F1 entries/rumours that never came to be

[S griffin]

2000
Panis was offered the second Williams seat alongside Ralf, but turned it down in favour of being McLaren test driver, a very decision for him. The other candidates to take that second seat in place of Zanardi were Montoya, Jorg Muller, Verstappen, Villeneuve, Darren Manning and Tom Kristensen. In the end it went down to a shootout between Button and Bruno Junqueira, with Button eventually getting the nod

The other candidates for the second Minardi seat, apart from Mazzacane, were Norberto Fontana and Max Wilson

[S griffin]

2001
In the F1 Racing season preview, Minardi had yet to confirm their drivers, so the magazine said that Alonso(who of course got the drive), DLR and Webber were the candidates were for the seats

Toyota were originally supposed to enter that season, but a ban on V12 engines meant they deferred their entry to 2002, and spent 2001 testing with Salo and McNish

[S griffin]

2002
During 2001, Jaguar team boss Bobby Rahal tried to swap his driver Irvine with Jordan’s Frentzen for 2002. That was the last straw for Jaguar and Rahal was fired not long after

Mention earlier of Verstappen being mentioned in a season preview as one of Prost’s drivers leaves me a little surprised. I was always under the impression that Frentzen wanted to stay at Prost and only when the team went under, he then took Verstappen’s place at Arrows. So did he join Arrows before Prost were declared bankrupt?

When Fisichella was ruled out of the French GP due to a practice accident, Jordan did try and get Frentzen to replace him for that weekend, as they knew Arrows would deliberately not qualify. However Arrows refused to release him from his contract and it is unlikely Frentzen would have wanted to drive for EJ after what happened in 2001

When HHF left Arrows mid season, Verstappen, Bourdais and Alonso were all candidates to replace him, should the team have been able to compete again

When Minardi benched Yoong for a couple of races, they originally were going to replace him with Justin Wilson, but he was too tall for the car, so they went with Anthony Davidson

[S griffin]

2003
Felipe Massa came very close to the second Jordan seat, but the team went with Ralph Firman at the last moment

[S griffin]

2004
There was the German Racing Team that was hoping to compete that year, run by Oliver Behring. Sven Barth and Thomas Westarp were two possible drivers

McLaren tried to get JPM a year earlier, so Williams tried to get Webber from Jaguar. When they couldn’t, they refused to let Montoya go early. I assume Coulthard would have gone to Jaguar

After Ralf Schumacher was out injured, Williams had their test driver Marc Gene take over from him for a couple of races. Then for the German GP, they tried to get Heidfeld out of his Jordan contract to race for them, but EJ refused, so they went with their other test driver Pizzonia instead

[S griffin]

2005
Williams planned for Nico Rosberg to do the last two races, but then decided it wasn't right to throw him in the deep end like that

[S griffin]

Originally Posted by AlwaysAJensonFan

If Honda hadn't pulled out at the end of 2008, it was likely Rubens Barrichello would be replaced by Bruno Senna or Lucas Di Grassi.

Bruno Senna was the intended driver, even after Honda pulled out. However by the time Brawn had bought the team out, there was little time to test the car, so they decided to keep the experienced Barrichello

Also from 2009, apparently Valentino Rossi was offered the chance to replace the injured Massa, but turned it down due to his MotoGP title fight

[S griffin]

2010
Barrichello was offered the second McLaren seat alongside Hamilton, but turned it down, as he had already signed with Williams

Lola tried to enter the championship and got as far as building a car. Adam Carroll was a strong possibility to drive for them.

[S griffin]

2013
If HRT had continued, it’s drivers would probably have been DLR and Josef Kral

Jules Bianchi was a strong candidate for the Force India seat Sutil got

When Kimi had to miss the last two races due to injury, his Lotus team approached Michael Schumacher, but he declined, preferring to stay retired, so they went with Kovalainen instead

[S griffin]

2014
Alice Powell was hopeful of raising sponsorship to race for Caterham on their return in Abu Dhabi.

[S griffin]

Few more from 79
When Renault decided to expand to two cars, the team wanted Pironi to take the second seat, but Ken Tyrrell refused to let him out of his contract, so they went with Arnoux instead

James Hunt was the original choice to replace the injured Depailler at Ligier, but couldn’t get a release from his Wolf contract

Prost was offered a drive in a third McLaren at the final round at the Glen, but turned it down, feeling it wouldn’t benefit him or the team

[S griffin]

Few more to add

Both Jackie Stewart and James Hunt were offered a million to come out of retirement and drive the second Brabham for 1982. Both declined

Bernie tried to change Lauda’s mind about retiring at the end of 85, offering him 6 million to drive for Brabham in 86. Niki thought about it, but eventually turned it down

Sauber originally were going to go with Wendlinger and Schumacher when they entered in 93, after originally planning to come in as a Merc works entry. When they went it alone, they still tried to get Schumi from Benetton, claiming the contract was with Sauber, whilst Benetton claiming it was with Mercedes. In the end Sauber decided not to force the issue.

[S griffin]

Here’s a few more from 85

Brundle was offered a seat at Lotus alongside Senna, presumably to keep JPS happy

Lauda was very close to joining Renault. He actually had an agreement in place with team manager Larrousse. However those higher up rejected the contract, as they felt Lauda was demanding too much money

Ron Dennis wanted Rosberg if Lauda didn’t stay

[S griffin]

De Cesaris and Badoer were candidates for Ligier in 94 I think

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by S griffin

De Cesaris and Badoer were candidates for Ligier in 94 I think

Not for that year. The management and sponsors felt a return to an all French line up was required after Les Rosbif's in '93.

[S griffin]

Well Patrese was offered a drive there, so not sure if they were that keen on it

Speaking of Patrese, he signed an option with Ferrari for 1979 and also was offered a contract from Brabham too. He turned down the latter in the hope of the former, but they kept Gilles at Ferrari, so he stayed with Arrows

He came close again to going to Ferrari in 1982, but someone inside Ferrari said no.

https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/a...ccardo-patrese

[S griffin]

Jame Hunt was offered a Lotus drive for 1976. He also had talks with Ferrari for 79, but deliberately put his price too high to muck them around

[S griffin]

JYS had a deal with Ferrari for 68, but decided against going there after he found out Ickx had been offered the same deal

[S griffin]

Also after JYS got injured in 1968, Matra tried to get Chris Amon to replace him, but Ferrari wouldn’t let him out of his contract

[S griffin]

And of course Stirling Moss would have driven a Rob Walker Ferrari in 62, if it hadn’t been for his crash at Goodwood

[S griffin]

Dan Gurney offered AJ Foyt the second Eagle car at Spa in 1967, but he turned it down

[BTCC frog]

So of all these entries/rumours that never came to be, which one would you most wish had actually happened. For me, it would probably be Jean Alesi to Williams in 1991 and beyond, as he was a particularly exciting driver and one whom I believe could have challenged for the championship had he driven for Williams. I would also like to have seen Alonso and Vettel as teammates in a competitive car at some point in the 2010s, either at Red Bull in 2014 or preferably Ferrari in 2015-18.

[S griffin]

Alesi never regrets not going to Williams, he points out what happened to Senna to be grateful for what you have got

Certainly would have loved to have seen Alonso at Ferrari post 2014. Even if he hadn’t beaten Lewis to the title in 2017-18, he almost certainly would have taken it to the wire. He wouldn’t have made the stupid mistakes Vettel made

[S griffin]

Ronnie Peterson came very close to signing for Shadow in 1975

[peebee2]

Any news on Ekstrom?