By the skin of their teeth...

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dinizintheoven
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Joined: 09 Dec 2010, 01:24

By the skin of their teeth...

Post by dinizintheoven »

In another post on the HWNSNBM Memorial forum, investigating the fortunes of former F3000 champions, I found two drivers who barely escaped rejectdom by doing the minimum necessary to spare themselves a profile on this site: Jean-Christophe Boullion (one 5th, one 6th, no more) and Ricardo Zonta (three sixths). I wondered if there was a list of all such drivers. There isn't, so I made one.

These are all the drivers who scored:
- one 4th, and no other top six results
- one 5th and one 6th but no other top six results
- three 6ths, no more, no less.

And, with the complications of the points systems pre-1959 and post-2002, and with shared drives and half points races, it wasn't just a case of looking at the list of drivers who scored three points. Bold text indicates drivers who are either still active, or have competed since the start of 2005 - I figured that if Narain Karthikeyan can come back after five years away, then there's still hope for the likes of Sébastien Bourdais, Rrrrrmmmnn Grrrrrjjjnnn and Lucas di Grassi to get themselves onto this list, and off it again.

Élie Bayol - 5th (Argentina 1954), 6th (Monaco 1956, shared with André Pilette)
Bob Bondurant - 4th (Monaco 1966)
Jean-Christophe Boullion - 5th (Germany 1995), 6th (Italy 1995)
Alan Brown - 5th (Switzerland 1952), 6th (Belgium 1952)
Giulio Cabianca - 4th (Italy 1960)
Johnny "Lucky Bastard #3" Dumfries - 5th (Hungary 1986), 6th (Australia 1986) - the other two Lucky Bastards had better results
Wilson Fittipaldi - 6th (Argentina 1973), 5th (Germany 1973)
Marc Gené - 6th (Europe 1999), 5th (Italy 2003)
Gerino Gerini - 4th (Argentina 1956, shared with Chico Landi)
Ignazio Giunti - 4th (Belgium 1970)
Jim Hall - 6th (Britain 1963), 5th (Germany 1963)
Narain Karthikeyan - 4th (USA 2005)
Christian Klien - 6th (Belgium 2004), 5th (China 2005)
Chico Landi - 4th (Argentina 1956, shared with Gerino Gerini)
Jackie Lewis - 4th (Italy 1961)
Cristiano da Matta - 6th (Spain 2003), 6th (Germany 2003), 6th (Monaco 2004)
Gerhard Mitter - 4th (Germany 1963)
Silvio Moser - 5th (Netherlands 1968), 6th (USA 1969)
Vitaly Petrov - 5th (Hungary 2010), 6th (Abu Dhabi 2010)
Emanuele Pirro - 5th (Australia 1989), 6th (Monaco 1991)
Dennis Poore - 4th (Britain 1952)
Eliseo Salazar - 6th (Netherlands 1981), 5th (San Marino 1982)
Consalvo Sanesi - 4th (Switzerland 1951)
Giorgio Scarlatti - 6th (Pescara 1957), 5th (Italy 1957, shared with Harry Schell)
Carroll Shelby - 4th (Italy 1958, shared with Masten Gregory, and no points awarded)
Raymond Sommer - 4th (Monaco 1950)
Henry Taylor - 4th (France 1960)
Ken Wharton - 4th (Switzerland 1952)
Ricardo Zonta - 6th (Australia 2000), 6th (Italy 2000), 6th (USA 2000)

So only two drivers managed to get on this list "the hard way" (three 6ths), and both drove for Toyota... even if all Zonta's points were scored for BAR.

Unrejectified via the Indy 500 only:
Don Branson - 4th (Indy 500 1960)
Cecil Green - 4th (Indy 500 1950)

Of the drivers still active, I'd say Petrov will get himself off this list this year, Karthikeyan has no chance of doing so whatsoever, and Klien won't even if he gets a drive sometime, because it'll be with Hispania if he does. There's also the enticing prospect of Kamui Kobayashi getting himself on this list (he needs one 6th) and off it again in the same season; theoretically, Tonio Liuzzi could also do that, as he is also sitting on two 6ths, but there's no chance of that happening in a Hispania. If he'd got the Team Bahar drive, it could have been so different. All the other current rookies and existing rejects without a top six result have some chance (not as much as Kobayashi, mind) of getting on and off the list this season - bar one, Jérôme d'Ambrosio, who will need outrageous good fortune to make 10th, let alone 6th. And finally, there's the mystery quantity that is whether The Hulk could get to race this season, should an existing driver be sacked or injured; if he does, 5th place will put him on this list, then a top six will get him off again.
James Allen, on his favourite F1 engine of all time:
"...the Life W12, I can't describe the noise to you, but imagine filling your dustbin with nuts and bolts, and then throwing it down the stairs, it was something akin to that!"
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