Will one of these drivers get dropped?

23rd April 2009, 12:00 by Keith Collantine 113 Comments »

Sebastien Bourdais's second seasons has started poorly

Sebastien Bourdais's second seasons has started poorly

One of the most unusual things about last season was the lack of mid-season driver swaps.

But the performance of some drivers and the inevitable rumours about changes means some may not last the year. Which of these drivers could be up for the chop?

Nelson Piquet Jnr

Flavio Briatore summed up Piquet’s drive in China like this:

Jesus Christ, it was a very, very bad race. I understand if you spin once, but this was kind of a contest: the more you spin the more points you have. He spun a lot but no points.

The usual explanation for Piquet’s position at Renault is that they want a driver who is capable but isn’t going to challenge number one Fernando Alonso.

But even if that is the case, there must be a point at which Piquet’s disappointing performances become a concern. He’s been out-qualified by Alonso for 21 consecutive Grands Prix, and his race performances don’t look much better by comparison either.

Briatore made the headlines last weekend by saying Brawn duo Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello weren’t good enough. But in Piquet he has the driver who looks least worthy of a place in Formula 1.

Potential replacements: Renault’s third driver is Romain Grosjean, who enters his second season of GP2 this year.

Giancarlo Fisichella

Now in his 14th season, Fisichella increasingly looks like a driver who’s going through the motions. While team mate Adrian Sutil has shown only occasional flashes of promise at Force India, the ultra-experienced Fisichella hasn’t even done that.

Potential replacements: Force India test driver Vitantonio Liuzzi is rumoured to have a race deal for 2010 already.

Sebastien Bourdais

Bourdais suffered in comparisons with rising mega-talent Sebastian Vettel last year, and only narrowly held onto his place at Toro Rosso over the winter.

But rookie team-mate Sebastien Buemi has out-qualified and out-raced him twice already. Last year Bourdais blamed his unfamiliarity with grooved tyres, which was fair enough, but now there are new excuses and they’re starting to wear a bit thin.

Potential replacements: Red Bull aren’t short of promising junior team drivers with World Series by Renault pilots Jaime Alguersuari and Brendon Hartley on the books.

Bourdais got the nod for 2009 over Takuma Sato, who was being considered because of his popularity in the Japanese market, which Red Bull wants to break into. The departure of Gerhard Berger from the scene is bad news for Senna’s chances of getting a drive here.

Kazuki Nakajima

Team mate Nico Rosberg has not done a great job of turning the FW31’s performance into points – but Nakajima has lagged even further behind, and compounded his lack of speed with mistakes.

Like Piquet, there are vested interests behind Nakajima’s place at Williams – namely engine supplier Toyota. But that doesn’t make his position at the team entirely secure.

Potential replacements: Toyota’s other promising young driver, Kamui Kobayashi, has shown good form in GP2 and has done a lot of F1 testing miles. Alternatively, Williams test driver Nico Hülkenberg dominated last year’s F3 Euroseries and impressed on his few GP2 Asia outings over the winter.

Which F1 drivers do you think have done the worst job so far this year? And which look most likely to lose their seats? Have your say in the comments.

Read more: 2009 F1 season | Articles in full | F1 drivers (active) | F1 teams (active) | Force India | Giancarlo Fisichella | Kazuki Nakajima | Nelson Piquet Jnr | Renault | Scuderia Toro Rosso | Sebastien Bourdais | Williams