In any F1 team, drivers are the biggest stars, and the reason behind this is the fact that at the end of the day, it’s the driver who will extract whatever the potential of the car is and then get the result. That is precisely why they’re paid the big bucks, and why teams are heavily reliant on them.
However, while there are a lot of drivers who end up doing their job admirably, there are others who are deadweights for their respective teams. They’re part of the team for one reason or the other but they have just not produced the kind of results that one expects from them.
There are a few drivers on the current F1 grid who fit this criteria. Who are they? Let’s take a look.
#1 Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
It’s hard to deny that almost everyone was shocked to hear Red Bull’s announcement that Sergio Perez would continue to be a part of the team beyond the summer break. The Mexican has been a major liability for the team in terms of extracting the best possible results from the car. Not only that, he’s also been someone who over the years has had major fluctuations in performance levels.
Even in the years when Red Bull was dominating F1, Perez has struggled to be consistently strong in qualifying and, hence, produce competitive results. A statistic that’s almost damning for Perez right now is the fact that his teammate Max Verstappen is scoring almost 70% of the points for the team.
That’s just not acceptable and is also not something that will make the driver a reliable asset for the team.
#2 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
There are many doubts when it comes to the question of why Lance Stroll is in F1 or at Aston Martin. The driver’s father owns the team and it could even be said that Lawrence Stroll has bought a team so that his son could drive in Formula 1.
Having said that, there’s just no doubt that Lance has been a major liability for Aston Martin. The driver has two-time world champion Fernando Alonso as his teammate, and even though the 2024 F1 season has seen the Spaniard maybe take a step back, the gap between the Canadian and the Spaniard is vast.
Even though Stroll has notched up a few qualifying wins over Alonso, you look at the points tally and it’s clear as day that Stroll still has nothing over his teammate.
When it comes to deadweights dragging the team down with them, Stroll continues to feature on this list.
#3 Logan Sargeant (Williams F1)
This one might seem a little harsh because Logan Sargeant has been up against it throughout the 2024 F1 season. The American has had to combat situations that are simply not ideal. He was forced to miss a race because Alex Albon cracked his chassis. He has been forced to use the older parts because the new ones go to Albon’s car.
You combine all of this and you have a scenario where the American F1 driver is already swimming upstream. Having said that, the only reason why Logan has been forced into this predicament has been his lack of growth and improvement over the last 18 or so months.
He’s yet to put together a race weekend where he can claim that he outperformed Albon. When you can’t even beat your F1 teammate over such a long period, it becomes hard for the team to back you consistently.
Albon has scored 100% of the team’s points until now, and when that happens, you know how dependent the team is on one driver and how the other one has proven to be a liability.