Grand Prix Rejects

Following on from something in the what if thread....

Which driver has had the most stints at one team?

Mansell has had 3 stints at Williams '85- 88, '91 -'92 and 4 races in '94
Heidfeld 3 stints at Sauber
i know there are others so lets find them

Pierluigi Martini, 85, 88-91, 92-95

Piercarlo Ghinzani surely has the record 81, 83-85, 86, 89

Berger only did 2 stints at a team, but did so at 2 different teams

Benetton 86, 96-97 and Ferrari 87-89, 93-95

Surely that is unique

You could argue that Fisichella did the same, although he had the habit of coming back when the team had changed ownership:

Jordan 97; 02-03; 08-09 (as Force India)
Benetton 98-00; 05-07 (as Renault)

Ferrim wrote:You could argue that Fisichella did the same, although he had the habit of coming back when the team had changed ownership:

Jordan 97; 02-03; 08-09 (as Force India)
Benetton 98-00; 05-07 (as Renault)

Ok, Berger is not unique then. I can't believe I forgot about Fisichella.

Frentzen at Sauber 94-96 and 02-03.
Johnny Herbert at Benetton in 1988 and again in 1995.

Prost at McLaren - 1980, 1984-1989, 1995-1996 (test driver)

Laffite at Ligier - 1976-1982, 1985-1986 and Williams - 1974-1975, 1983-1984

Current drivers I can think of that have had 2 or more stints with a team

Webber - Jaguar 03-04, Red Bull 07-present Jaguar and Red Bull are the same team
Alonso - Renault 03-06, 08-09
Massa - Sauber 02, 04-05

Graham Hill; Lotus 58-59 & 67-70

Martin Brundle; Brabham 89 & 91..... separated by a year in sports cars

Patrese: Brabham 1982-83; 1986-87

eagleash wrote:Graham Hill; Lotus 58-59 & 67-70

Martin Brundle; Brabham 89 & 91..... separated by a year in sports cars

Brundle was at Ligier in 93 and 95

ADC was at Jordan in 91 and briefly in 94

King Hiro Matsushita had multiple stints at Arciero-Wells in CART.

Paul Tracy had two stints at Penske's team, which is virtually unheard of. I believe he's the only driver to have multiple stints at Penske.

...

Alboreto at Tyrrell in 81 - 83, then for a part-season in 89.

Philippe Alliot had three at Lola/Larrousse though one of them was only one race - he was there in 87 - 89, then most of 93, and one race only in 94. He had two stints at Ligier as well, his part-season replacing Laffite in 86 then a full season in 90.

Derek Warwick for Arrows in 87 - 89, then 93.

Jacky Ickx
Ferrari: 1968, 1970-73, 1973
Williams: 1973, 1976
Ensign: 1976, 1977, 1978 (all as replacement driver)

Don't forget Luca Badoer and his two spells at Minardi!

I thought Mario Andretti might join the Berger/Fisichella club, so I checked wikipedia to confirm his stats and found that he arguably did at least two seperate stints with three teams!

Lotus - Handful of races 68-69, 76-80
Ferrari - 71-72, one race 1982.
Parnelli Jones - 74-75, two races in 76 (after joining Lotus)

In 1976 Andretti drove the first race for Lotus then two races for Parnelli Jones, then the remaining races for Lotus.

So that's at least two teams where he did two stints (Lotus and Ferrari), if you include the Parnelli Jones as two stints then you could also call it three stints at Lotus.

Warren Hughes wrote:Don't forget Luca Badoer and his two spells at Minardi!

And Tarso Marques having three stints with Minardi in 1996, 1997 and 2001.

Verstappen: Footwork - 96, Arrows 2000-2001

IdeFan wrote:I thought Mario Andretti might join the Berger/Fisichella club, so I checked wikipedia to confirm his stats and found that he arguably did at least two seperate stints with three teams!

Lotus - Handful of races 68-69, 76-80
Ferrari - 71-72, one race 1982.
Parnelli Jones - 74-75, two races in 76 (after joining Lotus)

In 1976 Andretti drove the first race for Lotus then two races for Parnelli Jones, then the remaining races for Lotus.

So that's at least two teams where he did two stints (Lotus and Ferrari), if you include the Parnelli Jones as two stints then you could also call it three stints at Lotus.

Isn't that also the only time a driver had multiple stints at a reject team?

Suprised nobody has mentioned Aguri Suzuki; he was in Larrousse in Suzuka 88 (when regular driver Yannick Dalmas was ill that race) and in 1990 as well in 1991.

Cynon wrote:Isn't that also the only time a driver had multiple stints at a reject team?

You mean Osella aren't rejects?

dinizintheoven wrote:

Cynon wrote:Isn't that also the only time a driver had multiple stints at a reject team?

You mean Osella aren't rejects?

Nope, you need 7 points to not be rejects, Osella had 5, Onyx and Rial both got 6.

Juan Manuel Fangio had two stints with the works Maserati team ('53-'54, '57).
José Froilán González was also at the works Maserati team twice (one race at the end of 1952, full season 1953, opening round of 1956) and had four stints at Scuderia Ferrari (most of 1951 season, full season 1954, opening rounds of 1955, 1957, 1960 seasons).
Ronnie Peterson had two stints at both March and Lotus (71-72 & 76 for the former and 73-76 & 78 for the latter).
Clay Regazzoni had two stints at Ferrari (70-72 & 74-76) and two with Ensign in 1977 & 1980.
Pedro Rodríguez had two stints for three different teams - firstly Lotus, making his debut with them in 1963 before making a brief return in 1966, then Ferrari's North America Racing Team part time between 1964-65 & 1969, and finally with BRM in 1968 & 1970-71.

Small footnotes, Yannick Dalmas had two stints with Larrousse (87-89 & 94); Jan Lammers' time at AGS in 1980-81 counts as two stints thanks to spending half of the former season at Ensign; After spending most of 1977 with Theodore, Patrick Tambay returned there for the first half of 1981 before moving to Ligier; Not only did Jacky Ickx split his time at Ferrari with a single season at Brabham in 1969, but technically he also had two stints at Williams (this being the original FWRC, not WGPE), firstly with a one off appearance at the end of 1973 before moving there permanently in 1976...before swiftly departing mid-season for Ensign.

Rolf Stommelen drove a Brabham in 1970, 1973 and 1976

Christian Danner, 2 stints with Zakspeed (2 races in 1985, whole of 1987) and Jonathan Palmer (1985 before Danner, 1985-1986 after Danner)

Michele Alboreto, 2 stints at Lola in 1989 (Larrousse) and 1993 (Scuderia Italia)

Teo Fabi, 2 stints at Toleman in 1982 and 1985

Roberto Moreno 1989 for Coloni and 1992 for Andrea Moda counts for this thread (well FIA thought that Andrea Moda wasn't a new team, so...)

Well, I was thinking that Mika Salo too had two different stints at the same team although this changed name (in 1996 and 1997 as Tyrrell's driver and then in 1999 at B.A.R. when he replaced Zonta).

Stefano Modena - Brabham - 1987, 1989-1990

Pedro De La Rosa - Sauber for half of 2010, then again at Canada this year.

AdrianSutil wrote:Pedro De La Rosa - Sauber for half of 2010, then again at Canada this year.

McLaren sort of counts too, albeit only as a test driver, with the Sauber drive sandwiching his test role at the team.

And he drove for McLaren in 05 and 06

Myrvold wrote:And he drove for McLaren in 05 and 06

does it count as he was reserve driver at the time.....

He did one race in 2005 in replacement of Montoya, and then replaced Montoya for the second half of 2006, if I recall.

Jean Alesi, 3 stints (effectively) at Tyrrell, 4 races in 1989, replaced by Johnny Herbert for 1 race, 1 race back, replaced by Herbert for 1 race again then back for rest of 1989 and whole of 1990.

Roman Grosjean at Renault/Lotus: 2009 (7 Races) and 2012-2015
Heikki Kovalainen at Renault/Lotus: 2007 and 2013 (2 Races)
Nico Hulkenberg at Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin: 2012, 2014-2016, 2020 (3 races), 2022 (2 Races)
Adrian Sutil at Spyker/Force India: 2007-2011, 2013
Kimi Raikkonen at Ferrari (2007-2009, 2014-2018) and Sauber/Alfa Romeo: 2001, 2019-2021
Fernando Alonso at Renault/Alpine (2003-2006, 2008-2009, 2021-2022) and McLaren: 2007, 2015-2018
Kevin Magnussen at Haas: 2017-2020, 2022 and still counting
Antonio Giovinazzi at Sauber/Alfa Romeo: 2017 (2 Races), 2019-2021
George Russell at Mercedes: 2020 (1 Race), 2022 and still counting
Robert Kubica at BMW Sauber/Alfa Romeo: 2006-2009, 2021 (2 Races)

I'll leave the swapsies at Red Bull for someone else because they're so confusing.

Kvyat had 3 separate stints at Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri and Gasly had 2.

Do Perez, Stroll and Ocon count?

Perez (Force India 2014-18, Racing Point 2018-20)
Stroll (Racing Point 2019-20, Aston Martin 2021-present)
Ocon (Force India 17-18, Racing Point 18, Renault 2020, Alpine 2021-present)

While they never left then came back like the others, the teams they drove for all changed ownership and/or name.

Nicola Larini as a stand-in at Ferrari, 2 races in 1992 in place of Ivan Capelli, 2 races in 1994 in place of Jean Alesi.

Jean-Pierre Jarier at Ligier, last race of 1977, first 2 races of 1981 then the entire 1983 season.

Now we can add Daniel Ricciardo:

Drove for Toro Rosso/AlphaTauri in 2012-2013 and in 2023 from the Hungarian Grand Prix onwards.