Christian Danner

The place for respectful and reverent discussion of Reject drivers and teams, whether profiled or not as yet
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William Hunt
Posts: 27
Joined: 07 Jun 2017, 13:34

Christian Danner

Post by William Hunt »

At the time when he was in F1 I never rated him highly, even though he had beaten the quicker Ralt's of Thackwell and Nielsen to the F3000 title in '85.

But looking more closely at his pace in F1, sure he was not in the same league as Thierry Boutsen's immense talent, but he did score Arrows' single points finish in '86 (after moving there from Osella, Enzo Osella had tried to keep him threatening with legal action against Arrows & Danner) but he was really not that far off Boutsen's pace or Brundle's pace at Zakspeed, Brundle was also a highly gifted driver and extremely quick over 1 lap.

Danner brought the Zakspeed to the finish line on no less than 6 occassions and each time not that far from the points (twice 7th, once 8th and three times 9th).

Then at Rial he had that magnificent drive to a fourth place in Phoenix 1989 and completely dominated his (admittedly very slow) teammate Volker Weidler.

Danner was linked to a lot of teams in the silly season in those years, he came close to signing for several teams but never got a new chance after '89 even though he had that 4th place in a small car to show.

For 1988 Danner came very very close to signing with Larrousse-Lola, when that didn't materialise he came close to signing for Tyrrell but they made a deal with Julian Bailey (who was dissapointing to say the least, he was damn slow, in the Lotus too).

It's a shame Ken Tyrrel didn't opt for Danner instead of Bailey. I would have loved to have seen if either Palmer or Danner came out on top (my bet is on Palmer but certainly Danner would have been a lot closer to him as Bailey ever was, I think Palmer and Danner were similar in talent, Jonathan probably a little bit better, he was a very clean driver).

Zakspeed where Danner had lost out to Bernd Schneider and Piercarlo Ghinzani (he came with backing from Fondmetal which is the main reason they took him) the re-hired him as a test driver and reserve driver after race 2.

Erich Zakowski thought very highly of Danner's testing abbility and feedback so he was back as a tester.

To think that Zakspeed came also very close to signing Andrea de Cesaris for '88 instead of the slower Ghinzani.... admittedly the car was hopeless anyhow and Ghinzani & Schneider did a decent job that year.

Then halfway 1988 Eurobrun sought out to replace the underperforming Oscar Larrauri and they signed an actual race contract with Danner starting from the German Grand Prix.

But after a seat fitting Danner said the car was too small for his length and he didn't have enough room in the Eurobrun to feel comfortamble so they canceled that contract.

It's a pitty Danner missed out on the opportunities at Larrouse-Calmels-Lola and Tyrrell, his carreer might have looked different, possibly that would have allowed him to stay a little bit longer in F1.

Now looking back at his F1 carreer I still don't rate him that highly but I can conclude that he was at least a competent driver, decent enough to be in F1 and probably better as I gave him credit for at the time but he was never going to set the world on fire. I think Danner was very similar in talent to someone like Marc Surer.

Christian Danner is a F1 commentator for RTL nowadays. Now I always watch the F1 races live on the Belgian channel but sometimes I switch to RTL during the races just to hear Danner's voice (although admittedly the Belgian commentator is actually nicer to listen to, he has a much more enthusiastic voice).

He may not be a true reject since he did score a points finish for Arrows and Rial (a miracle drive at Phoenix '89).

I wonder (that is after all why I created this post), how do people rate him here?

And do people have stories of particular memories of him?
Conventi
Posts: 29
Joined: 01 Feb 2011, 19:51

Re: Christian Danner

Post by Conventi »

I think he was a competent driver. Not that far away from his highly-rated Team members Boutsen and Brundle at the time. Although it probably hurt that he was the only driver in a Turbo car (besides Caffi) without scoring a single point in 1987, even Moreno in the terrible AGS was before him at the Australian Grand Prix ! And that was at a time where the Turbos still had a big advantage, even if it was only a Zakspeed.
William Hunt
Posts: 27
Joined: 07 Jun 2017, 13:34

Re: Christian Danner

Post by William Hunt »

In Christian's defence, he came very close to scoring points on several occasions in 1987 with twice 7th, once 8th and three times a 9th.

Martin Brundle, who was the only Zakspeed driver to ever score points for them, still considers his points finish in the Zakspeed one of his finest achievements because it was such a poor car
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