- Which former World Champions, or Grand Prix winners, returned to the sport after at least one season off?
- And how successful were they?
The returning champions almost all immediately come to mind, of course:
- Alain Prost: was a 3-time WDC with McLaren, vice-WDC in 1990 for Ferrari, had a year off in 1992, returned to join Williams in 1993 and took the WDC, then quit.
- Nigel Mansell: went to the US in 1993 after winning the WDC for Williams, returned to Williams in 1994 to replace Ayrton Senna’s replacement David Coulthard, and won the Australian GP, then unsuccessfully joined McLaren a year later to quit before the season’s halfway point.
- Niki Lauda: quit Brabham in 1979 after his 2 WDC’s with Ferrari, was lured back into F1 to join McLaren in 1982 and took another title in 1984, only to quit again, a year later.
- Alan Jones: taking the 1980 WDC for them, quit Williams a year later, returned for a single race for Arrows in 1983, returned again for 1985 and ’86 for Haas/Lola, scoring only 4 points in the latter season.
- Mario Andretti: took 1 victory in his first stance in F1 for Ferrari, returned after a one-year absence in 1973, to race for Parnelli, then joining Lotus for 1976 and beyond with a WDC in 1978, and driving several races for Alfa Romeo, Williams and Ferrari in 1981 and ’82.
- Phil Hill: was WDC in 1961 and kept on racing until 1964, returned in 1966 in a privately-entered car for Monaco, but didn’t start, and then failed to qualify AAR’s Eagle-Climax in Italy.
Which other drivers made their return after having been successful in Formula One, and what fruits did they reap of their comebacks?
And perhaps it’s also interesting to discuss any rather unsuccessful drivers who return, perhaps still without success. The best (or rather worst) example for this is likely to be Jan Lammers, who drove 21 unsuccessful GPs from 1979 through 1982, failing to even qualify for quite a lot of them, only to return for 2 races in 1992 (!), finishing only once.
