This Day in Reject History

[golic_2004]

Only five more days...

March 1st

1992 - While Nigel Mansell kicked off his historic 1992 campaign with a crushing victory at Kyalami, Andrea Sassetti was forced to pay the FIA $100,000, the standard entry fee for new teams. The shoe salesman argued that he had taken over the Coloni team and therefore his Andrea Moda outfit was actually a continuation of an existing team. Not convinced that taking over two cars and a workforce of 6 was sufficient to call it a continuation of another beloved reject team, the FIA insisted that Sassetti pay the fee.

This also marked the debut of sorts in the form of Giovanna Amati, the last female to attempt an F1 Grand Prix. Her inexperience, along with a heavy financial burden of the team thus a poor car, led the Italian to being 8.9 seconds off the pace in qualifying. This would be her first DNQ.

[golic_2004]

March 2


1962: Happy Birthday Gabriele Tarquini. This is the driver, who, like Roberto Moreno, was a talented F1 driver stuck with uncompetitive machinery like Osella, Coloni, FIRST, AGS, Fondmetal, and a stint in Tyrell. His only point would be the 1989 Mexican Grand Prix. Tarquini would go on to be successful in touring cars, winning races and championships in British, European and World Touring Cars (1994, 2003 and 2009) respectively.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

March 3rd

2002 - Eight cars were eliminated on the opening lap of the Australian Grand Prix, then the Arrows drivers were disqualified for two separate infringements, earning the team the Reject of the Race award. In the end only eight cars made it to the chequered flag, with Mark Webber earning a fifth place on his Grand Prix début for Minardi (and even a separate podium ceremony for him!), with his teammate Alex Yoong just one place outside the points in seventh.

1961 - Happy 55th birthday to Perry McCarthy!

[golic_2004]

March 3

1947: Otto Stuppacher was born on this date. Unfortunately his foray in F1 was slow, to say the very least.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

March 4th

2001 - While it is by no means rejectful, today marks 15 years since trackside marshal Graham Beveridge was tragically killed in the Australian Grand Prix. A collision between Jacques Villeneuve's BAR and Ralf Schumacher's Williams saw the Canadian launched into the air, resulting in one of the wheels becoming detached and striking Beveridge in the chest, killing him instantly. Jamie and Enoch decided against naming a Reject of the Race in the wake of the tragedy.

[novitopoli]

March 4th

1933 - Nino Vaccarella was born. The Sicilian had five F1 outings with a best finish of ninth at the 1962 Italian GP, but is mostly remembered as a great sports car driver. Nino won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 12 Hours of Sebring and could master the dangerous Targa Florio like no one else: it is noteworthy that he only was a part time driver throughout his whole career, splitting his duties between racing and working as a school principal, which most notably forced him to miss the celebrations for his Le Mans victory since he had to fly back to Italy to be back at work at the start of the school week.

[golic_2004]

March 4

2001: The Australian Grand Prix took place. No ROTR was given during this race but the first three retirements are classified as Rejects:

-Gaston Mazzacane didn't even finish a lap before he had brake issues in the Prost.
-Debutant Enrique Bernoldi collided with the wall on lap 3 in the Arrows Asiatech.
-Tarso Marques had battery trouble a lap later in the Minardi. He qualified outside of the 107% time but was allowed to race (probably because the team was bought by Australian Paul Stoddart).

[Bobby Doorknobs]

March 5th

1933 - Paul Pietsch won the Swedish Ice Race in an Alfa Romeo Monza.

And with that, the thread is finished! I would like to thank the following people who have contributed to this thread at one time or another (or more!), thus saving me some time:

Dave, dr-baker, FullMetalJack, golic_2004, good_Ralf, Izzyeviel, Klon, Miguel98, novitopoli, pi314159, WaffleCat, watka and of course, shinji, who started this thread, and who I therefore hold responsible for taking five to ten minutes out of my day for almost every day over the past year If I've forgotten anyone, please state your name and berate me! I would also like to thank all who commented on the entries and everyone else who read the thread over the past year.

What happens now? Well, this will keep going, albeit on GPR's Facebook and Twitter pages. It will be a damn sight easier than doing it here as I get to schedule the posts in advance, so expect an automated This Day in Reject History update at 9:00 GMT every day on social media from here on out!