Grand Prix Rejects

Who has had the worst start to their F1 career? My suggestions are;

Jos Verstappen - for almost killing Martin Brundle (thus robbing TV viewers of a great commentator). Even though I acknowledge that accident to have been more Irvine's fault (his GP debut was also fairly memorable!) rather than Verstappen's. Nevertheless it couldn't have been a nice way for Jos the Boss to kick start his F1 career.

Hekki Kovienen - Just how many spins did he do in his 1st race? I remember it was enough to seriously p*ss of Flavio.

Estaban Tuero - Poor fellow after qualifying a very respectable 17th position, in the race he gets a jump start penalty...then got a pit lane speeding penalty (when he was serving his jump start penalty)...then his engine blows!!!

Tora Takagi - Saw Barrichello & R Schumi getting together just ahead of him & Tora - San, decided that he also wanted to join them in the gravel trap.

Alex Young - Monza 2001 Qualifying - His & Alonso's car fail right at the start of qualifying. Therefore Alex is given only a handful of laps to qualify the ONLY old spec car for his 1st race.

I think Deletraz got lapped within (around) 8 laps during his 1st race, prompting Nigel Roebuck to say his famous quote, which escapes me at the moment.

Whislt Tarso Marques & Taki Inque both crased out on their 1st ever racing laps at Suzuka 1994 & Brazil 1996 respectively. However it has to be said that those races were held under awful weather conditions.

However my personal favourite has to be Mario Andretti's story, which I recently came across...the year is 1968..."Man, when I first sat in that Lotus at Monza, I knew I was designed and painted to be a F1 driver! But I had one big problem - I had a prior commitment to race in the US, at the Hoosier 100, on the Saturday of the Italian GP weekend.

I knew I could do both races and even got special dispensation from the Italian authorities to allow me to run in both events. I set a time during Friday practice that would have been good enough for seventh on the grid. At 2pm , I got a helicopter to Milan's airport, flew to New York and then got a private Lear to Indianapolis.

I finished second in the Hoosier race then flew back to Boston and on to Europe. The Grandprix organisers had promised to lay on a helicopter at the airport to fly me to the track. But when I arrived, there was just one solitary mechanic to greet me, driving a Mini Minor! Something didn't smell right. I'm still not sure what really happened that day at Monza, but I think Ferrari protested. They wouldn't allow me to suit up. And when the authorities that had initally promised me the drive slowly started to disappear from the room, I quickly realised that the game was up."

I think Mario got pole at his next race (if you like his real F1 debut) at Wakins Glen in 1968 & was one of only 3 drivers who managed to start their debut race from pole (the others being Carlos Reutemann in 1972 & JV in 1996). Interestingly Mario also got pole at the last F1 race he finished (Monza 1982)


Can anyone think of anyone else?

Karun Chandhok - If I remember correctly he didn't actually drive the HRT until qualifying in Bahrain, and then crashed out mysteriously after two laps.

Mika Hakkinen - Had the steering wheel come off in his hands halfway through the race at Phoenix.

EDIT: Bunsen removed as I realised my idiocy.

[quote="East Londoner"Bunsen Jetton - 21st in qualifying and then he retired.
[/quote]

He'd only made it up to 6th by the time his engine went in the late stages though!!!

James1978 wrote:

East Londoner wrote:Bunsen Jetton - 21st in qualifying and then he retired.

He'd only made it up to 6th by the time his engine went in the late stages though!!!

Ah... It's been a very long time since I last watched Australia 2000.

Didn't Sebastian Vettel get fined something like 10 seconds into his F1 career for speeding in the pits at Indianapolis 2007? It could be argued he should have finished higher than 8th, given that he was driving the third-best car in the field, the BMW-Sauber.

I'd like to say Damon Hill in the Brabham but that was the car rather than him.

East Londoner wrote:Karun Chandhok - If I remember correctly he didn't actually drive the HRT until qualifying in Bahrain, and then crashed out mysteriously after two laps.

Mika Hakkinen - Had the steering wheel come off in his hands halfway through the race at Phoenix.

Good calls!!!

Didn't one of Bruno Senna's wheels also come flying off during his 1st ever drive in that dreaded HRT during FP1 at Barain?

Michael Schumacher - retired within a couple of hundred metres of the start.

Perry McCarthy - need I say more?

Roberto Moreno - well off the pace in ground-effect Lotus and failed to qualify when subbing for the injured Mansell in 1982. Spent several more years in the lower formulae before returning.

Marco Apicella - eliminated in first-corner pile-up in his only race.

Robert Kubica - several spins, a new front wing and post-race disqualification.

Enrique Bernoldi - spun into the wall on the third lap.

Stephane Sarrazin. His one and only race, therefore his debut!

Jaguar: Double DNF in six laps.

Gary Brabham, in the Life. What did you expect?

Also, it's not F1, but... Charlie Nearburg.

James1978 wrote:Didn't Sebastian Vettel get fined something like 10 seconds into his F1 career for speeding in the pits at Indianapolis 2007?

Whereupon he thrust his index finger into the air, grimaced, and said over the team radio: "Yes! That's vot I'm talking about! One record down, a thousand more to go!"

James1978 wrote:I'd like to say Damon Hill in the Brabham but that was the car rather than him.

Giovanna Amati, on the other hand...

Andrea Montermini
Brought in at the Spanish Grand Prix to replace Roland Ratzenberger at Simtek.

Montermini crashed in practice which broke his left heel and right foot - and ended his season before he even got to compete in a race.

East Londoner wrote:Karun Chandhok - If I remember correctly he didn't actually drive the HRT until qualifying in Bahrain, and then crashed out mysteriously after two laps.

And he said it was because of a bump on the track!

Nelson Piquet Jr - Starts 21st on the grid before retiring at half distance due to collision damage.

Franck Montagny.

Qualifies last at Germany 2006 for Super Aguri, a mere 15.4 seconds off pole before quietly retiring at half distance with hydraulic failure.

AdrianSutil wrote:Franck Montagny.

Qualifies last at Germany 2006 for Super Aguri, a mere 15.4 seconds off pole before quietly retiring at half distance with hydraulic failure.

That's misleading.

He was on the pace of Sato throughout Friday practice (between 0.1 to 0.4 seconds off Sato's pace). Saturday morning Montagny was actually quicker than Sato!

Montagny didn't set a proper flier in quali due to being held up at the weigh bridge and then the red flag (session was red flagged due to a timing glitch).

PLAYLIFE wrote:

AdrianSutil wrote:Franck Montagny.

Qualifies last at Germany 2006 for Super Aguri, a mere 15.4 seconds off pole before quietly retiring at half distance with hydraulic failure.

That's misleading.

He was on the pace of Sato throughout Friday practice (between 0.1 to 0.4 seconds off Sato's pace). Saturday morning Montagny was actually quicker than Sato!

Montagny didn't set a proper flier in quali due to being held up at the weigh bridge and then the red flag (session was red flagged due to a timing glitch).

Yeah I know all that . Just wanted to point it out.

Anybody mentioned Philippe Adams: crashed in practice session, started in last position and later, spun off in race. A rejectful debut

Wizzie wrote:Nelson Piquet Jr - Starts 21st on the grid before retiring at half distance due to collision damage.

Nelsinho crashed with Fisichella in first corner.

Marc Gené - did not qualify for his first Grand Prix, but was allowed to start. Made his way up the field, only to be taken out by Trulli in the (that day) fateful Turn 3.

Dunno if it can be called an F1 debut, but... Chanoch Nissany
He was in his fourties when he drove for Minardi in Hungary, did 8 laps with his best result of 1:34.319 - 12 seconds off Alex Wurz's fastest time and 6 seconds off Nicolas Kiesa, who was... second to last. After an epic failure he fled to the sandtrap.
Even the slightly boring Nick Heidfeld couldn't stand his antics

SAKON YAMAMOTO! His debut wasn't any better. He was 3 seconds off Sato's time in qualifying and wasn't last only because Albers was moved back by 10 positions (from 18th) and Scott Speed couldn't set his time.
He retired after 1 (exactly ONE lap) with broken driveshaft.

Impressed that everyone has forgotten about the great YUJI IDE!!!

Didn't do any testing before the season. Didn't know English - Aguri Suzuki had to translate his feedback to the engineers! Qualified nearly 3 seconds slower than Sato. Ran over his mechanics at his first pit stop. Retired with an engine failure...

Loving the examples posted here. More rejectful F1 debuts I have thought of;

Mauricio Gugelmin - Brazil 1988 - His gearbox packs up at the start & as he pulls off...he crosses the pit lane exit & almost takes out his fellow countryman (& former housemate) Ayrton Senna at their home race! Imagine what the crowd re-action would have been had he suceeded.

Micheal Schumacher - Belgium 1991 - I know its been mentioned here already & Perhaps the most famous rejectful F1 debut of all when M Schumi burns his clutch at the start of his debut race. I read / heard somewhere ages ago that this was because Schumi had never done a proper practice start in an F1 car before the actual start of the race. This meant that M Schumi treated the Jordan like his Mercedes Group C Sports car & gave it loads of revs on the grid...therefore burning out his clutch when he released it.

Stefeno Modena - Australia 1987 -Brabham's final race where Bernie was in charge (the proper Brabham team as I like to think of it). Stefeno gave up after just 31 laps because he got tired!

Ivan Capelli - European GP 1985 - Qualified is a relatively lowly 24th (his team mate Brundle was 16th) then had a massive accident in the race. But he made up for it in his next race by finishing 4th.

Nico Hulkenburg - Barain 2010 - Didn't he spin off on something like lap 3 of his debut race?

Riccardo Rosset Melbourne 1996 - From my vague memory I think he attempted a very clumsy overtaking move, which resulted in a coming together with a Minardi driver (possibly Lamy) at the end of the back straight.

Jody Scheckter was considered to be a bit wild in his early days, but I'm not sure if he had a 'rejectful debut' as such. Also Pierluigi Martini didn't have the best of F1 starts in 1985 & I suppose one could count the Tyrell drivers in 1984 as candiates here since the whole team got disqualified.

A few more to add to the list...

K Nakajima had a bit of a rejectful 1st race at Brazil 2007 (if I recall correctly). I think he ran over a few of his mechanics at his 1st ever racing pit-stop....thus bringing shame to young Nakajima-san . Still at least he got as far as a pit-stop in his 1st race...unlike J P Montoya who didn't make his 1st racing pitstop until his 4th race.

On the face of it Nigel Mansell had a bit of a rejectful F1 debut. He only qualified 24th on the grid (in a Lotus Ford) & retired after 40 laps with a broken engine. However I believe he had a back injury prior to his debut & discharged himself out of hospital just to compete at his debut. Also I think his car seat was full of fuel which caused him serveral burns during the race. Therefore it is debateable whether or not that should be considered a rejectful debut. Personally I think it certainly showed balls by old' nige (even if it didn't show much else).

Suprised to just learn that Nelson Piquet Snr made his debut in an Ensign Ford at Germany in 1978 (I don't why I find this suprising I guess I always think of Nelson being too much of a 'diva' to bother with a small team like Ensign). Anyway my stats book says he qualified 21st on the grid & retired after 31 laps with engine failure. Anyone know anymore detail into this (on the face of it seemly disapointing) debut race of a 3 time world champion?

V Sospiri - Can't imagine f1 debuts get much worse than his...attempting to qualify the Lola which was miles off the pace. In fact it was so bad he didn't even bother showing up for the next race! (That was a joke BTW).

R Schumi - spun off on lap 1 of his debut race in Australia 1997. My F1 stats books says he spun because of a 'driveshaft' which I find a little difficult to believe???

Perhaps I'm being unfair to him here, but I can't help but feel that was an either an easy excuse given by the team & driver (to avoid unbearable press pressure following a poor debut race of M Schumi's kid brother). Or Ralf broke his driveshaft when flooring the throttle to avoid stalling the engine, following an inital spin caused by driver error. I vaguely remember the ITV coverage briefly showed Ralf inital spin at turn 4. But I can't remember if they showed what happened in the moments after the spin i.e. did he attempt a recovery spin turn? Or did he just jump out of the car straightaway? (which I think is what actually happened...but I'm not 100% sure).

Piquet was pretty anonymous, actually. Through strategy and attrition, he was 12th by the time he retired, but the only recorded overtake he made, first lap excepted, was on Keke Rosberg on lap 2. When he retired, he was only ahead of Jones, Hunt, Stommelen and Rosberg.

tommykl wrote:Piquet was pretty anonymous, actually. Through strategy and attrition, he was 12th by the time he retired, but the only recorded overtake he made, first lap excepted, was on Keke Rosberg on lap 2. When he retired, he was only ahead of Jones, Hunt, Stommelen and Rosberg.

4 world champs in the bottom 5.

Wasn't Christian Albers really slow on his debut. I hope so as I always hated him.

Yes, but that's due more to the fact that Minardi was using its car from the previous season, hurriedly altered to meet the revised 2005 aero regulations.

Pierluigi Martini, hired to replace the suspended Ayrton Senna at Toleman for the 1984 Italian Grand Prix, proceeds to fail to qualify on his debut on home ground and becomes the only driver not to qualify for a single race in 1984. To add insult to injury, Stefan Johansson in the other Toleman goes on to score his 1st points in that race!

If I'm not wrong Sakon Yamamoto retires at first lap during his first two races, in 2006.

Takuma Sato - Crashed heavily in practice, failed to qualify but was allowed to start then retired after 12 laps with electrical failure though the circumstances did contribute to his qualifying performance.

Roman Grrrrrjjjjjjjjjjjj is another candidate to post here. I’m betting he thought the 2009 Renault front wing design looked awful, so in his first race (Valcenia 2009) he decided to do something about it… like redesign it by bashing it against any driver that was in front of him (3 times in fact).

In fact most of 2009 for him was a crash fest… obviously he disagreed with other aspects of the 2009 Renault as well.

Also I think Robert Kubica got disqualified from his 1st race at Hungary 2006…can’t remember the reason why though.

ibsey wrote:Also I think Robert Kubica got disqualified from his 1st race at Hungary 2006…can’t remember the reason why though.

Car was underweight, he would have finished 7th, not bad in the 5th best car, although Nick Heidfeld scored a podium.

redbulljack14 wrote:

ibsey wrote:Also I think Robert Kubica got disqualified from his 1st race at Hungary 2006…can’t remember the reason why though.

Car was underweight, he would have finished 7th, not bad in the 5th best car, although Nick Heidfeld scored a podium.

Chances are a certain M. Schumacher also would have been disqualified had he finished that race. 5 HWNSNBM points for anyone who makes the connection between the two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK9Ls3nR ... re=related

Alex Yoong

and the legendary Minardi

ibsey wrote:Roman Grrrrrjjjjjjjjjjjj is another candidate to post here. I’m betting he thought the 2009 Renault front wing design looked awful, so in his first race (Valcenia 2009) he decided to do something about it… like redesign it by bashing it against any driver that was in front of him (3 times in fact).

I remember he spent the majority of that race chasing Badoer...yes, CHASING LUCA BADOER. Not often anyone can say that.

QuickYoda41 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK9Ls3nRXn4&feature=related

Alex Yoong

and the legendary Minardi

That's the pinnacle of ridiculity right there.

Bernard Q Ecclestone

Because he didn't qualify, simple as.

QuickYoda41 wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK9Ls3nRXn4&feature=related

Alex Yoong

and the legendary Minardi

Everyone knows Minardi had their troubles, but that's just awful. Welcome to your home race boys!!

Kazuki Nakajima: do you remind his pitstop accident at Interlagos 2007?

Sunshine_Baby_[IT] wrote:Kazuki Nakajima: do you remind his pitstop accident at Interlagos 2007?

Yes, I remember.