planetf1.com

Man don't get me started on Michael Andretti so overrated, even in champ car he was, out of 22 seasons or something like that I think he was champion once and I don't think he has even won the Indy 500

Funny thing with Deletraz is that in the lower formulae he was actually not that bad, he even won races in Formula Ford! And not too shabby in the LeMans either

Yuji Ide has to be the worst of recent times. When was the last time a driver was so bad they had their superlicence revoked?

Nissany doesn't count. A rich guy who bought himself a practice session once. No-one would have let him enter a race.

Delatraz was a respected sportscar racer with 2 class-wins at Le Mans! Goes to show how high the standard truly is in F1.

Some of the names mentioned in this thread are pretty ridiculous though. A lot of talented drivers who's only F1 chances were in very poor cars.

Martin Brundle? The guy who almost beat Ayrton Senna on spec cars, before F1 ?

And still doing well in endurance racing in his 50's

Brundle was solid but not spectacular, and shouldn't be mentioned here, but its all opinion so everyone is entitled to it ( even if its wrong )

I always liked Brundle and Blundell

Also like Chandhook too and was disappointed he never got another seat



Does anyone know which driver has managed to fall outside the 107% rule the most times


I know we slate some drivers saying they are rubbish etc, but these guys are actually in the top 20 or so best drivers in the entire world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU8uRWIat3Y

Ricardo Rosset. I'm sure there was a rumour once that his own mechanics got so fed up with him they swapped the R and the T of his name around on the car.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC3iGSGMJ8c

An even better one

IIRC, it wasn't his car, it was a scooter decked out in the teams livery, which Rosset then rode around the paddock, oblivious to the fact that everyone was laughing at him.

To those who said Sakon Yamamoto, I give you this:
http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2006/769/6358/fastest_laps.html

I actually remember this race, he was doing well! Hardly the worst.

Some of these suggestions are crazy. How about Giovanni Lavaggi? Seems like a nice guy, but he was miles off. I remember when he turned up too...

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http://www.geoffnolan.com

Man, some of you lot really need to learn what you're talking about.

Badoer? Seriously? Guy who beat Coulthard and Barrichello in F3000 and simply never got a chance in even a midfield car? He still could've finished 4th at the Nurburgring in '99, but his car let him down. He was always going to do badly at Ferrari. So what if de la Rosa was still competitive with a while out of the sport? He was out for 3 years. Badoer was out for almost an entire decade. Big difference.

Dumfries? Again a ridiculous suggestion. Yes he was lucky in that he was (and is still) stupidly rich but he dominated British F3 (pretty big thing at that time) won Le Mans, and actually scored points in F1.

Inoue is another ridiculous suggestion. He can't really claim much success like Badoer or Dumfries can but at least he wasn't hideously slow. People just see the laughable incidents he got caught up in outside the car and assume he must have been laughably bad behind the wheel. Not necessarily true.

I can't really comment on everyone. If you're looking beyond Nissany and want to look at drivers who attempted to qualify for a race, then Ide and Deletraz really stand out as being the two drivers who were completely out of their depth in every departmenr, from what I've seen at least. And even those guys were professional racers. I don't know about Ide, but Deletraz was pretty competent in sportscars.

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I don't follow F1 so I don't know what I'm talking about

A comment from youtube with most votes: "He makes Yuji Ide look like Ayrton Senna."

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The end is near

Piercarlo Ghinzani is certainly not a bad driver - he had some nice success in lower branches of motorsport.
Someone mentioned Marc Surer - no way, that guy is a living legend, please! He drove very successfully in lots of disciplines.

In order to determine "the worst ever driver" we need to have a measuring stick in form of a much more successful team-mate. Else, it could be the car and not the driver.

Some that could be mentioned from around 80's:

Pascal Fabre - successful in lower formulas but looks like that AGS made him look worse than he really is.
Adrian Campos - not that bad, but in Minardi you can't do miracles.
Allen Berg - driving Osella is not the best way to achieve success. Teammate Ghinzani beat him regularly, but, then he was an inventory in Osella garage for a long time.
Francois Hesnault - he didn't leave any lasting marks inF1, but than, neither the cars he drove.
Philipp Alliot - was beaten by teammates, lingered on the bottom for long, but still got four times 6 places and once 5th. So, out of contest.
Huub Rothengatter - driving for Zakspeed and Osella destined him for the bottom, but he came close to get a point a couple of times, so he is out.
Emilio de Villota - certainly isn't as bad as his stats, but he didn't bring M23 to the starting grid so many times in 1977, therefore he gets honorable mention to this list.
Beppe Gabbiani - has horrible stats, but he is saved by success in other classes, notably by victory in Nordschleife Formula 2 race in 1983.
Ricardo Zunino - this guy replaced Lauda after his retirement in 1979, but was far bellow his teammate, who happened to be a certain Nelson Piquet.
Hector Rebaque - has never seen a podium in championship winning Brabham in 1981.

Of course you can add many other names such as Oscar Larrauri, Volker Weidler, Gregor Foitek, Pierre Henry Raphanel, Joachim Winkelhock Sr., Enrico Bertagia, Claudio Langes, Pedro Chavez, Michael Bartels, but all of them had considerable success in other, lower classes.

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The end is near

Ide

I noticed someone mentioned Michael Andretti. He was no where close to being a bad driver, it was the fact that he trusted the fact of Mario Andretti being his father would easily go to a top team and he did in Mclaren. The thing is Andretti was not fully committed to F1 and he continued to live in the United States and not move to the UK closer to the factory so communication and interaction with the team was limited by a great margin.

Also, why mention his time in CART? Okay, he won one title and did not win another. Okay, thats fine because he still stayed very competitive for about 20 years which is impressive. He racked up a total of 42 victories in CART and he's extremely high on the wins list. He's no fool or flop by any means. Now, he's a successful team owner. Not a bad racing career in my eyes.

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Felipe Massa fan/supporter since 2002 and counting!

I agree that the standard of drivers in F1 is v high but.... different skills are required in different series. Put an F1 driver in a Le Mans race and its extremely unlikely they're going to win!

Rare Footage of Giovanna Amati in an F1 Car.

She was literally a moving roadblock.

http://youtu.be/dNJ4oIVtXvY

But plenty of F1 winners have also won at Le Mans: Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Lorenzo Bandini, Jochen Rindt, Bruce McLaren, Dan Gurney, Jacky Ickx, Pedro Rodriguez, Graham Hill, Didier Pironi, Jochen Mass, Johnny Herbert, Michele Alboreto for example - four of them WDCs.

Have to admit I only follow F1 - so didn't know that.

Gaston Mazzacane and Esteban Tuero