This Day in Reject History

[novitopoli]

May 28th

(probably the most obvious ever)

1969 - As even the official Formula 1 Twitter account remembers, in this day one of our greatest heroes, Canadian racing legend Al Pease, got the distinction of being the only driver in the history of Formula 1 to be DSQed for being too slow. That earned him a place in motorsport history, as it's not always necessary to be the fastest to become a legend.
Other than that, there's not much to say - there would be, indeed. The old website hosted a wonderful interview with Al, who sadly passed away last year. Some excerpts can be found here: http://www.talkingaboutf1.com/2011/10/looking-back-al-pease-not-worst-f1_02.html

[Bobby Doorknobs]

May 28th

(probably the most obvious ever)

1969 - As even the official Formula 1 Twitter account remembers, in this day one of our greatest heroes, Canadian racing legend Al Pease, got the distinction of being the only driver in the history of Formula 1 to be DSQed for being too slow. That earned him a place in motorsport history, as it's not always necessary to be the fastest to become a legend.
Other than that, there's not much to say - there would be, indeed. The old website hosted a wonderful interview with Al, who sadly passed away last year. Some excerpts can be found here: http://www.talkingaboutf1.com/2011/10/looking-back-al-pease-not-worst-f1_02.html

Um, novitopoli, as wonderful as this moment was, it happened on September 20th. The Canadian Grand Prix was always held late in the season until they moved it to its current June slot in 1982.

May 28th

1995 - Simtek made their final appearance in F1. Neither car completed a lap, as Verstappen's gearbox failed, and Schiattarella's car was not recovered by the marshals after the aborted first start. In the weeks to follow the team went bankrupt. They achieved two 9th places in 22 races. They looked set for greater things in 1995 with a car that could compete in the midfield, but the S951 never got to deliver its potential in the short time it raced.

[wmetcalf7 4]

May 28th

(probably the most obvious ever)

1969 - As even the official Formula 1 Twitter account remembers, in this day one of our greatest heroes, Canadian racing legend Al Pease, got the distinction of being the only driver in the history of Formula 1 to be DSQed for being too slow. That earned him a place in motorsport history, as it's not always necessary to be the fastest to become a legend.
Other than that, there's not much to say - there would be, indeed. The old website hosted a wonderful interview with Al, who sadly passed away last year. Some excerpts can be found here: http://www.talkingaboutf1.com/2011/10/looking-back-al-pease-not-worst-f1_02.html

Um, novitopoli, as wonderful as this moment was, it happened on September 20th. The Canadian Grand Prix was always held late in the season until they moved it to its current June slot in 1982.

May 28th

1995 - Simtek made their final appearance in F1. Neither car completed a lap, as Verstappen's gearbox failed, and Schiattarella's car was not recovered by the marshals after the aborted first start. In the weeks to follow the team went bankrupt. They achieved two 9th places in 22 races. They looked set for greater things in 1995 with a car that could compete in the midfield, but the S951 never got to deliver its potential in the short time it raced.

Sad, sad day. R.I.P. Simtek. (Not the user )

[novitopoli]

May 28th

(probably the most obvious ever)

1969 - As even the official Formula 1 Twitter account remembers, in this day one of our greatest heroes, Canadian racing legend Al Pease, got the distinction of being the only driver in the history of Formula 1 to be DSQed for being too slow. That earned him a place in motorsport history, as it's not always necessary to be the fastest to become a legend.
Other than that, there's not much to say - there would be, indeed. The old website hosted a wonderful interview with Al, who sadly passed away last year. Some excerpts can be found here: http://www.talkingaboutf1.com/2011/10/looking-back-al-pease-not-worst-f1_02.html

Um, novitopoli, as wonderful as this moment was, it happened on September 20th. The Canadian Grand Prix was always held late in the season until they moved it to its current June slot in 1982.

Damn!

[AndreaModa]

May 28th

(probably the most obvious ever)

1969 - As even the official Formula 1 Twitter account remembers, in this day one of our greatest heroes, Canadian racing legend Al Pease, got the distinction of being the only driver in the history of Formula 1 to be DSQed for being too slow. That earned him a place in motorsport history, as it's not always necessary to be the fastest to become a legend.
Other than that, there's not much to say - there would be, indeed. The old website hosted a wonderful interview with Al, who sadly passed away last year. Some excerpts can be found here: http://www.talkingaboutf1.com/2011/10/looking-back-al-pease-not-worst-f1_02.html

Um, novitopoli, as wonderful as this moment was, it happened on September 20th. The Canadian Grand Prix was always held late in the season until they moved it to its current June slot in 1982.

Damn!

Did you see the official F1 account on Twitter mention Pease and his DSQ? I thought that might have been the reason why you posted it. Certainly an odd thing for the F1 account to put out today, unless they were mixed up too!

[Bobby Doorknobs]

May 29th

2005 - Kimi Raikkonen earned his third Reject of the Race award in the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. The McLaren driver started second and took the lead at the first corner from polesitter Nick Heidfeld, who had taken Williams' last pole position until the 2010 Brazilian Grand Prix. He drove rather well up until about half distance. On lap 30 Kimi ran wide at the Ford chicane, which briefly allowed Heidfeld to take the lead before pitting. Then he flat-spotted his tyres while lapping Villeneuve, and as this was the year tyre changes were banned, it would cost him. Raikkonen continued to run at a decent pace until around eight laps from the end, when he began experiencing massive vibrations, which badly affected the car's handling. Alonso was catching him, and at the start of the final lap he was 1.5 seconds behind. Then, as the Iceman braked for turn one, his suspension broke, sending him into the gravel trap. Alonso went on to win. This was also Tonio Liuzzi's last race in the Red Bull. He finished 9th, just half a second off Jarno Trulli's Toyota. The two Minardis of Albers and Friesacher were 17th and 18th - the last two cars on the track.

[novitopoli]

Um, novitopoli, as wonderful as this moment was, it happened on September 20th. The Canadian Grand Prix was always held late in the season until they moved it to its current June slot in 1982.

Damn!

Did you see the official F1 account on Twitter mention Pease and his DSQ? I thought that might have been the reason why you posted it. Certainly an odd thing for the F1 account to put out today, unless they were mixed up too!

I did and I got mixed up, indeed. My bad, I should have checked instead of trusting them

[Bobby Doorknobs]

May 30th

1981 - HWNSNBM's Minardi teammate and reigning four-times WEC GTE Pro champion Gimmi Bruni was born.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

May 31st

2012 - Paul Pietsch, the oldest surviving Formula One driver, and the first to reach age 100, passed away just three weeks short of 101st birthday. Paul was born in Freiburg, in what was then the German Empire on 20th June 1911.

His racing career began in 1932, when he raced a Bugatti in his home Grand Prix. He went on to win two ice races in Sweden in the next two years with an Alfa Romeo. In 1935, the year the European Championship was revived, Paul got to drive for Auto Union. He finished third in the Italian Grand Prix before leaving the team. From 1937 he would race as a private entrant with a Maserati. The highlight of this period came when he led the 1939 German Grand Prix in his unfancied Italian machinery. He dropped to third when his ignition failed, which was still impressive given the sheer dominance of the state-sponsored Silver Arrows.

Like most racing drivers, Paul's career came to a halt with the outbreak of the Second World War. Afterwards, he took part in the new World Championship, racing three times. His first attempt was in a private Maserati at the 1950 Italian Grand Prix. He failed to record a time in qualifying, and promptly started from last on the grid, and then his engine failed on the opening lap. The second time was a works Alfa Romeo drive at the German Grand Prix the following year, replacing Consalvo Sanesi. He qualified 7th. He was nearly 15 seconds slower than Farina and Fangio, but he did out-qualify Felice Bonetto by more than half a minute. He was running 5th before going off on the second lap, sending him to the back of the field. He crashed out at half-distance. His third and final participation was once again at his home Grand Prix in 1952, this time in a Veritas Meteor. He performed superbly in qualifying, putting the silver car 7th, just as he had done in the Alfetta the year before, beaten only by the dominant Ferrari 500s and the works Gordinis of Trintignant and Manzon. Once again his race was ended in disappointment with a gearbox failure after completing just one lap of the Nordschleife.

At this time Paul was a successful editor and publisher of motorcycle and car magazines. At the time of his death Paul may have been the last surviving driver of the 1930s Silver Arrows, as some sources claim that former Mercedes driver Heinz Brendel died in 1987.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 1st

1980 - The 1980 Spanish Grand Prix was held amid controversy on Madrid's Jarama circuit. As part of the ongoing FISA-FOCA war, drivers from the FOCA teams boycotted the driver briefings for the Belgian and Monaco Grands Prix. FISA responded by issuing fines to the non-attending drivers. After these fines went unpaid FISA announced prior to the Spanish Grand Prix weekend that the licences of fifteen drivers were to be suspended. In response, the FOCA teams threatened to withdraw from the event. The Real Automóvil Club de España (RACE) offered to pay the drivers' fines, but FISA refused. King Juan Carlos insisted that the race go ahead anyway, despite it receiving no approval from the Spanish motorsport federation, and therefore no approval from FISA. Thus, the event was no longer sanctioned by FISA, meaning the suspended drivers could take part.

Now, it was the manufacturer teams of Alfa Romeo, Ferrari and Renault, as opposed to the remaining FOCA teams, that boycotted the race. As a result, 22 drivers took part in qualifying, meaning they were all guaranteed a place on a grid that had a 26-car limit. Noteworthy performances in qualifying were Jan Lammers in the ATS and Eddie Cheever in the Osella sharing the fifth row and Dave Kennedy actually making the grid for the first and only time in his career in 22nd.

In the race proper Kennedy spun off at the beginning of lap two. Lammers was running well in fourth place when he had brake problems and then electrical problems, forcing him to retire. Local driver Emilio de Villota was the centre of a big incident as Jacques Laffite attempted to lap him in an effort to also overtake race leader Carlos Reutemann. This failed as Laffite hit de Villota, sending the Spaniard into Reutemann. Both of the leading drivers were eliminated on the spot. De Villota made it back to the pits to retire, as his suspension had been broken. Patrick Gaillard went on to score what might have been the first point of his career, were it not for the race being stripped of its championship status. He was five laps down after an earlier collision with John Watson.

[dr-baker]

June 1st

1980 - The 1980 Spanish Grand Prix.

And I believe that Alan Jones still counts that race as one of his F1 wins, even though the FIA doesn't. He turned up, he raced his car, and he crossed the line first. Therefore to him it counts, and bathplug the FIA.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 2nd

1991 - Nigel Mansell famously threw away an easy win in the Canadian Grand Prix when he slowed down to wave to the crowd on the final lap and accidentally let the engine revs fall too low, stalling the car. This allowed Nelson Piquet to unexpectedly take what would be the final win of his career. Stefano Modena finished an impressive second in the Tyrrell-Honda with Mansell's Williams teammate Riccardo Patrese taking third. The two Jordans scored their first points in fourth and fifth, meaning that they were almost certain to escape pre-qualifying when it was to be rearranged mid-season. As for the rejects, not one of them qualified for the race. Chaves, van de Poele and Grouillard failed to escape pre-qualifying, whilst the AGS cars of Tarquini and Barbazza were out in qualifying proper, Barbazza missing out by just three hundredths of a second.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Just realised that I didn't do the one date I had memorised for this thread (other than Giacomelli's Life debut): 31st May 1992, the day the Andrea Moda raced for the one and only time Ah, well, it's not like Paul Pietsch isn't worth remembering.

June 3rd

1956 - Piero Scotti made his only Grand Prix appearance in a privately entered Connaught at the Belgian Grand Prix. He qualified 12th, but his engine failed ten laps in. He was entered for the following round in France but never appeared at the Reims circuit for the Grand Prix.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 4th

1972 - Surely a reject circuit, Nivelles-Baulers hosted its first of two Belgian Grands Prix. Designed as a safe alternative to Spa, Nivelles was supposed to share the Belgian Grand Prix with Zolder, but this arrangement came to an end after it was found that the tarmac was not in a good enough state to host the 1976 race, so Zolder became the permanent home for almost a decade. The track was unpopular with the drivers, as it was flat, featureless and had massive runoff areas, much like some of the worst Tilkedromes.

In this inaugural 1972 race Emerson Fittipaldi won, extending his championship lead to nine points over Denny Hulme, who had taken second in the standings from national hero Jacky Ickx by finishing on the podium. As for the rejects, Helmut Marko finished 10th after starting 23rd, Dave Walker was six laps down in last, meaning Lotus had finished first and last in the same race, a rare feat indeed. The other two rejects weren't so lucky to see the chequered flag, as Nanni Galli crashed his Tecno and Mike Beuttler's halfshaft failed.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 5th

1977 - David Purley got the LEC on the grid for the first time in only his second attempt in 20th for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. He finished 13th, ahead of Arturo Merzario and the unclassified Boy Hayje.

[Izzyeviel]

June 5th

1977 - David Purley got the LEC on the grid for the first time in only his second attempt in 20th for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. He finished 13th, ahead of Arturo Merzario and the unclassified Boy Hayje.

I hope i'm not intruding on your thread, but there is a great article on the motorsport magazine about this race as it was Gunnar Nilssons only grand prix victory.

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/july-1977/43/de-grote-prijis-van-belgie

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 5th

1977 - David Purley got the LEC on the grid for the first time in only his second attempt in 20th for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder. He finished 13th, ahead of Arturo Merzario and the unclassified Boy Hayje.

I hope i'm not intruding on your thread, but there is a great article on the motorsport magazine about this race as it was Gunnar Nilssons only grand prix victory.

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/july-1977/43/de-grote-prijis-van-belgie

I don't consider it an intrusion, it's not even my thread anyway! But it is a nice contribution.

June 6th

1960 - Aston Martin's penultimate appearance in their brief flirtation with F1 at the Dutch Grand Prix. They had entered their year-old DBR4 for Roy Salvadori, but a starting money dispute saw them withdraw.

[novitopoli]

June 7th

1998 - At the Canadian Grand Prix, Minardi driver Shinji Nakano came quite close to unrejectify himself, running up to fifth during the race before finishing seventh, in front of Ricardo Rosset, who reached his career best finishing eight.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 8th

1975 - The Swedish Grand Prix had always attracted drivers from around Scandinavia such as F1's first Flying Finn, Leo Kinnunen, and Denmark's Tom Belso. This year, apart from the great Ronnie Peterson, the race attracted two-time Swedish Formula Three champion Torsten Palm. Torsten had already made a fruitless effort to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix in his Hesketh and was back for his home race. He qualified 21st and ran out of fuel two laps from the end. He was classified 10th.

Williams had started changing their lineup. For the rest of the 1975 season they would not have the same lineup for two consecutive races, starting with this one, as they replaced Arturo Merzario and Jacques Laffite with Damien Magee and Ian Scheckter. Scheckter retired but Magee finished 14th, ahead of Jacky Ickx's Lotus.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 9th

1963 - Two reject teams appeared for the first time in Belgium: ATS, an Italian team formed by ex-Ferrari staff, even including ex-Ferrari drivers Phil Hill and Giancarlo Baghetti, and Scirocco, which was actually a continuation of the uncompetitive Emeryson team. Both teams entered two cars but this became one for Scirocco, as Ian Burgess' car was not ready for the race, leaving only Tony Settember, who qualified 19th. ATS, who were hoping to beat Ferrari were in for a shock as they qualified at the back. Former world champion Hill put the car 17th, Baghetti was 20th and last. The Italian team could only hope for a race of attrition to allow them to score any points. It was indeed a race of attrition which saw only six cars finish, but the scarlet cars were not among them, as gearbox problems caused both drivers to retire. Settember crashed the Scirocco late in the race, but completed enough laps to be classified 8th.

[Izzyeviel]

June 10, 1990 - Canadian Grand Prix.

And you all thought it was confusing having these new fangled time penalties in F1. Spare a thought for the viewers of the Canadian Grand Prix who were told Gerhard Berger was winning by miles only to be told at the end he had a 1 minute time penalty for jumping the start.

http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/july-1990/14/canadian-grand-prix-bit-confused

[dinizintheoven]

I seem to remember this was the first Grand Prix I ever watched... but I don't remember that penalty.

Then again, it was 25 years ago...

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 11th

1955 - F1 reject Pierre Levegh was killed in the most catastrophic accident in motorsport history. Levegh was a strongly patriotic French driver who was obsessed with winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans. He very nearly succeeded in this in 1952, when he drove single-handedly - such was his determination - to a four-lap lead in the last hour of the race, only to miss a gear change, losing an almost certain victory. Even worse from his perspective, the German Mercedes team took a 1-2 victory.

Eventually, he was tempted to join them for the 1955 race. Three hours in, Mike Hawthorn pulled into the pits right in front of Lance Macklin. Macklin moved left to avoid the Jaguar and into Levegh's path. The Frenchman couldn't react in time and was launched off the back of Macklin's Austin-Healey. The Mercedes hit an earth bank, launching it into a somersault. Parts of the car were flung from the chassis and into the crowd, including the bonnet, which decapitated many spectators. Levegh himself was thrown from the car, crushing his skull on landing. But the horror was not over. As what was left of Levegh's car decelerated, the fuel tank ruptured. The body was constructed from a magnesium alloy, and it burned with a white-hot flame. The marshals, unfamiliar with the nature of magnesium fires, poured water onto it, which only intensified the flame, and it burned for several hours as a result. Macklin's car hit the pit wall as a result of the initial collision and bounced back across to the left of the track, striking the barrier and killing another spectator. Macklin escaped unhurt.

The race still continued however, as the organisers reasoned that the traffic that would result from cancelling it would make it impossible for ambulances to arrive. Eight hours later, Mercedes team manager Alfred Neubauer received orders from Stuttgart to withdraw from the race as a sign of respect to the victims. They had been leading at the time. Hawthorn and teammate Ivor Bueb eventually won the race for Jaguar. The official death toll from this disaster was 84, with 120 injured. Funeral services were held in the town of Le Mans the next day.

An official inquiry into the accident found that Jaguar were not responsible, and that the deaths of the spectators came as a result of inadequate safety standards, resulting in a temporary ban on motorsport in several countries, and a permanent ban on motorsport in Switzerland. In the United States, the AAA withdrew from motorsport, with the USAC taking its place as the governing body of American auto racing. These bans left just two rounds left in the F1 season, Britain and Italy, won by Stirling Moss and Juan Manuel Fangio respectively, both for Mercedes. Mercedes and Jaguar both withdrew their factory teams at the end of the year. Neither would return for another thirty years.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 12th

1988 - Coloni got their best ever race result in the Canadian Grand Prix with an 8th place, courtesy of Gabriele Tarquini. In the same race, both Philippe Streiff in the AGS and Andrea de Cesaris in the Rial ran inside the top six before retiring. It was a strange one for sure...

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 13th

1982 - Riccardo Paletti was killed in a startline crash at the Canadian Grand Prix. The lights took a long time to turn green and polesitter Didier Pironi stalled his engine. He lifted his hand to signal that he had a problem, but the yellow flag was never flown and the starting sequence continued. When the lights finally went green all the other cars attempted to squeeze past Pironi's stationary Ferrari. Raul Boesel clipped the back of the Ferrari and spun into the path of Eliseo Salazar and Jochen Mass. Paletti slammed into the back of Pironi at 180 km/h, catapulting the Osella into the path of Geoff Lees. He sustained heavy chest injuries and lay unconscious in the car, wedged against the steering wheel. Pironi and Sid Watkins arrived to assist Paletti, but then the fuel tank ignited, engulfing the car in flames. Once the fire was extinguished, Paletti was without a pulse. It took rescue workers 25 minutes to safely remove him from the car. He was flown via helicopter to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving. He was two days short of his 24th birthday.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 14th

1992 - Remember all those local sponsors that appeared on the Caterham in last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix? Well something similar happened in the 1992 Canadian Grand Prix. After a local newspaper wrote a sob story about March's financial struggles, handily including the team's phone number in the article, March received 14 phone calls in one hour with 8 companies having their names proudly displayed on the CG911B. It proved a worthy investment on the part of the sponsors, as Karl Wendlinger drove to a brilliant 4th place, picking up March's only points of 1992.

[novitopoli]

June 15th

1991 - After a streak of 5 DNPQs, Olivier Grouilliard qualifies his Fondmetal in an impressive 10th position. It would turn out to be a vane effort, though, as mechanical problems would force him to start from the pitlane and eventually retire after 14 laps. That 10th place remains the best qualifying result ever for the short-lived Italian team.

[FullMetalJack]

June 14th

1992 - Remember all those local sponsors that appeared on the Caterham in last year's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix? Well something similar happened in the 1992 Canadian Grand Prix. After a local newspaper wrote a sob story about March's financial struggles, handily including the team's phone number in the article, March received 14 phone calls in one hour with 8 companies having their names proudly displayed on the CG911B. It proved a worthy investment on the part of the sponsors, as Karl Wendlinger drove to a brilliant 4th place, picking up March's only points of 1992.

I feel obliged to point out that after failing to pre-qualify in his previous outing, Ukyo Katayama came tragically close to scoring points, when the engine in his Venturi-Larrousse went just a few laps from the finish, costing him 5th place.

[dinizintheoven]

June 15th
1991 - After a streak of 5 DNPQs, Olivier Grouilliard qualifies his Fondmetal in an impressive 10th position. It would turn out to be a vane effort, though, as mechanical problems would force him to start from the pitlane and eventually retire after 14 laps. That 10th place remains the best qualifying result ever for the short-lived Italian team.

Now that is astounding. If I had to put money on who'd qualified highest up the grid for Fondmetal, I'd have said Gabriele Tarquini in 1992. The next question is, how many cars did he hold up during his 14 laps, and how many blood vessels did Murray Walker burst?

Also, talking of Olivier Grouillard and his exploits in the 1991 season, another time he managed to qualify for a race (which happened only four times all season) was at the French Grand Prix on 7th July where he took the Fondmetal to a creditable 21st place. Amongst those who didn't make it onto the grid that day was some bloke called Mika Häkkinen. I wonder what became of him?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Jume 16th

1996 - Only 8 cars finished the Canadian Grand Prix. Highlights include Ukyo Katayama getting into a tangle with Ricardo Rosset, putting them both out of the race, Berger spinning out while attempting to pass teammate Alesi, and Badoer suffering a gearbox failure on his way to a finish inside the top ten.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 17th

1984 - F1's last Kiwi, Mike Thackwell made his second (or first, depending on the source) start in Canada, driving for RAM. Four years on from becoming the youngest ever F1 driver, Mike, still only 23, came back to the top level during a dominant F2 season in which he went on to take seven wins out of eleven races. He out-qualified his teammate Philippe Alliot by 1.6 seconds, but reliability gremlins put him out before half-distance. He made only one more appearance after that at the German Grand Prix for Tyrrell, but even his highly impressive F2 season failed to get him a decent drive for the following season, and he raced in the new F3000 series instead.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 18th

1989 - A rare example of a Coloni starting a race, as Roberto Moreno dragged the new C3 onto the Canadian Grand Prix grid in 26th place by just a hundredth of a second from Satoru Nakajima's Lotus. He lasted 57 laps before the gearbox broke.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 19th

2005 - One of the most infamous races in F1 history was the one that took place on this day in 2005: The 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, the race where only six cars took part and ruined Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan's chances of being profiled on F1 Rejects. Safety concerns arose when Ralf Schumacher suffered a massive accident at turn 13 as the result of a tyre failure. This raised concern that the tyres Michelin had brought to the race were unsafe. It was found that Michelin could not guarantee the safety of the tyres for more than ten laps. Several solutions were proposed, such as installing a chicane at turn 13 and imposing a speed limit for Michelin-shod cars in the same turn. None of them were accepted and the seven Michelin teams withdrew from the race after all of their cars entered the pit lane at the end of the parade lap, leaving the six Bridgestone cars of Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi to take part in the race. Here is what Minardi team principal Paul Stoddart had to say about the race (warning: contains strong language): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7IdWpqYXI

1960 - Another, more tragic race took place on this day in 1960 at Spa, a race that would rival Imola 1994 as the darkest in the sport's history. It started when two drivers suffered serious accidents in practice. Stirling Moss crashed at Burnenville and was out for the next three races while the steering column in Mike Taylor's Lotus broke, causing him to crash at 160 mph. He was thrown from the car with enough force to cut down a tree with his body, breaking several bones. The accident paralysed him, though he later recovered through physical therapy. He successfully sued Lotus for what happened. However, the horror did not end at practice. On lap 20 of the race 22-year-old Chris Bristow in the Yeoman Credit Cooper was fighting for position with Ferrari's Willy Mairesse, when he crashed at the same spot Moss had crashed in practice. Bristow hit an embankment, which launched him into some barbed wire, decapitating him. Five laps later things took a turn for the truly bizarre as 26-year-old Alan Stacey in the works Lotus was hit in the face by a bird at 120 mph at the same corner. He blacked out, hit an embankment and was launched into a field. Stacey died just minutes after Bristow.

[novitopoli]

June 19th

2005 - One of the most infamous races in F1 history was the one that took place on this day in 2005: The 2005 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, the race where only six cars took part and ruined Tiago Monteiro and Narain Karthikeyan's chances of being profiled on F1 Rejects. Safety concerns arose when Ralf Schumacher suffered a massive accident at turn 13 as the result of a tyre failure. This raised concern that the tyres Michelin had brought to the race were unsafe. It was found that Michelin could not guarantee the safety of the tyres for more than ten laps. Several solutions were proposed, such as installing a chicane at turn 13 and imposing a speed limit for Michelin-shod cars in the same turn. None of them were accepted and the seven Michelin teams withdrew from the race after all of their cars entered the pit lane at the end of the parade lap, leaving the six Bridgestone cars of Ferrari, Jordan and Minardi to take part in the race. Here is what Minardi team principal Paul Stoddart had to say about the race (warning: contains strong language): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY7IdWpqYXI

A sad day indeed. But I can't stop laughing at one of the somehow funniest moments ever: the podium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dZlG6VyyNA

[Wallio]

Ah yes the day that Toyota's running dangerously low tyre pressures caused the GPMA to boycott a race for completely different reasons. And here in America with our crappy F1 coverage, we had no idea about any of it, despite it being a Friday decision, until the opening lap.

[roblo97]

I remember that so well. I was 7 at the time and had been watching F1 for less than a year and even I knew something was just not right about the whole thing.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 20th

2004 - A more positive event to remember than either of yesterday's anniversaries is what happened on this day in the 2004 United States Grand Prix. Yes, on this day eleven years ago HWNSNBM scored his sacred point for Minardi

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 21st

1970 - Piers Courage died at the wheel of the reject De Tomaso 505-38. He qualified well in 9th before a failure of the front suspension or steering caused him to go straight off the track at Tunnel Oost and the car was launched off an embankment. The engine was dislodged from the chassis and burst into flames, which burned with great intensity as magnesium was used in the construction of the car. Courage was killed when a tyre struck him in the head. He was 28.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 22nd

1952 - Several rejects made their début in the Belgian Grand Prix. These included Charles de Tornaco (who finished 7th), Roger Laurent (12th), Robert O'Brien (14th), Tony Gaze (F1's first Aussie, 15th) and Robin Montgomerie-Charrington (F1's poshest name, DNF).

[CoopsII]

A sad day indeed. But I can't stop laughing at one of the somehow funniest moments ever: the podium.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dZlG6VyyNA

Looking back at it I think it was really shitty of Ferrari to just f**k off and leave Tiago Monteiro on his own. I'm glad he got his trophy and I'm pretty sure that just then was the first time I ever typed his name.