There’s been a few who haven’t raced in F1 who have come close to doing that
Rob Wilson almost got a Tyrrell drive in the 81 Belgian GP, depending on whether or not Alboreto could get sponsorship for the drive. He did, so Wilson missed out
John Nielsen missed out on a Tyrrell drive in 85 replacing the late Stefan Belloff due to lack of funding
Marco Greco was supposed to drive for Eurobrun in 1990, but missed out
Dave Coyne was a strong contender to replace the imprisoned Gachot at Jordan for the 1991 Belgian GP (as was Stefan Johansson), but EJ was convinced by Merc to take Schumi
Giuseppe Bugatti was going to drive for Fondmetal at the 92 Portuguese GP, but the team pulled out of F1
Finally Pacific tried to get their test driver Oliver Gavin into a race seat for the 1995 Australian GP, but was refused a superlicence despite being British F3 champion. Yet the FIA had no problem with the same team earlier running Giovanni Lavaggi and Jean-Denis Deletraz, both drivers with more money than talent. Go figure...
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