Being more successfull after comeback

I don't think there are many candidates. Andretti had most of two seasons away from F1 and came back to be WDC. Prost had a year out and won the WDC on his return. Who else is there? Not Mansell of course!

Emerson Fittipaldi? World Champion in '72 and '74, won last GPs in '75, puttered around with his and brother Wilson's team from '76 through '80 before hanging up his helmet. After winding up his own woebegone team after '82 he went home to Brazil. But in '84 he was coaxed back into action in the US, first in a March GTP car, then in CART. He was immensely successful in this second career, with 22 CART wins, one championship and two Indy 500 wins. I'll grant that it may be a bit difficult to compare his F-1 and Indy Car careers, but he was very successful in both.

Tom

Did Mike Hailwood have a break between his four wheel racing efforts?

Emerson Fittipaldi? World Champion in '72 and '74, won last GPs in '75, puttered around with his and brother Wilson's team from '76 through '80 before hanging up his helmet. After winding up his own woebegone team after '82 he went home to Brazil. But in '84 he was coaxed back into action in the US, first in a March GTP car, then in CART. He was immensely successful in this second career, with 22 CART wins, one championship and two Indy 500 wins. I'll grant that it may be a bit difficult to compare his F-1 and Indy Car careers, but he was very successful in both.

Tom

Another (from the same period) would be Revson

Edited by RA Historian, 26 November 2010 - 15:32.

There's an interesting variant on this that maybe does qualify as a genuine 'two careers' though. Troy Bayliss was a youth motocrosser and speedway rider until the age of 17, when he packed it in and stayed away from motorcycles for five years. In 1992 he entered some Aussie production bike races, and started the climb towards 250GP, World Superbikes and eventually MotoGP. I believe Steve Plater, who has some BSB wins to go with his 2009 Senior TT, aborted and restarted his career in a similar fashion.

Lauda was champion again, but I think he also was not as good as before as he had strong problems with Prost's speed...
Perhaps in another series?

As Doug points out, only in F-1. I think that the intent of this thread is those who stepped away from racing entirely. Revson did not. After his initial F-1 foray, Revson was very active in the US, driving Can Am, USRRC, Trans Am, and Indy Cars. Won races in Can Am (1971 Champion), Indy Cars, and Trans Am. Far busier than the years he drove F-1 as his primary focus.
Tom

Stefan Bradl did the same thing didn't he? He didn't think he had the ability and retired, but came back and is now a Moto 2 race winner.

Edited by Les, 26 November 2010 - 17:30.

I am sure the moto2 winning Bradl is the son of Stefan.

That's not my reading of the initial post, where the only names he mentions were F1 drivers
On that basis Revson is a perfect example - not much chop first time around. In fact probably not good enough for a works drive the next year. But a winner when he came back to F1 (regardless of what he'd been doing in between)
I also mentioned Hailwood, who was better second time around, though the extremes between Phase I and Phase II were probably not as great

Edited by RA Historian, 27 November 2010 - 02:14.

I read it differently, David. Never mentions retirement from just F-1. I took it for complete separation from racing, not just from F-1.

Tom

What about Bobby Rahal? Not one of me favorite drivers when he was racing but he was initially quite successful in Formula Atlantic and Can-Am but after his unspectacular Formula One debut with Wolf I seem to recall he hung up his helmet.