32 replies to this topic

[HistoryFan]

If we were to make up a grid of the 26 worst drivers to qualify for a Grand Prix, who would be included?

[Tim Murray]

We've been here before:

Worst ever F1 driver

and the general consensus is expressed by this post in that thread:

Definitely a question for RC. Anyone good enough for F1 is quicker than ordinary mortals will ever be so it's a pointless debate. You'll just end up insulting a series of perfectly adequate drivers.

[Duc-Man]

And let us not forget that many drivers started of as a very sad excuse of a race driver and proofed everybody wrong after they finally got to drive a car that suited them.
Look at Schumacher in his Ferrari years: the cars were designed for him so he was beyond brilliant while the other driver in the team was so lala.
With others we'll never find out because they never got to drive a good car.
Maybe we should change this into 'a grid of the 26 worst cars'.

[BMH Comic]

We've been here before:

Worst ever F1 driver

and the general consensus is expressed by this post in that thread:

Well put!
I think I might be able to express this mathematically for those that just don’t get it!

It goes like this

There are more than 6 Billion People in the world.

6000000000.

Only 10 % of the world’s population can actually claim to be a driver with some form of license.

600000000.

Of these about 1% has ever held some form of competition driver’s license

6000000.

Of these about 1% has held some form of international license.

60000.

Of those there are about 1% who have held an F1 License

600.

How many current licenses are there for F1

about 10% of these

60.

How would you feel to be the 61st best driver in the world?

Like knocking on the door of the top 0.0000000001.% of the world’s greatest drivers

I think I got the % point in the right place?

[Jack-the-Lad]

I wonder which would be considered the "worst" by their peers....

[CSquared]

Of these about 1% has ever held some form of competition driver’s license

6000000.

Six million people have competition licenses? Where'd you get that number?

[MCS]

Why 26?!!

[opplock]

Of these about 1% has held some form of international license.

60000.

You've made my day. As the former holder of an International C race licence (necessary to race at Spa) I must be numbered among the top 60,000 racing drivers in history. It doesn't alter the fact that I never looked like winning anything.

I agree that the concept is ridiculous. If asked a similar question at the end of the 1972 F1 season I would have put Niki Lauda at the top of the list.

[Les]

If we were to make up a grid of the worst drivers in a Grand Prix, who would be included?

My mum, my sister and my brother in law for starters.

[Duc-Man]

Any american female under 21? Sorry...couldn't resist.

[BMH Comic]

Six million people have competition licenses? Where'd you get that number?

Oops I got that wrong, it's 5,999,998 as two blokes lost their license last night at the Stewards hearing,

Did I count them up wrong?

Should I have added the Motor Bike riders as well?

There are a couple of Snowmobile competition drivers/riders as well but I didn't know if they were driven or riden?

One thing I do know is that there is an Aussie who is about the sixth best driver in the world.

GO DANIEL

[JtP1]

As the grid has to made from drivers who have qualified for a F1 GP, the first non qualifier would be Bernie Eccelstone.

[CSquared]

Oops I got that wrong, it's 5,999,998 as two blokes lost their license last night at the Stewards hearing,

Did I count them up wrong?

Should I have added the Motor Bike riders as well?

There are a couple of Snowmobile competition drivers/riders as well but I didn't know if they were driven or riden?

One thing I do know is that there is an Aussie who is about the sixth best driver in the world.

GO DANIEL

So, you just made it up out of thin air, is what you're saying.

[David McKinney]

As the grid has to made from drivers who have qualified for a F1 GP, the first non qualifier would be Bernie Eccelstone.

I thought we had agreed he never attempted to qualify for a WDC GP. If you include him on the basis that he drove a Connaught during practice for the 1958 Monaco GP (when he was certainly not entered), you have to include scores of others who drove cars during practice elsewhere, including numerous mechanics.

[Rob G]

I just re-read the original post. I think it's safe to assume that the 26 worst drivers to ever qualify for a Grand Prix are tennis players, figure skaters, kickboxers, chess players, riders of horses....

[eldougo]

[quote name='David McKinney' date='Jun 27 2013, 14:52' post='6327110']
I thought we had agreed he never attempted to qualify for a WDC GP. If you include him on the basis that he drove a Connaught during practice for the 1958 Monaco GP (when he was certainly not entered), you have to include scores of others who drove cars during practice elsewhere,

including numerous mechanics.........Looks like i am on the list Great

[wsp77]

I thought we had agreed he never attempted to qualify for a WDC GP. If you include him on the basis that he drove a Connaught during practice for the 1958 Monaco GP (when he was certainly not entered), you have to include scores of others who drove cars during practice elsewhere,

including numerous mechanics.........Looks like i am on the list Great

Wow, this is fascinating!

Who are these drivers? Can you give some examples of who drove what at the GPs? This is intriguing.

Thanks : )

[David McKinney]

No I can't. I just know it happened. In the olden days (pre 1980s) controls on "untimed practice" and even qualifying were not as strict as today's, and mechanics would frequently take a car out for a few laps to bed in the brakes etc for the nominated driver. I imagine that occasionally owners other than Bernie Ecclestone would also have taken the opportunity to see what it felt like

[wsp77]

No I can't. I just know it happened. In the olden days (pre 1980s) controls on "untimed practice" and even qualifying were not as strict as today's, and mechanics would frequently take a car out for a few laps to bed in the brakes etc for the nominated driver. I imagine that occasionally owners other than Bernie Ecclestone would also have taken the opportunity to see what it felt like

Thanks David, it would be good to see some photos of this. Does anyone out there have any?

Thanks

[Nanni Dietrich]

...

I agree that the concept is ridiculous. If asked a similar question at the end of the 1972 F1 season I would have put Niki Lauda at the top of the list.

And Nigel Mansell, at the end of 1980.

[Paul Parker]

And let us not forget that many drivers started of as a very sad excuse of a race driver and proofed everybody wrong after they finally got to drive a car that suited them.
Look at Schumacher in his Ferrari years: the cars were designed for him so he was beyond brilliant while the other driver in the team was so lala.
With others we'll never find out because they never got to drive a good car.
Maybe we should change this into 'a grid of the 26 worst cars'.

Very good point and one that applies more and more as the decades roll by.

[Bjorn Kjer]

If I would WASTE the time I'd make a list of the worst threads and its originers .

[Richard Jenkins]

If I would WASTE the time I'd make a list of the worst threads and its originators.

That wouldn't take long.

[ryan86]

One issue in these things can also be do you merely look at their GP record or their performances outwith the sport as well.

For instance someone like Ricardo Rosset appeared rubbish in 1996 and absolutely terrible in 1998. Yet, part of the reason for those drives was he got 2nd in F3000. Or Bernd Schneider, an F1 career full of DNQ's, but a cabinet full of German Touring Car trophies.

Sure they'll have to be 26 worst drivers as there would be 26 best drivers and 600 drivers listed in between, but trying to draw up any sort of list would be a futile and merely choosing the least successful would probably catch some decent drivers given heaps of junk.

[john aston]

It is the sort of question which effone fanboys like to ask and it is often posed in complete ignorance of drivers' circumstances and early career. Judged solely on their GP careers one wouldn't rate Merzario, Dave Walker, JJ Lehto or Jan Magnussen very highly and without Senna's death we might never have seen Damon Hill's speed in an F1 car. I think they are all bloody heroes because as an occasional trackday and hillclimb plodder I know they are doing something I could not do in a million years.

[D-Type]

If we were to make up a grid of the 26 worst drivers to qualify for a Grand Prix, who would be included?

As I said on the previous thread: "Have you found the Formula 1 Rejects website yet? It should answer all your questions"

personally I would add:
Ayrton Senna for deliberately and pre-meditatedly driving into a championship rival to secure a World Championship, and
Michael Schumacher for deliberately driving into a championship rival in an attempt to secure a World Championship - TWICE - succeeding on the first occasion and on the second setting the unenviable record of being the only driver who the FIA has disqualified for an entire season.

[Jack-the-Lad]

As I said on the previous thread: "Have you found the Formula 1 Rejects website yet? It should answer all your questions"

personally I would add:
Ayrton Senna for deliberately and pre-meditatedly driving into a championship rival to secure a World Championship, and
Michael Schumacher for deliberately driving into a championship rival in an attempt to secure a World Championship - TWICE - succeeding on the first occasion and on the second setting the unenviable record of being the only driver who the FIA has disqualified for an entire season.

My assumption is that the original poster had talent rather than ethics in mind when he used the adjective "worst", although a thread for the most unethical or most unsportsmanlike drivers might be a good one!

Jack

[D-Type]

He probably did, but he didn't say so did he?

[GMACKIE]

My assumption is that the original poster had talent rather than ethics in mind when he used the adjective "worst", although a thread for the most unethical or most unsportsmanlike drivers might be a good one!

Jack

Why not something really important and interesting...such as 'Worst-dressed driver'?

[Jack-the-Lad]

Why not something really important and interesting...such as 'Worst-dressed driver'?

That would be a NASCAR awards dinner thread.

[Les]

Why not something really important and interesting...such as 'Worst-dressed driver'?

[timbo]

Most unethical and worse dressed could be wrapped up in one person. M Schumacher. But still a better driver than all of us combined.

Moving the subject to two wheels, Casey Stoner is the only rider to tame the difficult Ducati MotoGP bike and take it to a world championship. Does that mean that both Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden, both World Champions who couldn't tame the Ducati are no good? You would have to go back to the 1980's to find people who had enough money to buy a Suzuki RG500, and could put themselves on a GP grid full of other privateers to start looking at the worst motorcycle GP riders. I won't mention names (they are still heaps better than I could ever be), but I'm sure the likes of Wayne Gardner could rattle off a few names.

[Jack-the-Lad]

Moving the subject to two wheels, Casey Stoner is the only rider to tame the difficult Ducati MotoGP bike and take it to a world championship. Does that mean that both Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden, both World Champions who couldn't tame the Ducati are no good?

No, it just means Stoner is better than either of them. (I don't really believe that, of course. He's obviously better than Hayden, but on equal bikes Rossi is better. I just think Stoner has a talent for taming nasty mounts, whereas Rossi needs a good bike to be great, in my highly unqualified opinion).