3 F1 drivers who would not feature on the grid next season

The 2024 F1 silly season has been strange, to say the least. It all started with Lewis Hamilton disrupting everything even before the racing began.

The driver announced his move to Ferrari and threw the driver market into a frenzy. That frenzy sees the driver who was directly impacted still trying to put the pieces together, as Carlos Sainz is yet to finalize where he wants to go next.

At the same time, there appear to be a few candidates who are not even on the grid right now but would be making an appearance next season. One of them,Oliver Bearman, has been announced as a Haas driver.

At the same time, Liam Lawson is also licking his chops, waiting to find out where he ends up next season. Then there's the curious question of where Kimi Antonelli finds himself amidst all this.

In all of this, though, there's one thing that's quite clear. If there are new drivers who make their way to the grid, some of the current drivers on the grid will be forced to sit out and leave their seats.

At this stage, there are three F1 drivers who are highly likely to lose their seats. Who are they? Let's take a look:

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#1 Logan Sargeant (Williams)

At this stage, it's not much of a surprise that Logan Sargeant is on his way out of the team.

The American driver has been given a decent number of chances but hasn't shone in the manner many expected him to. One can agree that there are places where he has had to take one for the team.

Being forced to withdraw from a race was not a good thing; being forced to run a damaged chassis because his teammate couldn't keep the car safe was due to Sargeant being a major team player.

He has had to take his licks and possibly had to endure far more than was justified. At the same time, though, Williams cannot afford to have a driver who just can't beat the team leader. Sargeant has just found it too difficult to get close to Alex Albon and beat him.

That kind of record is not a good thing for a driver at a top team; at a backmarker, it's disastrous. If he's in an F1 seat in 2025, it would be a miracle of sorts because it appears that he doesn't have a new home in the offing as of now.

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#2 Guanyu Zhou (Stake F1 Sauber)

Zhou Guanyu is a driver who will never forget the kind of respect and support he got at the Chinese GP this season.

Having said that, he will also just have to live with the memory of that race because it's highly unlikely that he's getting back on the grid anytime soon.

The problem for Zhou is two-fold. The first is that the car and the team are going through a period of transition, which means he doesn't have the tools to truly produce impressive results.

The second side of the problem is his teammate. For a while, it appeared that Valtteri Bottas had checked out from F1. The driver's performances in 2022 and 2023 were good but not what one expects from someone like him.

This season, though, with his seat in danger, Bottas has stepped up. He has completely overshadowed his teammate, which has led to a situation where the Chinese driver's stock has plummeted even more.

There was a point where Zhou was linked to Alpine, but it appears that the opportunity is also gone. The Chinese driver is not in the best place right now in terms of leverage in the driver market, so it would be a surprise if he's seen in F1 next season.

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#3 Kevin Magnussen (Haas F1)

The lovable and rugged Danish driver, Kevin Magnussen, has been a great addition to Haas, but it appears that his journey is coming to an end.

Magnussen has been good at Haas and delivered when the opportunity has been there. Unfortunately for him, the gulf between him and Nico Hulkenberg is just too big. With Hulkenberg moving to Audi and Oliver Bearman set to make his F1 debut at Haas, there's no room for Magnussen on the grid.

Esteban Ocon is rumored to be joining Haas for the 2025 season, and if the deal does come through, Magnussen might not have many, if any options for the next season and will be forced to pursue other racing series.