43 replies to this topic

[Caíco Caralho]

Hey people

Let's remember the worst performances, those that made we laugh...

The worst drivers I remember I saw in F-1 were: Ricardo Rosset and Emmanuele Pirro. Although Nakajima was constantly out of the track (and he will certainly be remembered)... Please, older people can name some others that I couldn't see doing ridiculous races.

The worst teams I saw: Andrea Moda, Coloni, Eurobrun (Roberto Moreno can explain it better). For the entire hole performed, with a huge career, I would say that Minardi is the worst team in history (15 years without a single podium)...

The worst engines: Judd and Yamaha.

[404KF2]

Worst drivers: Michael Schumacher and Mika Haekkinen
Worst team: Schumacher era Ferrari

[Silver Arrow]

What about Taki Inoue?? He is just so entertaining to watch.

[Daemon]

Worst team is Lola for sure, but I think BAR may have stolen the rep from them considering the ammount of money they came in with, a WDC as lead driver, and the absolutely shoddy results they produced...

[calbars]

One of the worst driver in F1 was Jacques Villeneuve Sr., JV's uncle. Mr. DNQ.

[theMot]

Mots toilet bowl:

On the Rim: Zanardi, Andretti

In the bowl: Nakajima, Rossett, Tacky as Inou, De crasheris

Mixed in with the ****: Deletraz

[JEKS]

I thought De Cesaris was regarded as being quite talented.

[Mosquito]

Originally posted by JEKS
I thought De Cesaris was regarded as being quite talented.

He was not that bad, but his nick "De Crasheris" was not invented for nothing.;)

[coyoteBR]

Does anybody remember Dunfries? This noble guy raced in lotus for a year or two.

Now, Andrea Moda was something...They once used an adapted F-3000 in F1 GP's (I really wonder how Roberto Moreno kept falling in this kind of team).

Caíco: De onde é que você tirou esse nome? Pensando melhor, não quero saber.

[Megatron]

Worst teams:

Forti (Ugly yellow cars, must have been cursing the new 107% rule).

Andrea Moda (Formed from Coloni, poor excuse for a team, once reportedly pushed a car with no engine!)

Lambo (Team that Lambo was supposedly going to save, had some trully sick areodynamics).

Zakspeed (After 5 years, will best be remembered for being the first to have the West sponsorship).

Kaushen (German outfit failed miserably in out of the box chassis in 79)

Life (THE WORST EVER, IMO!, car was 25 seconds of pole, barley stayed together for one lap)

Worst drivers:

Micheal Andretti (pains me to say, being from the gold old US of A!, proablly not as bad if he had taken F1 seriously and got in some testing, but even today I can't even think of his F1 "adventure").

Deletrez (Mr Paydriver. Took his money to teams that really needed it. I remember one time when the crew refused to work on his car until he payed them!).

Inque (Least the Hungarian race officals forget).

Johny Dumfries (I think Lotus put him in there because the English were ticked when Warwick was vetoed, made of money, two points all year, I think it made it in the top ten in quailifying once, later won Le Mans in a Jaguar).

Ghinzani (Seemingly had a home at Osella, scored two points in 9 years of Formula One).

I could go on and on......

BTW, does anyone know what happened to that F1 rejects site? I used to really love to go to that site!

[bs]

Michael Andretti wasn't very committed to racing in Europe, but Mclaren didn't appear to be very committed to him either. I recall reading of him complaining about not being able to get a good cheeseburger anywhere in Europe or the UK. He rarely tested in the car *and* his teamate was Senna. With all this against him, he still managed a podium at Monza, hardly qualifying him for "the worst ever".

Teams? Lola, Pacific and Simtek were pretty bad. Matter of fact, wasn't the Pacific really just a still-born Reynard?

[John B]

Not only that, but Andretti had a couple other finishes in the points in Spain and a good comeback in France. I wish he could have gone to F1 in 1986 or 1987 at an earlier age. Bernie in fact tried to get him a ride for the 1986 Detroit race.

Two of the worst single season efforts I can think of was the Benetton Alfa Romeos in 1984-5 - they just could not adapt to the banning of pit stops after being fairly competitive in 1983 (yes, led by Mr DeCesaris). They would run at the back of the field yet still run out of fuel laps before the end!

[HappyDude]

What about Katayama?

[Pascal]

Worst driver: Jean-Denis Deletraz, though Philippe Adams comes pretty close.

Worst team: tie between Andrea Moda and Life

Worst engine: Life, but Motori Moderni and Porsche (for their dreadful engine Footwork used in 1991) deserve a mention.

[Keith Sawatsky]

Life, Osella, and unfortunately from a fiscal viewpoint, BAR.

As for drivers, I think they where all good in their own respective ways to have reached that level.

[theMot]

no kieth,

Deletraz was just ****, plain and simple

[tom]

worst driver : irvine.----montreal really was a joke.

worst team, mclaren [or should i say ron dennis] , how that guy continues to **** up pitstop strategy's and not know when to put wets on is beyond me...you'd think after a few years fighting closely with ferrari [brawn] ron would learn something...the guy sucks , and the worst thing is he thinks he's awesome.

------------------------------

irvine = w@nker

[EKB]

Without a doubt, Deletraz.

Check out http://www.f1rejects.com

(this is a great site that lists the worst of the worst in F1).

Cheers,

EKB

"And what IS Deletraz doing?!" - Murry Walker[p][Edited by EKB on 06-22-2000]

[NYR2119935]

Leave Michael Andretti alone guys. We have discussed this numerous times before. We all know that Mikey should have relocated to England for the year. And we also know that the political stature in F1 was 99% against Michael Andretti. As much as I love Michael Andretti, to pair him with Senna and then compare the 2 is ludicrous. F1 was Senna's life. CART was Michael Andretti's life. It was his first year in F1 and he had very little seat time and practice and stuff. and when he did practice his lap times were very competitive with the rest. Had Michael stayed another year in F1 and relocated to England things would have been VERY different. But the way the F1 European media etc.. treated Michael, I'm glad he didn't stay. I have the feeling that no matter how good Michael could have done, he would still be criticized.

[404KF2]

It's hard to defend him. Probably not worth it.

[JayWay]

NYR,

I agree with you that the situation was not ideal for Andretti, but what proof can you provide that "99% of F1" was against Andretti? I have recently heard that Eccelstone the main man in F1 put in efforts for Andretti to get a ride in F1 before he arrived at McLaren. Andretti did put in some good times in F1, but also you claim that the reason for his underachieving was his little in car time. If it is true that Andretti is as good as you say he is, wouldn't he be able to adapt quickly (he did have a whole season) a good driver like JPM has shown the ability to adapt quickly in CART. Fittipaldi is another F1 failure (christian)and Andretti hasn't exactly dominated him in CART as teammates.

[Buzzin]

Worst driver has to be Jean-Paul Belmondo.Talk about a rich kid having absolutely NO talent,and getting blown into the weeds by the mighty Bertrant Gachot!!
Worst team i can remember has to be Forti Ford.HOW many times did they get lapped in every race?

[John B]

Jayway,

When asked about Andretti's possibilities for a seat in 1986 Bernie responded that "he was better qualified than half the current F1 field." Having complimented CART, he then stated that Emmo "couldn't qualify for a F1 race...."

I actually think comparison with Christian Fittipaldi has made MA look good. When CF left Grand Prix racing many felt that he had a chance to be pretty decent. He is one driver who has come over from F1 and not blown away his teammate; I think MA's beat him 9-1 on wins including 5-0 in 1996 (most of this time both were penalized heavily by Goodyear tires).

[GaryG]

That F1 Rejects is a great site, but IMOH, WHY do some sites make it SO hard to read! Forget so called "style"; make then READABLE. Sorry about the rank...Had to get it off my chest.

P.S. I also agree that M, Andretti is NOT one of the all-time worst. He was in the wrong pace at the wrong time.

[Caíco Caralho]

Wow people, thank you

In fact, I forgot Johnny Dumfries, the driver who almost never started at the top ten using the same car of the pole sitter of most races that year (1986)- Ayrton Senna. He and Nakajima, although their poor performances, scored some few points at Lotus (and Nakajima scored a fastest lap once)... but they deserve some mention, he he he... Piercarlo Ghinzani really was an Osella partner, if you remember Osella, you remember Ghinzani, and don't remember points... I don't remember Delatraz's actions, maybe because he was too slow behind the pace in his 'wonderful' Simtek, like Belmondo in his Pacific. De Cesaris (or De Crasheris, he he, good one!) had a very good season at Jordan in 91, so he wasn't so bad, though he destroyed so many cars. Another one who maybe doesn't deserve a mention here is Michael Andretti (another De Crasheris). Zanardi really deserves, he was a kind of De Crasheris in Lotus and a Ghinzani in Williams (always behind...).
What about Christian Danner, Huub Rothengatter, Oscar Larrauri, Raul Boesel, Eliseo Salazar, Adrian Campos? And the French team: Beretta, Lagorce, Hesnault, Alliot (this last certainly deserves a mention)?
There's a big mystery: why does Japan produce so bad drivers (please Japanese people, forgive me)? I think Suzuki was the only one acceptable (Katayama was called here in Brazil 'Ukyo Katagrama'; grama = grass in Portuguese).
About the teams, Life is one that we in Brazil didn't know it existed at that time. I know about it now due to Forix, ha ha ha... Maybe it was really the worst team of all times. Lola created many expectations in 85-86, with a new Ford engine and the hiring of Alan Jones and Patrick Tambay,
but failed, as BAR now, but not at a point to be considered one of the worst, even without progresses in the consecutive years.
Motori Moderni, Porsche'91 and Zakspeed were terrible engines, I agree.

PS: Pascal, who is Phillipe Adams? Frankly, I don't remember him... refresh my memory, please!

[Pacific]

Phillipe Adams was/is a Belgian GT racer who raced a couple races for Lotus in 1994.

I'm not certain there's even a debate on this.

Worst driver: Jean-Denis Deletraz

Worst team: Andrea Moda


Drivers like Rosset were not all that bad. Rosset was pretty good in F3000, his tenure in F1 was with Arrows his rookie season, in which he struggled some at times, but did impress a few along the pit lane. What sealed Rosset's fate was going to Lola. Then in 1998 he went to "Tyrrell" where nobody care about Rosset's car. Takagi was better, in fact, we've learned Takagi may be among the best in F1 in sheer speed. He's a tad bit faster than Pedro de la Rosa. (Not as good overall, but qualifying isn't about putting lots of laps together.) Pedro de la Rosa is having some good performances this year. Ukyo Katayama was usually in the grass parking his Tyrrell which had had the Yamaha engine give out. Ukyo was not a really poor driver at all. He won LeMans with Toyota, with other drivers of course, but still.

Most F1 drivers, like Olivier Beretta, etc, had some circumstances behind their failures in F1. Beretta had to deal with the Larrousse team, which at that time was going to hell in a handbasket.

When Jean-Denis Deletraz has hit the track in F1, I don't see how anybody could mention guys like Michael Andretti, Ukyo Katayama, etc. Deletraz may have been in a Simtek one year and a Pacific the next, but that doesn't explain his huge gaps to Gachot and Montermini.

Deletraz is a GT racer who has never really had any real impressive results there, and it's not like he's racing in the BTCC or something. Deletraz is probably a below average GT racer who happens to have some money. So, he paid for his F1 starts. I mean, he was like 17 seconds behind pole one race. The distance to his teammate was no less than 12 seconds. That's HORRIBLE. I know for a fact, even though I've never raced an F1 car, give me a bit of time and I could be putting in better laps than that. I don't know HOW you even get that slow. Pacific didn't have problems getting both cars equal, Gachot and Montermini were pretty close when they raced together. Gachot and Montermini were F1 worthy drivers. Not superstars, but not bad, especially in the big picture.

And even if you forget Deletraz, what about Giovanni Lavaggi. (Although Lavaggi was much better than Deletraz, Lavaggi could keep his car on the track for finishes at least.) Lavaggi has been slightly better in his GT competition, but still.

Guys like Rosset, Beretta, Katayama, have had pretty distinguished careers as far as auto racing goes. Katayama raced in F1 from 1993 through 1998, picked up points now and again with Tyrrell, which had a horrible engine. As if he'd get points with Minardi. His first team was Lambo. Katayama has won LeMans, he's competed in other races and series, he's a damn fine driver. Beretta, his F1 experience was short, but he wasn't that bad and he's done great in ALMS competition. Rosset, while inactive, hey, nearly won the F3000 title, things didn't work out for him at Lola or Tyrrell, at Arrows he was a rookie, that's the way that works.

NOBODY on the grid now can even be mentioned. Todays F1 grid is VERY stellar in talent. Pedro Diniz and Gaston Mazzacane may not be awesome, but they aren't bad. Both have proven to be F1 worthy drivers.

[Kuwashima]

Obviously you guys have never heard of Al Pease.

This guy raced 3 times from 1967-69. He was disqualified for being too slow in one race, DNQ'd another, and finished 43 laps down in the third.

Yes, that's 43 laps down. Read all about it at our biography of him:

http://www.crosswind...s/drivers/pease.

Makes Deletraz look like Nuvolari.

(BTW, Andretti is the most submitted driver on our site).

[Ross Stonefeld]

The still-born Reynard became the 1992 Benetton.....


Ross Stonefeld
Aztec Group Motorsport

[OssieFan]

Since I've been following F1 (since 94) I'd say the worst teams would have to be Lola, Forti and Pacific.

As for drivers probably Deletraz and Fontana.

[Megatron]

I hate to get another from the good ol USA but how about Kevin Cogan?

Many people don't know this, but on the day when Alain Prost first tested a McLaren in 1979, the man he was running against for the ride was Cogan.

Prost not only devasted Cogan's times but also set a lap that was around .5 faster than team leader John Watson who had set a few benchmark laps earlier.

Cogan then tried to quailify twice unsuccessfully first in an old Williams in 1980 and in a Tyrrell in 1981.

Then it was off to Indy Car world......

About Micheal Andretti, yes he did get screwed at McLaren, but I think Andretti could have been more devoted to F1 so that is why I put him on my list.

But yes, Micheal got a raw deal. Even Senna said that, defending the Amercian always. And he does have a couple of things that suggest that he could have been better, like usually being faster than Mika in testing (not that testing times matter a lot to me), and that brilliant drive in his final F1 race coming back from the back of the grid to finish a strong third at Monza. I do remember the broadcasters on ESPN saying that Senna had "suggested" that Andretti was totally getting screwed at McLaren and the team had no interest in suporting him. You can "if" and "But" Micheals carrer all you want in F1, but it is proablly best said that you could not totally blame either McLaren or Micheal, but they both could have done a lot more to make it work.

Not just because he is from my country, but I compare Micheal to someone like Zanardi or even Chris Amon. Never at the right place at the right time.

[DJS]

As I remember it, at the end of '85 Lotus were looking to sign either Patrick Tambay or Derick Warwick, but Senna vetoed it, stating that he didn't believe that Lotus were capable of running '2 number 1' drivers, so instead they hired Johnny Dumfries to drive the other car. Sound familiar????

Some of early memories of 'in-car' shots were from Dumfries' Lotus, at Spa and Adelaide.

[Ray Bell]

The link to F1 Rejects and Canadian Al Pease makes interesting reading. Being in his late forties, and having raced a Riley in the early fifties, does date him somewhat. But I can't help thinking that the Eagle Climax was not a quick car, and he wouldn't have had much time in it, either.
Now a man in that era that should have done better was Guy Ligier... he gets a hefty vote in the 'worst ever' list for me.
You're right in suggesting that a lot of strange things happened in past decades... in 1962 there were Formula Junior Lotuses etc fitted with 1340cc engines (just change the crank) and a bit of ballast to run in F1... Jo Siffert drove on in a non-title race, in fact. It is a different world today!
Anyone delving into reports on races back in the fifties might find some strange stuff, too, particularly with all those private entrants, and there were some big fields in some races in the thirties that must have included some real dungers.

[BuzzingHornet]

Taki Inoue. There is no-one as bad as he was. My gran could get closer to Max Papis in qualifying than Inoue could. Boy, he must have had a big wallet

Giovanni Lavaggi was another guy who paid to look stupid on a racetrack every couple of weeks

Honourable mentions to Delatraz, Riccardo Rosset and... Alex Zanardi (unfortunately)

[Ross Stonefeld]

Taki Inoue actually managed to outqualify The Max a few times in Papis' brief F1 career

Ross Stonefeld
Aztec Group Motorsport

[AlesiGOD]

I remember when Inoue was hit by the marshalls car...

[Ross Stonefeld]

He was hit TWICE (Hungary and Monaco while being craned away)

Ross Stonefeld
Aztec Group Motorsport

[The Mirror]

Worst team:
Life. By far.

Worst driver:
Gregor Foitek

[Joe Fan]

Anybody who thinks Andretti was that bad in F1 should buy the book "American Grand Prix Racing" by Tim Considine and hear his and Mario's side of the story while Michael was at McLaren. It is a real eye opener and is probably why no top American drivers are interested in racing in F1.

[Megatron]

As bad as I hate to agree with Joe Fan, yes the way Andretti was treated in 1993 proablly had a lot to do with the fact that he left F1 so soon. Not to be too mean, but apparently the European media was not just against Americans, but North Americans.

Let me explain.

In 1994, Paul Tracy tested for Benetton at Jerez. He was only .7 off Bergers pole time, but according to Paul, he was the bunt of many jokes because he was from North America, with people comparing him to Micheal Andretti at the test (Paul is from Canada for anyone not aware). They said that "Andretti came in an Eagle and left a chicken nugget". Paul felt a really bad atmosphere because he was from North America/Canada and that might be why he never really pursued an F1 career.

Of course those same people who put down Paul had to eat their words when some guy named Villeneuve came in and won the F1 title in his second year............

[Caíco Caralho]

hey people... I forgot one special driver... Giovanna Amati!!! Now I can say: she was the worst driver I've ever seen (unfortunately, I don't remember Deletraz to make a good comparison; older people mentioned Al Pease and Guy Ligier)!

So, the results are (for while):
worst driver: Jean-Denis Deletraz
worst teams: Andrea Moda and Life
worst engine: Life

[JayWay]

Alberto,

My ICQ is broken, this is why I havn't been on. You private message me here on Atlas if you want.

[Mobile_Chicane]

The Lola team that didn't make it on to the grid at Melbourne a few years ago seems to have been the worst. They never qualified nor raced.

However, there must be a few others in that category.

[Quest]

David "the gravel trap" Coutlthard.

His middle name says it all. You can also change it to "Wall" is you prefer.

The number of times he hs chrashed while leading is ... ohh I've lost count!

[Jamies]

Well, haven't been watching F1 for a long time, so my opinions are just the latest drivers. I'm also desperate for members status!, hey now I can post a thousand posts (just flood a few threads, shouldn't be too hard), and from then on I'll be treated like a king.

I might be the one that has been a Junior member for way too long. Probably since around the time the board started.

Anyways....now I've gone on alamringly long without getting to the point.

My Worst teams are: Lola, BAR (monay money money, yes, done something, no).
Minardi is a great team for the spirit and everything (you know, something said a billion times, they have the spirit etc...).
Prost...welllll....dunnno
Forti rocked, along with Zanardi.

Worst drivers....well everyone loved Rosset. He had the DNQ form we see so rarely. Inoue, Katayama, Nakano and more japanese drivers are also wonderful

Worst team boss: R*n
Worst wife: Erja
Worst overall boss: Mosley..

Ok...now I'm just saying something everyone knows