When Sergio Perez tested positive for COVID-19 on the Thursday before the 2020 British Grand Prix, Racing Point needed a replacement within hours. Nico Hulkenberg had not driven an F1 car in months, had never sat in the RP20, and had to learn the cockpit layout, steering wheel functions, and start procedure from scratch before Friday practice. He qualified eighth for the following week's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix — from a standing start, with no pre-season preparation.
That is the reserve driver's job at its most dramatic. But the role is far more than emergency substitution, and understanding what reserve drivers actually contribute is key to reading how a team develops its car across a season.
What a Reserve Driver Actually Does on a Weekend
The visible part of the role is straightforward: the reserve driver attends every race, stays physically prepared, and is available to step in if a race driver cannot compete. In practice, that means arriving at the circuit on Thursday, attending engineering briefings, reviewing data from every session, and maintaining fitness in case the call comes.
But the less visible work is often more valuable. Reserve drivers spend significant time in the team's driver-in-loop simulator, correlating virtual setup changes with real-world data. When the race engineers find that a particular setup direction works on track, the reserve driver runs hundreds of simulation laps to validate whether that direction will work at upcoming circuits with different characteristics.
During Friday practice sessions, reserve drivers sometimes take over a car for FP1 under the current regulations that require teams to run a young driver in two FP1 sessions per season. This gives the reserve driver real track time and provides the team with a different driving perspective on the car's behavior.
On race day, the reserve driver often sits on the pit wall or in the engineering room, monitoring live data and providing an additional set of eyes on tire degradation patterns, traffic situations, and competitor strategy. This operational contribution means the reserve driver is embedded in the team's decision-making process even when not driving.
How Reserve Drivers Stay Race-Ready
Staying prepared for a race drive without actually racing is one of the most difficult challenges in motorsport. Reserve drivers cannot replicate race conditions through simulator work alone, because the simulator does not reproduce the physical demands of sustained G-forces, the heat of a cockpit, or the pressure of wheel-to-wheel competition.
Most reserves maintain a physical training program that mirrors what race drivers do, even though they may go months without turning a competitive lap. Some also race in other series to keep their racecraft sharp — Felipe Drugovich, the 2022 Formula 2 champion, balanced his Aston Martin reserve duties with racing in other categories.
The FIA requires that any driver stepping into an F1 car during a race weekend holds a valid super licence, which means meeting minimum points and practice session requirements. A reserve driver who does not maintain eligibility cannot serve as a replacement, so keeping the super licence current is a practical necessity.
Famous Reserve-to-Race Moments
Hulkenberg's 2020 stand-in is the most dramatic recent example, but it is not the only one. The history of F1 reserve drivers includes several moments where a last-minute call changed a career:
Nico Hulkenberg, 2020 Silverstone and 70th Anniversary GP: Called up with less than 24 hours' notice when Perez tested positive for COVID-19. Had to learn the car from scratch and finished seventh in his second race weekend, demonstrating that a seasoned professional can adapt quickly even without recent seat time.
Nyck de Vries, 2022 Italian Grand Prix: Stepped in for an ill Alexander Albon at Williams on Saturday morning. Qualified eighth and finished ninth, scoring points on debut. That single performance helped him secure a full-time race seat with AlphaTauri for 2023.
Jenson Button, 2017 Monaco Grand Prix: Came out of retirement to substitute for Fernando Alonso at McLaren while Alonso raced the Indianapolis 500. Button had not raced since the previous season's Abu Dhabi finale but qualified a credible ninth before a crash ended his race.
These examples share a pattern: the reserve driver's ability to deliver immediately depends heavily on their prior experience. All three had extensive F1 race history before being called upon. A young, inexperienced reserve would face a much steeper adaptation curve.
Why Some Reserves Are Shared Between Teams
Not every team can afford a dedicated reserve driver. Smaller teams sometimes share reserve resources with other teams or with a larger partner organization. This creates situations where a reserve driver might be available to two teams simultaneously, with priority determined by contractual arrangement.
The practical risk is obvious: if both teams need the reserve driver in the same weekend, one will be left without a replacement. But the financial reality of running a smaller team means that dedicating a full-time reserve to standing by is a cost that not every organization can justify under the cost cap.
Some teams address this by giving their reserve driver a race seat in another series — F2, Formula E, sportscar racing — which keeps the driver sharp and race-fit while sharing the cost of their development program. The trade-off is that the reserve may have calendar conflicts with their primary racing commitment.
How the Cost Cap Made the Role More Important
The cost cap has made the reserve driver's simulator contribution more valuable, not less. With limited track testing available — only three days of pre-season testing and no in-season testing — teams rely heavily on simulator work to evaluate setup directions and develop the car. A reserve driver who provides accurate, consistent simulator feedback is a genuine competitive asset.
The 2026 regulatory changes, which introduce new aerodynamic and power unit regulations, will increase the demand for simulator correlation. Teams will need to validate new concepts quickly, and the reserve driver's ability to run structured simulation programs will be a key part of that development cycle.
At the same time, the cost cap limits how many people a team can employ on performance-related activities. A reserve driver who can contribute to both simulator development and be available for race substitution provides more value per dollar than a specialist who does only one.
What Happens When Both Race Drivers Cannot Compete
The regulations allow teams to field a replacement driver, but the pool of eligible candidates is small. Any replacement must hold a valid FIA super licence, which requires accumulating enough points through junior category results or sufficient F1 practice session experience.
If both race drivers are unavailable — an extremely rare scenario — the team would need to find two eligible replacements simultaneously. In practice, this has never happened in modern F1, but the contingency exists in team operational plans. Most teams maintain a list of eligible drivers they could contact on short notice, including former race drivers and current competitors in other series.
What to Watch
On a race weekend, the reserve driver's presence is worth noting even when they are not driving. Watch for:
- A reserve driver on the pit wall during practice, monitoring screens and talking to engineers — they are contributing to real-time setup decisions.
- FP1 sessions where a reserve takes over a car — compare their feedback to the race driver's to see whether the car's behavior is described consistently.
- When a race driver misses a session through illness or injury, observe how quickly the reserve adapts — adaptation speed reveals both the driver's experience and the team's ability to prepare a cockpit quickly.
- In the simulator-to-track pipeline, reserve driver correlation work is invisible on TV but shapes every upgrade the team brings to the track.