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In Red Bull, Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari’s rear-view mirrors are Formula 1’s dreamers. Perhaps F1 2026 is their year, when the stars align and their first grand prix victory becomes a reality, defying their previous F1 stats.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri removed themselves from this list in 2024, before Kimi Antonelli – who was next in the queue to join – took his maiden win at the 2026 Chinese Grand Prix. Here’s a look at the all-time list.
Points are correct as of the 2026 Sao Paulo Grand Prix
While still without a win, Nico Hulkenberg finally achieved a Formula 1 dream at the 239th attempt when he reached the podium at the 2025 British Grand Prix.
Climbing from 19th on the grid in mixed conditions at Silverstone, Hulkenberg made the most of his car’s capabilities to hold off a charging Lewis Hamilton in the closing stages and stand on the podium for the first time.
His first podium was enjoyed all around the Formula 1 paddock, having had a host of strong midfield drives throughout his career and a pole position at Interlagos in 2010.
Now that one target has been achieved, can he go even further and reach the top step one day?
French driver Romain Grosjean’s F1 career ended in a death-defying Haas fireball at Bahrain in 2020, though his terrifying accident and backmarking season with the American team did not paint a true picture of his talent in Formula 1.
Grosjean reached the podium 10 times across an 11-year F1 career and came closest to victory at the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix – where his Lotus team’s one-stop strategy paid off as he passed Fernando Alonso to take second, just 2.5 seconds behind Lewis Hamilton.
Canada’s Lance Stroll can count podiums and a pole position among his Formula 1 achievements, but now he wants a victory to finally silence his doubters.
The 2020 Turkish Grand Prix might have been his best shot at quitting this list, building a 10-second lead from pole position before being reeled in and tumbling down the order after his second pit stop.
Hitting 300 career points after the 2025 season opener in Australia, Stroll has only two drivers above him in this metric.
With his reputation rebuilt after his F1 return, Alex Albon has time and talent on his side. But unlike others on this list, the Thai-British driver has already piloted race-winning machinery.
In 2019, midway through his rookie season, Albon was suddenly told to challenge Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen for wins. In the wake of Pierre Gasly’s disastrous Red Bull stint, Albon was promoted from Toro Rosso for the final nine championship rounds.
But just like Gasly, Albon struggled in Verstappen’s shadow. Two podiums, without ever threatening to win a grand prix, wasn’t enough for Red Bull in 2020.
Following a one-year hiatus, Albon signed with Williams for 2022 and has since outperformed his machinery on multiple occasions.
Nick Heidfeld’s 13 Formula 1 podiums was more than any other driver who never tasted grand prix glory before Lando Norris matched that tally at the end of 2023.
His closest brush with victory came at the 2008 Canadian Grand Prix, when team-mate Robert Kubica took advantage of strategy to take his maiden race victory, with Heidfeld sealing a breakthrough one-two for BMW Sauber.
Perhaps Heidfeld’s biggest near-misses came off-track. The German out-performed both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen in equal machinery at Sauber, albeit when the pair were rookies, but while those two earned Ferrari seats and amassed 32 race wins between them, the sport’s powerhouse teams never came calling for Heidfeld.
Following a season on the sidelines, Magnussen wasted no time upon his F1 comeback in 2022, taking home 10 valuable points for Haas in the Bahrain curtain-raiser.
He only added 15 more in the subsequent 21 races but a spectacular pole position in Brazil overshadowed any disappointment.
After taking a stunning P2 finish for McLaren on his F1 debut in 2014, the Dane left Formula 1 for the third time at the end of 2024 and, while you can never rule out another comeback, his signing with BMW in endurance racing has signalled his intent that his future may lie elsewhere.
Across six Formula 1 seasons and two Red Bull-backed teams, Daniil Kvyat couldn’t do quite enough to convince Christian Horner and Toro Rosso’s Franz Tost.
Kvyat was promoted to the senior Red Bull team in 2015 and actually outscored Daniel Ricciardo after a tough season – coming closest to victory in Hungary with second place.
But the so-called “Torpedo” developed a crash-prone reputation and with teenager Max Verstappen pushing for promotion, the politics of Red Bull bit Kvyat.
The Austrian team leveraged the Russian driver’s controversial tangle with Sebastian Vettel at the Russian Grand Prix to promote Verstappen just four rounds into 2016, sending Kvyat back to Toro Rosso.
Isack Hadjar impressed in his debut season at Racing Bulls and, once it was decided the team would drop Yuki Tsunoda to a reserve role, the French driver was picked to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull in his sophomore year.
He has picked up that mantle and performed well with it so far, having earned a contract extension for the 2027 season by both supporting Verstappen where necessary, and scoring the right results when he has needed to.
He broke into this top 10 while on a run of consistent points scoring, and as of Brazil in 2026 has four career podiums to his name in Formula 1.
He has a formidable opponent on the other side of the garage at Red Bull, but racers being as racers are, he will always have eyes on the top step in future.
Liam Lawson began in Formula 1 as a substitute for the injured Daniel Ricciardo at Red Bull’s sister team, and after a brief stint at the senior outfit was back at Racing Bulls to continue his development as a driver.
Where the field spread out in the 2026 regulations in particular, Lawson found himself regularly scoring points as ‘best of the rest’ outside of the top four teams, racking up a healthy tally.
While Lawson has yet to stand on the podium in Formula 1, his consistency has put him among the drivers among this somewhat unfortunate list, for now at least.
Time will tell if he’ll be able to take race victories like others before him, to remove his name.
Japan’s late-braking overtaking master only contested four full F1 seasons, though the glittering endurance career he has enjoyed since suggests he deserved more.
Kamui Kobayashi enjoyed his best years in a Sauber, finishing 12th in the Drivers’ Championship across three consecutive seasons. Never in serious race-winning contention, the Japanese driver’s career highlight came at his home grand prix in 2012.
He qualified fourth at Suzuka, resisting intense pressure from 2009 World Champion Jenson Button to finish third and earn an emotional trip to the podium.
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