23 replies to this topic

[STORM]

Hi,

Does anyone know why JJ was banned from testing with Benetton that year. JJ did some testing in early 1994 when he crashed at Silverstone. JJ hurt, left the door open to Jos, Benettons so called test driver:

"The car was specially built to meet Schumacher's specific requirements and it unfortunately for me it proved difficult to keep the car on the track."
Jos Verstappen

JJ recovered but was left in the cold and never got a chance to get to know the car due to lack of testing.

Why?

[JeeWee]

Letho had a serious testing accident.
He wasn't fit enough at the start of the 1994. So that's why Verstappen had to race at Brazil.

When Letho was fit again and went testing, Verstappen was quicker most of the times. So that's why Verstappen was kept as second driver.

When Schumacher was disqualified for 2 races (one of them was monza, the other i do not know anymore)Letho raced besides Verstappen, but was outpaced by Verstappen during race & qualifing.

[magic]

when jj qualified 4 seconds slower than ms in monaco, his f1career in fact was over.

[magic]

 1994, Monaco          
Starting grid
Cla Nº Driver Car / Engine Time Delay
[s] Delay
[%]
1  5   M.Schumacher  Benetton/Ford   1'18.560   -   - 
2  7   Mika Hakkinen  McLaren/Peugeot   1'19.488    0.928    1.181 
3  28   Gerhard Berger  Ferrari   1'19.958    1.398    1.780 
4  0   Damon Hill  Williams/Renault   1'20.079    1.519    1.934 
5  27   Jean Alesi  Ferrari   1'20.452    1.892    2.408 
6  9   C.Fittipaldi  Footwork/Ford   1'21.053    2.493    3.173 
7  10   G.Morbidelli  Footwork/Ford   1'21.189    2.629    3.346 
8  8   Martin Brundle  McLaren/Peugeot   1'21.222    2.662    3.388 
9  23   P.Martini  Minardi/Ford   1'21.288    2.728    3.473 
10  4   Mark Blundell  Tyrrell/Yamaha   1'21.614    3.054    3.887 
11  3   Ukyo Katayama  Tyrrell/Yamaha   1'21.731    3.171    4.036 
12  24   Michele Alboreto  Minardi/Ford   1'21.793    3.233    4.115 
13  20   Erik Comas  Larrousse/Ford   1'22.211    3.651    4.647 
14  15   A.de Cesaris  Jordan/Hart   1'22.265    3.705    4.716 
15  14   R.Barrichello  Jordan/Hart   1'22.359    3.799    4.836 
16  12   Johnny Herbert  Lotus/Mugen-Honda   1'22.375    3.815    4.856 
17  6   J J Lehto  Benetton/Ford   1'22.679    4.119    5.243 
18  19   Olivier Beretta  Larrousse/Ford   1'23.025    4.465    5.684 
19  11   Pedro Lamy  Lotus/Mugen-Honda   1'23.858    5.298    6.744 
20  26   Olivier Panis  Ligier/Renault   1'24.131    5.571    7.091 
21  25   Eric Bernard  Ligier/Renault   1'24.377    5.817    7.405 
22  31   David Brabham  Simtek/Ford   1'24.656    6.096    7.760 
23  34   Bertrand Gachot  Pacific/Ilmor   1'26.082    7.522    9.575 
24  33   Paul Belmondo  Pacific/Ilmor   1'29.984    11.424   14.542 

[magic]

 1994, Portugal      Fastest laps
Cla Nº Driver Car / Engine Lap Time Delay

1  2   David Coulthard  Williams/Renault  12    1'22.446   - 

6  6   Jos Verstappen  Benetton/Ford  58    1'23.702    1.256 
 
16  5   J J Lehto  Benetton/Ford  60    1'24.728    2.282 

the last fast bennetonlap before spinning off.

btw he raced for sauber 2 races after benneton in '94.

[RaggedEdge]

JJ did well in his first comeback race in Imola, getting quite close to Schumi in the first qualifying session. He did not participate in the second qualifying session, I believe, because his good friend Roland Ratzenberger had died. I believe he started 5th and stalled, and was hit from behind by Pedro Lamy. I only remember because Senna died on that weekend, so there is plenty of documentation out there.

Ratzenberger and Senna dying screwed JJs head, and coupled with the horrible attitude of Flavio Briatore (no testing whatsoever and the usual Flavio screwing behind the scenes act, I guess), JJ failed badly in the latter races.

JJ has done brilliantly in sportscars after life in F1, being one of the best if not the best driver in ALMS in recent years.

[magic]

ragged;Ratzenberger and Senna dying screwed JJs head,

i think his broken neck screwed his head.

[STORM]

Did Lehto brake his neck at Silverstone? Wow, he must be glad being alive today. I didn't know that.

In 1995 Johnny Herbert recieved the same bad treatment as Lehto in the Benetton team. Johnny did not test either. Strange!

Why?

I remember JJ as a good driver in Sauber but when he was in Benetton he was completely different in a negative sense. I believe the maltreatment from Flavio plus no chance to test made it difficult to him to get to learn the car. I also remember that his manager Keke Rosberg complained over the bad situation Lehto was in not able to test and not being a part of the development of the car.

[magic]

isn't this this the famous quote from jj when at benneton:

"what are these buttons on micheal's steeringwheel that i don't have?"

reaction from team: shuddup and drive.

[P1 Senna]

Originally posted by RaggedEdge
... I believe he started 5th and stalled, and was hit from behind by Pedro Lamy. I only remember because Senna died on that weekend, so there is plenty of documentation out there.

RaggedEdge - right on the button! At Imola in '94, Lehto indeed did stall on the grid, and with JJ frantically waving his arm to signal those behind, was rammed by Pedro Lamy's Lotus. The crash sent debris into the stands adjacent to the grid, injuring 10 people.

The rest of the story is well known, of course, with the race not being redflagged, but slowly run behind the Safety Car for a few laps while the mess was cleaned up. Some feel that if the race had been stopped and restarted that Senna would still be with us, as his tires would have been at temperature. It's all speculation, woulda, shoulda, coulda, I know. But that's all we have at this point, besides the unfortunate memories of that black weekend. What if......??

I have felt that possibly JJ Lehto blamed himself for the events leading to Senna's demise. I hope that is not the case, but I can see how that might be.

And it is great to see JJ's recent success in the BMW prototypes.

[JayWay]

hahaha

"Hey how come Michaels car has seatbelts and mine doesn't? And where is Flavio going with my helmet?"

[silver]

JJ`s crash in Silverstone was a lot bigger than people in public are aware of.

He went rear-end first to the solid concrete wall...according to Benetton`s telemetry he was doing 220 kph at the time of impact...

He broke several of his vertebras.. in fact small pieces of bone which broke loose from his vertebras penetrated his spine.
If those pieces had gone 1 mm deeper we would have died and had they gone 0.2 mm deeper he would have paralyzed from neck down..

After the operation the doctor told JJ that it would take at least 6 months to recover to NORMAL LIFE.

3 months later he was driving F1 car...

In his first test after the accident JJ said that it was the first time when he realised who tough sport F1 really was.
When he was accelerating he could see the sky and when he was breaking he could see his legs since his head was moving so much.

In Imola he qualified 0.7 secs behind Schumi while driving without any feeling in his hands.

In Monaco he basically couldnt drive since his was moving so much he couldnt see the track..

In Spain JJ qualified 4th and was fastest in the warm up... Schumi was so impressed that he took JJ´s setup for the race. JJ didnt finish since his engine let go.

In Canada JJ`s chassis was fractured during both qualifyings. He was 22th on grid and finish 7th but got one point since Fittibaldi was disqualed.

After that Flavio sacked him and the rest is history..

During 1994 cars changed a lot during the season because of the deaths. JJ was allowed to test after Canada and that was why he wasnt able to perform later on.

[Louis Mr. F1]

how unfortunate that JJ was, after all those years in the waiting, finally he got a good drive @ Benetton and in his very first test after signing the contract, he broke neck.

[K-One]

When Lehto was testing Benetton after the accident he had some serious trouble. He could not "feel" his hands properly, so on the long straights he had to check if his hands were on the steering wheel!!!!Crazy...

[mhferrari]

Guess you couldn't call him a "Flying Finn."

[Ross Stonefeld]

safety car had nothing to do with Senna's death

[mhferrari]

The safety car didn't, it was the bad weld on the steering column.

[Piquet_1]

Lehto came back too early. He was okay on smooth circuits, but couldn't handle the bumps and that explains the disparity between his qualifying at Monaco and Imola. Too bad that didn't seem to be taken into consideration by the team he was driving for. Knowing Briatore though, his neck just should have been stronger...

[Mila]

I take it silver you're something of a Lehto fan? that was a pretty insightful post.

indeed, Spain 94 was one of those "what if" races for Lehto. I recall that he spent the early laps behind JA (in the slower Ferrari). IF he had had a better start, and IF the engine had held together, he would have been highly placed on the podium, no doubt.

[silver]

Mila..i am not that much of a JJ fan but i just wanted you all to know those facts.

But i have to admit that those things which took place at Benetton didnt make me a big fans of Flavio "shut up and drive" Briatore.

[TB-SUOMI]

Yep,
I second silver's insight. We talked with JJ (there was a couple of us Finns there) in Hockenheim -94, and he told us about that splintered bone in his vertabral column. I kinda remeber he seemed pretty content about just being there standing, talking. Of course he was a bit disappointed not being allowed to drive anymore.
It was pretty painful to see how his carreer in F1 went after that and how some people made it look like.
--
TB

[dingledell]

I think that JJ should consider himself lucky that he was not driving at Hockenheim in '94 - with his luck, if he was in the 2nd Benetton, he probably would have been burnt in the pitlane fire that his 'teammate' (in the very broadest sense) caused . . .

[Megatron]

JJ also did well in his one year with Carl Hogan in CART.

JJ always appeared to me of a guy with real talent. He did some miracles in the Oynx and he was great at Sauber.

I compare him to Karl Wienligner, his Sauber teamate. If they hadn't had thier injuires, who knows what they could have done.

[Maldwyn]

Originally posted by STORM
In 1995 Johnny Herbert recieved the same bad treatment as Lehto in the Benetton team. Johnny did not test either. Strange!

Why?

Michael Schumacher