Grand Prix Rejects

That’s Jonny Dumfries to you and me. Just 62, what a shame .

Both a "You Lucky Bastard" on t'old site, and a Le Mans winner, lest we forget.

And 62 may be "young" but look at this:
John Crichton-Stuart, 6th Marquess of Bute: died aged 60 (1933-1993)
John Crichton-Stuart, 5th Marquess of Bute: died aged 49 (1907-1956)
John Crichton-Stuart, 4th Marquess of Bute: died aged 65 (1881-1947)
John Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute: died aged 52 (1847-1900)
John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute: died aged 54 (1793-1848)
John Stuart, Lord Mount Stuart: died aged 26 (1767-1794)
John Stuart, 1st Marquess of Bute: died aged 70 (1744-1814)

So you've got to go back two centuries to find someone along the Marquess of Bute line who lived to be 70. Disease and accidents (in the case of Lord Mount Stuart) were no respecters of wealth or nobility, but even so, that's a shocking longevity record. "Our" Marquess had the highest chance of an early grave on the track, survived, and still got cut short. What has this family done to deserve such a fate?

Wow. One wow for the stats above and another for the wealth of knowledge the members here have.

I've not watched him race (yet) but I'd always heard that he was among those "worst ever" drivers lists, not that they mean very much. I didn't know until this morning that he had won Le Mans! You have to be at least half decent to get that far, and I realise I've probably unfairly judged his skills from not looking into it or watching him drive.

Anyhow, respects to the family. Haven't heard the cause of death announced, but 62 isn't exactly old these days. Rest in Peace.

Rob Dylan wrote:I've not watched him race (yet) but I'd always heard that he was among those "worst ever" drivers lists, not that they mean very much. I didn't know until this morning that he had won Le Mans!

See also: Helmut Marko (1971), Gijs van Lennep (1971, 1976), Vern Schuppan (1983), Paolo Barilla (1985), Jan Lammers (1988, alongside the recently-departed Marquess), Volker Weidler (1991), Allan McNish (1998, 2008, 2013), Joachim Winkelhock (1999), David Brabham (2009), André Lotterer (2011, 2012, 2014), Brendon Hartley (2017, 2020) and Kazuki Nakajima (2018, 2019, 2020) for a list of drivers who were unsuccessful in F1 - and who may appear on those "worst ever" lists - but were all Le Mans winners. The ultimate example, though, must be Yannick Dalmas - a four-time Le Mans winner (1992, 1994, 1995, 1999) with a record in F1 reading: 49 races, 11 DNQs, 15 DNPQs (all of those with AGS), and a best finish of 5th in a late-entered Larrousse that made him ineligible for points; his best finish other than that was 7th, in the days when that meant no points. Then there's the likes of Tom Kristensen, who never made it into F1 any more than a brief test with Minardi, and that's a whole other can of worms.

Rob Dylan wrote:I've not watched him race (yet) but I'd always heard that he was among those "worst ever" drivers lists, not that they mean very much.

Yup, it's a pity those sorts of lists never take into consideration factors like 'First Season In F1', 'Ayrton Senna's Team-Mate' or 'Entire Lotus Team Concentrating On Senna' because with all that in mind it's no surprise he struggled. It also reminded me that Senna forced Lotus to tell Derek Warwick to do one as he wanted a compliant novice as his team-mate. Pfft.

It's been a while since I watched any races from that season but I seem to recall there were at least 2 races where he was quite highly placed (4th or thereabouts) near the end before the car conked out. He'd have to have been extremely lucky to get a podium but given even roughly equal status he would have finished many more races in the points.

Barbazza wrote:It's been a while since I watched any races from that season but I seem to recall there were at least 2 races where he was quite highly placed (4th or thereabouts) near the end before the car conked out. He'd have to have been extremely lucky to get a podium but given even roughly equal status he would have finished many more races in the points.

Looking back at his races, he was 5th in Brazil before engine problems dropped him down the order, 5th in Spain until his gearbox failed and briefly ran in 5th in the opening laps in Belgium before he picked up a punctured radiator. It does suggest at least a couple more points finishes were there for the taking before his car packed in - as others have noted, the terms on which he was hired meant that things were even more heavily stacked against him.

It is notable that he achieved both his points-finishes on circuits which were not very familiar for F1 drivers - Hungaroring was hosting its first and Adelaide its second race.

Bleu wrote:It is notable that he achieved both his points-finishes on circuits which were not very familiar for F1 drivers - Hungaroring was hosting its first and Adelaide its second race.

And he had a DNQ in Monaco in a Lotus, which sure did not help his reputation. Even Ghinzani in the awful Osella outqualified him.