F1 rejects who should have been F1 greats

[ibsey]

F1 is full of what if's & missed opportunities. But which F1 rejects do you believe has suffered the worst breaks, or can claim the worst hard luck story?

After reading up on Jan Lammers (here & on http://8w.forix.com/lammers.html), he seems to have a pretty good case for this unwanted title. He appeared to be such a massive talent in lower formulae's that in 1978 Autosport predicted: "He just has to be a World Champion of the eighties". Furthermore I read that Jo Ramirez (who worked with Jan at Shadow in 1979), always considered Jan to have had the greatest car control Joe had ever seen. This is a big statement, considering Jo has worked with most the greats (i.e. Senna, Prost, Lauda, Rosberg, Hakkinen etc). Furthermore Jan matched his teammate Elio de Angelis (who went on to win races) at Shadow.

In 1982 Renault asked him to replace the injured Prost at Detroit, but the championship leader recovered in time for the race. In an even more cruel twist of fate, before the start of the first session in Detroit Jan (who was driving a Theodore) is approached by Ferrari, who wanted him to replace Gilles Villeneuve from Zandvoort onwasrds. However during that very session the Theodore's throttle sticks, with Jan hitting the wall and breaking his thumb. As a result, Patrick Tambay signs the Ferrari contract.

Despite being successful in sportcars & lemans, Jan never seemed to have got the break he deserved there after and was even overlooked but even half decent F1 teams... let alone the top ones!. It seems a bit of a pitty really.

Are there any others you are aware of?

[BlindCaveSalamander]

Luca Badoer. 'Nuff said.

[Wizzie]

Alessandro Zanardi. He was faster than Michael Schumacher in a back-to-back test at Benetton but guess who had the race contract at the time?

[f1-gast]

Lammers for sure.
And what about Sarrazine (or how to write)

[Phoenix]

That's why I think it's better to stay out of F1 rather than in absolutely hopeless teams.

[nigellamansell]

Chris Amon

[Aerond]

Chris Amon

How is Amon a F1 reject?

[Klon]

Of course Eric Van De Poele, he musn't go unmentioned.

[dr-baker]

I could be wrong, but Justin Wilson. Won F3000 title and in IndyCar in their equivalent of Minardi, but didn't match that expectation in an actual Minardi.

Also Anthony Davidson.

[ibsey]

Alessandro Zanardi. He was faster than Michael Schumacher in a back-to-back test at Benetton but guess who had the race contract at the time?

In order to kickstart a bit more of a discussion here (rather than this thread just turning into a list of names), can Alessandro Zanardi really claim the worst hard luck story in F1?

I mean he did get a whole year in a Williams which few other F1 rejects can claim to have enjoyed from their F1 time. I know that wasn't Williams's best season etc etc, but the chassis wasn't too bad. I mean Ralf (not quite the greatest F1 driver ever) scored a few podiums with it & without looking it up finished, i think, 5th in the championship. Yet, aside from a couple of promising showings at Spa & Monza, Zanardi did nothing with the car & (from memory) scored no points whatsoever.

As I wasn't aware of the Michael Schumacher back-to-back test at Benetton you mentioned, I did read through his profile on this site. Whislt it there can be little doubt about his raw combativeness and racer's instinct on Sunday afternoons (especially in Indycars...Laguna Seca 1996 perhaps being the best example). It does seem his qualifying pace had left something to be desire and the fact that lowly grid positions had left him with too much to do on race day. For instance Zanardi only out-qualified Johnny Herbert once in 1993. So perhaps Zanardi did get what he deserved from his time in F1?

[WeirdKerr]

*puts on anti papaya suit*

Zsolt Baumgartner.......


*dives for cover*

[mario]

Lammers for sure.
And what about Sarrazine (or how to write)

Stéphane Sarrazin? That's quite hard to tell, since he only ever drove in one race (which he retired from in dramatic fashion), and spent the rest of his time as Prost's test driver before switching to become Toyota's test driver in 2002. His career really doesn't lend itself well to analysis in terms of what he might have achieved, since we don't have a great amount of material to work from.

That's why I think it's better to stay out of F1 rather than in absolutely hopeless teams.

You have a point - all too often, a promising career is halted in its tracks because of, say, just a single rough year in Formula 1 with an uncompetitive car. It was bad enough in the past, but it's worse still these days when the expectation is that the rookies must step into the car and perform from the start. Some were able to step up their performances, but many others have found themselves overwhelmed by the demands of the sport when pushed into F1 without adequate preparation, and pushed out onto the scrapheap before the season is out.

Chris Amon

How is Amon a F1 reject?

He's not a Reject when it comes to points, though few could rival his bad fortune in Formula 1, save perhaps Derek Warwick.

[golic_2004]

Of course Eric Van De Poele, he musn't go unmentioned.

Van De Poele, Zanardi, plus Allan McNish. Had McNish started F1 much sooner than he did he would have had a number of wins.

[DonTirri]

From a slightly patriotic point of view: Leo Kinnunen.
Nobody can deny that he had talent, he did dominate interserie and was crucial for Porches success in the early days of WSC. He just made the mistake of buying a SURTEES for his F1 career.

[Phoenix]

Lammers for sure.
And what about Sarrazine (or how to write)

Stéphane Sarrazin? That's quite hard to tell, since he only ever drove in one race (which he retired from in dramatic fashion), and spent the rest of his time as Prost's test driver before switching to become Toyota's test driver in 2002. His career really doesn't lend itself well to analysis in terms of what he might have achieved, since we don't have a great amount of material to work from.

Stéphane Sarrazin had a very promising debut in F1. He qualified 17th or 18th, which was ahead of not only team mate Marc Gené (the regular driver who he outqualified by either 0.635s or 0.694s (the F1R profile and Stats F1 differ in this)), which was very good, ahead of the other Minardi, Takagi and perhaps de la Rosa as well (Zonta injured himself in a crash and did not take part in qualifying and Villeneuve's times were disallowed because of irregularities in the fuel). In the race, he was running 11th and very close to Villeneuve in the BAR when his crash happened. He definately deserved more time in F1 as a race driver.

[Shadaza]

Gabrieli Tarquini, He showed flashes of speed and always smashed his team mates, pitty he was stuck with Osella, Coloni, AGS and Fondmetal! I think he would of been a great driver and certainly would of been faster then Capelli if he was given a ferrari, he outqualified him once in the Fondmetal!

Pedro Lamy also comes to mind.

[Dan B]

Gorgio Pantano. Rather successful in the lower classes but when it came to F1 he did diddly squat.

[Cynon]

Alex Zanardi, Sebastien Bourdais, Bobby Rahal, Gabriele Tarquini, Eric van de Poele, A.J. Foyt (though I don't think he would have gone to Europe to race any ordinary F1 GP, really)

[Wizzie]

Gorgio Pantano. Rather successful in the lower classes but when it came to F1 he did diddly squat.

Pantano became his own worst enemy during his time at Jordan by massively underperforming (sort of like Nico Hulkenberg in the Williams last year). Neither of them were able or willing to show their full potential in sub-par machinery on a consistent basis.

[DanielPT]

Pedro Lamy also comes to mind.

I obviously agree with this. Might I also add Pedro Chaves since he obtained fine results in Formula Ford and British Formula 3000 but was stuck with that hopeless Coloni...

[f1-gast]

What about Esteban Tuero !!
My god what a talent, yes he was 19 year that;s why he should never leave formula 1 because of 2 accidents.
He deffently would beat Reutemann in the stats.

[Wizzie]

What about Esteban Tuero !!
My god what a talent, yes he was 19 year that;s why he should never leave formula 1 because of 2 accidents.
He deffently would beat Reutemann in the stats.

What did happen to Tuero after his season at Minardi?

[f1-gast]

What i know is that he got scared.
He had that crash with Takagi, and it was a hard one (Takagi flew over the Minardi and kept bungling on the minardi of Tuero).
He just told Minardi i'm leaving (this is how GianCarlo Minardi told it me). And he left formula 1.
And he had a contract for 1999 to drive for minardi, if i can remember it well he got even a salary !

[DanielPT]

I think he got his back injured in the crash and while no one really knows why he left F1 but it probably got to do with that crash, so he swapped single seat racing by touring cars in Argentina. He went on to have reasonable success.

[Ataxia]

Tora Takagi. Always thought he was pretty good, he just only had access to crap cars (and he was even more mental than The Lord God Kamui). Jan Magnussen should get a mention too. He had a very temperamental Ford engine to put up with, and on the back of THAT F3 championship, he should have done better.

[ibsey]

Just been reading up on more examples to post here.

Firstly Perry McCarthy seems to be a prime candidate (just learnt he was the original inspiration for this entire website). In fact the Times labeled him "the world's unluckiest racing driver".

Franck Lagorce appears to have been rushed in F1 too early. His debut was actually Suzuka 1994 (in awful conditions) which couldn't have helped either, and he only did one race after that. Therefore I personally would have liked to see a bit more of him in F1 (a bit like Stéphane Sarrazin).

I've often wondered how Riccardo Zonta would have turned out if, he didn't injury his legs in Brazil 1999 (only his second F1 race weekend). The people at Mercedes, seemed to rate him extermely highly?

Finally, there is the story of Tommy Byrne. Although it has to be said, he didn't help his cause by apparently turning up to the Mclaren test, with two bird's - dressed in very short skirts & covered in make up - whom Tommy had just met the night before. Furthermore there is the rumor that Ron Dennis asked him what his thoughts were on R&D, to which Tommy replied, "R&D? What's that then?". But at least Tommy seemed to enjoy himself outside of F1 (boozing & drugs etc). Fair play to him.

[mario]

Lammers for sure.
And what about Sarrazine (or how to write)

Stéphane Sarrazin? That's quite hard to tell, since he only ever drove in one race (which he retired from in dramatic fashion), and spent the rest of his time as Prost's test driver before switching to become Toyota's test driver in 2002. His career really doesn't lend itself well to analysis in terms of what he might have achieved, since we don't have a great amount of material to work from.

Stéphane Sarrazin had a very promising debut in F1. He qualified 17th or 18th, which was ahead of not only team mate Marc Gené (the regular driver who he outqualified by either 0.635s or 0.694s (the F1R profile and Stats F1 differ in this)), which was very good, ahead of the other Minardi, Takagi and perhaps de la Rosa as well (Zonta injured himself in a crash and did not take part in qualifying and Villeneuve's times were disallowed because of irregularities in the fuel). In the race, he was running 11th and very close to Villeneuve in the BAR when his crash happened. He definately deserved more time in F1 as a race driver.

Oh, I don't deny that in the one race he drove, he did an excellent job; it's just that I am a little cautious about drawing many conclusions from what was, essentially, a one off drive. That said, from his performance in other series, he is no slouch, so he probably could have done much better if he had a chance at a race seat in F1.

Just been reading up on more examples to post here.

Firstly Perry McCarthy seems to be a prime candidate (just learnt he was the original inspiration for this entire website). In fact the Times labeled him "the world's unluckiest racing driver".

Franck Lagorce appears to have been rushed in F1 too early. His debut was actually Suzuka 1994 (in awful conditions) which couldn't have helped either, and he only did one race after that. Therefore I personally would have liked to see a bit more of him in F1 (a bit like Stéphane Sarrazin).

I've often wondered how Riccardo Zonta would have turned out if, he didn't injury his legs in Brazil 1999 (only his second F1 race weekend). The people at Mercedes, seemed to rate him extermely highly?

Finally, there is the story of Tommy Byrne. Although it has to be said, he didn't help his cause by apparently turning up to the Mclaren test, with two bird's - dressed in very short skirts & covered in make up - whom Tommy had just met the night before. Furthermore there is the rumor that Ron Dennis asked him what his thoughts were on R&D, to which Tommy replied, "R&D? What's that then?". But at least Tommy seemed to enjoy himself outside of F1 (boozing & drugs etc). Fair play to him.

Ah yes, Tommy Byrne. He did show great potential in the lower formulae, especially Formula 3, but he wasn't the shrewdest decision maker. He was offered the chance to be a test driver for McLaren in 1982, but was perhaps too keen to get into Formula 1 and set his career back somewhat when he went to Theodore, where he DNQ'd for three races, and crashed out of the two he did qualify in because he was pushing too hard.
That said, when he took the British Formula 3 title, he won a chance to test drive a McLaren F1 car at Silverstone, where famously he managed to set better test times than both of the works drivers (even though he claimed that the engine had been detuned in his car before the test). But, he was a somewhat difficult character though - Ron Dennis refused to hire him because he thought that Byrne lacked focus and discipline. It's ironic that you mention the two girls that Byrne brought to the test, since that exacerbated Ron's negative assessment of Byrne's character - and, moreover, by Byrne's own confession he had too strong a penchant for the bottle and the wilder side of life, which again didn't exactly endear him to Ron Dennis.

[ibsey]

For the benefit of those, who don't already know the story of Tommy Byrne. I would really urge you to read this thread; http://forums.autosport.com/index.php?s ... ommy+byrne

In it, Tommy, tells his story in his own words & to put it simply, some of those stories are amongst the most entertaining I have ever read, anywhere. For instance, i'll copy & paste one just one example here;

Indy Lights race at Pocono. The forecast is for rain 100%. The crew preps the car and leaves the track, Tommy's with them. It's raining, and it's going to rain for at least the next 24 hours, there's no way that they're going to be running the next day.

Everyone goes for a big piss-up. Tommy leads the pack drinking twice his share.

The alarm clock goes off the next day and it's dry! Somehow the rain hit around the track, but the track itself is dry. There is a practice session in the morning and single car qualifying mid-afternoon.

Tommy can't go out for practice. He's sick as a dog. Hell, the whole crew is wrecked.

They line him up for qualifying. He still hasn't been able to keep even water down. In single car qualifying, you call out how many laps you want to warm up with. Everyone is taking the maximum which means they are getting the green flag on the 4th time by.

Tommy was fastest in practice on the previous day, so he was the last to qualify. Right before the official sends him out he asks how many warm-up laps. Tommy holds up his index finger. Green flag first time by.

You get 2 timed laps in single car oval qualifying. Tommy took his one warm-up lap and one timed lap before pulling in.

With his single timed lap he stuck it on Pole.

A mechanic drags him out of the car and takes him back to the hotel. Needless to say, he had an early night. Pretty sure he won the race the next day, too.


I have since become a fan of Tommy's as at the end of that thread, I asked him about his driving style (as well as do a little plug for this website & try to get him to put his profile on here) & it was the only time an ex-F1 driver has responded back to me. Top man!

[dinizintheoven]

he was a somewhat difficult character though - Ron Dennis refused to hire him because he thought that Byrne lacked focus and discipline. It's ironic that you mention the two girls that Byrne brought to the test, since that exacerbated Ron's negative assessment of Byrne's character - and, moreover, by Byrne's own confession he had too strong a penchant for the bottle and the wilder side of life, which again didn't exactly endear him to Ron Dennis.

And yet, Ron would end up signing Kimi "vodka and strippers, kippis!" Räikkönen. If only Tommy Byrne could have been a few years older, he might have had a shot at Hesketh when James Hunt moved on to the pre-Ronspeak McLaren.

[shinji]

I highly recommend 'Crashed and Byrned', his autobiography. Very interesting life altogether.

[ibsey]

If only Tommy Byrne could have been a few years older, he might have had a shot at Hesketh when James Hunt moved on to the pre-Ronspeak McLaren.

If he had driven for Hesketh, there probably would have been so much boozing & partying, that they may well have forgotten about taking part in the actual race!!!

Or even if they had made it, I doubt they would have been fully sober come race day. Can you imagine what the pit-stops must have been like in that situation?

Whislt on the subject of Hunt & Hesketh. I heard a story once that one day Hunt was due to test the car, but was so hungover. Yet despite this, he still climbed into the car to give it a try. However Hunt could only manage to drive half a lap before parking the car on the side of the track to have a rest. Anyway, Lauda who was also testing that day, saw Hunt's car (along with Hunt slouching inside the car), and promptly parked up besides Hunt. Fearing that Hunt may have been serious ill or something, Lauda then tried to wake Hunt up & help him, only to be told to "f*** off & leave him alone" by his friend.

[Phoenix]

he was a somewhat difficult character though - Ron Dennis refused to hire him because he thought that Byrne lacked focus and discipline. It's ironic that you mention the two girls that Byrne brought to the test, since that exacerbated Ron's negative assessment of Byrne's character - and, moreover, by Byrne's own confession he had too strong a penchant for the bottle and the wilder side of life, which again didn't exactly endear him to Ron Dennis.

And yet, Ron would end up signing Kimi "vodka and strippers, kippis!" Räikkönen. If only Tommy Byrne could have been a few years older, he might have had a shot at Hesketh when James Hunt moved on to the pre-Ronspeak McLaren.

I believe Kimi didn't have that reputation back in 2002...

If those stories about Byrne are true, then I can understand why Ron Dennis didn't like him. Dennis was always a very professional man, and probably someone like Byrne was not mentally prepared to drive for a top F1 team, no matter how many talent he had. But I concede he deserved a bigger opportunity and some time to mature...

[ibsey]

he was a somewhat difficult character though - Ron Dennis refused to hire him because he thought that Byrne lacked focus and discipline. It's ironic that you mention the two girls that Byrne brought to the test, since that exacerbated Ron's negative assessment of Byrne's character - and, moreover, by Byrne's own confession he had too strong a penchant for the bottle and the wilder side of life, which again didn't exactly endear him to Ron Dennis.

And yet, Ron would end up signing Kimi "vodka and strippers, kippis!" Räikkönen. If only Tommy Byrne could have been a few years older, he might have had a shot at Hesketh when James Hunt moved on to the pre-Ronspeak McLaren.

I believe Kimi didn't have that reputation back in 2002...

If those stories about Byrne are true, then I can understand why Ron Dennis didn't like him. Dennis was always a very professional man, and probably someone like Byrne was not mentally prepared to drive for a top F1 team, no matter how many talent he had. But I concede he deserved a bigger opportunity and some time to mature...

Phoenix, you make a fair point which I do take on board. Whislt there appears to be little doubt that Tommy was a difficult character (due to his tough upbringing) in the early 1980's - who wouldn't have got on with Ron Dennis, something I believe he admits himself. I do tend to think that Tommy could have matured under the right circumstances & therefore gained the mental capacity to become WC if he was given a decent opportunity.

Firstly, you need to have some mental strength to be as successful as he was in the lower formulae.

I think being mentally prepared to drive for a top F1 team mainly comes with experience. Some thing Tommy wasn't given. It is true that experience alone will not guarantee mental preparation for any driver. Therefore the big question mark for me is whether Tommy could have found the right team or people to work with in F1, in order to help him become sucessful in this respect. But ultimately I think he could have done it under the right circumstances.

Although of the top of my head, I do struggle to think which team may have suited him. However if a team - with the 'underdog attitude' - (simliar to Hesketh or even Jordan) did exist in F1 during his time then I think that would have brought out the best of him. Perhaps someone like Brabham would have fitted this bill? (as they loved Nelson Piquet another trouble maker).

If I remember correctly I think Tommy says; he did have the desire to become WC, as long as he could be himself & didn't have to put up with unnesscessary bull. So I do concede it questionable whether he could have found this situation in F1?

However, I think it is worth mentioning that many great drivers had a bit of an edge to them. For instance, Senna & Schumi had their 'ram people off the road approach'. Alonso had his 'throw my toys out the pram if things don't go my way' approach. Whislt James Hunt & Kimi, were renowned 'party animals' before they acually became world champion. Yet because they were getting results for their respective teams, their teams put up with them (expect in the Alonso/Mclaren case...but then Mclaren also had Hamilton, so it is understandable why they didn't put up with Alonso's antics).

In fact James Hunt is a great example of someone who apparently seemed difficult to manage. Yet when he was left to be himself, James got the job done. For instance after Lauda returned from his Nurburgring accident in 1976, Lauda got a couple of decent results & the championship again looked to be Lauda's for the taking. So much so, that Alstair Caldwell (who worked for Mclaren at the time) said that they had given up hope on James winning the championship & therefore stopped trying to keep James on the straight & narrow anymore. So during the Candian & US GP's Hunt (who was left to be himself) apparently went out partying the night before each race & didn't come back to his hotel alone either!!!. Yet Hunt won both races...to take the championship down to the wire & ultimately won the championship.

Apologies for this turning into a long post, but esentially what I am saying is, if someone could have given Tommy the right circumstances etc, he could have been sucessful in F1. The question is would he have got the right circumstances?

p.s. you are aboslutely correct about Kimi not having that reputation in 2002 when he joined Mclaren. But he did get 'earn' that reputation whislt at Mclaren, yet Ron still kept him on.

[McDuck]

Jenson Button.

[ibsey]

Jenson Button.

Please explain?

[ibsey]

I could be wrong, but Justin Wilson. Won F3000 title and in IndyCar in their equivalent of Minardi, but didn't match that expectation in an actual Minardi.

Also Anthony Davidson.

Justin Wilson.

I do actually feel very sorry for him, as if I recall correctly he was simply too tall (or so most of the top teams claimed). Also, let's face it he didn't really have the looks to become a top GP driver. But his girlfriend at the time (2001), wasn't as bad on the eye.

Also agree with Ant Davidson & Alan Mcnish.

[ibsey]

Tora Takagi. Always thought he was pretty good, he just only had access to crap cars (and he was even more mental than The Lord God Kamui). Jan Magnussen should get a mention too. He had a very temperamental Ford engine to put up with, and on the back of THAT F3 championship, he should have done better.

Ah...Takagi San - my favourite story on him, is when he was testing the Tyrell in early 1998, he had set a really quick time & came back to the garage. The mechanics were all exicted with joy, slapping Tora on the back etc. Yet as Tora didn't speak much english, he though they were all angry with him.

In regards to Jan, perhaps he had the talent & the opportunity (having the guidance of Jackie Stewart to fall back on). I question whether he had the desire. For instance, his fitness was awful. I read an interview (about a year or so ago) where he admitted he failed to put as much effort into F1, as he should have done. Nevertheless I believe he has a son currently in motorracing, so maybe Magussen - part 2 - will be much better.

[Enforcer]

Alessandro Zanardi. He was faster than Michael Schumacher in a back-to-back test at Benetton but guess who had the race contract at the time?

In order to kickstart a bit more of a discussion here (rather than this thread just turning into a list of names), can Alessandro Zanardi really claim the worst hard luck story in F1?

I mean he did get a whole year in a Williams which few other F1 rejects can claim to have enjoyed from their F1 time. I know that wasn't Williams's best season etc etc, but the chassis wasn't too bad. I mean Ralf (not quite the greatest F1 driver ever) scored a few podiums with it & without looking it up finished, i think, 5th in the championship. Yet, aside from a couple of promising showings at Spa & Monza, Zanardi did nothing with the car & (from memory) scored no points whatsoever.

I think 1999 after several years in Indy was too late for Zanardi to come back, it was just too much of learning curve to adapt to a different sort of car. Had he gotten a good drive in his earlier days in F1, I think he'd have made something good of it. Certainly though, had he stayed with Bennetton and their 'fantastic project' for 2 years in 1992, he could've easily ended up with a race drive for them in 1994, considering they effectively ended up needing to have an open test at the end of 1993 to replace Patrese. And given that he'd have been their test driver for over a year at that stage, he probably would've taken to the B194 better than Schumacher's team-mates did. May not have been World Champion, but could've had a solid career.

Byrne's another possibility, he certainly had the speed, his F3 season in 1982 was as dominant as Senna's in '83 when you consider he missed races to pilot a Theodore (he boasts in his book that he was 13th in free practice for Austrian Grand Prix before a part of the sidepod broke before qualifying, stopping him from going quicker than 26th, wonder what would've happened had he been 13th in qualifying). Whether or not he could've been enough of a team-player is another matter. Also, his temprement might have made Prost/Senna look like a polite discussion over a cup of tea and a scone. He claims to have run another driver off the road in a race at Mondello purely because he didn't want to run the risk that another Irish driver might be viewed as better than him.

[ibsey]

Alessandro Zanardi. He was faster than Michael Schumacher in a back-to-back test at Benetton but guess who had the race contract at the time?

In order to kickstart a bit more of a discussion here (rather than this thread just turning into a list of names), can Alessandro Zanardi really claim the worst hard luck story in F1?

I mean he did get a whole year in a Williams which few other F1 rejects can claim to have enjoyed from their F1 time. I know that wasn't Williams's best season etc etc, but the chassis wasn't too bad. I mean Ralf (not quite the greatest F1 driver ever) scored a few podiums with it & without looking it up finished, i think, 5th in the championship. Yet, aside from a couple of promising showings at Spa & Monza, Zanardi did nothing with the car & (from memory) scored no points whatsoever.

I think 1999 after several years in Indy was too late for Zanardi to come back, it was just too much of learning curve to adapt to a different sort of car.

Enforcer, whislt I agree with the rest of your post, I do however question this statement. I think, Zanardi spent three years in Indycars (1996 - 1998) which was only one year longer than Nigel Mansell (1993 & 1994). Nigel came back to win a race for Williams despite being significantly older than Zanardi when he did so. So he didn't suffer from adapting between indycars & F1 car's (despite switch from one to another almost weekly..in an F1 car that wasn't orginally designed for him).

Further examples of people who didn't struggle to adpat between Indy Cars & F1 cars include Mario Andretti, JV, JPM (all roughly speaking the same age & experience level as Zanardi at the time in question).

It is also worth remembering that Zanardi was actually signed up by Williams in the middle of 1998. In the 9 months between this time & the start of the 1999 season, Williams were very keen to avoid the mistakes of Micheal Andretti & Mclaren & therefore gave Zanardi plenty of testing time & opportunity to adapt back to F1 cars (same as JV & JPM, but much more than Mansell enjoyed).

Furthermore in late 1998 Zanardi was constantly on the phone to Patrick Head, shaping the development of the 1999 car in order to help him adapt to the car more quickly. Also, Williams gave him the whole of 1999, to adapt back to F1 cars, so you can't say Zanardi, wasn't given every opportunity to adapt back to F1.

In any case I believe it is a fundamental requirement of any F1 driver that they have to to adapt to what they are given. For instance all the drivers in 1999, had to adapt to the extra groove in the front tyres, something that was such a big issue all drivers were still moaning about well into the 1999 season. Furthermore this year for instance, the change from Bridgestone tyres to Pirelli tyres requires a big change in driving & racing mentality, so drivers have to adapt to it.

Aside from stuggling to adapt to F1 cars in 1999 (something Zanardi can only really blame himself for i'm afraid), I do tend to think, part of his problem was firstly his attitude. For instance I recall that early in the 1999 season, he suffered many mechical failures. Yet Zanardi always took a light hearted attitude (i.e. joking about the problem etc). Instead what he should have been doing is banging the table, to ensure that those problems didn't arise again. Yet, perhaps because he didn't take it so seriously, those mechical problems did keep on arising time after time.

Secondly (perhaps as a result of the above points) I think Zanardi started to lose confidence in his own ability as the season wore on & started to take desperate measures. For instance I read that he overheard a Williams mecahic say something like, "it wouldn't be like this if Alan Jones was still here", whislt I think drivers like Ralf Schumi or JV, would just brush comments like this aside & take the attitude of "you know what, i'll show them". I tend to think Zanardi was deeply hurt by comments like these & it effected his confidence as a result. Perhaps as a result, during the middle of the season (around Hockenhiem), he actually started to take desperate measures, i.e. reverting to steel disc brakes rather than carbon fibre brakes, like everyone else etc.

Don't get me wrong here, I really respect Zanardi as a person esepcially since his 2001 accident & I was a massive fan of him in indycar in 1996 - 1997. But I do think he was given a fair chance at Williams. Although I accept, if he was as sensitive to critism as I suggested above, then perhaps Williams wasn't the right enviroment for him in F1?

As I said earlier I do tend to agree with the rest of your post, & I would have loved to have seen him in a Benetton for 1994. Then perhaps we would have seen the Indycar verison of Zanardi, in F1?

[ibsey]

Just had another thought, regarding Zanardi's inability to adapt to F1 cars.

Micheal Andretti (who had grown up in Indy racing) was actually more sucessful in F1, than Zanardi. Yes, Andretti, had a slightly better car than Zanardi (not all that much better though). But then Andretti, didn't have a full season, yet he still got a podium. Yet Zanardi failed to score any points for Williams whatsoever.

So to my mind that is further evidence that Zanardi had more issues (i.e. wrong attitude & lack of confidence), than just struggling to adapt to F1 cars alone.