This Day in Reject History

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 23rd

1985 - The rejects didn't last very long in Detroit. Ghinzani crashed out on the opening lap, whilst Winkelhock's Hart turbo failed after only three laps, though Stefan Bellof unrejectified himself by finishing fourth and there was no championship exclusion to take it away from him this time around.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 24th

1984 - After Martin Brundle scored an excellent podium in Detroit for Tyrrell, the officials found impurities in his water injection system and lead balls in the rubber bag containing the water. Samples of this water were later found to contain traces of hydrocarbons. Ken Tyrrell was called to a meeting of the FISA Executive Committee and was accused of refuelling the car during the race, based on the impurities in the water which was normally topped up during a pit stop. Tyrrell was disqualified from the 1984 season and forfeited the 13 points they had scored up to that point. If ROTY awards could be given for previous seasons, there's your top contender for 1984.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 25th

1932 - Tim Parnell, son of former racing driver and team manager Reg Parnell, was born. He followed in his father's footsteps as a driver and manager. His F1 career was brief, taking two starts from four attempts and achieving a best finish of tenth in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. After the death of his father in 1964 he took over the running of Reg Parnell Racing, achieving modest success before Tim moved to BRM in 1970, running the team until 1974.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 26th

2011 - The 2011 European Grand Prix happened. Not much else to say, really.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 27th

2010 - Mark Webber re-enacted his Le Mans crash in Valencia, when he was launched off the back of Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus. This sparked debate between BBC's Eddie Jordan and David Coulthard about whether or not backmarkers should battle front-running cars for position or just let them past. It was of no surprise that Coulthard took the latter position, given his experience looking at the back of a certain Enrique Bernoldi's Arrows in Monaco nearly a decade earlier.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 28th

1998 - Seventeen cars were classified at the end of the French Grand Prix and only one out of the four rejects that day was part of the classification. That was Shinji Nakano, who was classified 17th after his engine failed six laps from the end.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 29th

1997 - After a part-time drive in 1996, Tarso Marques made his triumphant return to the cockpit of a Minardi at the French Grand Prix to substitute for Jarno Trulli, who himself was substituting for Olivier Panis at Prost. Tarso was out-qualified by teammate Ukyo Katayama by seven tenths of a second and his engine lasted just five laps. There were better days ahead.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

June 30th

2013 - Pirelli tyres started exploding everywhere in the British Grand Prix, ruining the races of drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez. This resulted in a lot of criticism against Pirelli for the unsafe tyres, the teams for underinflating the tyres, switching them between opposite sides of the car and running them at unsafe camber angles, and the FIA and Bernie for asking for rapidly degrading tyres in the first place. The resulting debate as a whole was awarded Reject of the Race.

[novitopoli]

July 1st

1979 - Not a rejectful day at all as Jean Pierre Jabouille brought home the first victory for a turbocharged engine (and for Renault) in Formula 1. Yet what most fans remember about the race is the amazing fight for second place between Renè Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve, with the Canadian eventually defeating the French. Only reject at the start was Jan Lammers, who finished 18th and last, 7 laps down.

[dinizintheoven]

Although the rejectful characteristic of Jabouille's win in 1979 was that those were the only points he scored all season. He then went on to repeat that in 1980 - and these were two of the three times he ever finished in the points in 55 attempts.

[Nessafox]

Although the rejectful characteristic of Jabouille's win in 1979 was that those were the only points he scored all season. He then went on to repeat that in 1980 - and these were two of the three times he ever finished in the points in 55 attempts.

To be fair to him, the Renault wasn't exactly finishing material. Still, Arnoux got a lot more out of it.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 2nd

1995 - Taki Inoue and Ukyo Katayama were involved in a first lap collision at Magny-Cours, as seen here.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 3rd

1994 - In an incident-packed French Grand Prix two Italians - while not rejects, but have something of an honorary status - scored their last points. These were Minardi hero Pierluigi Martini in 5th and the late Andrea de Cesaris in 6th. Further down the order Johnny Herbert was just outside the points in 7th for Lotus, who were destined to endure their only pointless season on the way to bankruptcy and Jean-Marc Gounon was 9th for Simtek, which was his and the team's best result.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 4th

1993 - Formula One said a tearful goodbye to Fabrizio Barbazza, who was dropped by Minardi in favour of the one and only Pierluigi Martini following the French Grand Prix on this day 22 years ago. He was outqualified by his younger Brazilian teammate Christian Fittipaldi by a little under two tenths of a second and retired from gearbox problems after just 16 laps. He was also one points finish away from unrejectification. This race was also the first since the death of James Hunt, which unfortunately meant the first race as commentator alongside Murray Walker for Jonathan Palmer.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 5th

1959 - Fritz d'Orey triumphantly finished 10th on his Grand Prix debut at Reims. He was ten laps down driving an old Maserati 250F. This was also the race that ended Jean Behra's Ferrari career. After fighting his way into 3rd place, the engine of his 246 broke down and after a heated discussion with team manager Romolo Tavoni the Frenchman punched his boss and was subsequently given the sack.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 6th

2003 - Minardi had a typical race day at Magny-Cours, with Wilson 14th ahead of Firman's Jordan and Verstappen was 16th and last. But in qualifying this was not the case as Verstappen went fastest in the first session thanks to a drying track with Wilson 2nd until his time was deleted for his car being underweight. This was the only time a Minardi topped the timesheets at a race weekend.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 7th

1968 - Jo Schlesser was killed in a horrible accident at Rouen in the 1968 French Grand Prix. Honda had developed the new RA302, a magnesium-bodied car with an air-cooled engine, built on the orders of Soichiro Honda himself. Their regular driver, 1964 World Champion John Surtees tested the car, declaring it unready for racing and a potential deathtrap. Despite this assessment, Honda entered the car for the French Grand Prix and hired Schlesser to drive it. Two laps in, the local hero went off at Six Frères, crashing into an embankment. The fuel tank was ruptured and the magnesium-bodied chassis burned in a white-hot flame. There was no chance of survival for the 40-year-old. Later on, his friend Guy Ligier started building his own cars, and always gave them type numbers beginning with the letters "JS" in tribute to Schlesser.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 8th

1990 - Not a reject team, but an underdog story nonetheless as 25 years ago today Leyton House shocked the motor racing world by leading 1-2 at the French Grand Prix. The smooth surface of the Paul Ricard circuit was well-suited to the Adrian Newey-designed CG901. Ivan Capelli and Gugelmin led 1-2 for much of the race, helped by the fact that neither of them pitted for tyres. The dream was destined to end however, as Prost came from behind to overtake Gugelmin on lap 54 and then the Brazilian's Judd engine blew three laps later. Prost then overtook Capelli for the lead just three laps from the end, allowing the Frenchman to take his 42nd Grand Prix victory.

[novitopoli]

July 8th

1990 - Not a reject team, but an underdog story nonetheless as 25 years ago today Leyton House shocked the motor racing world by leading 1-2 at the French Grand Prix. The smooth surface of the Paul Ricard circuit was well-suited to the Adrian Newey-designed CG901. Ivan Capelli and Gugelmin led 1-2 for much of the race, helped by the fact that neither of them pitted for tyres. The dream was destined to end however, as Prost came from behind to overtake Gugelmin on lap 54 and then the Brazilian's Judd engine blew three laps later. Prost then overtook Capelli for the lead just three laps from the end, allowing the Frenchman to take his 42nd Grand Prix victory.

I guess Dallas '84 was a way too obvious choice for the day, wasn't it?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 8th

1990 - Not a reject team, but an underdog story nonetheless as 25 years ago today Leyton House shocked the motor racing world by leading 1-2 at the French Grand Prix. The smooth surface of the Paul Ricard circuit was well-suited to the Adrian Newey-designed CG901. Ivan Capelli and Gugelmin led 1-2 for much of the race, helped by the fact that neither of them pitted for tyres. The dream was destined to end however, as Prost came from behind to overtake Gugelmin on lap 54 and then the Brazilian's Judd engine blew three laps later. Prost then overtook Capelli for the lead just three laps from the end, allowing the Frenchman to take his 42nd Grand Prix victory.

I guess Dallas '84 was a way too obvious choice for the day, wasn't it?

Um, yeah... Too obvious...

Damnit!

Yeah, I saw France 1990 mentioned in F1 Fanatic's daily round-up from last night (that's normally the first place I check for this thread), and thought it was worth writing about for the 8th. So here's the Wikipedia article on the race that's part of the reason why the US Grand Prix at COTA is run late in the season! Highlights of the equal-hottest Grand Prix ever: Pirelli track surface, Jacques Laffite arriving for an early morning practice session in his pyjamas - only for the session to be cancelled - Keke Rosberg winning, Nigel Mansell trying and failing to do a Brabham at the finish and of course, points for Piercarlo Ghinzani and Osella.

[novitopoli]

July 9th

1989 - An eventful French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard saw four drivers making their Formula 1 debut, all of whom finished the race: Emanuele Pirro, Eric Bernard, Martin Donnelly (9th, 11th, 12th respectively) and most notably Jean Alesi, who came fourth in his Tyrrell, thus unrejectifying himself at his first race. Alesi finished ahead of Stefan Johansson, who scored Onyx's first points, and Olivier Grouillard, who scored his only career point in a Ligier.

[FullMetalJack]

July 9th

1989 - An eventful French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard saw four drivers making their Formula 1 debut, all of whom finished the race: Emanuele Pirro, Eric Bernard, Martin Donnelly (9th, 11th, 12th respectively) and most notably Jean Alesi, who came fourth in his Tyrrell, thus unrejectifying himself at his first race. Alesi finished ahead of Stefan Johansson, who scored Onyx's first points, and Olivier Grouillard, who scored his only career point in a Ligier.

Also the last race for Joachim Winkelhock, a member of a legendary reject family. Celebrated with yet another DNPQ in his AGS.

The race also involved this big crash involving Mauricio Gugelmin's March amongst others. Gugelmin then went on to set the fastest lap of the race.

I do agree with Tony Jardine about not liking the way the marshalls turned the car back on its wheels afterwards.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 10th

1965 - John Rhodes raced in a world championship Grand Prix for the first and only time at Silverstone. He qualified his three-year-old Cooper T60 in 21st and last place, going out at half-distance due to an ignition failure.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 11th

2010 - After two and a half years out of the sport Sakon Yamamoto made a triumphant comeback at the 2010 British Grand Prix, replacing Bruno Senna. He qualified last on the grid, nearly four tenths off his teammate Karun Chandhok. He also finished last out of twenty finishers, two laps down. Senna would return to the cockpit in Germany, but Sakon got to stay with the team for most of the remaining races, this time at Chandhok's expense.

[leywso]

July 9th

1989 - An eventful French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard saw four drivers making their Formula 1 debut, all of whom finished the race: Emanuele Pirro, Eric Bernard, Martin Donnelly (9th, 11th, 12th respectively) and most notably Jean Alesi, who came fourth in his Tyrrell, thus unrejectifying himself at his first race. Alesi finished ahead of Stefan Johansson, who scored Onyx's first points, and Olivier Grouillard, who scored his only career point in a Ligier.

Am I right in thinking that, as well as four complete newbies, this was also Bertrand Gachot's first F1 start? He'd been driving the Onyx since the start of the season but I believe didn't get it to the grid until this race.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 9th

1989 - An eventful French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard saw four drivers making their Formula 1 debut, all of whom finished the race: Emanuele Pirro, Eric Bernard, Martin Donnelly (9th, 11th, 12th respectively) and most notably Jean Alesi, who came fourth in his Tyrrell, thus unrejectifying himself at his first race. Alesi finished ahead of Stefan Johansson, who scored Onyx's first points, and Olivier Grouillard, who scored his only career point in a Ligier.

Am I right in thinking that, as well as four complete newbies, this was also Bertrand Gachot's first F1 start? He'd been driving the Onyx since the start of the season but I believe didn't get it to the grid until this race.

That's right. Got onto the grid on the lucky 7th try.

[novitopoli]

July 12th

2009 - While Mark Webber celebrated his first win at the German Grand Prix, Sebastien Bourdais DNF'd in his last race for Toro Rosso (and his last Formula 1 race altogether) before being axed by the team.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 13th

1980 - The 1980 British Grand Prix took place at Brands Hatch. Notably absent from the grid was the only woman ever to win a Formula One race: Desiré Wilson. She was to make her world championship début at the track where she had scored a victory in the Aurora AFX series, but the Williams FW07 she had intended to qualify had been replaced by an inferior model. She struggled to find pace in the machine and recorded a DNQ in her only world championship entry.

[dinizintheoven]

This "inferior model" - that's all Wikipedia says as well. I'd have thought this meant Desiré was fobbed off with an FW06, but the stats on Forix (and the picture of the event) say it's still an FW07.

So was her original car supposed to be an FW07B of the same spec that Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann had...?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

This "inferior model" - that's all Wikipedia says as well. I'd have thought this meant Desiré was fobbed off with an FW06, but the stats on Forix (and the picture of the event) say it's still an FW07.

So was her original car supposed to be an FW07B of the same spec that Alan Jones and Carlos Reutemann had...?

I used the Wayback Machine to dig up her profile from the old site (it's been a few years since I read that particular one). I do hope I'm not upsetting Enoch by posting a few relevant paragraphs here:

Also that year, when the World Championship British Grand Prix took place at Brands Hatch, Wilson was entered by John Macdonald's RAM team to drive a Williams FW07, a 1979 version of the car sweeping the 1980 championship. Two weeks prior to the race in an unofficial test session, Wilson was an incredible 12th fastest. What made it even more amazing was the fact that this was the first time she had driven a car with sliding skirts. Coupled to her Aurora results, she had every right to be confident.

But when official qualifying came around, Wilson was way off the pace, two seconds slower than what she had done in the test. It felt like she was driving a completely different car. In fact, that was exactly what was happening. In the test, she had driven a well-tuned car privately used by de Villota in several Grands Prix. Now, she was in fact driving Salazar's Aurora car, the same car her Wolf had beaten in April! Salazar had also just crashed the car at Monza, and it had not been properly repaired either.

Since the Aurora championship did not allow skirts, Salazar's FW07 usually did not have them. When the car was delivered to RAM for Wilson's use, untried skirts had been hurriedly added, so it was no surprise that they weren't working properly. Didier Pironi scored pole in his Ligier with a 1:11.004 lap, but Wilson was 5.311 seconds slower. She was last of the 27 entrants, and 0.892s behind Jochen Mass' Arrows, the last starter. Wilson joined Jan Lammers' Ensign and Keke Rosberg's Fittipaldi in non-qualification.

It was to prove Wilson's most disappointing moment in racing, and if she had already been rorted by driving a much-inferior car to the one she had been expecting to race, there had been further salt in the wound as well. For the last 15 minutes of the qualifying session, she had been sitting idle in the pits, unable to go out on qualifiers because they had been placed on rims that did not fit the front hubs. The qualifying specials would have been worth over a second a lap...

So it seems that she was indeed driving an FW07 that may as well have been put together in a shed...

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 14th

1996 - The 1996 British Grand Prix took place at Silverstone. Forti had recorded their fourth double-DNQ in what proved to be the last outing for the team, bar an appearance at the German Grand Prix that saw no running after their engine supply was cut off. As for their drivers, this was also the last race for Andrea Montermini, who had an impressive career from a reject fan's perspective, driving for every reject team that competed from 1994-96 (except arguably Larrousse): Simtek, Pacific and Forti, as well as being named test driver for MasterCard Lola, unfortunately not getting to drive the maligned T97/30 in the team's short existence. The British Grand Prix also proved to be the last race for three whole years for Luca Badoer, another of the most beloved rejects to have driven in the sport. He would get his chance again for Minardi in 1999 and Ferrari for two races in 2009 following Felipe Massa's near-fatal accident. Even with these opportunities he was unfortunate not to score any points.

[dinizintheoven]

I used the Wayback Machine to dig up her profile from the old site (it's been a few years since I read that particular one). I do hope I'm not upsetting Enoch by posting a few relevant paragraphs here:

...which explained everything so much better than the entire remainder of the internet. This is why we need it all back...

[AndreaModa]

I used the Wayback Machine to dig up her profile from the old site (it's been a few years since I read that particular one). I do hope I'm not upsetting Enoch by posting a few relevant paragraphs here:

...which explained everything so much better than the entire remainder of the internet. This is why we need it all back...

Agreed. Nothing compares when it comes to the little-known teams and drivers.

[UncreativeUsername37]

July 14th

1996 - The 1996 British Grand Prix took place at Silverstone. Forti had recorded their fourth double-DNQ in what proved to be the last outing for the team, bar an appearance at the German Grand Prix that saw no running after their engine supply was cut off. As for their drivers, this was also the last race for Andrea Montermini, who had an impressive career from a reject fan's perspective, driving for every reject team that competed from 1994-96 (except arguably Larrousse): Simtek, Pacific and Forti, as well as being named test driver for MasterCard Lola, unfortunately not getting to drive the maligned T97/30 in the team's short existence. The British Grand Prix also proved to be the last race for three whole years for Luca Badoer, another of the most beloved rejects to have driven in the sport. He would get his chance again for Minardi in 1999 and Ferrari for two races in 2009 following Felipe Massa's near-fatal accident. Even with these opportunities he was unfortunate not to score any points.

Yes, that was very unfortunate for him.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 15th

1990 - Gabriele Tarquini made his first start of the 1990 season at Silverstone, having dragged the AGS through pre-qualifying and put it in 26th place on the grid, only just beating out Olivier Grouillard's Osella. He retired after 41 laps with a blown engine.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 16th

2006 - The last race in the brief career of Franck Montagny and it was on home soil at Magny-Cours where he also outqualified his teammate Takuma Sato. He went on to finish the race in 16th and last place. It was still better than what Sato achieved, as the Japanese driver's transmission failed on the opening lap.

[SuzukiSwift]

Although the rejectful characteristic of Jabouille's win in 1979 was that those were the only points he scored all season. He then went on to repeat that in 1980 - and these were two of the three times he ever finished in the points in 55 attempts.

Jabouille was repeatedly let down by his Renault, he could have won at least 4 times in 1980 had the car stayed together.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 17th

1971 - Reigning South African Formula One champion Dave Charlton made a rare appearance in a Grand Prix outside of his home country as Lotus entered an extra car for him at the British Grand Prix. He was over a second slower than teammate Emerson Fittipaldi in qualifying, starting a mediocre 13th, but it could have been worse, as his other teammate Reine Wisell was stuck with the gas-turbine-powered 56B, which he qualified a lowly 19th. Dave sadly lasted little more than a lap, as his engine blew.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 18th

1959 - The JBW made its debut at the 1959 British Grand Prix with its owner Brian Naylor at the wheel. It qualified a reasonable 14th place, but the transmission gave up after just 18 of the 75 laps. Several other British drivers were making their Grand Prix debut in an array of F2 machinery, including Mike Taylor, David Piper, Peter Ashdown and Chris Bristow. Of these four, only Bristow and Ashdown saw the chequered flag, in 10th and 12th respectively.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

July 19th

1975 - July the 19th. Why does that strike me as important? Well, the 1975 British Grand Prix was held. And there was utter chaos at the end.