While Formula 1 has had some characters this season, there are many others over the years who have come and gone, and are now racing in other championships around the world.
With just about every motorsport series now in their winter break, this is a good time to see what a handful of ex Formula 1 drivers have been getting up to during the year.
Mark Webber
Mark Webber was last in Formula 1 on 2013, partnering Sebastien Vettel in Red Bull. From 2014 onwards, he drove in the World Endurance Championship with Porsche, but how did he do on his second season with the team?
Although Mark Webber, alongside his team-mates Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, retired from the first race in Silverstone, between Spa in early May and Shanghai on November 1st they didn’t finish below third. This included four wins in a row after the Le Mans 24 Hours event, which current F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg won with a third Porsche team.
While they weren’t able to carry on their winning form for the final race in Bahrain, a fifth place finish was enough to secure Mark Webber and the team the WEC Driver’s Championship. They beat the Audi team of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler, and Benoit Treluyer by five points.
Kevin Magnussen
After good performances in the lower series, Magnussen drove for McLaren in 2014. He was dropped in the off season after the team signed former World Champion Fernando Alonso, becoming their reserve driver.
Surprisingly, Magnussen was given the chance to race for McLaren after Alonso suffered a weird injury during testing in Barcelona. It wasn’t meant to be though, as the new Honda engine set the scene for the rest of the year by failing before Magnussen got to the grid.
Other than the brief outing, the Danish driver didn’t take part in any other racing during the year, and was dropped altogether by McLaren in October. Since then he has tested Porsche’s LMP1 machine, and the Mercedes-AMG C63 car used in DTM. Next year can’t be much worse for him.
Juan Pablo Montoya
Although he hasn’t raced in Formula 1 for over 9 years, Juan Pablo Montoya was known for being quick throughout his time. He went overseas to race in Nascar, and for the 2014 season returned to Indycar, where he raced again this year.
2015 started off well for Montoya, he won the first race of the season in St. Petersburg, Florida. He only gained one other win after this, although that race ended up being the most prestigious of the year, the Indy 500.
Montoya stayed at the top of the championship for the rest of the season, up to the final race. He was narrowly beaten to the 2015 championship by Scott Dixon, who finished on the same amount of points. Because Dixon had won the last race of the season in Sonoma, that gave him one more race win compared to Montoya, which was what the championship was based on.
Paul di Resta
Paul di Resta drove for Force India for three years starting in 2011, after winning the DTM championship in 2010. He went back to DTM before the 2014 season began.
This year he wasn’t able to match his championship win in 2010, with Pascal Wehrlein winning overall. Di Resta finished eighth overall, and was on the podium three times over the course of the season.
Max Chilton
After driving for Marussia F1 for two years, Chilton joined Carlin Motorsports in their first season in Indy Lights, the support series for Indycar.
It took Chilton a little time to get going, but he was on the podium six times through the year and finished fifth in the overall standings. He won one oval race at Iowa Speedway, which he dedicated to his former team-mate at Marussia F1 Jules Bianchi. Bianchi passed away that weekend from the injuries he sustained at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix.
Sebastien Buemi
Buemi was part of the Toro Rosso team for three years, being dropped by the team after the 2011 season for Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo. In 2015 he carried on with the first season of Formula E, as well another season with his team in the World Endurance Championship as the defending champions.
The Swiss driver was very close to becoming the inaugural Formula E champion, but after making mistakes in the final race at Battersea Park, he was beaten to the title by Nelson Piquet Jr. He did pick up three wins that season, and currently is top of the drivers championship after winning two of the three races so far.
Alongside his team-mate Anthony Davidson in the Toyota LMP-1 car, they were unsuccessful with defending the championship that they won the year beforehand. They were on the podium once during the year, picking up third in the first round at Silverstone.
