Best drivers who have never driven in F1

Which drivers who have never driven in F1 race would you love to have seen

  • Rossi

    Votes: 7 30.4%
  • Franchitti

    Votes: 4 17.4%
  • Kristensen

    Votes: 2 8.7%
  • Al Unser Jr

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • Moore

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Klaus Ludwig

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Paul Tracey

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Paffett

    Votes: 1 4.3%
  • Wheldon

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Others

    Votes: 8 34.8%
  • Jorg Muller

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    23

Il_leone

World Champion
In this week's Autosport they had 50 drivers who never made raced in F1 despite testing and good career in junior formula. Some by ill fortune and some by career choice

Some illustrious names come to mind

Valentino Rossi

- The Doctor proved he was fast in a test for Ferrari and Luca suggesting a 3rd car allowed could be done to run him. Obviously thinking about Surtees' achievement and it prompted Alonso to respond saying he could compete on two wheels as the current world champion at the time was shunned by this fanfare
He did have a trip trying out rallying

Dario Franchitti

- Married to Hollywood actress and was only interested in F1 if he was given a competitive car. A test for Mclaren for winning young driver award and his links remained whilst driving for Mercedes in DTM. However having decided to do Indycar he shocked Ron Dennis by saying he did not want to be test driver as well as doing a full Indy season. To cash in on the fact he raced in the US and is a British driver, a test with Jaguar proved to be disastrous with claims of sabotage as he was given an older car. One call by team principal Neil Ressler ended any lingering F1 ambitions.
I was not aware he fell out with anyone at Jaguar some he might have known from junior formula as part of Stewart Racing

Tom Kristensen

- a record Le Mans winner and 2 F3 titles. Unfortunate to have been racing in the era when Schumacher emerged from German F3 along with Frentzen and Wendlinger and British F3 was considered very strongly with Barrichello, Hakkinen, Coulthard
By the time he came back into Europe they all established in F1 except Wendlinger whilst the next lot took their opportunity

Carlos Sainz
- Famous for rallying but apparently surprised many with his pace in a sportscar test where he was marginally slower than regulars like Mcnish

Dan Wheldon RIP
IRL champ and spoke to BMW Sauber but was not keen being an also ran after winning the IRL

Klaus Ludwig

They don't call him King Ludwig for no reason unfortunately came at a time when Germany did not have strong following in F1 but to sportscars where he excelled

Sebastien Loeb

- the most dominant rally driver in recent history and at one time supposedly had interested from Red Bull / Toro Rosso


The Indy Club

Paul Tracey
- fast but erratic and pushed by Marlboro when it was still associated with Mclaren
A test at Benetton in mid 90's but was not given assurances about his future by Flavio fearing a similar outcome to Andretti

Greg Moore
The new JV and signed a new contract with Penske but was wanted by Jaguar who told Franchitti they only wanted to speak to Moore at the Canadian GP paddock. Mentioned about F1 but his life ended before he drove for Penske

Scott Dixon

Supremely quick and considered by Williams with a test at Paul Ricard slight slower than Ralf but was not comfortable with the F1 car set up

Al Unser Jr
Apparently Frank was interested but Patrick had an issue with him being a smoker

Unlucky Brits

Gary Paffett

- the unluckiest British driver around - having won German F3 and rated by Mercedes with a testing role at MClaren. The vacancy left by Montoya in 2006 meant he had a chance but the emergence of Hamilton crushed his hopes for 2007, then a suggestion Prodrive would use Mclaren chassis for 2008 with Paffet as one of the drivers was again crushed by 11th hour vote that Prodrive must use its own chassis

Jamie Green
the first Euro F3 champ beating Hamilton and Kubica who could have gone with the team into GP2. Not sure about the teams GP2 competitiveness , decided he would rather go DTM and Rosberg took his seat gleefully

Adam Carroll
- how a talented driver can't get into F1 because he does not have backing. Raced against Rosberg, Heikki, Hamilton and co and has beaten then on occasions

Deserved a fair shot

Oliver Gavin

British F3 winner 1995 and Mclaren Young driver as well. Most famous for driving the safety car in F1 which is the closest he got to an F1 race


The poor Frenchmen

Nicolas Minassian
- the eternal French bridesmaid

runner up in British F3 after disqualified from one race, paired with Heidfeld who was being pushed into F1 strongly in F3000 98, runner up in F3000 2000, tried his luck in CART with Ganassi racing and was fired after a serious of poor results

Emmanuel Collard

Seemed to get a lot of testing and was a Benetton tester but did not graduate to F1 expecting things to be given to him on a plate

The forgotten German

Jorg Muller

- He won German F3 beating Ralf Schumacher and had strong links with BMW. Whilst tested for Williams, he never was considered due to the Schumacher effect ( Michael and Ralf) whilst the next German star Heidfeld was being prepped for F1


The Great Dane nearly ?

Jason Watt

- considered one to watch from Denmark during the mid 90's and apparently interested Williams and
his response was " Juan Montoya, I can take him and Jenson Button who ?"
A test with Williams was prepared for him but never happened as a motorbike accident meant he missed the test
 
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Loeb has been added

I wonder if McCrae deserves a mention or not as he had a few goes at touring car and did one test for Stewart and was fairly quick
 
Rossi did test for Ferrari, he was 3 seconds off the pace and his rally drives weren't much better....
He tested several times for Ferrari, that wanted to run him at Monza in ( 2009?) to to replace Massa but he declined as he was fighting for his moto gp championship and they used Fisichella instead.. But he wasn't 3 seconds off the pace when he tested at Catalunya in 2010, he narrowly missed getting the lap record which Kimi set in 2008. Not bad for a biker!
 
Bruno Spengler and Robert Wickens :D

It's too late for Spengler and Wickens may not be able to find his way back to F1 but they're bith pretty good.

Wickens after all beat some JEV in Formula Renault.
 
Yes they bith....

Sorry you won't understand that joke, it kinda falls in with me being Bristolian where there are words such as "Bist." (Been. such as "hows bist," how have you been? or "how bist" how are you doing?) also words like ass'nt ("Have you.") cass ("Can you" or cass'nt "can't you" or "I can't" depending on the phrase.) and biss'nt. ("Will you." or "you will.") These terms are very old council estate Bristolian and I haven't translated them very well. and there are others but nobody would understand them except for true Brisle Folk....

Try these.

Cuost and uost....
 
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Yes they bith....

Sorry you won't understand that joke, it kinda falls in with me being Bristolian where there are words such as "Bist." (Been. such as "hows bist," how have you been? or "how bist" how are you doing?) also words like ass'nt ("Have you.") cass ("Can you" or cass'nt "can't you" or "I can't" depending on the phrase.) and biss'nt. ("Will you." or "you will.") These terms are very old council estate Bristolian and I haven't translated them very well. and there are others but nobody would understand them except for true Brisle Folk....

Try these.

Cuost and uost....
Mon Dieu!

Also.these guys
http://www.darthhater.com/articles/feature/16578-lore-update-bith
 
Mattias Ekstrom - 3 times race of champions winner, Touring car and double DTM champion.
Tommi Makinen - 4 time WRC champion and Race of Champions winner.
 
Wickens after all beat some JEV in Formula Renault.

Yeah by driving in to him and taking him off the road in the final race!

I think its hard to chose between Loeb, Sainz and Rossi who are all amazing pilots of their respective machinary and would no doubt in my mind have been a great addition to the grid.

I'll give Robin Frinjs a mention because he looks an incredible talent and having not got the budget to even keep his GP2 drive F1 looks doubtful.

Also an honoury mention for Justin Wilson who although having been in F1 never gor a fair shot due to his height. He absolutely cleaned the floor with Webber in F3000 and I still think he's Britains lost great F1 driver.
 
I'd have to add Tommy Byrne to the list. He was stunning, but didnt have the corporate image Ron Dennis wanted.i think Senna got the drive, he was around at that time. His car was detuned in a test at Siverstone without him knowing and he still beat Nikki Lauda and John Watson' quali times for the British Gp in the sme car. If you've not read his book 'crashed and Byrned' I strongly recommend it. It's a great read, but it's sad. What a loss to F1.
 
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