Grand Prix Rejects

By disappointing drivers, I don't merely mean mediocre or bad ones, but ones who have been specifically lauded as the next big thing in some capacity.


King of the disappointing drivers is, therefore, that "next Ayrton Senna" Jan Magnussen.

Benneton nobodies Alex Wurz and Giancarlo Fisichella were both widely regarded future world champions around '97 and '98, Fisico in particular.

Years before either driver was in F1, and back when the team was top of the pile, Williams has Pantano and Pizzonia at the top of their wish list as the big talents to watch out for.

Back in the mid-90s, Schumacher claimed that the only driver he was really afraid of was Heinz-Harald Frentzen. This, however, might only be because he nicked his girlfriend.

Any of the big US champs - Montoya and even Villeneuve to some extent, but moreso Da Matta and Bourdais.


Any others?

Norberto Fontana.

Ukyo Katayama, dubbed as "undoubtedly the best Formula One driver that Grand Prix racing has ever produced" by Murray Walker in 1994. Although he did suffer from the awful Tyrrell machinery as well...

Nelson Piquet Jr. for me. I didn't expect him to be championship material, but the utter mediocrity I saw from him was just Magnussen-esque.

Corrado Fabi.

Scott Speed and Michael Andretti. The most overrated American drivers in the last 2 decades. Their names didn't help either of them.

David Coulthard - or did anyone ever rate him?

Stefano Modena has to be pretty high on the list. Wasn't Emanuele Pirro thought of quite highly as well?

Kovalainen has been a disappointment.

Ralf Schumacher and Ivan Capelli when he moved to Ferrari.

Jos Verstappen comes to mind.
Nick Heidfeld was being lined up for a McLaren drive with their young driver program, and did what was required of him by winning the F3000 title. But Raikkonen "stole" that drive from him, and the consequent mediocrity says it all.

Nuppiz wrote:Ukyo Katayama, dubbed as "undoubtedly the best Formula One driver that Grand Prix racing has ever produced" by Murray Walker in 1994. Although he did suffer from the awful Tyrrell machinery as well...

Did Murray omit the word Japanese in there?

BlindCaveSalamander wrote:Nelson Piquet Jr. for me. I didn't expect him to be championship material, but the utter mediocrity I saw from him was just Magnussen-esque.

Remember to keep these to drivers that have been specifically bigged up somewhere, rather than just drivers who have been disappointingly awful!

Jean-Christophe Boullion.

Ok, he was test driver for Williams, but was hyped up by the F1 media to make him look like the next Alain Prost... which he wasn't! To be honest, he wasn't that great in the BTCC either!

tristan1117 wrote:Scott Speed and Michael Andretti. The most overrated American drivers in the last 2 decades. Their names didn't help either of them.

It didn't help Scott that he was in a third rate car. For Michael I think he needed more time in the car to have been better, plus if I remember correct the engines that McLaren had that year were not so great.

Tiago Monteiro - Portugal had big hopes for him. He was able to keep his car on the track and race, but he wasn't the kind of person who could do passing moves well. He proved that when he spent almost the entire Monaco 06 behind Montagny and only passed him after pushing him with his nose

Christian Albers - In 2007, he was the Dutch driver in a Dutch team and he was treated like the big hero of the team, the main driver, the point scorer, by both team and sponsors (seriously, I followed it closely). 2007 was a disaster for him and he wasn't allowed to finish it

fjackdaw wrote:

Nuppiz wrote:Ukyo Katayama, dubbed as "undoubtedly the best Formula One driver that Grand Prix racing has ever produced" by Murray Walker in 1994. Although he did suffer from the awful Tyrrell machinery as well...

Did Murray omit the word Japanese in there?

Give that man a medal! And I would like to add that Yuji Ide is "undoubtedly the best Formula One Reject driver that Grand Prix racing has ever produced", Japanese or not...

Rrrrmmmnnnn Gggrrrjjjjnnnn.

Captain Hammer wrote:Rrrrmmmnnnn Gggrrrjjjjnnnn.

Disagree. The reason he was second in the championship, is because the quality of driver has been so lacklustre this year, hence Nico H winning by miles.
So much so, I am going to stick my neck out and say Deletraz would be faster than Ricardo Teixeira.

Cristiano da Matta - Won the CARTs in 2002, joined F1 and ... er...

(Although to be fair, he did outperform Panis... but still...)

Alex Zanardi?

watka wrote:Alex Zanardi?

Too soon...

Henrique wrote:Tiago Monteiro - Portugal had big hopes for him. He was able to keep his car on the track and race, but he wasn't the kind of person who could do passing moves well. He proved that when he spent almost the entire Monaco 06 behind Montagny and only passed him after pushing him with his nose

Disagree entirely. He was much better than ever predicted, and would have been a WDC contender in the right team.

Go ahead, prove me wrong.

fjackdaw wrote:King of the disappointing drivers is, therefore, that "next Ayrton Senna" Jan Magnussen.

The first guy to be granted the title "the next Ayrton Senna" was JJ Lehto in 1987-1988, before Senna had even won a single championship. He drove an unspectacular F-3000 season in 1989, but shone in the wet Adelaide GP in an Onyx. After that next five seasons were spent in teams where the team principals preferred "the other guy". Gregor Foitek an Monteverdi in 1990, Italians Emmanuele Pirro and Pierluigi Martini at Scuderia Italia (1991 and 1992 respectively), Karl Wendlinger at Sauber in 1993. The 1994 Benetton adventure needs not to be recapped.

Despite these adversaries, he never seemed to be quite on the edge, perhaps lacking the final instict. He later admitted in an interview that he had perhaps been accustomed to things being too easy when going from victory to victory in the minor classes and never worked hard enough when in F1.

To me it seems that he had the potential to match Mika Hakkinen, and the fact that he never managed to capitalize on it is a huge disappointment.

As a sidenote I must note that he does fill that sertain statistical probability, though, I mean:
7 Finns have raced in F1 (+1 who failed to qualify & 1 guy who has a Finnish passport, but races under a different flag)
6 of whom have at least one podium finish
5 of whom have finished second at least once
4 of whom are Grand Prix winners
3 of whom are World Champions

watka wrote:Alex Zanardi?

Only in 1999. Other than that he was limited by his car or unlucky

1993 Lotus was also OK car. Herbert got 11 points with that and Zanardi 1. Of course Zanardi lost last races of the year due to injury.

Justin Wilson - At least I didn't invest in his F1 future.

Has to be Pizzonia, he was overhyped and then thrashed by Webber at Jaguar. He was disappointing as Heidfeld's replacement as the end of 2005, once again as Webber's teammate.

redbulljack14 wrote:Has to be Pizzonia, he was overhyped and then thrashed by Webber at Jaguar. He was disappointing as Heidfeld's replacement as the end of 2005, once again as Webber's teammate.

I remember that he blasted his team for helping Webber only and neglecting him and to think he nearly got the proper seat at Williams.

Giancarlo Fisichella - I remember he was talked up a bit, and yes, he won a few races, but not much else.
Olivier Panis - He was never the same after his accident in Canada 1997...

Tora Takagi. Wasn't he meant to be Japan's best F1 prospect yet?

Warren Hughes wrote:Tora Takagi. Wasn't he meant to be Japan's best F1 prospect yet?

I'm a bit of a fan of his F1 career actually, considering he was saddled with 2 uncompetitive cars, he did a decent job. Shame he was never really in the frame post-99

Valrys wrote:

Warren Hughes wrote:Tora Takagi. Wasn't he meant to be Japan's best F1 prospect yet?

I'm a bit of a fan of his F1 career actually, considering he was saddled with 2 uncompetitive cars, he did a decent job. Shame he was never really in the frame post-99

In time he could have been as good as Ukyo Katayama.

Ricardo Zonta was a disappointment considering he won the F3000 title.

I once overheard that Zonta was a 4 letter word in the Finnish language.

watka wrote:

Valrys wrote:

Warren Hughes wrote:Tora Takagi. Wasn't he meant to be Japan's best F1 prospect yet?

I'm a bit of a fan of his F1 career actually, considering he was saddled with 2 uncompetitive cars, he did a decent job. Shame he was never really in the frame post-99

In time he could have been as good as Ukyo Katayama.

I hope you mean 1994-style Ukyo :p

Yannick wrote:I once overheard that Zonta was a 4 letter word in the Finnish language.

Not quite. Sonta would mean "crap" or "dung".

dr-baker wrote:

fjackdaw wrote:

Nuppiz wrote:Ukyo Katayama, dubbed as "undoubtedly the best Formula One driver that Grand Prix racing has ever produced" by Murray Walker in 1994. Although he did suffer from the awful Tyrrell machinery as well...

Did Murray omit the word Japanese in there?

Give that man a medal! And I would like to add that Yuji Ide is "undoubtedly the best Formula One Reject driver that Grand Prix racing has ever produced", Japanese or not...

Undoubtably the greatest and most enjoyable 4 races in the history of F1.

Seeing his effort at the Aus GP will be never be forgotten.

Future-champion Robert Kubica will probably be eligible for this before too long.

fjackdaw wrote:Future-champion Robert Kubica will probably be eligible for this before too long.

He'll have to have a great season next to ever be considered a title challenger again. He'll need to impress other teams, because he won't have a chance at Renault.

Probably the biggest dissapointing ever would be Ricardo Rosset.
Nick Heidfeld could also fall into this category.