All time worst teams

MCLS

Anti F1 fan
Valued Member
May as well carry on the recuring theme at the moment :D

Mclaren
Fernando Alonso
Juan Pablo Montoya

You may think it's confusing putting a double world champion in a worst team, but the 2007 season provides enough evidence to support this theory, and Montoya's one and a half years were fraught with injuries (tennis anyone) and squabbles with Ron Dennis which ended after the American Grand Prix after crashing into his team mate.

Ferrari
Nigel Mansell
Luca Badoer

Luca Badoers two races for Ferrari in 2009 must go down as two of the most awful races by any driver, particularly in the modern era, he was a long way off Raikkonen in both and in both races was languishing around at the back of the grid while his team mate was fighting for wins and podiums. As for Mansell, his 2 years were less than succesful with 'inferiority complex' issues in 1990 with Prost when he was told that his car had been switched with Prosts at times because Prost thought that Mansells was better

Williams
Alex Zanardi
Kuzuki Nakajima

Zanardi's only year at Williams was to be frank, abysmal, plagued by poor pace and reliability issues he rarely troubled the scorers and was unsurprisingly dropped for the young Jenson Button in 2000. Nakajima had promise but never delivered on it, his first race he crashed into his pit box and by 2009 he was being clearly outperformed by Rosberg and was replaced by Barrichello who is the reserve driver for this worst team.

Renault
Nelson Piquet Jr
Roman Grosjean

Ironically these are both the number 2 drivers from the disastrous 2009 campaign, Piquet was unpopular almost early on and apart from Germany where he nearly won, was hammered in the year and half at the team, and we all know why he is (im)famous after crashgate at Singapore in 2008. Grosjean is unlucky to be here in fairness but was as bad as Piquet when he was there and posed no trouble for Alonso, but he should be back and not on this list

Sauber
Jaques Villeuneve
Karl Wendlinger

It was clear pretty early on that Villeuneve signing for Sauber was a mistake and was under pressure almost imeddiately as he was the slowest of the Michelin runners after the opening races, a burst of pace later in the year only relieved the pressure temporairaly and after a poor 2006 season he was dropped after crashing at the German Grand Prix to be replaced by rookie Robert Kubica. Karl Wendlinger was a victim of circumstance really, his crash at Monaco in 1994 bore strong similarities to Perez's crash earlier this year and his performances after this were dissapointing and was dropped (twice) in 1995.

Minardi
Alex Yoong
Patrick Friesacher

Yoong spent the year either racing last or not racing at all because he wasn't anywhere near the 107% time, his only highlight was seventh at the Australian GP when very few cars finished. He was replaced by Davidson for 2 races and was eventually dropped at the end of the season. Friesacher only lasted half a year in 2005, while he did score 3 points that year, they were as a result of the farce that was the USGP where only 6 cars raced due to tyre problems on the Michilen cars. He was dropped due to financial problems

Jordan
Gergio Pantano
Takuma Sato

Both these one year 'wonder's showed glimpses but never the real deal, Sato was very raw, capable of lightning speed but crashed too often and was inconcistent so was sent to BAR the next year. Pantano spent all year at the back and not impressing anyone, his replacement Timo Glock at Canada scored points and he was eventually dropped after the Italian GP after 3 straight DNF's

Stewart/Jaguar/Red Bull
Antonio Pizzonia
Jan Magnussen

1 point in 2 years at Stewart sums up Magnussens spell at the team, despite being labelled as the best prospect since Senna, his faliure was embarrasing. He had more DNF's than finishes and was rarely in the top 10 when he finished and was eventually replaced by Verstappen. Pizzonia didn't even last a year at Jaguar in 2003 after failing to finish any higher than 9th he was dropped after the British Grand Prix.

Unfortunately my knowledge of older F1 teams is rather erm..... blank :oops: So there are inevitably a lot of gaps that I have missed..
 
Tyrell
Toranosuke Takagi
Ricardo Rosset
(I know this was a real partnership, but it was still rubbish)
 
Aww you can't put Sato on the list... well I guess I don't remember his Jordan days but at BAR he was great value for money for entertainment. I guess I should suggest an alternative so how about Karthikeyan?
 
I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let you get away with listing Mansell in your Ferrari "worst team"....

What about Capelli? Fisichella? Johannsen? even Alesi has a worse record at Ferrari than Mansell...

I'd suggest that for Williams you should look no further than Jean Louis Schlesser (Albeit only for the one race!)....

And Galahad... do you really think that Andretti was worse than, say, Phillippe Alliot in 1994?
 
Definitely a little harsh for Sato. He cannot have been the worst. He was spirited and in time could have become more like Koba than Nakajima

That McLaren team would make 2007 look like a 60s love in, imagine Alonso blocking JPMs quali run
 
FERRARI
1. Luca Badoer (2009)
2. Ivan Capelli (1992)

McLAREN
1. Nigel Mansell (1995)
2. Stephen South (1980)

WILLIAMS
1. Jean-Louis Schlesser (1988)
2. Kazuki Nakajima (2007-09)

LOTUS
1. Philippe Adams (1994)
2. Michael Bartels (1991)

BRABHAM
1. Ricardo Zunino (1979-80)
2. Giovanna Amati (1992)

RENAULT/TOLEMAN/BENETTON
1. Francois Hesnault (Renault 1985)
2. Pierluigi Martini (Toleman 1984)

LIGIER/PROST
1. Gaston Mazzacane (2001)
2. Raul Boesel (1983)

JORDAN/MF1/SPYKER/FORCE INDIA
1. Emanuele Naspetti (1993)
2. Giorgio Pantano (2004)

MINARDI/TORO ROSSO
1. Paolo Barilla (1989-90)
2. Giovanni Lavaggi (1996)

SAUBER
1. Norberto Fontana (1997)
2. Jacques Villeneuve (2005-06)

STEWART/JAGUAR/RED BULL
1. Jan Magnussen (1997-98)
2. Luciano Burti (2000-01)

ARROWS
1. Siegfried Stohr (1981)
2. Enrique Bernoldi (2001-02)

TYRRELL/BAR/HONDA/MERCEDES
1. Ricardo Rosset (1998)
2. Slim Borgudd (1982)

HRT (YES, ONLY AFTER ONE AND A HALF SEASONS!)
1. Sakon Yamamoto (2010)
2. Narain Karthikeyan (2011)

PACIFIC
1. Jean-Denis Deletraz (1995)
2. Paul Belmondo (1994)

LARROUSSE
1. Toshio Suzuki (1993)
2. Olivier Beretta (1994)

FORTI
1. Pedro Diniz (1995)
2. Andrea Montermini (1996)

SIMTEK
1. Jean-Marc Gounon (1994)
2. Taki Inoue (1994)

LOLA (1985-86, 1993 and 1997)
1. Alan Jones (1985-86)
2. Michele Alboreto (1993)

COLONI/ANDREA MODA
1. Enrico Bertaggia (1989, 1992)
2. Pedro Chaves (1991)

EUROBRUN
1. Claudio Langes (1990)
2. Oscar Larrauri (1988, 1989)

OSELLA/FONDMETAL
1. Giorgio Francia (1981)
2. Allen Berg (1986)

ENSIGN
1. Roberto Guerrero (1982)
2. Tiff Needell (YES, off of Fifth Gear!) (1980)

RIAL
1. Volker Weidler (1989)
2. Gregor Foitek (1989)

LIFE
1. Gary Brabham (1990)

ATS
1. Michael Bleekemolen (1978)
2. Jan Lammers (1980, 1981)
 
Mansell in Ferrari - I disagree the tifosi loved him and named him "Il Leone" because he was probably the nearest to Gilles Villeneuve in terms of a racer. Prost was definitely the No 1 in 1990 by political manouvering

Pantano actually was sponsoring Heidfeld's drive by bring Jordan £1m a race but it was coming from his family and he lost out on the Jaguar drive because Klein had £10m of Red Bull money
 
May as well carry on the recuring theme at the moment :D

Mclaren
Fernando Alonso
Juan Pablo Montoya

Ferrari
Nigel Mansell
Luca Badoer

Williams
Alex Zanardi
Kuzuki Nakajima

Renault
Nelson Piquet Jr
Roman Grosjean

Sauber
Jaques Villeuneve
Karl Wendlinger

Minardi
Alex Yoong
Patrick Friesacher

Jordan
Gergio Pantano
Takuma Sato

Stewart/Jaguar/Red Bull
Antonio Pizzonia
Jan Magnussen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stewart/Jaguar/Red Bull
Burti - remember him was sacked and forced into Prost after being on a deal of being paid by the team and sponsors
Klein - reason is because he was backed and then sacked by Red Bull despite being given his chances

Pizzonia - to be fair was forced out by Ford wanting a British driver and Webber's bullying
Sauber
Bouillion - F3000 champ and Williams tester thrashed by Frentzen
Fontana - anonymous in 1997

BAR/Honda
Villeneuve - supposedly his team. a complete jirk to his engineers and they were glad he left after costing £50m flushed down the loo. Rubbished Button;s credentials I guess he must be wondering not to open his mouth like he did

Barrichello - simply for scoring nil points in 2007

Benetton/Renault
Pirro - Briatore's decison to have him replace Herbert in 1989
Piquet Jr - Briatore's man management to ensure he was not a threat to Alonso was clear to see

Mclaren
Mansell for being too fat
De Cesaris for earning the name De Crasharis although Alonso probably cost ROn a lot more money for his troubles

Williams
K Nakajima - for the sake of free engines
Zanardi - zero points and using steel brakes a backward step in F1
 
Hispania racing team

1. Sakon Yamamoto

2. Narain karthikeyan

Super Aguri

1. Yuji ide (doesnt need a team mate

2. Frank motagny

Toro Rosso

1. Scott Speed
2. I would put Bourdais in but that is just too harsh

Edit: someone beat me to the HRT one :(
 
And Galahad... do you really think that Andretti was worse than, say, Phillippe Alliot in 1994?

Alliot was 41 years old, making a one-off drive as a stand in with no prospect of getting any more. To be well within a second of Brundle wasn't too terrible.

Andretti was 30, supposedly embarking on a whole new career in F1, and shouldn't have had any problems with motivation. So I stand by my choice.
 
You can't have Nigel in at Ferrari's worst team! He won his first ever GP with them in a car that could barely make it down the pitlane! He won the Hungarian GP from 14th!

Even in 1990 he had some awesome races - anyone remember him going round the outside of Berger at Mexico?
 
LIFE
1. Gary Brabham (1990)

That's a bit harsh.

Taken from Wiki:

initially Sir Jack Brabham's son Gary Brabham was signed to drive but when he failed to prequalify twice he left the team for good, in the second of his two races the car coasted to a halt after 400 yards with the mechanics on strike revealing they never put oil in the engine. In came Bruno Giacomelli, an Italian veteran who had last raced in Formula 1 in 1983. Not surprisingly, things did not improve. The car did not get faster, in fact it never managed to run more than three or four laps before exploding. At 1990 San Marino Grand Prix Giacomelli was even noted for saying that he was scared he might be struck from behind as his car was so slow. For the Portuguese Grand Prix, the team replaced their own engine with a Judd V-8, but then found that the engine cover did not fit over this new engine. They withdrew before the final two Grands Prix, and were never heard from again.

No one could have driven that car.
 
Sorry, when I wrote 'Lola' it seemed to think I was writing 'Lol-a'- My post looks pretty silly.

No one could have driven that car.

I know that the car was terrible- but Bruno Giacomelli doesn't deserve to be in an all-time worst team, does he?

Alliot was 41 years old, making a one-off drive as a stand in with no prospect of getting any more. To be well within a second of Brundle wasn't too terrible.

Andretti was 30, supposedly embarking on a whole new career in F1, and shouldn't have had any problems with motivation. So I stand by my choice.

Michael Andretti was my third choice McLaren driver. Mansell was, after doing brilliantly to return to very twitchy cars in 1994, absolutely hopeless and missed the first few races because he was too fat- that has to award you a seat in a 'Worst of all Time' team. As for Stephen South, failing to qualify a McLaren is pretty awful. Alliot certainly wasn't too good, he was within a second of Brundle, although Brundle was a hopeless qualifier. It wasn't Alliot's actions, but Jabouille's when he was a big cheese at Peugeot in 1994 to try and push Alliot into the McLaren at a race when it was clear he wasn't as good as Hakkinen and Brundle must have been most irksome for Brundle.
 
I think it'd be harsh to include South, that McLaren was pretty dreadful. John Watson's grid positions for the first five races that season were 17, 23, 21, 21 and 20. Then at Monaco for the sixth race he didn't qualify.
 
I think it'd be harsh to include South, that McLaren was pretty dreadful. John Watson's grid positions for the first five races that season were 17, 23, 21, 21 and 20. Then at Monaco for the sixth race he didn't qualify.

Watson had a dreadful 1980, no doubt. But he saved himself by being regenerated as a driver when Ron Dennis arrived. Of course, he's saved from worst ever by outdriving Lauda in 1982-83, or at least it seemed that way to me!
 
Sorry, Galahad, but for once I have to disagree with you. Andretti wasn't all that bad. The car that year was treacherous, even Senna said so. The first attempt at active suspension by McLaren was a bust, so bad that whenever Andretti would spin, Senna was pretty sure to follow suit shortly thereafter. Mika H was being given all of the testing time, leaving Andretti relativiely unfamiliar with the car. However, at the times when Andretti and Mika were both allowed to test on the same day, Mika was NEVER faster than Andretti. Ron just decided to use Andretti as a scapegoat to cover a sub-par car. And being American, quite frankly, is never popular in the Formula 1 context.
 
Another modern list:

FERRARI
Luca Badoer, Giancarlo Fisichella
You can say what you like about the F60, it wasn't driven too well when Massa suffered his injury

WILLIAMS
Alex Zanardi, Kazuki Nakajima
I wish Zanardi was ineligible for this list, but both of these guys suffered a defeat to nil in teams who weren't suffering

McLAREN
Nigel Mansell, Michael Andretti
Michael, you can't commute. As for Mansell, it'd be nice if he could have fit in the car, no?

RENAULT/BENETTON
Nelsinho Piquet/Jenson Button
Button's time at Benetton nearly destroyed his career, Piquet's time at Renault did.

TOYOTA
Cristiano da Matta/Ralf Schumacher
OK, da Matta was hopeless, but why Ralf? For the money they're paying him...

RED BULL/TORO ROSSO
Scott Speed/Sebastien Bourdais
It just didn't work for Bourdais in F1, and Speed hadn't got the same

(BMW) SAUBER
Jacques Villeneuve/Pedro Diniz
Hope Diniz brought money, Villeneuve never looked like a World Champion

JORDAN AND SUBSEQUENT ITERATIONS
Christian Albers/Georgio Pantano
Albers stuck around for too much time before leaving his fuel hose in at Magny-Cours, Pantano was hopeless.

MINARDI
Chanoch Nissany/Gianmaria Bruni
So much choice, but even as a third driver Nissany takes the mick, and Bruni is in because even Baumgartner scored a point.

BAR AND SUBSEQUENT ITERATIONS
Riccardo Zonta/Michael Schumacher
Yes, I'm saying Schumi has been extraordinarily disappointing with Mercedes. Zonta failed to live up to the lowest of standards.

JAGUAR
Luciano Burti/Antonio Pizzonia
A right pair of Brazilian disasters these pair were!

ARROWS
Toranasuke Takagi/Enrique Bernoldi
Bernoldi held Coulthard up at Monaco and did nowt else, Takagi was pathetic.

SUPER AGURI
Yuji Ide/Sakon Yamamoto
Sakon always seems at risk of his head falling off, Ide was at risk of taking someone's head off

PROST
Gaston Mazzacane/Heinz-Harald Frentzen
Reutemann and Fangio's legacy was not safe with Gaston. And we knew Frentzen's career was over when he wound up with them too!

MINARDI 2
Nicola Kiesa/Zsolt Baumgartner
They've had so many crap drivers its hard to keep track of them all.

OTHER NOMINEES
  • Mika Salo: Fisi saved him from a Ferrari seat
  • Narain Karthikeyan: Not overly qualified to drive an F1 car
  • Christian Klien: Surely there is some team he should take this seat from
  • Romain Grosjean: Not the easiest job, but still done poorly
  • Marc Gene: Did he really drive a Williams? And got replaced by Pizzonia!
  • Vitantonio Liuzzi: A definite third division driver.
  • Robert Doornbos: Another Minardi placeman!
 
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