Hi,
I'm new to this forum so I hope this hasn't been covered before.
Who are or were the worst road drivers in F1. I read that Gilles was horrible and also that
Roy Salvadori was pretty bad, too. Any anecdotes would be appreciated. Thanks.
Bob
Worst road drivers
Started by
BobM
, Sep 20 2002 12:10
32 replies to this topic
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#2
BRG
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 12:45
At the risk of being a little tasteless, you have to think that Mike Hawthorn figures on the list.
#3
mikedeering
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 12:55
Originally posted by BRG
At the risk of being a little tasteless, you have to think that Mike Hawthorn figures on the list.
Ouch
#4
Wolf
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 12:56
BRG- maybe... But, as Moss said it he just relied on his skill to get him out of trouble, and didn't reckon that in traffic there are other people usually working against one... But, 'twas reckless driving IMHO. Not to mention he might've had his car working against him (that hand throttle, but we've never seen any definitive answer to that, IIRC).
#5
BRG
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 13:15
Coming bang up to date, Ralf Schumacher seems a bit prone to bumps on the public road. Gilles V. was reckoned to be a nutter - he set some ridiculous time for the drive from Monaco to Maranello (2 hours or something).
Most race drivers (at least in the more recent past) seem to be rather sensible on the road, often preferring an automatic transmission saloon to the open sports car that stereotyping expects them to drive. Although that didn't stop Jenson Button getting a ticket for a VERY high speed in his diesel BMW.
Most race drivers (at least in the more recent past) seem to be rather sensible on the road, often preferring an automatic transmission saloon to the open sports car that stereotyping expects them to drive. Although that didn't stop Jenson Button getting a ticket for a VERY high speed in his diesel BMW.
#6
mikedeering
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 14:11
Doesn't JPM rate the BMW X5 as his favourite roadcar. Not exactly sporty is it!
Of course there is the well known story about Senna got stopped for speeding in the UK, and the policeman inquiring "Who do you think you are, Nigel Mansell?" Priceless.
Of course there is the well known story about Senna got stopped for speeding in the UK, and the policeman inquiring "Who do you think you are, Nigel Mansell?" Priceless.
#7
mtl'78
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 15:34
The craziest GV road stories I ever heard centered around the drive from Monaco to Maranello. I remember reading that he and Pironi would play a game of who could stay flatout (no brakes) longest on the open road!
#8
Tim Murray
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 15:55
I read somewhere that Rosemeyer considered that the safest way to negotiate a crossroads was at full speed, as he then spent the least time possible actually crossing the other road and in danger of being hit by someone coming along it.
#9
biercemountain
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 16:23
Originally posted by mikedeering
Of course there is the well known story about Senna got stopped for speeding in the UK, and the policeman inquiring "Who do you think you are, Nigel Mansell?" Priceless.
#10
Leif Snellman
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 18:29
Sometimes in the late 70s Jean-Pierre Jarier was in a hurry for the plane after the race so he made high speed zigzag manouvers in the queues leaving the track. A policeman tried to stop Jarier by jumping up on his bonnet. That police got a ride on the bonnet all the way to the airport.
#11
David M. Kane
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 18:42
Stewart once said that he and Jim Clark came to a railroad crossing and Jim
couldn't make up his mind what to do. He said Clark was the most indecisive
driver of a road car he ever saw.
couldn't make up his mind what to do. He said Clark was the most indecisive
driver of a road car he ever saw.
#12
Ray Bell
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 20:15
Isn't it time for someone to point to Barry Boor's story about the ride in the Escort?
I'll recollect that once Jack Brabham dived for the rear seat in the rental Fiat 1100 he shared with some other drivers in Sicily... when asked why, he replied, "I want to be furthest from the accident!"
I'll recollect that once Jack Brabham dived for the rear seat in the rental Fiat 1100 he shared with some other drivers in Sicily... when asked why, he replied, "I want to be furthest from the accident!"
#13
Vitesse2
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 20:47
Originally posted by David M. Kane
Stewart once said that he and Jim Clark came to a railroad crossing and Jim
couldn't make up his mind what to do. He said Clark was the most indecisive
driver of a road car he ever saw.
As I recall that one it was somewhere in the USA or possibly Oz - Jimmy stopped at the crossing, looked left and right (dead straight line, stretching to both horizons), then turned to his passenger (not sure if it was Stewart though) and said, deadpan "Do you think it's safe?"
Dry Borders humour I think
#14
Wolf
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 20:56
Originally posted by mikedeering
Doesn't JPM rate the BMW X5 as his favourite roadcar. Not exactly sporty is it!
Wasn't there a story about him in one of the mags (or is it rags?) and journalist being impressed when JPM ran a red light?
#15
Doug Nye
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 21:11
'Worst' is a tricky term - do you mean 'most unsafe' or 'most incompetent'...or what?
One whose activities would certainly have been frowned upon by the local board of magistrates - had he come up before them - would certainly have been Chris Craft, testing the new De Cadanet Le Mans car on the M4 or M40 motorway at first light, around 5am one year... It was the easiest way to test the car's aerodynamic shape at really high speed. There seemed to be absolutely no traffic about so the crew unloaded the car on an over-junction and off he sped.
Apparently he cleared one brow to find a grocery truck in the fast lane, trundling towards London's Covent Garden to collect that day's fresh vegetables. Chris was - and is - very well wired up and he simply flashed past the truck, which was flat-out at about 65mph, on the inside at a passing speed of around 150mph...since from the new car's gearing he was pulling at that point around 215-220mph.
DCN
One whose activities would certainly have been frowned upon by the local board of magistrates - had he come up before them - would certainly have been Chris Craft, testing the new De Cadanet Le Mans car on the M4 or M40 motorway at first light, around 5am one year... It was the easiest way to test the car's aerodynamic shape at really high speed. There seemed to be absolutely no traffic about so the crew unloaded the car on an over-junction and off he sped.
Apparently he cleared one brow to find a grocery truck in the fast lane, trundling towards London's Covent Garden to collect that day's fresh vegetables. Chris was - and is - very well wired up and he simply flashed past the truck, which was flat-out at about 65mph, on the inside at a passing speed of around 150mph...since from the new car's gearing he was pulling at that point around 215-220mph.
DCN
#16
BobM
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 21:57
Thanks for all the replies!
When I asked worst, I meant most unsafe, most socially irresponsible, most blatant disregard
for traffic laws, worst to ride with, etc.
I read a story once where the person was riding with Salvadori and the author said that he had
never ridden with anybody who was flipped the bird with such frequency.
Bob
When I asked worst, I meant most unsafe, most socially irresponsible, most blatant disregard
for traffic laws, worst to ride with, etc.
I read a story once where the person was riding with Salvadori and the author said that he had
never ridden with anybody who was flipped the bird with such frequency.
Bob
#18
John B
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 22:27
Originally posted by mikedeering
Doesn't JPM rate the BMW X5 as his favourite roadcar. Not exactly sporty is it!
Of course there is the well known story about Senna got stopped for speeding in the UK, and the policeman inquiring "Who do you think you are, Nigel Mansell?" Priceless.
I wonder if Senna ever visited that police station and gave the officer an Irvine93-style lecture
#19
VAR1016
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Posted 20 September 2002 - 22:52
Originally posted by BRG
At the risk of being a little tasteless, you have to think that Mike Hawthorn figures on the list.
I don't think that's tasteless (look at my avatar!) Hawthorn was my childhood hero - despite his faults which of course I didn't know about then.
A friend in the Lancia Club old enough to have been around, recalls a time when he was driving his Lancia Lambda away from The Frensham Ponds Hotel - a popular Hawthorn "refreshment spot - one evening and around the bend came Hawthorn VERY fast on the wrong side of the road, committed.
My friend had no option but to put the Lambda in the ditch and even then his off-side wing was scraped!
PdeRL
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#20
Doug Nye
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Posted 21 September 2002 - 08:43
If I may turn this thread round on itself with a personal memory - one year near Pescara I was with a TV crew interviewing various racers and we met Fangio in a hotel there. The crew had set up a 'film set' in another hotel about a mile away, and The Old Man said 'Yes, fine, I'll come over' - and the producer sent me to get the car, with me thinking 'Phworr, great I'm going to drive Fangio!".
I pulled up outside the hotel and the crew came down the steps with Juan and his lady of the moment, and The Old Man looked at the car, glanced at me, stopped and said 'I'll walk!'.
Perhaps in all those long years his famous perceptions had not diminished?
DCN
I pulled up outside the hotel and the crew came down the steps with Juan and his lady of the moment, and The Old Man looked at the car, glanced at me, stopped and said 'I'll walk!'.
Perhaps in all those long years his famous perceptions had not diminished?
DCN
#21
MPea3
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Posted 21 September 2002 - 10:49
Originally posted by Ray Bell
I'll recollect that once Jack Brabham dived for the rear seat in the rental Fiat 1100 he shared with some other drivers in Sicily... when asked why, he replied, "I want to be furthest from the accident!"
harry schell, wasn't it?
#22
Vitesse2
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Posted 21 September 2002 - 11:10
O/T: in my family we always called the road which passes Frensham Ponds "The Road to Hell", since near the Ponds there was another pub which rejoiced in the name The Good Intent. It's probably called the Frog and Firkin or some such name now 
#23
Doug Nye
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Posted 21 September 2002 - 13:21
Crikey Richard - how long ago was that? I've lived here - one mile from Frensham Ponds - for 31 years and knew or know 'The Old House at Home', 'The Holly Bush', 'The Mariners', but cannot recall 'The Good Intent' at all...
DCN
DCN
#24
Vitesse2
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Posted 21 September 2002 - 13:37
Middle to late 60s .... although thinking about it again, it might have have been the road to Elstead - my Surrey geography's a bit hazy these days 
Ah - found it! The Good Intent in Puttenham.
My late father knew his way round that area very well and we'd have been coming from Crowthorne, probably dodging round Farnborough, Aldershot and Guildford .... could have been heading for Elstead or Frensham really
Ah - found it! The Good Intent in Puttenham.
My late father knew his way round that area very well and we'd have been coming from Crowthorne, probably dodging round Farnborough, Aldershot and Guildford .... could have been heading for Elstead or Frensham really
#25
Doug Nye
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Posted 21 September 2002 - 17:22
Slap me in the face with a frozen haddock - I should have known that one, in Puttenham. My late Dad grew up in the cottage adjoining 'The Good Intent', son of a farm labourer working on Stovold's Farm just tucked in behind there. That was an occasional Mike Hawthorn boozerie in the '50s too... It's just not really close to Frensham Ponds, the nearest water to it instead being Cutt Mill Ponds, on the southern shore of which lives one Gordon Murray, of Brabham, McLaren, Le Mans De Cadanet, and Rocket fame...
DCN
DCN
#26
David M. Kane
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Posted 21 September 2002 - 20:13
Does Augie Pabst "float test" count? I recall something about driving his rental car into the Motel swimming pool at a party at Laguna Seca back in the '60s after a dare from Brock Yates or someone like that.
#27
dbltop
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Posted 22 September 2002 - 08:48
I understood that Mike Hawthorne was killed in his Jaguar while racing with Rob Walker. I remember a tv program on Speedvision where he explained how it happened. And what of Mike Hailwood? I think I read somewhere (I can't remember where) that he and his daughter were killed when he rear ended a truck stopped on a highway. Is this true?
#28
Doug Nye
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Posted 22 September 2002 - 12:15
Not quite - in both cases...
#29
jmp85
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Posted 23 September 2002 - 02:42
IIRC, "the bike" 's accident came when he was making a u-turn on a 4-lane road, and a truck hit his car...?
#30
mikedeering
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Posted 23 September 2002 - 11:36
Originally posted by John B
I wonder if Senna ever visited that police station and gave the officer an Irvine93-style lecture
Would that be the "you're not a racing driver you're a f****** idiot!" speech?!!
#31
Vitesse2
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Posted 23 September 2002 - 11:48
Originally posted by jmp85
IIRC, "the bike" 's accident came when he was making a u-turn on a 4-lane road, and a truck hit his car...?
Other way round - it was the truck which was doing a U-turn (illegally).
#32
jmp85
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Posted 24 September 2002 - 01:51
ah, you might be right, i just shamelessly got the info off of 8w!
http://8w.forix.com/bikers.html
not having read anything printed about mike hailwood, i should probably defer to you ;)
Mike was just trying to make an illegal U-turn on the motorway to buy some fish & chips for his family.
http://8w.forix.com/bikers.html
not having read anything printed about mike hailwood, i should probably defer to you ;)
#33
Vitesse2
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Posted 24 September 2002 - 12:14
/slaps Geza Sury with halibut for getting it wrong .....
One you need to fix, I think, Mattijs!
One you need to fix, I think, Mattijs!
