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Many instances exist in the history of F1 where two big names got together and left an indelible mark on the sport. Michael Schumacher did that in 1996 when he signed with Ferrari as a double world champion and went on a journey to win five world titles. Lewis Hamilton did that with Mercedes in 2013 when he moved from McLaren. Even Ayrton Senna did that with McLaren.
Having said that, there are also some partnerships that promise so much but turn out to be utter disasters. Nothing works, nothing makes sense, and then, in the end, the two parties separate. In this piece, we will take a look at some of the most high-profile driver signings in the sport's history which ended up being failures.
3 high-profile F1 driver signings that failed miserably
#3 Nigel Mansell (McLaren 1995)
Nigel Mansell's stock was very high in 1995. Having won the F1 title in 1992, he went on to race in IndyCar in 1993 and won the title there as well. In 1994, in what was an on-again off-again season in F1, he was able to secure a win in the last race of the season. For the 1995 season, he was one of the two world champions on the grid, the other being Michael Schumacher.
Ron Dennis, the McLaren boss, signed Mansell on a lucrative contract with the team to get back to winning ways in F1. The problem with all of this was the fact that Mansell in 1995 was no longer a spring chicken. He was 42 years old and his motivation to race had started to wane.
The issues arose even before a single lap was run as a slightly thicker Mansell could not at first fit in the car. Consequently, he had to sit out the first two races. When he finally got the car he could fit in, Mansell was far from competitive as the new McLaren was a handful. The former world champion got frustrated very soon and within just two races decided to terminate his contract and walk away from the team.
After all the efforts made to get a world champion in the car, McLaren got nothing but bad PR out of all of this.
#2 Michael Schumacher (Mercedes 2010-2012)
Mercedes made a late call to return to F1 in 2010, marking the shock return of Michael Schumacher. The German legend retired from the sport at the end of the 2006 F1 season and was 40 years old in 2010. Mercedes had taken over Brawn GP, the team that won the title the previous season, so it wasn't an operation that started from scratch.
Both team principal Ross Brawn and Schumacher claimed that the aim was to challenge for the title. As soon as the season began, however, a few things became clear: Mercedes did not have a title-contending car, and age and time away from the sport had caught up with the German.
Schumacher was regularly getting overshadowed by his teammate and compatriot Nico Rosberg. In his three seasons with the team, Mercedes did show signs of growth, but most of the standout results came from Rosberg instead. By the end of the 2012 season, Schumacher appeared to have checked out mentally from the sport.
In the end, the dream-team alliance between Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher did not produce the kind of result at Mercedes as it did at Ferrari.
#1 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren 2021-Present)
We now come to the most recent scenario of a high-profile driver signing that failed to live up to expectations. Daniel Ricciardo made the bold decision of moving from Red Bull to Renault at the end of the 2018 F1 season. After not feeling confident about Renault's prospects of becoming a future title contender, Ricciardo made a move to McLaren, the 3rd best team in the constructors' championship for the 2021 season.
With that move came the downfall as from the very first race, Ricciardo found it difficult to extract the most from the McLaren. At the same time, his teammate Lando Norris was racking up one consistent result after the other. Although the first season had some peaks, including Ricciardo's win at Monza, overall he was outclassed by Lando Norris at McLaren.
With regulations changing for the 2022 F1 season, Ricciardo was expected to start with a much better baseline. Unfortunately, his performances have been below average this season as well, causing Zak Brown, the McLaren boss, to admit in the media that the Australian's performances have not met expectations.
After getting signed by McLaren on one of the more lucrative contracts on the grid, Riccardo scored just 40% of the team's points in the first season, a statistic that has fallen to 20% in 2022. For the salary that the Australian takes home, the signing has proven to be a massive failure for McLaren.
