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Assuming GPR won't be back by March, or ever, I thought - why not dump some thoughts about next season here, in case it is actually worth looking forward to?
I'll start this way: in signing Fernando Alonso to partner Esteban Ocon next year, Renault/Alpine have paired two of the most notorious reject numbers with each other. I don't think 14 and 31 were ever used in the same team (although Zakspeed did once have 14 and 29 when they entered a second car midway through the season), but they're together now!
Nikita Mazepin has chosen 9 for his number next season. Marcus Ericsson won't have to worry about his points total with that number being overhauled.
Pietro Fittipaldi's temporary number 51 was used by Geoff Lees in the last race of the 1980 season at Watkins Glen. He was officially entered for the race but didn't even set a qualifying time. Before that, legendary Japanese rejects Kojima used 51 for a couple of years at the Japanese Grand Prix - Noritake Takahara in 1977 and Masahiro Hasemi in 1976.
Mick Schumacher's number 47 was more recently used by Stoffel Valdoorne's substitute appearance in 2016, but that is the only ever previous use of that number in a Formula One race. To see that number on a World Championship entry list before that, you've got back to the days when the Indy 500 was a World Championship event - Chuck Weyant was the last to use that number in 1959, and the only one to wualify for the race with it. Number 47 was also seen in previous World Championship Indy 500s, but none of the drivers qualified with it: 1956 (Marshall Teague), 1954 (Danny Oakes, 1953 (Johnny Mauro, didn't even arrive), 1952 (Bill Taylor), 1951 (Jimmy Daywalt), 1950 (Ralph Pratt). It's not as if there weren't numbers 40+ in the entry lists until the teams were given permanent numbers in 1974, but if they were that high it usually meant that only even numbers were used.
I haven't investigated Jack Aitken's number 89 in any depth, but I found the 1951 German Grand Prix where all the drivers were given numbers 71 to 99, hence this is probably where it was last seen, driven by David Murray. He was the only driver not to qualify, so it might be that Jack Aitken was the first driver to compete in a race with number 89...
I'll start this way: in signing Fernando Alonso to partner Esteban Ocon next year, Renault/Alpine have paired two of the most notorious reject numbers with each other. I don't think 14 and 31 were ever used in the same team (although Zakspeed did once have 14 and 29 when they entered a second car midway through the season), but they're together now!
Nikita Mazepin has chosen 9 for his number next season. Marcus Ericsson won't have to worry about his points total with that number being overhauled.
Pietro Fittipaldi's temporary number 51 was used by Geoff Lees in the last race of the 1980 season at Watkins Glen. He was officially entered for the race but didn't even set a qualifying time. Before that, legendary Japanese rejects Kojima used 51 for a couple of years at the Japanese Grand Prix - Noritake Takahara in 1977 and Masahiro Hasemi in 1976.
Mick Schumacher's number 47 was more recently used by Stoffel Valdoorne's substitute appearance in 2016, but that is the only ever previous use of that number in a Formula One race. To see that number on a World Championship entry list before that, you've got back to the days when the Indy 500 was a World Championship event - Chuck Weyant was the last to use that number in 1959, and the only one to wualify for the race with it. Number 47 was also seen in previous World Championship Indy 500s, but none of the drivers qualified with it: 1956 (Marshall Teague), 1954 (Danny Oakes, 1953 (Johnny Mauro, didn't even arrive), 1952 (Bill Taylor), 1951 (Jimmy Daywalt), 1950 (Ralph Pratt). It's not as if there weren't numbers 40+ in the entry lists until the teams were given permanent numbers in 1974, but if they were that high it usually meant that only even numbers were used.
I haven't investigated Jack Aitken's number 89 in any depth, but I found the 1951 German Grand Prix where all the drivers were given numbers 71 to 99, hence this is probably where it was last seen, driven by David Murray. He was the only driver not to qualify, so it might be that Jack Aitken was the first driver to compete in a race with number 89...
