kostas22 wrote:That example is the exception not the precedent. I do remember reading in another magazine somewhere else (but I can't for the life of me remember who it was)
Might it be on F1's or the FIA's website? I'm not saying go looking for it, the chances are it would be very tedious to do so.
that due to current regulations this is no longer possible, and that, therefore, John Watson will forever be the only driver to drive a #1 car without being a world champion.
Or, maybe, the only one since whenever that rule was brought in... 1974, was it? Either way, I was going to say that's a lot of pages of Forix to comb through to find a time before then when a non-World Champion ran car #1, but I was presented with one in the very first F1 race - it was Fangio, although he would be champion soon enough. The Indy 500s in those days always had a car #1, but looking through those races it seems they only used even numbers, hence (other than Britain 1950) there were no #1 drivwers then. Still I search, and get to Britain 1951... where Farina, the champ, had the #1 car. Through the history books we go, into 1952, past another Indy 500 with a #1 driver, with Fangio out for the entire season, here we are at Silverstone, and in the #1 car is... Graham Whitehead! Safe to say he was never a champion, because he only drive that one race.
I also looked up 1974, and with Lotus the 1973 Constructors' Champions, they were given 1 and 2, so Ronnie Peterson drove the #1 car for the entire season, having been close to a drivers' title in two previous years, but no cigar.
So, how about "John Watson is and (possibly) forever will be the only driver to have driven in the #1 car without winning a World Championship... from 1975 onwards."
So I would expect Vettel would slot into car #6 and whoever replaced Vettel would drive car #0 at Red Bull.
Or, with a possible alternative... the #31 car that is hypothetically used in testing and is sometimes seen when RB are doing public demonstrations in a cannibalised RB5?