[Anonymous]

Help me remember the situations that led CURRENT drivers to miss a race. And let’s not mention the Michelin-Indy farce.
As far as I remember.
Button: penalised when it was discovered Honda had extra compartments in the fuel tank… Was it 2004?
Massa: Due to his Turkey accident in 2009
Alonso: current news
Kimi: because of his back surgery / not being paid by Lotus in 2013.
I can’t remember any others yet.

[JackySteeg]

Button’s exclusion was in 2005, but he also had to miss the 2003 Monaco Grand Prix after a heavy crash. Sergio Perez similarly missed the Monaco and Canadian GPs in 2011 after a nasty qualifying crash.

Bottas missed last year’s Australian GP after hurting his back in qualifying, as did Alonso following that testing crash.
Grosjean missed the 2012 Italian Grand Prix after getting himself banned in that Spa crash.
And I don’t know if it counts, but Ericsson missed the last three races of 2014 after Caterham went into administration, although he’d already severed all ties with them by the time they returned for Abu Dhabi…

[David Not Coulthard]

I think VET missed a race or two in 2007 between Indy and his first race for Toro Rosso.

[James Brickles]

Sergio Perez missed the 2011 Canadian Grand Prix as a result of his big crash in the previous race at Monaco.

[dragoll]

Felippe Massa missed the rest of the 2009 season, after the injuries he sustained by the debris that hit his helmet in Hungary.

[Craig Woollard]

I’m only going on drivers who were withdrawn before the race in the case of a DNS here:

Vettel missed the ’07 French, British and European GPs between his BMW and STR stints.

Massa missed the ’02 US GP (suspension(?)). He also missed eight races in ’09 (injury). He was replaced by Frentzen, Badoer and Fisichella.

Bottas missed the ’15 Australian GP (injury).

Perez missed the ’11 Monaco and Canadian GPs (injury). He was replaced by de la Rosa.

Ericsson missed the final three races of the 2014 season after leaving Caterham. He was replaced by Will Stevens.

Alonso missed the ’15 Australian GP (injury) and is set to miss the ’16 Bahrain GP (injury). He was/will be replaced by Magnussen and Vandoorne.

Button missed the ’03 Monaco GP (injury) and the ’05 Spanish and Monaco GP (team suspended).

Grosjean missed the ’12 Italian GP (suspension). He was replaced by d’Ambrosio.

[AmbroseRPM]

Alonso, Button, Raikkonen and Massa all missed the 2005 US Grand Prix race due to the Michelin tyre debacle.

Button missed the 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix race because his car wouldn’t work.

[paulgilb]

Massa was not suspended for USA 2002 – he was given a 10-place grid penalty for the race due to an incident in the previous race (which unlike such penalties today was to apply at *the* next race rather than *his* next race), so the team decided to replace him with Heinz-Harald Frentzen.

[Alianora La Canta]

All the missed races I’ve been able to find, by entry list appearance. Note that I’m including all DNSes here, so Vettel’s today will be on the list even though some wouldn’t count that. DNSs involving the driver being on track for some part of the weekend and still getting a DNS will be marked. Replacements given where known:

Ferrari, Raikkonen: USA 2005* – tyres (thanks OmarRoncal), USA/Brazil 2013 – back surgery/salary issues with Kovalainen substititing (thanks OmarRoncal)
Ferrari, Vettel: Germany/Britain/Europe – between substitution duties (thanks David Not Coulthard), Bahrain 2016* – power unit

Force India, Pérez: Monaco*/Canada* 2011 – concussion with de la Rosa substituting for the latter (thanks JackySteeg), Malaysia 2014* – gearbox
Force India, Hülkenberg: Australia 2013* – fuel leak, Belgium 2015* – power unit

Haas, Grosjean: Italy 2012 – suspension, substituted by d’Ambrosio (thanks JackySteeg)
Haas, Gutierrez: never

McLaren, Alonso: USA 2005* – tyres (thanks OmarRoncal/JackySteeg), Australia 2015 – concussion (thanks JackySteeg), Bahrain 2016 – chest injury substituted by Vandoorne (thanks to OmarRoncal)
McLaren, Button: Monaco 2003* – concussion (thanks JackySteeg), Spain/Monaco 2005 – team suspended (thanks to OmarRoncal), USA 2005* – tyres, Bahrain 2015* – energy recovery (thanks AmbroseRPM)
McLaren, Vandoorne: never

Mercedes, Rosberg: never
Mercedes, Hamilton: never

Manor, Haryanto: never
Manor, Wehrlien: never

Red Bull, Ricciardo: Italy 2011 – team substituted by Karthikeyan
Red Bull, Kyvat: Australia 2015* – car broke, Australia 2016* – car broke

Renault, Magnussen: Australia 2015* – engine
Renault, Palmer: never

Sauber, Ericsson: USA/Brazil/Abu Dhabi 2014 – Caterham went bust and would have been replaced by Will Stevens had Caterham become a bit less bust (thanks JackySteeg)
Sauber, Nasr: Britain 2015* – gearbox

Toro Rosso, Verstappen: never
Toro Rosso, Sainz: never

Williams, Massa: USA 2002 – switcheroo with Frentzen to avoid a 10-place grid penalty (thanks Craig Woollard), USA 2005* – tyres (thanks OmarRoncal), Hungary*/Europe/Belgium/Italy/Singapore/Japan/Brazil/Abu Dhabi 2009 – head injury with substitution by Badoer and Fisichella (thanks to OmarRoncal)
Williams, Bottas: Australia 2015* – back injury (thanks JackySteeg)

[paulgilb]

Ricciardo took part in Italy 2011 (he was an unclassified finisher).

Arguably if Vettel ‘missed’ France-Britain-Europe 2007, then Magnussen ‘missed’ all of 2015, and Alonso, Raikkonen, and Massa all ‘missed’ entire seasons.

Noticing that Rosberg has started every race since the start of 2006 (over 10 years), I wondered if this is a record. The following drivers all failed to have a 10+ year streak:

Mansell: missed races in 1987 and 1989.
Alesi: missed a couple of races in 1994.
Piquet: DNQ in 1982 and 1989, DNS in 1987.
Berger: missed a race in 1989.
Webber, Trulli & Fisichella: DNS in Indy 2005.
Alonso: DNS in Indy 2005 and Australia 2015.
Button: DNS in Indy 2005 and Bahrain 2015.
M Schumacher: missed several races in 1999.
Barrichello: 2 DNSs in 2002.

Alain Prost just manages it, with DNSs in USA East 1980 and San Marino 1991, starting every race in between. Obviously his 10-year span contained fewer races than Rosberg.

David Coulthard also just managed it, from Brazil 1995 to Canada 2005.

Riccardo Patrese also managed it, from Belgium 1982 to the end of 1993 (over 11 years).

[Author]

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