Greatest disappointment of F1

Greatest disappointment of F1

  • Nigel Mansell 1986 tyre blow out

    Votes: 3 10.0%
  • James Hunt post 1976

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jacques Villeneuve post 1997

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Jarno Trulli

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Juan Montoya

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Alex Zanardi

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • Kimi Raikkonen post Mclaren

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Toyota

    Votes: 1 3.3%
  • Honda 2000 to 2008

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Lotus revival (1990-1995)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lotus revival 2 (2010 to date)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Michael Andretti

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jean Alesi

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • Giancarlo Fisichella

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Lewis Hamitlon China 2007 Gravel Trap off

    Votes: 5 16.7%
  • Gerhard Berger unfulfilled career post 1988

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Robert Kubica 's career cut short

    Votes: 12 40.0%

  • Total voters
    30
  • Poll closed .

Il_leone

World Champion
Having followed F1 for 25 years now F1 has its highs and lows . I would like to know what has been the greatest disappointment followers have experienced following the sport

Whilst this is very broad description there have been a few that stand out and some that not so memorable in F1

For a start excluded from this are driver fatalities as these have been discussed numerous times and will always forever will be for those who follow the sport

So here are my considerations

Nigel Mansell 1986 tyre blow out -doing just enough to secure the championship . He was told to stay out as the tyres expected to last by Goodyear. His tyre spectacularly down the Brabham straight leading to Murray's infamous quote "And look at that!" Mansell's instinct took over to put himself out of harm's way and then the realisation he might have well lost the title and to compound this further the clerk of the course admitted he was prepared to red flag the race if Mansell had not parked down the escape road. The race would have been declared final and he would have been champ

James Hunt post 1976 - Having shaken off the tag " Hunt the Shunt" and shown determination to win the title against his rival Lauda. Expectancy was to continue more success but Mclaren's inability to exploit the ground effect. A reunion with Dr Harvey Postlethwaite at Wolf was suppose to revive fortunes. Unfortunately he had lost his hunger and the death of Ronnie Peterson affected him greatly

Jacques Villeneuve post 1997- Pushed into f1 by Bernie because of the name. Took it with both hands with stunning pole on debut and that outside pass on Schumacher. Champion in 97 and feared by Schumacher and his career then gradually went backwards. Forced out of the team supposed to built around him initially..his career went into obscurity after comebacks with Renault and Sauber failed to revive his career

Juan Montoya - the Monster took Indycar by storm with bold aggressive overtaking and winning it in his debut season. Williams wasted no time in bringing into F1. The speed and the aggressive overtakes particularly on Schumacher was evident but never the consistency. A move to Mclaren suppose to make him better but injury to his elbow and erratic form along with Ron signing Alonso left him with very little options in F1 and was sacked

Alex Zanardi - not so stellar F1 career at Lotus meant he went to US to rebuild his reputation and was mighty impressive in beating the series regulars with his two titles. Signed by Williams who did not want to throw Montoya into the deep end. Apparently known for his technical skills but never felt comfortable with the grooved tyres and was using steel brakes which has not been heard of in F1 for 15 years or so. Despite some glimpse of his form in 1999 at Spa and Monza. Ended the season pointless and decided not to carry on

Jarno Trulli- fast tracked into F1 after impressing in junior career and shown his ability by leading the Austrian GP impressively and likened to Senna as a potential "Trulli great". The 1 lap speed was evident but mysteriously he could never sustain over a race like Senna, Alonso or Schumacher. A first win at Monaco was suppose the start of many race wins but a fall out over contract with Briatore led to him running to Toyota and never challenging consistently

Kimi Raikkonen

The Iceman makes the list for failing to transcend his Mclaren form to Ferrari. Fed up with Mclaren unreliability a deal struck with Ferrari at a whopping $50m a year was done. Having delivered the title in 2007 after an indifferent start was expected to be the start of sustained success especially with Alonso leaving Mclaren unceremoniously. However inconsistency saw him play 2nd fiddle to Massa in 2008 and despite trying his hardest in 2009 in a poor car which only came evident after Massa's accident. He was paid off handsomely not to drive for another team . A return in 2012 was the resurgent of Kimi as a front runner in Lotus but argument over money caused him to lose interest and fall out with the team. The choice of Red Bull or Ferrari once seems to be once again motivated by money for 2014. So far has unable to match Alonso 's consistency blighted by bad luck but also unable to get more out of the car is leaving a lot of questions about his motivation and application



Toyota -
the world's leading car company for many years with success in Rallying and Endurance series finally took the plunge into F1. Spending $400m a year they succeeded not to win a race in 139 races and quit the sport. To sum it up what went wrong by DC " They signed Schumacher but the wrong one"

Honda 2000-2008 - Unlike Toyota they have F1 history and pedigree. All the signs were promising with BAR Honda moving up the grid to be front runners by 2004 and the team became Honda . Expectation to be front runners and challenging for success never came with glimpses by Button when the car allowed it . A disastrous PR exercise in Earth car concept coincided with going to the back of the grid. Their honourable decision to pull out and pay off the staff paved the way for success of Brawn (and soon Mercedes)

Lotus revival (1990-1995)

Having not won a race since 1987 and lost both Camel and Honda engines. A revival looked possible with Peter Collins leading the team with Herbert and Hakkinen and a Ford engine allowing them to race with the big 4. However a lack of funds to develop the car and an ill fated tie up with Honda saw the demise of this once great team

Lotus revival 2 (2010 to date)

i was happy to see the legendary name come back in F1 with people who were genuine excited with the project. 4 years on the name has been tarnished with the row over naming rights with Team Enstone . Team Lotus racing (now Caterham) have yet to score a point and look no further to achieving with Fernandes losing interest and the subsequent backing with rumours the team is being sold

Team Enstone meanwhile idea of exploiting marketing opportunities through cheap imitation with Bahar long gone and Genii capital constantly making staff cuts whilst denying concerns about finance issues and dragging the team down the wrong end of the pitlane unless new investment comes along

Michael Andretti

Signed by Mclaren to appease Marlboro. Much was expected of Mario's son but refusal to relocate to Europe and commuting to every race from America meant he missed valuable testing and never settling with the team
Against Senna was possibly the last thing he needed at Mclaren with a pace deficit of 2 seconds per lap and getting caught in accidents. A podium in his last race did little to turn his back on F1

Giancarlo Fisichella

Tipped for great things but he is evidence of bad career mismanagement by Flavio Briatore. Impressive with Jordan but forced to join Benetton by the CRB as the team were in transition. Excelled once Flavio was back in charge of the team and clear No 1. Forced to move again due to contract and Flavio trying to maximise his earnings. His stints at Jordan and Sauber should have landed him a top drive..unfortunately convinced to rejoin Renault when Williams was a better option. Despite his best seasons was overshadowed by Alonso who was Flav's golden boy..spent his last few years in Force India due to Flavio holding out for Alonso. Reminded everyone what a top driver he was with pole at Spa.. a dream move at Ferrari curtailed his career which deserved more than 3 wins

Jean Alesi

I
ts hard to believe that he only has 1 win in over 150 gps. Impressive in 1990 against the big teams in a Tyrell led to a contract wrangle between Tyrell, Williams and Ferrari as Murray quoted " If put a piece of paper in front of Jean Alesi he would sign it" Unfortunately went with his heart than his head and chose Ferrari when Williams clearly was an even better option. Courageous and committed during the poor Ferrari years the odd flash of speed was there but blighted by unreliability . A move to Benetton expected to bring better fortunes but another driver on the receiving end of Flavio's mistreatment
 
Alesi was fast, but lacked brains. Fisichella was fast, but too lazy. Räikkönen and Villeneuve have at least become world-champion, but they are not really team-players and their careers got downhill after winning the title. While Räikkönen at least managed to win a few races after his title, Villeneuve didn't win any more races, which to me makes him the greatest disappointment.

F1 Rejects has made a good analysis of (the turning point of) his career:

"Jacques was a man who desperately wanted to prove himself after 1997. When he finally did so during 2000, he failed to grab the fruits of his labour."
 
For me the years between 2000 and 2006 when Ferrari bought the world titles with spending that no team could get close to were the biggest disappointment in my time watching F1 (1982 to date). In those years, the two races that Barrichello was forced to pull over to let Schumacher through were the troughs.

They utterly dominated every other team, yet they couldn't bring themselves to let their drivers race, even on the rare occasions where Rubens found himself ahead of Michael on merit.
 
Not included in the list either: the first corner collision between Senna and Prost at Suzuka in 1990.

From a strictly racing point of view that was one hell of an anti-climax.
 
Alesi was fast, but lacked brains. Fisichella was fast, but too lazy. Räikkönen and Villeneuve have at least become world-champion, but they are not really team-players and their careers got downhill after winning the title. While Räikkönen at least managed to win a few races after his title, Villeneuve didn't win any more races, which to me makes him the greatest disappointment.

F1 Rejects has made a good analysis of (the turning point of) his career:

"Jacques was a man who desperately wanted to prove himself after 1997. When he finally did so during 2000, he failed to grab the fruits of his labour."

Excellent analysis showing how Villeneuve thought he was a real superstar and alienated the engineers and knew Pollock would defend him all the way. They knew they needed Panis to help develop the car and supposedly get on with JV but also actually get the engineers to really behind Panis

I read the BAR/ Honda horror story back in Autosport how the team has managed to invest over £1BN in 10 years and only for 1 win . The BAR entry was focused on the marketing of two different liveries which proved to be an expensive PR flop and some other lavish spending. Inside the team all was not as the team suffered poor reliability but what did you expect when you have Reynard and Pollock not aligned in commitment and time and the engineers who needed a leader to rally behind only found a bully in JV. One of his faults was he did not listen to the engineers and was extremely hard on them for the "pathetic" reliability in his "disastrous" season. Things improved for 2000 and an offer to join Renault looked tempting which he rejected but then the opportunity was gone and BAR did not make progress as expected

When Dave RIchards came in and sorted things out he wanted Villeneuve to halve his whopping salary so money could be spent on testing and development and his answer to that was "Eff off"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/2152178.stm

Then I'll always remember his derision of Button before 2003 season and his last words " I might as well retire if he beats me " Ouch


http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/2658559.stm
 
I think that I would add the injury to Robert Kubica to the list. Personally, I rated him higher than any of the current F1 drivers
I have not put Nick Heidfeld on the list because he did not do anything outstanding apart from only losing twice against his teammates including Kubica
 
I would have to say Jarno Trulli or Juan Pablo Montoya.

Trulli was great until he left Renault in 2004. At Toyota he was wasted in a poor car and flattering it in qualifying, his race pace didn't seem to be an issue before he joined Toyota.

Montoya just needed the right temperament and he would have been there.

Jacques Villeneuve however, you must wonder how he became World Champion if you started watching in 1999 or later, he was abysmal.
 
Not included in the list either: the first corner collision between Senna and Prost at Suzuka in 1990.

From a strictly racing point of view that was one hell of an anti-climax.

Indeed. And it was the direct pregenitor of the incident cited by Mezzer.
 
Kubica. Even Alonso made the comment that he was the only driver he feared.

Other mentions:

Carlos Reutemann in 1981 - choked in the final race, lost to Piquet by 1 point
Didier Pironi's lunacy @ Hockenheim 1982, cost him an easy championship (was only 7 points back)
Jean Alesi - choosing Ferrari just when they got bad and Williams got good
Adelaide 1994
Jerez 1997
 
It is a shame that we did not get to see what Kubica could really do, however I would take anything Alonso says with a very big pinch of salt.
 
Last edited:
Hungaroring 1997 - Damon Hill and TWR Arrows so nearly getting what would have been a historic win having led the race to the last few minutes. That was the peak of Arrows' achievements in F1 never to be repeated. Would the win have saved the team, who knows.

What we do know is that with the seemingly habitual poor reliability of the Brian Hart designed Yamaha engines, and Arrows' woeful financial difficulties, Hill left for Jordan - in 1998 - landing their first win - and one/two podium with Ralph Schumacher - at Spa.

Meanwhile , the late Tom Walkinshaw struggled on with Arrows but failed. Arrows did clock up one record, an ignominious run of 382 races without a win in F1. The team's demise in 2002 and Paul Stoddart bought up as much of the kit who could his hands on including the chassis' in the hope of transforming Minardi. Walkinshaw went back to what he did best, running tin-tops.

Several disappointments there. Taken as a package they represent one big disappointment for me and that is the damage it did to Tom Walkinshaw's reputation. His achievements in saloon car and endurance racing seem almost forgotten. Also forgotten is his overall contribution to F1 - he helped recruit Michjael Schumacher to Jordan, for example - which is sad as well as disappointing.
 
Senna crashing into Prost was something waiting to happen given the events to the race especially with some of the ridiculous proposals that knob Balestre suggested about chicane cutting
 
Kubica was the only other driver on his 2008 form who had the speed and commitment to trouble Vettel, Hamilton and Alonso. In fact Autosport did cover an article that Kubica was Hamilton's toughest opponent whenever they raced

Its also Kubica had his career messed up by some strange BMW decisions about concentrating on 2009 and getting Heidfeld up to speed and then a possible move to Ferrari not happening in case it upsetted Alonso
 
Back
Top Bottom