24 replies to this topic

[Walrus]

They`re saying in the news that Kimi Räikkönen is THE most unexperienced driver ever. Obviously that can`t be true, so I`m asking if you know any stories from 50s and 60s about REALLY unexperienced drivers Trying to make it thru the opening lap. Bring `em up!

[moody]

..am just thinking how many single seater races John Surtees had before trying a Formula One car...Jackie Stewart too if I remember wasn't that widely experienced was he?

[David M. Kane]

Interesting isn't it that Stewart was one of the most out-spokened about Jenson Button having a go at F1.

Hailwood had a few starts back in the '60s straight from
GP bikes just like Surtees did too. Revson in his sixties
outings in F1 didn't haven't F1 experience either.

[fines]

Stewart had only one season of racing, but probably more than 50 races!

[Ross Stonefeld]

We have to keep in mind they dont count karting, which is insane since a top line kart has similar performance to an F1 car in reflexes required, 0-100 times, cornering G's etc. Kimi's got almost a decade of competitive karting experience. In Jenson's second year he was in something like 32 events. So Jenson went into F1 in his 12th season of 'racing' and Kimi's somewhere around 10-12

[Leif Snellman]

How about Bernd Rosemeyer for example? His only experience was with motorcycles.

[Dave Ware]

By his own admission, Dan Gurney drove in 22 races before he was hired by Ferrari. He did indicate that times were different then...

D.

[moody]

..Kimi Raikonnen will do pretty well if Jenson is anyone to go by...his test time from Barcelona on Sunday is very good.
..good luck to him..

[Walrus]

What about in the 50s, Were there any rich kids who just thought that racing could be fun and bought a car for one or two races?

[david_martin]

Not the 1950's, but I would have thought you could almost have put Peter Revson (heir to the Revlon fortune) into that category. Of course Revson matured into a Can Am champion and F1 race winner, but I am not sure too many people would have thought so had they seen him in 1964.

[Ray Bell]

Timmy Mayer wouldn't have done so many races before hitting F1 at the Glen... a year in an Austin Healey, some racing in FJr, then won the drive...

[Yves]

What about Rodrigez's brothers ?

How many races they started before jumping on the first row (at least Ricardo isn't it ?)

Y.

[Powersteer]

Ferrari has show interest in Raikonnen, that means something. Ferrari will always have the most interesting line of drivers good or bad so i simply can't wait to see him dance with the devils

[karim marouf]

I believe Tony Brooks was just an amateur enthusiast with a few sports car races under his belt before he got into F1. Of course, things really were different in those days (the 50s), and although I don't believe racing back then was an easier than today, maybe it was easier for someone with limited experience to drive an F1 car. The physical effort alone is so much greater today---you'd have to be used to taking such high G forces without getting tired.

Someone mentioned that R. and Button really have years of racing experience since they've done karts. How similar is the performance of, say, a 125-cc shifter kart, compared to an F1 car. Could a shifter kart possibly come close to matching an F1 car's lap times around a very tight track like Monaco? I suppose that even if the cornering speeds are similar around tight corners, and that the quick reactions of the go-kart are similar to a single-seat race car, it must still be a huge adjustment for a kart racer testing an F1 car to experience how quickly the horizon gets pulled towards you down a straight or sweeping corner.

[f li]

Has anyone considered the late Graham Hill? Drove his first F1 race at 29. (Didn't learn how to drive until he was 24!)

[Ray Bell]

Not a bad point, either Brooks or Hill. Anyone got any real idea of what races they drove beforehand?

I would think Hill had quite a few, actually, as he worked his way up the ladder at Lotus, Lotus simultaneously working its way up the ladder helping him arrive... but there must have been F2 and Sports Car events in a fair number along the way?

Brooks' career might have been a bit more brief.

Hill, by the way, didn't do too badly. For a driver who is seen as a lesser man in the light of some of his competition, let's not forget that the day that Jochen Rindt won all the accolades for that 'miracle drive' in the wet at Warwick Farm, G. Hill set fastest lap...

[Wolf]

Karim, You may be right on strength and stamina issue, but let's not forget that errors were much more expensive back then. And I think that was by far mote important aspect. I hope I will not offend anyone when I bring Roberto Rodriguez up... How many mistakes did he do before GP of Mexico? And Moss made very few (according to my knowledge) mistakes (drivers errors)- and look what was the price for him...

[Marcor]

Finishing sixth in his first F1 race, not so bad finally ? This young driver had already carry out his contract (one point and lot's of articles in the newspaper or magazine, so lots of publicity for Sauber).

More seriously I agree with Leif about Rosemeyer. In his second car race, he was a close second to Caracciola in the 1935 Eifelrennen.

[Megatron]

Tom Jones

[Richard Jenkins]

There are loads less experienced in single seater cars than Raikkonen. In alphabetical order:
John Barber, around 12 minor races
Luki Botha - one race the end of season 1966 Rhodesian Gp, then three weeks later made his one & only GP
Peter Broeker, described as 'something of a mystery when he turned up to the 1963 Canadian GP'
Tommy Byrne, Jos Verstappen, Neville Lederle, Pete Ryan, Mike Taylor & Mike Thackwell all had around the same experience as Kimi when they entered, albeit at differing levels
Bruce Halford was very inexperienced,
Fon de Portago had just 1 year of motor racing behind him
& Bernd Collomb had a long history on motorbikes but only a half F2 season.
I make Botha the most inexperienced driver of them all to my knowledege

[oldtimer]

Rosemeyer has to be the man, hasn't he?

Tony Brooks experience before his Syracuse GP consisted of drives in sports cars of the road going/racing type, such as a Frazer-Nash/Bristol, and three drives with Aston Martin sports-racing cars, as far as I know. Pretty limited driving in pukka racing cars before climbing into the Connaught for practice at the GP. No test drive, and a 'Don't even think about bending it lad' atmosphere to send him off on his first practice laps.

Graham Hill had a season or so's experience in Lotus sports-racing cars before moving up into a F1 car.

Incidently, whilst trying to find Brook's record with Aston Martin in John Wyer's book, I discovered my copy of vol.1 is missing pages 68 to 83!

[David McKinney]

Brooks had raced an ex-F2 Connaught a few times before his Syracuse drive. Hill had raced F2 Cooper and Lotus cars before his F1 debut (and of course had started in single-seaters, with F3 Coopers)

[Marcor]

With the A-type Connaught A3 Lea Francis 2 L, Tony brooks had immediately good results. Before his Syracuse surprising victory in October 1955, he drove the Connaught A entered by Equipe Endeavour in British F1 or FL short races.

He finished 4th in the London Trophy at Crystal Palace (30 July), 4th in the Daily Telegraph Trophy and 3rd in the Formule libre race at Aintree (3 September) and 5th in the Avon Trophy at Castle Combe (1st October).

Graham Hill started racing in 1954 (according to his biography, first race held at Brands Hatch, 27 April), in a Cooper Mk IV JAP. His first WC F1 race was Monaco 1958. He also drove the same A-type Connaught in 1957...

[Marcor]

Two replies in a row but 2 different topics. I think I've found the most unexperienced driver in "Grand Prix".

Charles Pozzi, who died recently, made his first ever start in 1946. It was in the GP de Nice with a Delahaye 135 sport. He had bought the car two days before the race to Emile Cornet. The future French Ferrari's importer was yet a car dealer but his dream was to race. When Charles Faroux, the race's director asked him if he had ever raced, Pozzi replied: "yes of course, a complete season in hillclimb". It was not true !!!

He finished 8th of the race...

[Ray Bell]

There had to be one somewhere....