5 mid-season driver swaps that paid off – and 5 that didn’t – as Lawson steps up to replace Ricciardo

The decision may have raised eyebrows for some at the time, given that the then 18-year-old Verstappen had only 24 Grands Prix under his belt. But the Dutchman quickly showed why the squad had put their faith in him by taking a sensational win upon his debut at the Spanish Grand Prix, making him the youngest driver to ever take an F1 victory.

For Verstappen the rest is history, having gone on to claim 61 wins to date en route to three World Championships. Kvyat, meanwhile, remained with Toro Rosso before being dropped after the 2017 United States Grand Prix. He later made a surprise return to the team in 2019, where he stayed for a two-year stint ahead of his second exit from the grid at the end of 2020.

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Schumacher/Gachot/Moreno at Jordan/Benetton, 1991

Eddie Jordan was faced with quite the dilemma in the summer of 1991 when one of his drivers, Bertrand Gachot, was handed a prison sentence following an altercation with a London taxi driver, resulting in him being unable to compete in the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix.

While Jordan had initially wanted Stefan Johansson in the car, he ultimately went for a rookie by the name of Michael Schumacher. The young German had been competing in sportscars, and as such an F1 test was quickly arranged for him just a few days before the race at Spa.

That lack of experience did not harm Schumacher, who outqualified veteran team mate Andrea de Cesaris to line up an impressive P7 on the grid. And while his race was quickly over – the Jordan 191’s clutch giving out after only a few metres – the overall weekend was enough to hint that Schumacher had something special.