Unfortunately for Jack Aitken, the Williams reserve driver has never lived up to his Formula 1 potential.
The 27-year-old was actually given his F1 debut by Williams at the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix in the place of George Russell, who was deputising for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes after the seven-time world champion fell ill with COVID-19.
The Brit went on to finish in 16th place in an action-packed race, doing his chances of a Formula 1 race seat in the future little harm.
Since his F1 debut, Aitken has remained with Williams as their reserve driver, even after moving away from single seater racing to take part in endurance racing.
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Aitken has now confirmed that following his move to take part in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for the Action Express Cadillac team, his relationship with Williams has ended.
“We’ve mutually decided to part ways,” he told Motorsport.com.
“I kept an involvement last year, which was great. I really like the team and I’m based half an hour away from the factory, so it was very convenient to do simulator work and I was happy to help and attend some races.
“But my calendar is too busy these days. I want to focus on my racing programme and on where my career is going, which is in sportscar racing.
“They’ve been very supportive of that, and equally they’ve got younger guys coming through their academy, and they want to give them seat time and time in the sim. It just made sense.”
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Unfortunately for Aitken, his pathway to a Williams seat was blocked by George Russell, who spend slightly longer with the team before making the inevitable move to Mercedes.
It is currently unclear who will serve the team’s reserve driver in 2023, with it being most likely that they will share with another team if they do in fact need to call up a temporary replacement for Alex Albon or Logan Sargeant.
It was Nyck de Vries who stood in for the team in Monza last year, but with the Dutchman signing for AlphaTauri, Williams will now have to look elsewhere.