Grand Prix Rejects

Naoki Hattori testing the Dome F1 prototype at Suzuka in 1997:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gWXRdXWJcA

I think this does kick off a bigger debate though. Which other reject teams would we like to see returning to F1? Answering with another question, which reject teams can be brought back to F-1? As far as I understand Pacific, Onyx and many others are R.I.P. too! Zakspeed is for instance a reject te...

A funny radio transmission between Jos Verstappen and Greg Wheeler during the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wko_EIhwyvg

I'm probably admitting a real weakness here, but why was he called the "Monza Gorilla" ? According to his obituary, it was because of his mad charging/foolhardy style when he raced, and his stocky frame. As he was known as the Monza Gorilla, maybe it gives another clue as to why he crashe...

Faustus wrote:

midgrid wrote:I think the last time March won a race was with Ronnie Peterson at the 1977 Italian Grand Prix, so not quite!

1976, mate. Ronnie Peterson was at Tyrrell in 1977.

Whoops, I stand corrected.

At least it was after Brambilla's win.

Ricardo Rosset at the 1998 Monaco Grand Prix:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU8uRWIat3Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC3iGSGMJ8c&feature=related

chrismc_DC2 wrote:What about the Yamaha V8 used in 1989 by Zakspeed with Bernd Schneider driving??.....anyone know anything about that?

I think this engine would certainly be a reject candidate! Apparently, the record for shortest failure after fire-up was 30 seconds, and this was at a race weekend.

Jan Lammers' lion livery on the 1979 Shadow DN9.

The difficulty for Red Bull is that its rear end package seems to be the most complex to redesign, so it will take several races for a new one to be introduced, even if Newey has already been working on a new diffuser for a while now.

I agree with what you've written. It's interesting how the least competitive cars without the double-decker diffuser have been able to incorporate it into their chassis first, whereas Red Bull and Toro Rosso, the most competitive teams (RBR at least), will almost certainly be the last to do so. I'm ...

Far from me from leaping to the defence of Flavio Briatore, but the issue of the FOTA money is a bit more complicated. I'm not entirely certain so please feel free to correct me if you are otherwise certain, but Brawn GP was registered as a new team, not as a change of name from Honda. I'm sure I r...

The Sauber C13 in the latter half of the 1994 season: black, covered in small white dots.

I don't think that Piquet is running the new diffuser, and Alonso is probably light on fuel, so the gap is exaggerated. I can still hear the ticking, though.

That's a good juxtaposition of amusingly-contradictory advertising slogan and car crash in that photo.

1995 - the season that provided the stimulus for the 107% rule to be introduced. Highlights: *Forti, Pacific and Simtek all together in the same race! (Until the latter went bust.) *Giovanni Lavaggi and Jean-Deletraz having fun in the Pacific. Katsumi Yamamoto and Oliver Gavin saved from reject-dom ...

At the first round last weekend, it was Steve Rider and Louise Goodman presenting the coverage, with the usual commentary duo of Ben Edwards and Tim Harvey. No James Allen in sight.

Here's a complete list of Friday-only drivers: 2003 Zsolt Baumgartner (Jordan) initially signed only for the Friday of the Hungarian GP, he was drafted for the rest of the weekend after Ralph Firman's accident during practice. Matteo Bobbi (Minardi) Gianmaria Bruni (Minardi) Allan McNish (Renault) F...

I think the last time March won a race was with Ronnie Peterson at the 1977 Italian Grand Prix, so not quite!

Here's the Phoenix Finance Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Finance

It's quite hard to find the wall in Sepang, although I suppose that Fisichella did manage to do it all by himself. The only other drivers I can remember hitting the barriers here are Olivier Panis in 1999 and Johnny Herbert in 2000.

It would have been interesting to see a rehabilitated Didier Pironi drive for AGS in 1987. Sadly he made the fateful decision to concentrate on powerboat racing.

It would have been interesting to see Mazzacane and Marques extend their reject-dom if the Phoenix team had been allowed to compete in 2002.

He's planning to contest selected IndyCar events this year, apparently. Red Bull's official reserve driver will be Brendon Hartley when he gets his Superlicence; until then, it's still DC's job!

Reject of the Stewards' Room, perhaps?

So my choice is Gabriele Tarquini, who drove for Osella, Coloni, AGS and Fondmetal, what an impressive curriculum! He was fast but always in awful teams with no chance at all to progress. My vote goes for his persistence and his memorable battle with the Williams of Thierry Boutsen in the dying lap...