight didn’t last long, and after 28 races, Scuderia Toro Rossi replaced Speed midway through 2007 with Sebastian Vettel.

The writing, however, had been on the wall. Speed nearly came to blows with Franz Tost early in the 2007 season, and was open about the fact that he felt the team was trying to fire him.

After his F1 career ended, Speed contested several NASCAR events, as well as ample Global and Americas Rallycross Championship events, where he won four championships.

Speed now competes in a select slate of rally events with Subaru.

Christijan Albers (2007)

Last on our list is Dutch driver Christijan Albers, who was fired by the Spyker F1 Team in 2007. He debuted with the team in 2006, back when it was known as Midland, and had signed a contract with the team before it was bought out by Spyker.

However, he failed to bring enough sponsorship money for the team to retain him in 2007, and he was fired and replaced first by Markus Winkelhock, then by Sakon Yamamoto.

Albers moved back to DTM and sportscar racing before briefly serving as team principal for the Caterham F1 team. Now, Albers serves as an analyst for Viaplay.

Read next: Revealed: The reason behind brutal Logan Sargeant axe as Williams change drivers