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Backfired: The top F1 free agent moves that flopped
The freedom of being a free agent in the F1 world can be refreshing, but a wrong choice can make for a long season, or a slow burn to your career.
Anthony Wood
Published: Dec 13, 2024, 7:07 PM
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Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren and Lando Norris, McLaren
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
Testing free agency as a Formula 1 driver can be a risky business. With so few seats available and even fewer capable of challenging for wins, choosing between seats often appears to be a stab in the dark based on faith in those leading the charge and a team’s inherent potential, leading numerous championship-worthy drivers to waste precious years behind the wheel of an uncompetitive car.
With the conclusion of the 2024 season done and dusted, and the free agency market all but played out ahead of 2025, there is no better time to take a trip down memory lane and reflect on some of the biggest mistakes in recent memory.
5. Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes to Sauber
Having started his career with a four-year stint at Williams, Valtteri Bottas was brought in by Mercedes to replace retiring reigning World Champion Nico Rosberg for 2017. Teamed with Lewis Hamilton for the next five years, the duo formed a significantly more harmonious partnership than the Briton had experienced with Rosberg.
Race winner Second place Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes AMG F1 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1, celebrate
Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / Motorsport Images
Mercedes’ Constructors' Championship dominance continued throughout Bottas’ time with the team, reclaiming the title during each of his five seasons, while Hamilton clinched the World Drivers' Championship four times.
Bottas pushed Hamilton throughout, winning three races during the 2017 season on his way to a third-place finish in the championship. While he failed to win a race the following year, Bottas still made his way to the podium on a consistent basis. And the hits continued to come, finishing second in the championship in both 2019 and 2020, and third in 2021, winning another seven races in the process.
But with British youngster George Russell waiting in the wings for an opportunity, Mercedes opted to drop Bottas for the 2022 season. The free agent Fin ultimately landed with the then Alfa Romeo team, led by Fred Vasseur. Bottas’ first season with the team was decent, if unremarkable, reaching the top 10 on nine occasions and failing to reach the podium. Vasseur’s subsequent departure sent the team into a spiral, with Bottas only able to reach the top 10 three times the following season before failing to score a single point in his final year with the renamed Kick-Sauber team.
Valtteri Bottas, Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
The team’s acquisition by Audi, set to be completed by 2026, was the final nail in the coffin for Bottas’ time there, with the German manufacturer opting to go with a new lineup. Reflecting on his time with the team following the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Bottas called his move to Sauber “a mistake.”
4. Daniel Ricciardo - Renault to McLaren
Following two largely disappointing seasons with Renault, Daniel Ricciardo hit free agency once again in 2021, signing a blockbuster three-year deal with the Woking-based team where he’d partner rising star Lando Norris.
The Honey Badger had big shoes to fill, following Carlos Sainz's departure to Ferrari. Sainz had played a key role in McLaren’s resurgence as a credible top-10 team, following their dire three-year Honda partnership.
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, 1st position, Lando Norris, McLaren, 2nd position, and Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing, celebrate on the podium with shoeys
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
The Aussie’s first year with McLaren proved a mixed bag. Largely outperformed by Norris, who reached the podium on four occasions, Ricciardo secured the team’s first win since 2012 during a race to remember in Monza. Things really fell apart for Ricciardo in 2022, when he was comprehensively outraced by Norris throughout, only reaching the top 10 on seven occasions, while his teammate totaled seven podium finishes.
Ricciardo’s downfall was a tough watch, as the charismatic and much-loved driver of old appeared to fade away, his confidence seemingly vanishing by the day. In the end, he was dumped by McLaren a year early, with the team paying him $18 million to leave in favor of rookie Oscar Piastri.
3. Fernando Alonso - Ferrari to McLaren
Having just left Ferrari in 2015, with 13 seasons and two world titles under his belt, Alonso was on the lookout for a new team to call home. Meanwhile, McLaren entered the season looking to rekindle some past romances with the hopes of returning to battle with the top teams. The papaya outfit signed an engine partnership with Honda, with whom they had enjoyed much success in the 1980s and 1990s, and brought back a very familiar face in Alonso — despite the Spaniard having left under a cloud of smoke in 2008.
Alonso signed a three-year deal with McLaren, partnering with another world championship winner, Jenson Button. The move, though, immediately backfired, with the Honda power unit proving both miles off the pace and unreliable.
Fernando Alonso, McLaren MP4-31, crash
Photo by: Daniel Kalisz / Motorsport Images
Over the next three years, Alonso completed just 39 races, reaching the top 10 just 16 times, and failing to ever finish above fifth. In 2018, McLaren switched to a Renault power unit, which kick-started the team's gradual rise back to the top. Alonso finished in the top half of the grid nine times, comprehensively outperforming then-teammate Stoffel Vandoorne in the process.
The following year, Alonso stepped away from racing, serving as an ambassador for McLaren before returning to the grid the following season when he joined Alpine.
2. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull to Renault
Unfortunately for Ricciardo, his move to McLaren wasn’t his only questionable career move.
A graduate of the Red Bull junior program, he made his name with the senior team from 2014 until 2018. Initially teammates with then reigning four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, Ricciardo replaced fellow countryman Mark Webber in the role and proved equally up to the task of challenging the German for wins.
Seven wins, 29 podiums, and two third-place drivers' championship standings finishes followed for Ricciardo, who spent much of his time with the team partnering now four-time World Champion Max Verstappen. A more than capable match for Verstappen and Vettel on a good day, Red Bull were intent on keeping Ricciardo as the 2019 season loomed. However, the Aussie decided to take his talents elsewhere, dropping the bridesmaid role and becoming the bride for Renault alongside Nico Hulkenberg.
Daniel Ricciardo, Renault F1 Team
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
But while Red Bull went from strength to strength, Ricciardo was forced to watch from afar. In his first season with Renault, he finished in the top five only once, with the French team finishing fifth in the Constructors' Championship. Things improved slightly in 2020, with Ricciardo finishing in the top 5 seven times including two third places. Renault again finished fifth overall.
With the power of hindsight, Ricciardo’s decision to part with Red Bull for Renault ultimately marked the beginning of his slow decline as he slipped further and further away from what could have been for the undoubtedly talented driver.
1. Fernando Alonso - Renault to McLaren
Another familiar name, in 2007 Alonso joined McLaren as the reigning back-to-back World Champion. He was partnered with an impressive rookie by the name of Lewis Hamilton. Hardly a match made in heaven, this team dynamic lasted just one season before the plug was pulled.
Alonso and Hamilton were brought in to take over from Kimi Raikkonen and Pedro de la Rosa. However, any perceived pecking order quickly vanished as Alonso and Hamilton fiercely battled it out week in and week out for wins.
Third place Lewis Hamilton, McLaren and second place Fernando Alonso, McLaren celebrates on the podium
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Things took a turn for the worse for team boss Ron Dennis and McLaren in Hungary when Alonso allegedly “threatened to hand over e-mails incriminating his own team” regarding the then ongoing “Spygate” saga, as per the BBC.
Alonso subsequently returned to Renault for two seasons before heading for Ferrari. Meanwhile, Hamilton went on to win the 2008 title with McLaren.
Read Also:
Formula 1F1 race winner Bottas labels his Sauber career 'a mistake' after difficult 2024
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