As much I loved CART of the early-mid 90s, there's no secret that almost every F1 reject made it there, Fabi, Johansson, Blundell and basically any
brazilian you can think of, while a former top driver from F1 could stay competitive well into their 50s, like Mario Andretti and Emerson Fittipaldi.
Emmo retired for good before his 50th birthday, and I reckon the last year Mario Andretti was really competitive, as in fast enough to win races, was in 1988, when he was 48. Worth pointing out as well that statistically the two most successful world championship F1 drivers kept going into their mid-forties themselves.
As for F1 rejects, you could also see that as being the result of the CART paddock having less of an interest in crushing good drivers. Like how Wordsworth justified writing about rural labourers, "the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity". Yeah, that was CART in the 1990s, at least for the drivers. There were a few quite immature team owners, I believe.
Anyway, Mark Blundell had the Right Stuff. Look how he handled that Nissan sportscar in Le Mans qualifying in 1990. (And Steve Johnson came much, much closer to winning a Grand Prix than he ever did winning an Indycar race.)
Edited by Risil, 15 November 2012 - 18:35.