Comments on: Debate: The Bottom 10 F1 drivers

By: Steven Roy

Steven Roy — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:46:47 +0000

Andrea Moda was probably the worst team ever. At one race McCarthy was in the lobby of the hotel looking for the team when he met Andrea’s brother who told him the team had left for the track..without the driver. The brother decided he would drive Perry to the circuit and flew through several red lights. It is worth digging through the net to find McCarthy’s description of this journey. Eventually they come to a green light and the brother locks up all the wheels. McCarthy asked him why he didn’t just carry on at the same speed and was told ‘don’t be stupid my brother could be coming the other way.’

Johnny Dumfries was not a pay driver. He was British F3 champion but Senna had refused to have Derek Warwick as his team mate but Lotus wanted a British driver as the number two to keep sponsors happy. Being number two at Lotus was never a good place to be that’s why Jackie Stewart refused to be number two to his friend Jim Clark. Lotus focussed on Senna and Dumfries’s GP career withered away. He had the potential to be a good GP driver but Lotus was the wrong place at the wrong time.

Zanardi struggled at Williams but Lotus raved about his ability before he went to America.

By: Alianora La Canta

Alianora La Canta — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:54:39 +0000

Perry McCarthy was probably a good driver, but Andrea Moda is a candidate for the worst team that ever raced in F1, so he never got the chance. He inspired F1 Rejects because he was a good driver with few results, not because he was an awful driver.

Chanoch Nissany got a Friday session in the Minardi in Hungary 2005. Nicknamed “Stirling Mossad”, he was 13 seconds off the pace in the morning before a technical problem sidelined him in the afternoon – to the relief of all his rivals.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:17:43 +0000

Was it Brundle who said about Marques, “he couldn’t drive a nail into a piece of wood”? Classic!

Wilson’s good. Not stellar, but plenty good enough to keep well off this list. There’s an interview on the IndyCar site somewhere at the moment with Scott Dixon and Dan Wheldon in which they’re asked which ex-Champ Car drivers have impressed them most, and Wilson’s one of the names they come up with.

Don’t know if it counts because he was only test driver, and that in name only, but in the final years of Minardi we signed 41-year-old Chanoch Nissany. The BBC wrote: “Nissany is a relative newcomer but very wealthy, a fact which no doubt boosted his attractiveness to Minardi.” I’m not sure he was actually allowed anywhere near the car…

By: Pink Peril

Pink Peril — Sun, 18 May 2008 10:38:08 +0000

I second the motion to check out F1 Rejects – the podcasts are hilarious !

I could be wrong, but I think that inspiration behind the site is Perry McCarthy – so surely he would have to make the list?

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:34:58 +0000

this i didnt know!
cheers

By: Rohan

Rohan — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:31:11 +0000

Ukyo was diagnosed with cancer of the back towards the end of 1994: http://www.f1rejects.com/centrale/katayama/index.html

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sun, 18 May 2008 02:24:10 +0000

who has cancer?
if ur referring to Ukyo, he left F1 to persue mountain climbing!

By: Rohan

Rohan — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:42:26 +0000

Can’t believe that someone’s mentioned Ukyo here. He’s the best driver to come out of Japan so far (yes, he’s better than Sato, but, tbf, that isn’t hard – although Davidson’s failed at even that), and was on the verge of getting the second Benetton seat before he was diagnosed with cancer.

By: TeamOrders

TeamOrders — Sat, 17 May 2008 12:08:38 +0000

Michael Andretti (1993) was pretty awful

By: Keirdre

Keirdre — Sat, 17 May 2008 11:43:05 +0000

I’m glad somebody else remembers Rosset for being the one who ploughed into the Spa 98 mass pile up with unabated speed – in fact, he almost looks like he floored it, and sped up! Genius.