Grand Prix Rejects

Mentioning Bertrand Gachot at the favorite reject driver/team thread reminded and gave me the push to do a thread other drivers that could be joining Danner, Dumfries and Andretti as 'You Lucky Bastard' members but they had a somehow stable career and ended up picking the points needed to avoid this distinction.

Namely my candidate is, of course, Mr. Gachot. Couldn't prequalify much his car at Onyx only to find himself booted of and joining Rial at their death throes. After 'being' with Coloni, he joined Jordan and, if wasn't a certain taxicab driver, his career could have a change for good (and in Jordan was where he picked most of his five points). A sole point with bit-hapless Venturi and two years of 'bossing-driving' Pacific for nothing and now he is selling energy drinks...

(Of course my focus go for drivers not so recent, but if there is anyone recent who deserved to be added...)

Jean-Christophe Boullion, surely.

Narain Karthikeyan with his 4th in the joke that was America 2005. To this day, I still cannot believe I wasted two hours of my life watching it. Probably because there was a guaranteed chance of points for Minardi

Nicola Larini. Yes he did score a 2nd place, but that was during the dark day of May 1st, 1994, where most of the usual point scorers/big names had gone. And he was replacing Jean Alesi for two races. He only scored one other point in his career.

East Londoner wrote:Nicola Larini. Yes he did score a 2nd place, but that was during the dark day of May 1st, 1994, where most of the usual point scorers/big names had gone. And he was replacing Jean Alesi for two races. He only scored one other point in his career.

Surely this is an example of an Unlucky Bugger, where you are unable to celebrate your first (and only) podium?

East Londoner wrote:Narain Karthikeyan with his 4th in the joke that was America 2005. To this day, I still cannot believe I wasted two hours of my life watching it. Probably because there was a guaranteed chance of points for Minardi

It's hard to process the fact that Karthikeyan is a reject, and other good drivers on the grid this year still are, e.g. Hulkenberg, Perez, Di Resta

Tiago Monteiro, for the same reasons that Karthikeyan.

What about Piquet Jr.? He certainly was a lucky bastard after Hockenheim 2008. Does his convincing drive at Fuji, where he finished 4th, exclude him from this category? It took an engine failure for Kovalainen and brainfades by Hamilton, Massa, and the race stewards (stupid Bourdais penalty) for him to finish that high.

And Marc Gené? He only got the chance to unrejectify himself because of Ralf's illness before the 2003 Italian GP, a very lucky strike if you ask me. He was decent, but did not beat anyone with a comparable car in the race (finished 5th ahead of Villeneuve in 6th; only beat Coulthard because he retired). Given that the 6th place that unrejectifies him happened to be the day when that happened, and that he was behind him when it happened... well...

Ferrim wrote:Tiago Monteiro, for the same reasons that Karthikeyan.

I think we seem to be less critical of him because his podium was such a feel good moment. Other reasons being that he doesn't seem to keep coming back despite clearly not being good enough like Karthikeyan does. Plus Monteiro actually drove well in 2005, such as scoring a real point in that dog of a car.

I remember suggesting YLB to teams... and one of it was BMS-Dallara.

redbulljack14 wrote:

Ferrim wrote:Tiago Monteiro, for the same reasons that Karthikeyan.

I think we seem to be less critical of him because his podium was such a feel good moment. Other reasons being that he doesn't seem to keep coming back despite clearly not being good enough like Karthikeyan does. Plus Monteiro actually drove well in 2005, such as scoring a real point in that dog of a car.

His performance at Belgium was a great one. This when the Jordan car was a bit of a shocker. Plus he had two 10ths while Narain, outside his 'special' 4th, didn't went better than 11th...

FMecha wrote:I remember suggesting YLB to teams... and one of it was BMS-Dallara.

Not really lucky, they scored way more points than needed.

They got out of reject status on 1989 alone.

By definition lucky bastards aren't rejects! Hence I'm moving this to the EVDP forum ...

Ferrim wrote:What about Piquet Jr.? He certainly was a lucky bastard after Hockenheim 2008. Does his convincing drive at Fuji, where he finished 4th, exclude him from this category? It took an engine failure for Kovalainen and brainfades by Hamilton, Massa, and the race stewards (stupid Bourdais penalty) for him to finish that high....

Piquet was ahead of Bourdais on the road even before Bourdais' penalty was applied. And he was pretty close to Kubica and Raikkonen in the closing stages too. And he was also 6th in Hungary that year.

For some reason Pedro Diniz keeps popping into by head for this category. Most of his points were scored in races of attrition (Spain and Italy 96, Luxembourg 97, Belgium 98 etc). And I was a fan of him back in the day (apart from 2000 when he suffered brain fade all the time)!

Does Gianni Morbidelli fits this category?

FantometteBR wrote:Does Gianni Morbidelli fits this category?

I would say yes actually. Aside from his 3rd at Adelaide which admittedly was great and I was so pleased for him (indeed I wanted him to take Panis at the end and he even might have won had anything happened to Hill as then Panis would have had to have driven 2 or 3 more laps), his other points finishes were 6th in the same race at 1991 after Prost was fired, a 5th at Hockenheim 94 having survived the demolition derby, a 6th at Belgium after Schumacher was disqualified, and a 6th in Canada 95 after Berger took out Brundle in the latter stages.

Marc Gené? He'd be, by definition, a reject had Ralfie-boy not ended up with concussion in time for the '03 Italian GP.

I will nominate Zonta too, as he narrowly escapes with three 6th places for BAR...

Gené has been mentioned previously, while there was nothing particularly lucky (that I remember of) in either of Zonta's 6th place finishes.

Ferrim wrote:Gené has been mentioned previously, while there was nothing particularly lucky (that I remember of) in either of Zonta's 6th place finishes.

Probably should have read previous posts...

Did a bit of digging, and found that Zonta's first 6th place was virtue of Mika Salo being disqualified (2000 Australian GP). Plus, Villeneuve got 17 points out of that car so Zonta should really have scored at least a couple more.

Lol...100th post after a 1 1/2 years...

I completely forgot Zonta... those merry-go-rounds of late 90s and early 2000s...

This week I was pondering in which team could be an example of YLB and only came at mind the 'German' ATS. Only to notice, they exactly scored seven points (eight if you sum the point that Jarier scored at their first race, but they were with Penskes)

East Londoner wrote:Nicola Larini. Yes he did score a 2nd place, but that was during the dark day of May 1st, 1994, where most of the usual point scorers/big names had gone. And he was replacing Jean Alesi for two races. He only scored one other point in his career.

In Larini's defense, he drove for three reject teams (Coloni, Osella-which has yet to have its page, and Lambo/Modena), a well-past-its-prime Ligier, and the Ferrari F92A that I would call a 1992 Life-clone. All terrible cars for someone who had deserved better than that. So his 2nd place was well deserved even though it would be overshadowed.

golic_2004 wrote:

East Londoner wrote:Nicola Larini. Yes he did score a 2nd place, but that was during the dark day of May 1st, 1994, where most of the usual point scorers/big names had gone. And he was replacing Jean Alesi for two races. He only scored one other point in his career.

In Larini's defense, he drove for three reject teams (Coloni, Osella-which has yet to have its page, and Lambo/Modena), a well-past-its-prime Ligier, and the Ferrari F92A that I would call a 1992 Life-clone. All terrible cars for someone who had deserved better than that. So his 2nd place was well deserved even though it would be overshadowed.

Not to mention he nearly finished 3rd at the 1989 Canadian GP, only for the Osella to break down...

Unless he really pulls something out of the bag this year, Yuki Tsunoda has to be the most recent candidate for "Lucky Bastard' status, that 4th in Abu Dhabi in 2021 would never have happened if not for the events triggered by Nicholas Latifi's crash.