You Un-Lucky bastard for Drivers!

[David AGS]

Most likely have discussed before, but the Rejects site's most mentioned driver, but the driver himself is not a feature on the site.

Roberto Moreno.

DNQ Lotus (1982!!!) Oh dear.
1987: 2 drives for a average at best team, scored a point for 6th in Adelaide.
1988: Gets a Ferrari testing contract! (F3000 champion)
1989: Signs with Coloni; 4 races
1990: Signs for Eurobrun!!!
October 1990 (Nannini breaks hand, gets lucky break, finished 2nd in first race for Benetton)
1991: Gets full time-contract with Benetton. Scores points, a little behind Piquet, but had some DNF'S while running in strong positions.

Fastest Lap in Belgium. Gets sacked a race later. Gets 2 races at Jordan, out qualifies regular de Cesaris twice, but both DNF'S. Gets a race with Minardi, abandoned after 14 laps, running 16th, with teammate Martini crashing early.

You think he gets a decent drive the following season. Indeed, with Andrea Moda, and qualifies that piece of garbage, at all places Monaco!

1994: Has a break in F1, to Indy Cars, and struggles.

1995: F1''s in Moreno's blood. Tempted to return to F1 with Forti (or shall we say Brazil F1). Outpaced by slow-caoch Diniz and finally retires from F1

[Wizzie]

By all rights Alex Zanardi should have broken out of rejectdom easily (I mean he was faster than Michael Schumacher in a head-to-head test at Benetton for crying out loud) but for whatever reason didn't.

[Phoenix]

Luca Badoer. 'Nuff said.

[Collieafc]

I remember seeing an article in F1 racing about how Pantano was, at least to a point, very unlucky

[thehemogoblin]

Danny Sullivan. Had a fifth already, then finished seventh in the final race of the season, just to leave the sport.

[Phoenix]

Danny Sullivan. Had a fifth already, then finished seventh in the final race of the season, just to leave the sport.

Danny Sullivan wasn't unlucky, he was just a bit mediocre. He was offered another season at Tyrrell but preferred to return to the States instead.

[JohnMLTX]

Bourdais.

You can't kick that much ass in a champcar without some serious talent.
Recently, he's gotten pole at Le Mans twice without winning. This past year, he never even got to drive the car during the race, as a teammate crashed it early on.

And during his time in F1, he started off with minimal F1 experiance, and comparing him to Vettel who had tested and even raced before. Then in 09, he was in a mediocre Toro Rosso, and despite consistently finishing AHEAD of Buemi, got dropped.

[mario]

Bourdais.

You can't kick that much ass in a champcar without some serious talent.
Recently, he's gotten pole at Le Mans twice without winning. This past year, he never even got to drive the car during the race, as a teammate crashed it early on.

And during his time in F1, he started off with minimal F1 experiance, and comparing him to Vettel who had tested and even raced before. Then in 09, he was in a mediocre Toro Rosso, and despite consistently finishing AHEAD of Buemi, got dropped.

I know that he has managed to set a pole position time in 2010, but when was the other time? In 2009, it was Sarrazin who set the fastest time - was it back in 2007 then (as I think Bourdais skipped the 2008 event), or was it earlier than that?

Also, Pedro Lamy did not crash the car in 2010 - the #3 Peugeot was retired from the race because the chassis had cracked around the front right suspension mounting point, leading to a major structural failure (which was, according to Mulsanne Corner, a long standing weakness for the 908, and something which has troubled them in the past).
That said, even if he had driven the car, chances are that he wouldn't have finished the race anyway - that car was fitted with the same batch of defective connecting rods that were fitted to the other Peugeot entries that year, all of which failed in operation due to the pace at which Peugeot were going.

The other irony is that Mulsanne Corner pointed out that both the Audi and Peugeot entries might not have been legal at the 2010 event - the rules state that there should not be any visible particulate emissions from the diesel cars (i.e. no clouds of soot), but both the Peugeot and Audi entries were caught on camera with clouds of soot clearly exiting the exhausts. However, you suspect that the ACO would be extremely unwilling to suspend its two biggest manufacturers from its biggest event...

[JohnMLTX]

Bourdais.

You can't kick that much ass in a champcar without some serious talent.
Recently, he's gotten pole at Le Mans twice without winning. This past year, he never even got to drive the car during the race, as a teammate crashed it early on.

And during his time in F1, he started off with minimal F1 experiance, and comparing him to Vettel who had tested and even raced before. Then in 09, he was in a mediocre Toro Rosso, and despite consistently finishing AHEAD of Buemi, got dropped.

I know that he has managed to set a pole position time in 2010, but when was the other time? In 2009, it was Sarrazin who set the fastest time - was it back in 2007 then (as I think Bourdais skipped the 2008 event), or was it earlier than that?

Also, Pedro Lamy did not crash the car in 2010 - the #3 Peugeot was retired from the race because the chassis had cracked around the front right suspension mounting point, leading to a major structural failure (which was, according to Mulsanne Corner, a long standing weakness for the 908, and something which has troubled them in the past).
That said, even if he had driven the car, chances are that he wouldn't have finished the race anyway - that car was fitted with the same batch of defective connecting rods that were fitted to the other Peugeot entries that year, all of which failed in operation due to the pace at which Peugeot were going.

The other irony is that Mulsanne Corner pointed out that both the Audi and Peugeot entries might not have been legal at the 2010 event - the rules state that there should not be any visible particulate emissions from the diesel cars (i.e. no clouds of soot), but both the Peugeot and Audi entries were caught on camera with clouds of soot clearly exiting the exhausts. However, you suspect that the ACO would be extremely unwilling to suspend its two biggest manufacturers from its biggest event...

Ah. My mistake on the crash. It does make him even more unlucky. And, to my knowledge, he had the pole time in 2007 as well. He skipped 2008 due to F1 commitments as it was held on the weekend between the Canadian and French Grands Prix, if I remember correctly.

[DanielPT]

Liuzzi seems to be heading for really unlucky territory. Having signed for HRT and still missing a 6th, having a 7th. And that retirement in Monza 09 being poised for a podium...

[Shizuka]

Moreno, easily.

[Cynon]

Roberto Moreno: It took him over 20 years to finally get a race drive that allowed him to show his talents as a racing driver, not as a #2 driver in a strong team or driving for a shite team. He worked miracles in CART --... oh wait, he was an F3000 champion, wasn't he? Those F3000 champions... so shite in F1 but surprisingly good in American single seaters...

Sebastien Bourdais: Did a better job then Buemi when it counted (Hint: Not Qualifying), okay, Champ Car was mostly talentless at the time, but you don't dominate Champ Car so much that the rest of the field bases their race strategy on the pace that you set and the rest of the field being shocked beyond belief when you DNF without you being seriously good. His outings in IROC (which was a series he won in despite it being hugely stacked against him) and Le Mans should have vindicated his poor treatment by Toro Rosso and Red Bull. If Bourdais had been given a fair shot, he would not be eligible for reject status.

By all rights Alex Zanardi should have broken out of rejectdom easily (I mean he was faster than Michael Schumacher in a head-to-head test at Benetton for crying out loud) but for whatever reason didn't.

Zanardi wanted to race, not test. That's why he took the Minardi drive and then the CART drive. He was never going to be an equal teammate to Michael Schumacher at Benetton. His CART career showed his true talents more than anything he did in F1, and that wasn't a weak field he was against, either. It was a lot stronger than the F1 field was, that's for sure, it's just that the car wasn't as important in CART. Oh yeah, F3000 champion as well. Hmm...

[JeremyMcClean]

Jacques Villeneuve: Well, he won 1997, but after that he had engine problems in 1998 (Mecachrome), any type of problem you could think of in 1999 (went up to third at one time!), various problems between 2000-2003, and not much luck to be ruined, other than when he went as high as Second in Spa 2005.

Since his championship win in 1997, he hasn't come close to a win.

Another unlucky bloke is David Coulthard. Another person of mention is Rubens Barrichello.

[dinizintheoven]

The list of 20 International F3000 champions does make for strangely unsuccessful reading...

Three never name it into an F1 racing seat, despite the odd bit of testing (Müller, Junqueira, Wirdheim).
Two are profiled rejects and never scored a point (Badoer, Sospiri) - one of those had far more of a chance to unrejectify himself than the other.
Three are unprofiled rejects (Wilson, Bourdais, Liuzzi) - though Liuzzi does still have a chance of unrejectification (he needs another 6th place), it wont be happening in a Hispania this season.
Three only barely unrejectified themselves (Danner, Boullion, Zonta) and are therefore lucky bastards. Danner (4th & 6th) is the luckiest of them all, given the dire car he was driving at the time, and is given that award on this site, Boullion (5th & 6th) and Zonta (three 6ths) did the minimum necessary to escape a site profile.
Two more never made the podium but had a string of lower points results that put them well clear of unrejectification (Comas, Fittipaldi).
Four had careers ranging from unspectacular to downright difficult, but managed to make it onto the podium (Moreno, once; Modena, twice; Capelli, three times; Heidfeld, 12 times).
Two had a single win in their rather lengthy F1 careers (Alesi, Panis).
And just one mamanged more than one win, could have been a champion on a different day, but wasn't (Montoya, 7 wins).

Compare this to the list of GP2 and GP2 Asia champions:

One hasn't made it into F1 as any more than a test driver (Valsecchi), but might get a drive if one of Team Fernandes' drivers is injured this season and Luiz Razia isn't up to the job.
One was in F1 but was too crap to handle it, only won the GP2 title afterwards, and hasn't been back since then (Pantano).
One has made it to F1 but hasn't had a chance to race yet (Maldonado).
Three have made it to F1 but are still under reject status (Hülkenberg, Kobayashi, Grrrrrjjjjjnnn). Kobayashi will probably unrejectify himself this year. Hülkenberg might get the chance next year if he gets a race seat. Grrrrrjjjjnnn might never get a second chance.
Two have made it to the podium but have yet to win (Rosberg, Glock). One of these will not get the chance to add to that this year.
And one, of course, has won 14 races and one World Championship.