Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motor racing and the series that every young racing driver dreams of competing in. Not only does it offer the fastest cars, the best technology, the most money and the greatest circuits, but it also attracts the greatest fanfare, with millions of people around the world aspiring to be one of the chosen few to line-up on the starting grid.
Only 782 people have ever started a Formula 1 race since the series' conception in 1950, with only the very best drivers ever getting the opportunity to challenge for Grand Prix victory. However, talent alone is not enough to secure a place on the starting grid. Funding, opportunity, luck and dogged determination are also factors in determining who actually makes it onto the grid.
These additional considerations have all combined to prevent some of the world's greatest racing drivers from actually getting the opportunity to race in Formula 1. Many have gone on to dominate in alternative forms of motorsport, leaving enthusiasts wondering what might have been had they ever had the chance to get behind the wheel of a grand prix car.
We thought we pay homage to some of these spectacular races with our top 10 list of the best drivers never to race in F1. These drivers could all very easily have been the superstars that you aspire to watch every other weekend.
1. Dario Franchitti
Over in the United States, they have their own version of Formula 1. It's called Indycar and it's every bit as competitive and hard thought as its global alternative. One man who went over from the UK and dominated the series is Dario Franchitti who won the Indycar championship four times and also won the prestigious Indy 500 race on three occasions, sealing his place as one of the series all time greats.
Good looking, charming, fast and professional, Franchitti is every bit a superstar both on the track and off it. Formerly married to Hollywood actress Ashley Judd, the Scot has the kind of celebrity profile that the big wigs running Formula 1 would die for. This makes it all the more baffling why Franchitti never actually had the chance to start a Grand Prix.
He did test for both the McLaren and Jaguar F1 teams during the earlier years of his career, turning down a test driver role at McLaren for 1996 which could have turned into a race drive due to his preference to continue competing. His Jaguar test in 2000 was somewhat less successful as he was still suffering the side effects of a nasty accident which left him with severe concussion. The Jaguar team itself was also in disarray at this time, ensuring that Franchitti never really had the chance to show what might have been possible.
2. Tom Kristensen
Alongside the Indy 500 and the Monte Carlo Grand Prix, the only other race which stands head and shoulders above the rest in terms of prestigiousness is the Le Mans 24 hours. One driver who well and truly made this race his own was Tom Kristensen who won the race nine times, six of which were consecutive. Alongside this, Kristensen can also claim to be a World Endurance Championship winner, American Le Mans Series champion and a multiple race winner in some of the world's most competitive touring car series. So why did it never work out in F1?
Well, Kristensen did get quite a lot of mileage as a test driver during the 1990s. He became a regular for both the Tyrrell and Minardi teams during this period, both of whom would likely have hired the Dane if they had been forced to opt for paying drivers to keep their struggling teams afloat. Having won Le Mans for BMW in 1999, he impressed the German manufacturer enough to be one of their chosen test drivers as they prepared to enter F1 with Williams in 2000. He was very briefly considered one of the favourites to take the seat alongside Ralf Schumacher for their debut season until a young hopeful called Jenson Button came along.
The Dane's additional experience meant that he may well have outscored Button during that 2000 season even if his long term potential wasn't quite as great as the 2009 World Champion.
3. Scott Dixon
One of the team-mates who ran Franchitti closest during his time in Indycar was Scott Dixon who is one of the only drivers on this list who is still in competition. Unbelievably, the Kiwi made his debut in Indycar back in 2001 and is still one of the front runners to this day at the grand old age of 45. During this time he has won the Indycar championship six times and won the Indy 500 in 2008. He's also finished in the top 3 of the championship a further 10 times, underlining his incredible consistency and unwavering determination.
However, he did briefly flirt with the idea of making a switch to F1 in the mid 2000s. On the back of winning his first Indycar title in 2003, Dixon was offered a test with Williams BMW in 2004 during a period when the British team were very much one of the sport's top outfits. Williams were suitably impressed to offer Dixon one year as a test driver before getting behind the wheel as one of their race drivers for 2006. Sadly, Dixon declined the opportunity due to his preference to continue racing in 2005. That seat would eventually be given to rookie Nico Rosberg. There's every chance that Dixon's career in F1 could have gone on to be just as successful and, perhaps, even longer than that of the 2016 World Champion.
4. Alex Palou
The rightful heir to Dixon's crown as Indycar's best driver is Alex Palou who, at the age of 29, has already won 4 Indycar championships and looks firmly on course to make that 5 by the end of 2026.
The Spaniard's performances in junior formulas were underwhelming, but this was a reflection of the lack of budget and support Palou suffered from. He made up for this with unwavering determination and by taking an unconventional route through the junior ladder by heading to Japan making a name for himself in the national F3 and Super Formula series. A close association with Honda led to an Indycar drive with Dale Coyne Racing. A solid rookie campaign led to a promotion to the pace setting Chip Ganassi team, a position Palou seized with both hands by claiming the title at the first attempt for the squad whilst racing alongside Dixon.
Like Franchitti and Dixon before him, Palou has flirted with the idea of moving to F1. He briefly held a test driver role with McLaren based on an agreement that he would move to the British teams Indycar team. Once Palou realised that this was unlikely to lead to a full time F1 drive with the team, he ultimately went back on his decision. This led to a rather expensive legal battle and appears to have dashed any hopes he might have had of landing a drive with another F1 team. This is F1's loss, as Palou looks set to dominate in Indycar for many years to come.
5. Jimmie Johnson
The Indycar series now commands a much smaller fanbase in the US than NASCAR which is by far the most popular form of motorsport in the country. One of the series most prominent drivers since the early 2000s has been Jimmie Johnson whose 7 NASCAR Cup Series Championship titles, 2 Daytona 500 victories and 83 race wins mark him out as one of the most successful drivers in the history of the sport.
Alongside his towering accomplishments, what marks Johnson out from other NASCAR drivers of the modern era is his fascination with single seater racing. This ultimately led to Johnson accepting a role driving for the Chip Ganassi team in Indycar once he had finished racing in NASCAR full time in 2021. By this time, Johnson was 45 years old and expectations were therefore kept firmly in check. Nevertheless, Johnson's best result of 5th at the Iowa Speedway in 2022 was still a mighty impressive performance given his age and lack of single seater experience.
Johnson has admitted that his ultimate career goal was to reach Formula 1. The closest he came to this was a private test with McLaren in Bahrain in 2018 when he swapped cars with Fernando Alonso. He immediately impressed the squad with his pace, quickly getting up to speed despite the dramatically different cornering speeds and braking distances. One can only imagine what he might have achieved had he turned his attention to F1 20 years earlier.
6. Alain Menu
Alain Menu was the Michael Schumacher of Touring Cars during the 1990s. This was an era when the category was at its absolute peak, with the British Touring Car (BTCC) Series in particular attracting sell out crowds and funding from the majority of the world's leading car manufacturers and even F1 teams with Williams running the works Renault team.
Menu was their lead driver, dominating the series in 1997 against the toughest of competition. Like Schumacher in F1, Menu moved the game to a whole new level with his incredible dedication and work ethic. Williams were so impressed with Menu that they made him one of their regular F1 test drivers with the Swiss racer being chosen to develop some of their ground breaking electronics systems.
7. Gary Paffett
Another touring car star to have combined his regular day job with an F1 testing role was Gary Paffett. Paffet won the prestigious McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver of the Year Award in 1999 having shown remarkable potential in the junior series. However, his career progress was slowed by a lack of budget. He was forced to accept a role driving in the German F3 series for 2002 driving for former F1 champion Keke Rosberg's team. He utterly dominated right from the off leading to him being promoted to Rosberg's DTM (German Touring Cars) team for 2003.
Paffett progressed quickly becoming the series champion for Mercedes in 2005. Not only was he fast, but he was also consistent and provided excellent technical feedback. These skills were highly sought by the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team who made Paffett one of their main test drivers at a time when testing was almost continuous. When the team dropped Juan Pablo Montoya midway through the 2006 season, Paffett came close to being named the replacement driver, only losing out to Pedro De La Rosa on account of the Spaniard having 63 races of real world F1 experience to draw upon. This has made the Brit one of the greatest what-ifs and a series contender in our list of the best drivers outside F1.
8. Andy Priaulx
From one British touring car legend to another we have Guernsey's Andy Priaulx whose early career was incredibly unconventional. Instead of starting off in Go-Karts, Priaulx made a name for himself in hillclimbing competitions across the UK. His domination of these categories somehow led to the Renault Spider Cup, a lower formula which supported the BTCC. Priaulx's talent was immediately noticeable, with the Guernsey driver given the chance to race for the all dominant Triple Eight Vauxhall team in 2001.
From here, Priaulx became on the most successful Touring Car drivers in history, winning the European Touring Car Championship in 2004 before winning the World Touring Car Series three consecutive times between 2005 and 2007. All of this success came with BMW and the German manufacturer rated the Brit so highly that they gave him a number of opportunities testing for the Williams BMW team in 2005. Priaulx took the tests incredibly seriously, training extensively so as to show his full potential. Come the end of his first test he was just one second per lap off the pace of the teams regular driver Antonio Pizzonia.
By this point Priaulx was already in his 30s and deemed too old to be an F1 rookie. BMW's split with Williams ahead of 2006 further complicated matters, with the tin top ace perhaps being one of the casualties of this high profile divorce.
9. Adam Carroll
While you can argue that Priaulx's unconventional early career trajectory may have ultimately dented his potential to make it to F1, one man who stuck to the tried and tested formula was Adam Carroll who became a serial race winner in the GP2 series during the mid 2000s. This success was achieved despite serious budget shortfalls which led to him relying on his pure talent alone to secure positions with teams serious about winning.
Carroll's speed for unquestionable and other worldly, with F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone even going on record claiming that the Irishman deserved a role in the sports highest category. Sadly his time in the junior formula coincided with the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Romain Grosjean to name just a few. Against incredible competition, Carroll won the Monaco round of the GP2 series, finished 2nd in British F3 and claimed the A1 GP (World Cup of Motorsport) for Ireland.
A number of testing outings with BAR at the end of 2004 was the closest Carroll got to an F1 role. Much of the blame for this can be put on his lack of available sponsors and also the unprecedented levels of competition. In any other era there can be no question that Carroll would have achieved his Grand Prix dream.
10. Valentino Rossi
Although better known as a Motorcycle racer, Valentino Rossi has also taken part in sportscar races since his top level Moto GP career came to an end. This isn't the first time that the Italian made the switch to four wheels though, with Rossi having been awarded a test drive with Ferrari in the mid 2000s in recognition of his incredible success. This was initially viewed as nothing more than a promotional run, but Rossi left the team flabbergasted with his incredible speed.
Rossi was quickly invited back for a more serious run alongside then legendary Michael Schumacher, recording lap times which were within a second of what the German legend had achieved in the same car on the same day. Ferrari made an offer for Rossi to join their junior team (Sauber) for 2005, but Rossi got cold feet instead opting to continue dominating on two wheels. Had Ferrari instead offered Rossi the chance to partner Schumacher rather than accepting a couple of seasons in a learning role, it's entirely possible that Rossi would have become only the second man in history to have won a world championship on both two and four wheels.
See the Modern Day Greats in Action
Murray Walker famously said that F1 is "IF" spelt backwards and its fascinating to wonder what these ten drivers never to race in F1 might have achieved if they'd actually been given a chance in the top tier.
If anything, the fact that these racing drivers failed to make it to F1 speaks volumes about the quality of the drivers who actually make it to the top division. You can see these remarkable athletes in action live and in person when you buy an F1 holiday package with Elegant Resorts. We'll secure you the best seats, accommodation and experiences for a motor racing experience you'll never forget.