F1

F1 drivers we've all forgotten!

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  • #297461
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    I was thinking about some of those drivers who we all seem to have forgotten about – not the ones who were bad, accident prone or notoriously slow (like Jean Denis-Deletraz, Taki Inoue, and dare I say it Michael Andretti, etc) but those who never stood out and just faded into obscurity?

    Such drivers like, and this is without looking them up:

    Enrique Bernoldi (did he drive for anyone other than Arrows?
    Charles Pic (very recent; but I can’t remember if he drove for Caterham, Marussia or both?)
    Ralph Firman/Georgio Pantano (not Jordan’s finest signings!)

    And I have no recollection of Robert Doornbos ever driving a Red Bull, although apparently he did!

    So give a big shout out to those names who haven’t been mentioned for a long while!

    #297462
    safeeuropeanhome
    Participant

    Pic drove for Marussia in his first year and then went to Caterham.

    Scott Speed
    Zsolt Baumgartner
    Pedro Diniz – Forti (remember them?), Ligier, Arrows, Sauber. Absolute journeyman driver.
    Riccardo Rosset – terrible driver but rarely mentioned as being terrible like Inoue, Delatraz, Lavaggi etc.

    #297466
    Lucas Wilson
    Participant

    Justin Wilson

    #297467
    Bullfrog
    Participant

    Some of these drivers were pretty good, but got lost without trace in midfield teams.
    Timo Glock, probably the most successful of them.
    Vitaly Petrov
    Tonio Liuzzi and Paul di Resta
    On the other hand, there’s the F1 career of Kazuki Nakajima.

    #297468
    Matthijs
    Participant

    I don’t think it’s fair to pick drivers that only drove 1 season or less. Or I would pick Vincenzo Sospiri. It’s more interesting to pick drivers that have been around for years but failed to leave an impression. Someone like Ukyo Katayama for instance or Ricardo Zonta or indeed Pedro Diniz (although I thought he was a reasonable good driver).

    #297469
    safeeuropeanhome
    Participant

    Yes I think Paul Di Resta will be one where in 10 years people will say, ‘oh yeah I remember that guy…’. He was decent enough but it was kind of irritating how much the British media overhyped him, talking him up for the Mclaren and Mercedes seats for example when there were better qualified candidates.

    Cristiano da Matta
    Sebastien Bourdais, he was meant to be the next big thing when he came over from ChampCar.
    Christian Fittipaldi
    Gianni Morbidelli
    Roberto Moreno

    There will be loads from the 80’s, in the old pre-qualifying days, who have gone to prove in other disciplines that they are very good drivers but were just stuck in terrible teams in F1. A few that come to mind
    Bernd Schneider, numerous DTM championships
    Joachim Winkelhock BTCC champion, German touring car champion
    Gabriele Tarquini BTCC, ETCC + WTCC champion
    Nicola Larini – DTM winner
    Emmanuele Pirro – 5 Le Mans wins

    The most noteworthy thing I remember about Pedro Diniz’s career was his Ligier caught fire very impressively once in 1996.

    #297470
    Nic Morley
    Participant

    Tarso Marques. I think he was Alonso’s first teammate, at Minardi in 2001.

    Gaston Mazzacane drove for Prost and Minardi at stages. Also Cristian Klien, last appearing for a couple of rounds in 2010 for HRT, prior to that in 2006 for Red Bull.

    #297471
    MazdaChris
    Participant

    Emmanuele Pirro – 5 Le Mans wins

    Lest we forget of course, Allan McNish competed for a season with Toyota

    #297474
    Ciaran
    Participant

    What about Franck Montagny and Tomas Enge, better know for other highs instead of their F1 highpoints.

    1994 had a lot of drivers who people forget. Eric Bernard who scored a podium for Ligier, Franck Lagorce who ended up in sportscars, Oliver Beretta who is probably best known for driving Corvettes and and Ferrari’s in LeMans. There was also Philippe Adams who was hopelessly out of his depth for Lotus.

    There is many others forgotten. Alex Caffi who did a couple seasons for Footwork, Michael Bartels who’s better known for dating Steffi Graf. What about Patrick Frisacher who’s pretty much forgotten despite been one of the six stars of Indy 2005.

    And speaking of Emmanuele Pirro and Allan McNish, don’t forget 4 times LeMans winner Yannick Dalmas.

    #297475
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Interesting that many of the names mentioned on here are ex-Toyota drivers – McNish, Zonta, Da Matta and Glock! I was amazed to find Toyota, that most anonymous of teams, actually raced in F1 for a full eight years!

    #297476
    Ciaran
    Participant

    @junior-pilot Mika Salo wasn’t particularly memorable either apart from his brief spell for Ferrari.

    #297478
    safeeuropeanhome
    Participant

    Ivan Capelli. Everyone remembers his horror 1992 season at Ferrari, and less is said about his performances at Leyton House that got him the drive in the first place (in addition to his Italian nationality).

    Ralf Schumacher’s last 2 years at Toyota were also pretty forgettable. So much so that people forget he was quite good at Williams.

    #297479
    Tomsk
    Participant

    Haha, wish I’d read this before I did the Indycar quiz!

    #297481

    @debaser91

    and less is said about his performances at Leyton House that got him the drive in the first place (in addition to his Italian nationality).

    You mean Newey rather than his drives? :P

    Anyway, I doubt we (will) remember about:

    Bernie Ecclestone doing an FP (I think)
    Helmut Marko (yes, that one!) racing until something happened between him and a certain Brazillian
    A non-title-winning Jacques Villeneuve racing in the early ’80s
    Lotterer in a few years’ time

    #297486
    Mehtab Ahmed
    Participant

    How about Toranosuke Takagi? he drove for Arrows and Prost (?) and had some good races.
    Shinji Nakano drove for Minardi but I really cannot remember if he was any good in a bad car.
    And of course Esteban Tuero, the only thing I remember, that he had a crash in Suzuka 1998 (I think he was trying to overtake maybe Takagi or Rosset so there is another one of the forgotten) and the debris lead to the puncture of Schumacher’s Ferrari.

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