24 replies to this topic

[Josta]

Given the number of quite frankly off topic "who is better" polls which should really be in nostalgia, I thought I would find out who you think which hapless Japanese driver was less inept compared to the other. On the one hand, Taki did manage to crash with a safety car and flip his car whilst being towed back and then run over by a fire marshal, but at least he didn't have his superlicense revoked.

So, who is the better driver?

[Victor]

[Nitropower]

I'm afraid I have no idea who Inoue is, had it been Sakon Yamamoto I.... I wouldn't have been able to know who is Yamamoto and who is Ide

[F1Johnny]

I don't remember.

[Josta]

Originally posted by Nitropower
I'm afraid I have no idea who Inoue is, had it been Sakon Yamamoto I.... I wouldn't have been able to know who is Yamamoto and who is Ide

[Rabbit123]

Wasn't there something in Autosport magazine once about Inoue flipping his car over?

[Levike]

Originally posted by Josta
Given the number of quite frankly off topic "who is better" polls which should really be in nostalgia, I thought I would find out who you think which hapless Japanese driver was less inept compared to the other. On the one hand, Taki did manage to crash with a safety car and flip his car whilst being towed back and then run over by a fire marshal, but at least he didn't have his superlicense revoked.

So, who is the better driver?

Hehe poor Taki.. They were both hopeless, although from the japanese drivers i think Ukyo Katayama was far better than recognised.

[Risil]

My Dad got me Taki Inoue's autograph when I was 5 years old. This annoyed me, as my brother got Max Papis's, the far superior driver, a fact I recognised all too clearly at the time.

I don't think either holds a candle to fucKing Hiro Matsushita, btw. CART's other shining example of Asiatic mediocrity, Shigeaki Hattori, emulated Ide in the sense that he too was banned for his frankly dreadful error-proneness and lack of pace. Of course, in a series where the kind of on-track behaviour that was the downfall of Yuji Ide made a very successful career for the likes of Tracy and Zanardi, this achievement is considerably more impressive.

[DiStefano]

Taku-san is better than both

[Risil]

I don't see why they didn't just give Taku the footwear she was wearing.

[Josta]

Originally posted by DiStefano
Taku-san is better than both

Non PC, I know, but it just sort of reminds me of the southpark episode where the Japanese are taking over the world by reminding the Americans how they have "very small penis", so cannot be a threat at all.

Surely that photo is a photoshop jobbie, if not then I can't help but think it is a conspiracy designed by Bernie. He couldn't handle the idea that anyone is taller than anyone else so makes sure that all shortarses like Sato, Massa and himself stand on planks of wood whenever they are in front of the camera.

[Milt]

I'm the one person who has voted for Yuji Ide.
This guy got screwed.
He brought something like 16 mill in sponsorship $ to the fledgling team.
He was thrown into his first F1 race after about 100 Km 'seat time' in an F1 car.
He never did get a proper 'seat fitting', and raced in somebody else's 'modified seat'
(how the hell do you "modify" a fiberglass bucket, that is molded to fit a specific body?)

Sure, he spun lots of times, mostly in practice.
And how many times did the two Ferrari drivers spin, in the last race?
The only way any driver can find the 'limits', of any given car, is to occasionally go 'over' that limit.
In most cases, this results in a spin.

The ONLY time that Yuji Ide was ever in contact with another competitor in F1 was in an admittedly optimistic 'overtake' of Christian Albers in this sequence...


Albers doesn't just 'close the door', he SLAMS it shut!








Alber's ensuing 'rollover' into the gravel trap was, to say the lest, spectacular, but nobody got hurt.
This got Ide's super-lisence suspended.
How many accidents involving unnecessary contact with another competitor has David Coultard been involved in, so far this year?
Is his super-lisence in question?

[jesee]

I think if Yuji Ide had continued to race, he would either have killed someone by now or be not alive. I have watched bad driving, but i believe he was one of the worst in f1.

[Nitropower]

Yeah I vote Ide. I remember his dangerous and out of control driving, not that he was not able to drive, but he didn't look familiar with a F1 car / didn't get enough testing. He didn't look confident and safe for the others, sometimes it's not about the no. of accidents you have, you don't need to see an accident to realize how unprepared someone is. I remember tv commentators claiming his superlicense had to be removed.

EDIT: Oops I voted the other way around! I thought the title was "Who was worse". 1 less for Ide, 1 more for the Inoue.

[CWeil]

Originally posted by Milt
I'm the one person who has voted for Yuji Ide.
This guy got screwed.
He brought something like 16 mill in sponsorship $ to the fledgling team.
He was thrown into his first F1 race after about 100 Km 'seat time' in an F1 car.
He never did get a proper 'seat fitting', and raced in somebody else's 'modified seat'
(how the hell do you "modify" a fiberglass bucket, that is molded to fit a specific body?)

Sure, he spun lots of times, mostly in practice.
And how many times did the two Ferrari drivers spin, in the last race?
The only way any driver can find the 'limits', of any given car, is to occasionally go 'over' that limit.
In most cases, this results in a spin.

The ONLY time that Yuji Ide was ever in contact with another competitor in F1 was in an admittedly optimistic 'overtake' of Christian Albers in this sequence...
Albers doesn't just 'close the door', he SLAMS it shut!

Alber's ensuing 'rollover' into the gravel trap was, to say the lest, spectacular, but nobody got hurt.
This got Ide's super-lisence suspended.
How many accidents involving unnecessary contact with another competitor has David Coultard been involved in, so far this year?
Is his super-lisence in question?

+1. It was all bullshit. Ide had a completely improperly prepared car with all old parts, fewer parts available for changes, etc, and it was barely even a shade of the car that Takuma had prepared for him. Not to mention that lack of preseason testing. IIRC, Yamamoto was the only driver that year who had the fully updated car that Sato had all year. It was completely unfair for Ide and Montagny.

Ide's crash was NOT ban worthy in the least- there have been way worse crashes almost every year in F1. There was absolutely no need, and was most done for public perception (and the main problem was the POS old car, not Ide). It was incredibly, ridiculously unfair to him, and it was an absolute shame on Super Aguri that they didn't protest it. I loved that team, but they absolutely destroyed Ide's career. It's BS, and they owed him more given that he brought a lot of money to the table for them.

Almost everyone who posts who says "Ide is the worst ever! He would've killed someone!" is only saying it because they read headlines and form opinions based on online media. If you'd seen him drive in person or understood the situation, I think the perception would be entirely different- he was fighting hard to overcome the junk car and not look like an idiot, but since everyone assumed he had the same equipment as Sato he just ended up looking like junk.

I feel incredibly, incredibly bad for him. He's a more successful driver than Yamamoto! You don't go from winning races and being a front runner in the incredibly competitive Formula Nippon to being the worst F1 driver ever.

[Ferrim]

Yeah, I agree with you guys. And you can't compare these two drivers because Inoue had more than a season to prove himself.

Inoue's first ever F1 race was at Suzuka (a track he knew) and yet he was 3.5 seconds slower than teammate Brabham in the other Simtek.

He went on to qualify 2.8 seconds slower than Morbidelli at Sao Paulo (the next year; don't know if he got a lot of testing during pre-season, or at least a bit), 10 seconds at Buenos Aires (admitedly, it was a wet, crazy qualifying) and 3.2 at Imola.

He only started to post competitive times by his 5th race (a chance Ide never got), and still was slower than his teammate nearly all the time.

[tidytracks]

Inoue: If for no other reason than leaving me with a smile on my face after every hapless grand prix.

[wingwalker]

Ide's super license was wasn't taken away after this crash. After that, FIA said to Super Aguri that Ide should test more before running in a race weekend, which was the perception of *everyone*at the time. SA didn't listen and announced he is going to race (with no time in the car between his next race and FIA warning). So FIA had pretty limited options, and license removal was probably as much against Ide as against SA showing them middle finger by not following their suggestions.


BTW, it's stupid to hold that fire marshal car accident against anyone else than the driver. He nearly hit a track marshal too.

[rhm]

Answer: neither! Shinji Nakano was the greatest!

[Jackman]

To be fair to Ide, it was amazing that he could haul that piece of crap up (albeit on the first lap) to a position from which he could challenge Albers, no matter how clumsily. Of course, I am prepared to acknowledge that the reverse might well be true also: Albers didn't exactly cover himself in glory at any stage of his financially extended F1 career.

[Hacklerf]

Taki Inoue was great but hes a few Yamamoto's short of a Katayama

[Jackman]

As driver's go, Yamamoto makes an excellent DJ.

[noikeee]

Originally posted by CWeil
It was incredibly, ridiculously unfair to him, and it was an absolute shame on Super Aguri that they didn't protest it. I loved that team, but they absolutely destroyed Ide's career.

You raise some good points, but I can't agree on this - if it wasn't for Super Aguri, Ide would have never had a chance to race in F1. It wasn't a very good chance, but at least he can say he participated in a bunch of GPs.

[VoidNT]

As a devoted Taki Inoue fanboy, I have to say that I feel deeply offended by such comparison.;) Ide's done nothing for F1, whilst Inoue brought a lot of fun in 1995 and his name is written in F1 history books as the man who's been rammed two times by the safety car!

[Gary Edwards]

They were both pish but loads better than Massa san