Greatest disappointment of F1

[Il_leone]

Schumacher rammming Hill was anti climatic and Hill managed to force Schumacher into a rare mistake. Some would say Schumacher was the class of 1994 and deserved the title others would say his team got away with running an illegal car and "cheating"

 

[Il_leone]

LifeW12

Reutemann's choke which was probably least remembered off all - he started from pole and faded to 8th in the race. He got himself into that position by ignoring team orders in Brazil to move over for JOnes which was the cue for internal war at Williams. He built himself a good lead before Piquet started clawing it back. Final race Williams had to bring 4 cars because Frank said drivers were given equal opportunities and Jones obviously made sure he had a spare car as well. Whilst confusing the priorities of the team definitely..you have to say if Reutemann started from pole so how did he manage to fade so badly


Pironi - 1982 - I guess some people would have thought it was a bit of justice for what happened in the preceeing races with his teammate

 

[Il_leone]

Fenderman

A worthy mention for Tom because he managed to turn Benetton and Ligier into better racing teams

TWR Arrows showed flashes of potential but never consistency
money was always a factor with promised funds from Prince Malik ??? never materialising and some suspicious decisions such as sacking Verstappen to get Frentzen once Prost folded which incurred the wrath of Orange who dropped sponsorship and giving away their wind tunnell for Cosworth engines

i met his 2nd cousin on holiday once and she did mention he had money trouble. it was not helped by his venture into gloucester rugby union club

 

[Il_leone]

i've added Berger on the list because he was the one who was prepared to fight the top 4 thenbut it seems his career did not kick on from 1989 onwards
i remember the fireball crash he had at Imola and he went nearly the entire season not finishing a race . accusations of favouritism towards Mansell, he went to Mclaren to fill Prost's shoes. Being much taller the mclaren cockpit was too small for him but it did not stop him taking pole on debut race for Mclaren was as good as it got thinking he could handle Senna. Always appearing to be the bridesmaid in the Senna vs Prost battles. He never truly beat Senna in a straight fight and even opportunities to win races he did not take advantage of in 1990. Whilst he taught Senna to smile with some of his infamous pranks he was never on Senna's level and escaped to Ferrari who were in a period of decline. 3 years toil at Ferrari was the start of where he would be very competitive some weekends and be up there challenging for the win with the leaders and then other races where he would nowhere near the back of the grid and unable to explain the loss of pace. Only his reputation and political savvy saved mhim from probably getting the infamous Ferrari chop that would have fallen sooner to other drivers.
Finally forced out to a lesser extent than ALesi to accomodate Schumacher..he duly followed his teammate to Benetton. Another two seasons of watching his inconsistency he finally called it a day. Still he was able to remind everyone just how good he can be by winning Hockenheim 1997 in no less Schumacher fashion

 

[Road of Bones]

I'll throw in another candidate for greatest disappointment: Nurburgring '99 - Frentzen grinding to a halt after exiting the pits while leading comfortably from Pole. I wanted Jordan to win that championship so badly, that it was painful to see him stutter to a halt that day. He would probably have been level with Irvine & Hakkinen on points leaving that weekend, had he won, but the DNF effectively ended his chances of challenging in the last 2 races.

Other than that, Montoya - definitely! He should really have made the most of that monster BMW Williams when he had it, and I never understood why he went to McLaren. I guess he was more interested in towing his entourage about by then though...

 

[Legs]

Gregor Foitek being cruelly ROBBED of sixth place at Monaco in 1990 by Eric Bernard.

 

[Mezzer]

Some would say Schumacher was the class of 1994 and deserved the title others would say his team got away with running an illegal car and "cheating"

There's also the possibility that both those statements were true.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

Of all the items on the list the only one that was "not" the fault of the driver or team was Nige at Adelaide in '86 (though if you ask Villeneuve he would probably blame someone else too) ... remember that vividly ... amazing car control to steer that Williams down the escape road after chicane ...

 

[Incubus]

Actually that's slightly debatable. Prost was forced into an early (and long) pit-stop after a puncture but then started accumulating fastest laps, to the extent he re-passed Mansell after having been half-a-minute behind after his stop.
Nigel was had plenty of time to subsequently pit and easily maintain third so Maybe Williams should have pitted him as a precaution...

 

[Monkeyhead]

I'll throw in another candidate for greatest disappointment: Nurburgring '99 - Frentzen grinding to a halt after exiting the pits while leading comfortably from Pole. I wanted Jordan to win that championship so badly, that it was painful to see him stutter to a halt that day. He would probably have been level with Irvine & Hakkinen on points leaving that weekend, had he won, but the DNF effectively ended his chances of challenging in the last 2 races.

Other than that, Montoya - definitely! He should really have made the most of that monster BMW Williams when he had it, and I never understood why he went to McLaren. I guess he was more interested in towing his entourage about by then though...

As far as I know, Frentzen forgot to disengage his anti-stall system after his pitstop, and the car shut down. However, Frentzen was amazingly steady in 1999 and it would have been great for the championship if he'd won the race, although even then his chances of winning the title were very slim (in the last two races he only managed to score a few points).

Montoya moved to Williams at exactly the right moment. Unfortunately his career coincided with the peak of Schumacher's dominance and he only came close to winning the title in 2003. Williams was already fading in 2004, and that trend would continue for a couple of years. Montoya was lucky to move to McLaren in 2005, but he was beaten by Räikkönen in a similar fashion as Räikkönen is beaten by Alonso nowadays. Montoya certainly was an entertaining driver, but not good enough to win titles in F1.

 

[siffert_fan]

jez101

I suggest that you ask Toyota, Honda, BAR and, indeed, Mercedes if it is possible to "buy" a title thru lavish spending alone. I believe that their records show that the answer is a resounding "NO"!

 

[Johnny Carwash]

For me the day when Minardi finally ceased to exist after being bought by Red Bull, and had there name changed to Torro Rosso. After that I never had the same feeling for the team after that.

 

[Mezzer]

Incubus I don't believe it's a slight argument, I remember thinking at the time they should pit him immediately. The strategy of praying/keeping their fingers crossed clearly didn't work.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I went with Kubica's all too brief career. Shame we never got to see his full potential.

Mansell in 86 is a close second, and if it had happened after the disappointment of 87 then it would probably be number 1.

 

[Incubus]

I always wondered what would have happened at that race without the tyre failures. Mansell and Williams were obviously playing it safe but I thought they were playing it a bit too safe... Rosberg was flying and Prost had been delayed but what would have happened after Alain started catching?
Keke had already said before the race he would let Prost through if the title was at stake but there was real danger that Mansell would find himself stuck in fourth behind his team-mate.
Would Nelson really have waved Nigel-by had it come to that and secure the englishman's title?... Given the state of affairs in the Williams garage at the time that would haved been interesting!

 

[FB]

Lola Haas Racing - so much potential but they made some very strange decisions (Alan Jones being amongst the most odd) which meant they never fulfilled the potential there was within the team.

 

[LifeW12]

I want to add another disappointment - not a particular driver or car, but a problem that has infested racing for years - PAY DRIVERS

People like Taro Marques, Esteban Tuero, Alex Yoong, Albers, Lavaggi, Ide, Deletraz and others - no credibility, no business to be in the highest racing series in the world - yet they get in because they have more money than talent

 

[Fenderman]

The pay driver issue isn't a simple one. There are certainly far too many examples of drivers having bought a seat without being up to par. However, most drivers are expected to bring sponsorship money with them and those folk's need to be good enough to keep their sponsors happy. Thankfully the days when a totally talentless berk could buy his drive are over. It's now up to teams and sponsors to ensure that they don't pollute the grid and, yes, some of them should be somewhat more selective.

Edit: Apologies if that is straying a tad off topic

 

[tooncheese]

Monaco 2011 and Abu Dhabi 2010 spring to mind for me. Both were set up for a grandstand finish only to end with a whimper with a red flag, and the Petrov train. Both were still good races, but they could have been so much more.

 

[Incubus]

Well, it was Ferrari's own fault for getting their tactics totally wrong and not doing their homework wasn't it?
The Renault in the second half half of that season was the quickest car in the straights, thanks to having mastered the F-duct even better its McLaren creators, something that was ably demonstrated by the fact Hamilton was similarly unable to overtake Kubica.
They should have just gone and tried running their own race, as they'd been doing previously, as opposed to trying to plan their race on whatever Webber was doing.