Worst Driver Ever

[Mathias]

OH YES!!! How could I have forgotten? Perhaps it was the trauma.

I abandon all previous nominations and wholeheartedly support Mark.

IMO, Ricardo Rossett is without doubt the worst F1 driver ever. I mean he was visibly pants even allowing for the cars he was failing to drive.

Thank you Mark.

[speedbump]

Who was that driver in Monaco a year or two ago who crashed a vintage car in a exhibition run ???
He's got my vote.

[GaryM]

Taki inoue

"A pay-driver pure and simple, the much maligned Taki had an adventurous GP career - his F1 stint included being flipped over by the safety car at Monaco, and being infamously run over by the marshals' car in Hungary"

These were the highlights of his f1 career i think!

[Kicking-back]

No-one worse than Stuppacher - Rosset and Inoue and the like were much closer to the pace than he

[Formula1Fanatic]

Originally Posted by Gore

Anyway, back on topic, Jean-Denis Deletraz would have to have my vote for a) qualifying an F1 Larrouse at the '95 Portugese GP in a time that would have put him near the back of the F3000 grid the same weekend, and b) stalling on the racing line coming out of the hairpin.

You mean in a Pacific We would have seen Deletraz a lot more if Pacific had survived

Giovanni Lavaggi was also a pretty bad driver. His biggest achievement and moment was Portugal 96 when he was involved in the Villeneuve/Schumacher moment and finishing higher than Pedro Lamy

The worst drivers of the Millenium is Mazzacane and Yoong. Yoong would have been better in the mid 1990's since he was constantly 2 seconds off the pace from everyone else.

Phillppe Adams. Giovanna Amati. Gary Brabham. Claudio Langes. Pedro Chaves and Volker Weidier are also bad drivers

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by Formula1Fanatic

Phillppe Adams. Giovanna Amati. Gary Brabham. Claudio Langes. Pedro Chaves and Volker Weidier are also bad drivers

None of them are "bad drivers".

Okay, they may not be F1 standard, but they're still among the best drivers on the planet.

[mike_slh]

Take off Magnussen and add Alex Yooung,he was a joke

[BootsOntheSide]

Wiedler won the German F3 title and Le Mans - he was far from useless, although he didn't succeed in F1. Those other names (from the late80s-mid90s pay-driver era) were all pretty bad.

[maximus]

Satoru Nakajima. yes he was good in the wet, and that was about it. I'm watchin the 1990 season highlights and he is just awful. Way off the pace of any of his team mates and I've just seen him spin turn his car into the barrier in Hungary. Well done mate.

[Adam43]

These guys were all still F1 drivers, which, lets face it, is a damn site better than most of our pathetic little lives. Lets show a little F1rejects.com style respect for those never going to be world champions.

Completely disregarding these lesser drivers shows an ignorance for GP racing through the ages. Ooo, pay drivers, the current situation is practically devoid of them in comparison.

[Jordi]

It's got to be Deletraz. In Portugal 1995 he was 12 s behind the pole and 7 behind Montermini in the other Pacific. He retired on lap 14 with cramps in his arm. He had already been lapped.

He was what, 11 seconds off the pace in the Nürburgring and 4 seconds behind Montermini. In the race his fastest lap was 10 seconds behind Schumacher's and 5 seconds behind Montermini's, but managed to finish 7 laps down, just one behind Tarquini.

Ricardo Rosst was miles better than Jean-Denis Deletraz....

[luke]

Originally Posted by Mathias

And, er, don't forget that Alex Yoong was in the Minardi! What opportunities did he have exactly? Alex occasionally showed flashes of brilliance and was fun to watch. I mean, I know Melbourne 2002 was a bit, er, unusual, but he Alex cut it with Mika Salo and Pedro de la Rosa then.

Oh, and can I add Gaston Mazzacane? I know he was in a Minardi too, but he was big Bridget Jones-style pants.

Tarso Marques, was also not, the greatest driver of alll time. He had three seasons in F1, '96, '97 and '01, but to fair to him he never had a full season.

[Inigo Montoya]

Related Thread:
http://tentenths.com/forum/showthrea...hlight=drivers

[Xpunk75]

1.Andre "Decrasheres" Dechetheres or whatever has name was.
2.Micheal Andretti (he hardly finished an F1 race)
i cant think of anymore i dont really remember the guys who were just for the sucks. lol

[Jordi]

De Cesaris had a pole, didn't he? And Andretti finished a race on the podium... can't be that bad of a driver!

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

I know this is off-topic, but I was thinking about Monaco 1982 a few nights ago. It looked like Patrese recieved outside assistance when he rejoined after the spin, so presumably they should've dtopped scoring the car. The thing is, no one else completed the full distance, with Pironi and de Cesaris stopping on the final lap and everyone else being lapped. So how would the result have gone if it had continued until someone else completed 78 laps, and where would Patrese have been classified?

Had they completed the final laps, it would PROBABLY have been:

1. Mansell
2. de Angelis - they were both a lap down on Patrese, so both would have "unlapped" themselves on their way to 76 laps
3. Pironi - no-one else would have completed 75...
4. de Cesaris - other than Andrea
5. Patrese - he had completed 74 laps when he spun
6. Daly - he completed 74 laps, but after Patrese did
7. Henton - he was 35 seconds short of being 2 laps behind Mansell, so would have completed 2 more laps than he actually did as the chequered would have dropped 35 seconds behind him as he finished his 73rd, so he would have completed 74 laps, but in a slower time than Daly
8. Prost - he completed 73 laps
9. Surer - he would have completed 71, he was well behind Mansell "on the road"

Of course, had Mansell and Elio eased off entirely, Surer could have made an extra lap up; from a World Championship perspective, the Loti would have been better off to park just before the finishing line and wait for the Tyrrell and Arrows unlap themselves before crossing, so Ferrari would have had 2 points rather than 4.

Unless they could not have got themselves restarted, in which case Superhen would have won.

So not much different from the final result, apart from Chunky's last 1-2...

What this has to do with the glacially slow Stuppacher, I have no idea.

In terms those who actually drove in F1, ladies and gentlemen, I give you the magnificent Ticinese lawyer Ottorino Volonterio. His finest WC appearance was at the 'Ring in 1956, when he got around in qualifying 14 minutes plus in his new 250F - needing a whopping 146% rule to get in. Fortunately for posterity, no such rule was in place, and the gallant Ottorino pottered around to finish his 16 laps. OK, the race was 22 laps, so he was losing around 1 mile in every 3, but at least he DID finish...he has 2 other WC events, taking over other cars, so it is impossible to tell from the lapchart whether he was just as slow there, but given that on his debut in 1955 his car dropped 3 places in 4 laps in the middle of the race it would not be too odd to think that’s when he took over. His F1 swansong was at Monza ’57, taking over Andre Simon’s car, and finishing 22 laps behind…

But his other GP results were, um, not good. He made his debut in the WC formula in the Gran Premio dell’Autodromo di Monza** in 1952, in a Ferrari 166 that lasted 4 laps. He was on the last row of the grid, but there are no times, so it is impossible to tell whether he outqualified Ruggiero, Bianchetti and de Tornaco. But given his later performances I think not.



He had an aged Maserati 4CLT/48 from the de Graffenried stable in 1953, which he used to ill effect athe Ulster Trophy. He qualified last but one for heat 1, in a time of 6 minutes 38. A minute and 20 from pole. Faster than Archie Bryde, who seems to have had serious problems and did not finish a lap, but over 30 seconds slower than Horace Richards who was an habitué of the back row in his career.



Later in the year he entered at Rouen but the car only “pottered around the paddock” and never made it onto the track (per Sheldon).



His last drive in the 4CLT before moving to the A6GCM was at Goodwood, where he retired in the Madgwick Trophy, having out-qualified Rodney Nuckey by the expedient apparently of setting a time…


In Maserati A6GCM:
1955 - GP di Napoli - 7th out of 7 finishers, qualified last, 6 laps behind 6th placed Berardo Taraschi

Redex Trophy - 11th out of 11 - finishing behind the likes of Charles Boulton and Michael Young

GP di Siracusa* - retired - qualified last, pole time was 2'03" and his time was 2'58", next slowest (Scarlatti) was 28 seconds quicker, ran last before retiring

1956:

GP di Napoli - he BEAT someone! 5th out of 6 finishers, he finished ahead of the hapless Taraschi, 4 laps ahead, albeit 7 laps behind Scarlatti

1957: in the 250F:

GP di Napoli - lasted 4 laps, qualified last, 24 seconds behind next-slowest Halford and 40 seconds from pole



* = first British car winning a GP


** = the race in which Fangio was nearly killed


Even the appallingly slow Adams and Deletraz were a bit closer to the pace...dammit, even Amati was.

[Mosport67]

Originally Posted by ensign14

Otto Stuppacher.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Otto just didn't have it.

I remember him seeing him trundle around Mosport.

[BootsOntheSide]

Fascinating stuff there ensign, thanks for working that one out.

[Knowlesy]

Deletraz was obviously quite awful......didn't he stall at one of the hairpins at Adelaide?

Some questionable choices in this thread though. Monteiro one of the worst? Give me a bloody break!

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

Fascinating stuff there ensign, thanks for working that one out.

Apart from Wattie at Britain '81, it's the first race I can vividly remember...and I remember at the time trying to work out who was where, as Murray started yelling when Andrea stopped "who's leading NOW?...DEREK DALY!!!" juuuust as a Williams with no rear wing came into view...

Patrese was pushed from a dangerous position, rather than push-started, and managed to get the engine running as the car sloped downhill. I still remember the look of shocked delight when he climbed out to be told he had won.

[Snips1]

Originally Posted by Setantra

Thank you. Sorry if I caused offence. I also thought Firman (also irish) was not the best driver in the world, so why are you getting all uptight about the Danish thing. No offence to your country, but I just didn't feel that Magnussen made the cut for Formula One. And wasn't he replaced by Verstappen mid way through the 1998 season? Case closed

Yeah and what did Verstoppen do??

Yep, not much better at all, Jackie Stivert the boss, was so happy that Jos had sad that the car was "understeering", but hey Magnussen had complained about that the entire year, and yet, this englishman who believes he is so great doesn't even listen to him.....

By the way, Magnussen's accomplishments in ALMS, LM (2004 class winner) Petit LM class winner his Grand Am driving and so on, makes uo for what he di not accomplish in F1

[ensign14]

Magnussen was not the worst ever. But he was possibly the 2nd most disappointing ever (behind Dave Walker, 31 F3 wins or something, had the car that won the World Championship, but did not score a single point). Given his pedigree a lot more was expected. Didn't exactly set the world alight in the McLaren...compare Hakkinen when he had a one-off.

[Dixie Flatline]

Adam has already alluded to it, but this site will help things towards resolution (if we haven't got there already):

F1rejects.com

[Hazza]

Worst driver hmmm... De Ceseris early in his career maybe? I do admit he really did improve at the end of his career...sort of the F1 equivilent of Carlos Checa...

What I find funny, how ever is when you get people like Geoff Brabham, Eddie Cheever and the Earl Of Dummfries mentioned. Geeze, thats how many Le Mans and Indy500 wins for thoose guys?

[Kicking-back]

Originally Posted by Snips1

Yep, not much better at all, Jackie Stivert the boss, was so happy that Jos had sad that the car was "understeering", but hey Magnussen had complained about that the entire year, and yet, this englishman who believes he is so great doesn't even listen to him.....

Jackie Stewart is not and has never been an "Englishman".

As for "believes he is so great" - well, he is a three-times World Champion