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Ten years on - the drivers entered for the 1991 Belgian GP


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#1 No27

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Posted 11 October 2001 - 19:06

This is the entrance list of the first Grand Prix of Michael Schumacher. The only one-and-a-half still around are Mika Hakkinen and Schumacher himself. What has happened to the other 32 drivers involved? I gave it a try.

1 Ayrton Senna, sadly died
2 Gerhard Berger, manager at BMW
3 Satoru Nakajima, no idea
4 Stefano Modena, no idea
5 Nigel Mansell, "editor in chief", still sort of races
6 Riccardo Patrese, no idea
7 Martin Brundle, comments Grand Prix
8 Mark Blundell, no idea, rumours he'd return this year
9 Michele Alboreto, sadly died
10 Alex Caffi, no idea
11 Mika Hakkinen, takes a sabbatical from F1
12 Johnny Herbert, test Arrows', continues carreer in US of A
14 Olivier Grouillard, no idea
15 Mauricio Gugelmin, no idea, CART?
16 Ivan Capelli, no idea, Touring Car Racing in Germany?
17 Gabriele Tarquini, no idea
18 Fabrizio Barbazza, no idea
19 Roberto Moreno, found his luck in the US of A, won a race
recently
20 Nelson Piquet, businessman
21 Emanuele Pirro, no idea
22 J J Lehto, no idea, Endurance racing?
23 Pierluigi Martini, no idea
24 Gianni Morbidelli, no idea
25 Thierry Boutsen, no idea
26 Erik Comas, no idea
27 Alain Prost, owns F1 team
28 Jean Alesi, announced retirement
29 Eric Bernard, no idea
30 Aguri Suzuki, no idea
31 Pedro Matos Chaves, no idea
32 Michael Schumacher, most recent WDC
33 Andrea de Cesaris, no idea, was involved with windsurfing?
34 Nicola Larini, no idea
35 Eric van de Poele, no idea

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#2 Earthling

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Posted 11 October 2001 - 19:16

Larini does GT racing...those small beamers and Alfa's and stuff...
Gugelmin is in CART

#3 jk

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Posted 11 October 2001 - 19:33

I have some info:
Mark Blundell did the Le Mans this year for MG
Emanuele Pirro has just won the ALMS series for Audi, twice a winner on Le Mans
JJ Lehto won Le Mans in 1995, big lead with BMW when he crashed with 4 hours to go. Races GT BMWs in ALMS
Thierry Boutsen retired from racing after back injury following crash at Le Mans in a Toyota 1999.
Eric van de Poele did this years Le Mans for Bentley

#4 Richard Jenkins

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Posted 11 October 2001 - 19:38

I did cover ALL these drivers on my thread - Where are they now? to answer questions like this - have a look there (and sift through) & you'll find out....

#5 Schummy

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 02:30

Larini and Tarquini are racing in european based Super Touring Championship.

Morbidelli is in european based Super Production Championship (lower perfomance cars than Super Touring)

Caffi in FIA Sportscar Championship (SR1 category)

Myself race occasionally in playstation's GT :cool:

#6 Takahashi

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 02:56

Barbazza retired after a horror sports car smash at Road Atlanta in 1995 :(

Chaves went to Indy Lights, tried touring cars and sports cars, and is now one of Portugal's premier local rally drivers.

Van de Poele became one of the best sports car prototype exponents. He has driven Ferrari 333SPs, R&S Mk IIIs, the rather average Cadillac, and was 3rd at Le Mans this year for Bentley.

Dare I say that extensive profiles of the three above are available at one particular website ... :blush:;) :blush: :cool: :blush:

#7 BRG

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 12:06

So, assuming that Michael starts in the first race of 2002 (and I have no reason to doubt that), he will have outlasted all his "generation"? That is astonishing and makes you start to wonder how long he can continue. I think we have seen the first cracks in the Schumacher monolith in recent weeks (and interestingly, so does Mika) and I wonder if he will carry on beyond next season?

#8 LittleChris

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 12:16

I thought he'd recently signed a contract until 2005 ?

#9 BRG

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 12:21

Yes, so it is said, but in F1, contracts are not worth much, and anyway you can't force someone to drive if they want to stop.

2005 would take Michael well over the 200 GP mark and very few people have carried on that long - Patrese managed 215 IIRC which was pretty exceptional.

#10 Louis Mr. F1

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 14:06

the correct number for Patrese was 256 GP, which is really incredible. That's like Alesi going a further 3 seasons.

#11 dmj

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 14:50

And it could be as much as 289, if then there were 17 races each season.

#12 BRG

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Posted 12 October 2001 - 16:51

Why did I think 215 for Patrese? Of course it was 256. But I cannot see anyone breaking that record, not even Michael.

The pressures on drivers have increased greatly in the last few years with testing, press, sponsorship and commercial obligations. Makes you wonder were Irvine and Coulthard find the time or energy for their extracurricular activities! When Patrese debuted with Arrows, it was still more or less a sport.

Which brings me back to the earlier point, how long can Michael continue? A new challenger in Montoya may keep him motivated in 2002 - if Juan beats him next year, Michael may be sufficiently galvanised to want to try to regain his crown. But if he has another cakewalk in 2002 (say, if BMW and Merc are both unreliable) then I can see him saying "enough, I have no more mountains to climb" and retiring.

I guess this counts as a sort of reverse Nostalgia - looking into the future with the benefit of hindsight!!