He was Lewis Hamilton’s GP2 teammate and one of Toto Wolff’s first signings but he never qualified for an F1 race

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Lewis Hamilton’s GP2 season is the stuff of legend. He scored 14 podiums in 21 races, including five race victories.

It was a two-horse race for the title between Hamilton and future Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr, and the McLaren academy star prevailed by 12 points. It was enough for Ron Dennis to promote him to one of F1’s most coveted seats for the following year.

In terms of the percentage of available points, Hamilton had the best GP2/F2 season ever. Charles Leclerc, now his teammate at Ferrari, comes in only a fraction behind.

In one of the finest performances of his junior career, he rallied from 19th to second at Istanbul Park after an early spin. He was joined on the podium that day by Piquet Jr and his ART teammate Alexandre Premat.

Lewis Hamilton teammate Alexandre Premat never cracked F1

While naturally in the shadow of McLaren wonderkid and title contender Hamilton, Premat had an excellent season in his own right. He won in Barcelona after a dramatic late collision with his teammate, and scored eight podiums to finish third in the standings.

“He was a younger guy,” Premat said of Hamilton in an interview with Sports Gazette. “I remember he couldn’t drive so I used to drive him to races and between the airports. We were having dinner together all the time and that’s why we were a strong pair.

“He was a good person towards me and the team, a real hard worker and a cool guy. We were young guys trying to make our lives, our dream to drive in F1.”

Hamilton’s future boss Toto Wolff is now one of the biggest names in F1, having been Mercedes’ team principal for over a decade. But well before he joined the Silver Arrows, he was a driver manager, and Premat was one of his first clients.

The Frenchman was picked up by Spyker, a forerunner of Force India/Aston Martin, at the end of the 2006 season for a test driver role. They’d just acquired Midlands F1, who fielded Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers.

Premat was given the opportunity to take part in both Friday practice sessions at the Chinese Grand Prix, but that was the furthest he ever got in a race weekend. Denied a chance to showcase what he could do in qualifying, he pivoted to DTM and Endurance Racing for 2007 as old partner Hamilton fought for the biggest prize in motorsport.

Now 42, he can reflect fondly on a career that has included an LMP1 series title and a Nurburgring 24 Hours triumph. He predominantly raced in Supercars during the 2010s.

Alexandre Premat’s brilliant comments about Michael Schumacher after only F1 session

Premat commendably set the sixth-fastest time in FP1 in Shanghai, just a tenth off Michael Schumacher. He also outpaced Sebastian Vettel, who was handed a run for BMW Sauber.

In second practice, he dropped down to 15th, but that was still better than the team’s lead driver in qualifying (Monteiro was P18 and Albers was disqualified for a procedural breach).

His talent may have merited a shot in F1, but he looks back on his outing with pride.

“When I drove in Shanghai, I did FP1 and FP2,” he recalled to Speed News. “I finished FP1 in P6, just behind Michael Schumacher and in front of Sebastian Vettel. This is something I will always remember all my life.”

Schumacher would claim his final ever F1 win that weekend as he hung up his Ferrari helmet. He made a comeback in 2010 with Mercedes, but lost his drive to Hamilton before the car became truly competitive.