45 replies to this topic

[kimifan88]

 

 

Reading all of the comments from F1 writers saying they predicted the Kimi switch got me thinking. What does everyone here think was the most surprising news in F1 over the past five years or so? Im not talking about wild theories like Schumacher driving for Minardi but something which gets confirmed by whoever its about. My pick is Eddie Jordans prediction of Hamilton moving to Mercedes. I remember laughing at the time thinking how daft Jordan was going to look! At first I was gonna do a poll but there are too many stories which seemed crazy at the time. So lets have some fun and post linkees for proof. Part 2 could be the predictions which were totally wrong

[Zesus]

Most surprising news for me was definitely Kimi going to Ferrari. Even when I saw story for the first time from Bild, I totally ignored it. It was a big surprise for me, but I feel so happy because it happened.

[DeLoreanFan]

James Allison moving to Ferrari. It really got me by surprise. I was really sad reading about it as I grew to like the Enstone Team. EB tried to downplay this loss, but I knew it was the beginning of the end for the Lotus Team. Then, the rumors to Honda and Ferrari.

[jonpollak]

Bandini saying he didn't take Hill off on purpose in Mexico...

News travels slow in my world
Jp

[Myrvold]

Eddie Jordan for both Hamilton to Merc and Schumacher comeback for Merc.

 

He's either a guy with generally good contacts, or a very good contact in Merc.

[jimjimjeroo]

Hill to Arrows, yes it was over 15 years ago, but a shock all the same! Perez to mclaren to

[discover23]

Montoya's announcement after Indy 06 that he was going to NASCAR. No one saw that coming.

[eronrules]

sticking to last 5 years only

 

Mercedes GP getting away with the 'Tiregate saga' has to be the most surprising, given how everyone (including pundits none the less, said it'd be at least some sort of meaningful punishment )

 

 

close second will be Kimi's return to Formula 1 with LotusF1 given we were first sure that he'll come back with WilliamsF1 till the night before he announce he'll be driving a LotusF1. it was more surprising cause the history between him and EB prior to that deal wasn't confidence inspiring.

 

 

 

 

Kimi : “I am very disappointed with the way they have used my name for their marketing,” he told Turun Sanomat newspaper. “I have never seriously considered driving for Renault, and I can assure you 100 per cent that I will not be driving for them next year,”  

EB: “We have not piggy-backed on Kimi’s image at all, which is what he has been claiming in the press,” 

[fum3s]

"Real-time" news : that some teams decided to race in that Indianapolis farce. Or at least it should have been surprising ...

[Atreiu]

The revealing of crashgate, obviously.

[HoldenRT]

In terms of driver signings.. Kimi to Ferrari or Lewis to Merc.

 

Since Max has gone, F1 has been relatively drama free and the dramas that have occured have been small in comparison.

Edited by HoldenRT, 15 September 2013 - 01:59.

[Jimisgod]

Schumacher to Merc. Never thought he'd return.

[Bleu]

Alonso's announced move to McLaren came out of nowhere.

[Lights]

Recently there hasn't been much surprise in anything because most things start of as a rumor that makes you think like 'whatever, let's see' which then slowly transforms into an official announcement through 165 headlines and tweets.

[Shiroo]

BMW pull out, after succesful 2008 year where they went full ****** in 2nd half and stopped the development and in 2009 thgey sucked balls. 

Edited by Shiroo, 15 September 2013 - 08:03.

[undersquare]

Recently there hasn't been much surprise in anything because most things start of as a rumor that makes you think like 'whatever, let's see' which then slowly transforms into an official announcement through 165 headlines and tweets.

Yeah it's hard to define 'surprise' when it leaks out drip by drip.

 

Brawn's sabbatical was a surprise to me in that way, followed by the Honda job, their pullout and the whole amazing saga of Brawn GP.

[bourbon]

Spygate

Crashgate

Schumi returns

Kimi returns to Ferrari

Mercedes unpunished for illegal test

Kimi returns to F1

Kimi goes rallying

Vettel's adventures in F1

Red Bull Dominance

Hamilton goes to Merc

[midgrid]

From further back, how about Emerson Fittipaldi leaving McLaren to join his brother's team?

[LuckyStrike1]

Ferrari paying out Kimi to make room for Alonso
Schumacher going to Benetton
Schumacher leaving for Ferrari
Damon Hill going to Arrows

Honda leaving F1
Brawn running Brawn GP
Nelson Piquet Jr crashing on purpose ....

[Disgrace]

Schumacher to Merc. Never thought he'd return.

 

His attempt to replace Massa at Ferrari in '09 was probably more surprising. Though it fell through, it suggested that he had the bug again.

[Coral]

Mansell going to Ferrari surprised me. I was not expecting that and I still find it hard to believe that it actually happened!

[muramasa]

- Honda quitting at the end of 2008

- Honda to return in 2015

[Suntrek]

Alonso to McLaren. 

 

Most rumours of drivers migrating/ in MS case - do an encore/  is at least foregone with a lot of rumours and speculations and paddock gossip, and whether you believe them or not you still have the chance to get used to the thought.

 

With Alonso to McLaren it came like a flash from open skies. NO ONE (and here I include all F1-jounos who all claim they all have their F1-ears to the ground)  expected that. Especially since McLaren already had two top drivers. But just not only Alonso contract signed and sealed. It was announced  a year in advance - sort of unheard of in F1.

 

That was a surprise in the original sense of the word.

[MustangSally]

With Alonso to McLaren it came like a flash from open skies. NO ONE (and here I include all F1-jounos who all claim they all have their F1-ears to the ground)  expected that. Especially since McLaren already had two top drivers.

Yes, nothing like destabilising two top drivers at once. Really good people management by Dennis there. The funny part is that Dennis said later he was surprised (and disappointed) when Kimi revealed a similarly advanced agreement with Ferrari to leave McLaren. Well, Boo Hoo.

[MP422]

Crashgate for sure.   

[Ali_G]

Hill to Arrows, yes it was over 15 years ago, but a shock all the same! Perez to mclaren to

 

It made little or no sense considering he was offered a seat at McLaren.

[scheivlak]

Crashgate for sure.   

There were some people at this forum who sensed something like that quite soon after Nelsinho crashed.

[sopa]

Didn't Button to Williams in 2004 come completely out of the blue too? It certainly felt like that to me at the time. I remember the last race before the contract announcement TV commentator was saying "Button is comfortable in the much-improved BAR; while Williams is looking for drivers among Fisichella, Webber, Hakkinen and some other."

[scheivlak]

Alonso to McLaren. 

 

Most rumours of drivers migrating/ in MS case - do an encore/  is at least foregone with a lot of rumours and speculations and paddock gossip, and whether you believe them or not you still have the chance to get used to the thought.

 

With Alonso to McLaren it came like a flash from open skies. NO ONE (and here I include all F1-jounos who all claim they all have their F1-ears to the ground)  expected that. Especially since McLaren already had two top drivers. 

It was a complete surprise indeed.

But there were already strong suspicions that Kimi had already signed a pre-contract with Ferrari for 2007 months before. Alonso's deal was immediately seen as the confirmation of that http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/48728

[discover23]

Alonso to McLaren. 

 It was announced  a year in advance - sort of unheard of in F1.

 

That was a surprise in the original sense of the word.

They did that with Montoya also didn't they.. ?

It was surprising indeed. My thought is Ron was not really happy with JPM after the tennis incident and that relationship had no future.

[midgrid]

It made little or no sense considering he was offered a seat at McLaren.

IIRC Hill was offered a low retainer by McLaren with large results bonuses, similar to Piquet's Benetton deal in 1990. Hill felt that he was being undervalued with the low retainer, which I suppose was fair enough as he was the champion-elect when Williams informed him that he would not be retained, whereas Piquet had been through two mediocre seasons with Lotus before agreeing to his own similar contract. This was also before Newey joined McLaren, whereas Arrows had just been taken over by Tom Walkinshaw, and had its own works engine contract (albeit with Yamaha), but indeed still a huge mistake in retrospect.

Edited by midgrid, 15 September 2013 - 16:26.

[Lucass]

Michael Schumacher's retirement and his return to F1 by quite some margin.

All the other news wasn't of interest to the MSM and barely made it to the sports pages.

 

Kimi to Ferrari got at most a column in many European mainstream newspapers where anything Michael would be covered in at least half a page.

[SilentKiller]

Kimi to Lotus was very surprising, especially after Boullier had a few months ago said that Kimi lacked motivation. I thought he was going to join Williams and then out of nowhere Lotus confirms Kimi.

[scheivlak]

March 9 (!), 2009: Other teams were testing for weeks if not months and there comes a Brawn demolishing everyone else from the word go at its first outing: http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/73631

 

That one certainly caught my attention. Fairytale stuff.

[Lights]

March 9 (!), 2009: Other teams were testing for weeks if not months and there comes a Brawn demolishing everyone else from the word go at its first outing: http://www.autosport...rt.php/id/73631

 

That one certainly caught my attention. Fairytale stuff.

 

That's actually a good and rare example for this thread. That car was such a surprise as in, extremely quick out of the box and I doubt many expected that. Stunning 'virgin' looks helped as well. Fairytale stuff indeed.

[CrossF1]

One of the most surprising announcement in recent history was Perez at McLaren. Everyone knew that Hamilton will leave about a week before the official confirmation. Everybody knew to look forward to that. And then came McLaren, announcing Perez before Hamilton got the chance to officiali confirm his departure from MacLaren. So it was like waitin for Merc's announcement but Mac beat them out of the blue. And to note that rumours about MacLaren considering Perez started circulating around about less than an hour before the announcement. That was an pretty eventful day.

[scheivlak]

One of the most surprising announcement in recent history was Perez at McLaren. Everyone knew that Hamilton will leave about a week before the official confirmation. Everybody knew to look forward to that. And then came McLaren, announcing Perez before Hamilton got the chance to officiali confirm his departure from MacLaren. So it was like waitin for Merc's announcement but Mac beat them out of the blue. And to note that rumours about MacLaren considering Perez started circulating around about less than an hour before the announcement. That was an pretty eventful day.

Those rumours started earlier, see e.g. http://www.autosport...t.php/id/102660

That's eight days before confirmation, and that report brings the rumours it as a matter-of-fact story that everybody should already know. From what I remember the speculation about Perez landing the McLaren seat started quite soon after the Italian GP (where he finished 2nd).

[Craigster]

Not really news about F1 this one but the jaw dropper for me was when one of the papers said that Ecclestonne paid the banker becauase he threatened to blow the whistle to the tax man. I never believed that he would confirm it but he did. Its still one of the funniest non racing clips Ive seen on youtube because he looks almost caught out by it all!

[TimRTC]

I think this season, the news, as broken by Radio Le Mans back in April, that Mark Webber was going to race in LMP1 for 2014 - that was huge, not only because it would bring public attention to endurance racing (at least for a year, until regular people forget who Webber was) but that the Porsche LMP programme was serious and not just another rumour.

[Suntrek]

They did that with Montoya also didn't they.. ?

It was surprising indeed. My thought is Ron was not really happy with JPM after the tennis incident and that relationship had no future.

Probably you are right.

 

Ron is a bit like the pricess on the pea - I mean who really cares whether it was an tennis incident or a motorsport-induced one?  Montoya digressed from McLaren codex as given in heaven (read : Ron Dennis) and he duly paid for it.

 

That said and on topic  - not even Briatore knew about about the Alonso-McLaren move. And when he found out he wasn't amused. To say the least. As far as surprises go I find it hard to top this one.

[GhostR]

That's actually a good and rare example for this thread. That car was such a surprise as in, extremely quick out of the box and I doubt many expected that. Stunning 'virgin' looks helped as well. Fairytale stuff indeed.

 

And then the subsequent follow up at the first race weekend, that their test pace was actually real and everyone on here who'd been running around saying "they're running the car in illegal spec to get sponsors" had to eat their hats!

[Atreiu]

There were some people at this forum who sensed something like that quite soon after Nelsinho crashed.

 

How often do the conspiracy theorists get it right?! 

[spacekid]

For me its a tie between Crashgate, and Mansell to McLaren. I still can't get my head aroud that one.

[Afterburner]

MS's first retirement, Crashgate, Spygate, immediate pull-out of Toyota, BMW, and Honda, MS to Mercedes, Kimi to Lotus, Honda's return, and now Kimi back to Ferrari are the most surprising bits of non-racing news I've seen since I've been watching.

 

Most surprising news for a season was undoubtedly Brawn GP's pace being real come Australia 2009. I think that caught a lot of people off-guard.

[MLC]

For me its a tie between Crashgate, and Mansell to McLaren. I still can't get my head aroud that one.

 

You beat me to it. I never thought I would see Mansell driving for Ron Dennis. It was just weird. Of course, the way it turned out wasn't too surprising. It was never going to end well.

[BlackCat]

Schumacher's return was the most unpleasant surprise...