Grand Prix Rejects

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:

Backmarker wrote:Sébastian Loeb was due to make his debut at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but he was not granted an FIA Super Licence (despite at the time being a 6-time FIA World Rally Championship champion).

He was really slow in GP2. Slowest out of 25. He was 1.7 seconds down on the amazing F1 talent that is Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Maybe with a full pre-season programme he could have got up to a reasonable speed, but it was probably the correct decision by the FIA. He just wasn't familiar enough with the equipment.

The trouble is, where could he have gone?

JeremyMcClean wrote:

Stramala [kostas22] wrote:

Backmarker wrote:Sébastian Loeb was due to make his debut at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but he was not granted an FIA Super Licence (despite at the time being a 6-time FIA World Rally Championship champion).

He was really slow in GP2. Slowest out of 25. He was 1.7 seconds down on the amazing F1 talent that is Jérôme d'Ambrosio. Maybe with a full pre-season programme he could have got up to a reasonable speed, but it was probably the correct decision by the FIA. He just wasn't familiar enough with the equipment.

The trouble is, where could he have gone?

Toro Rosso probably. IIRC, he was given a test by Red Bull at the end of 2008 by Red Bull, but logically they wouldn't replace either one of their race winning drivers for a man with no prior experience of racing in F1. However, in late 09, Toro Rosso had Buemi and the Alguersuarus, neither of which were sparkling at the time, and given that Loeb had been dominating WRC in a Red Bull sponsored team, it would make sense for him to race in the Red Bull junior team, non?

Valentino Rossi - Had a number of tests with Ferrari during the mid-00s and while he never got a race for the team, it would have been interesting to see if he really was as good as the team say he could have been given the chance.

Max Wilson.

André Lotterer, who has really started to peak in the last couple of years. He was Jaguar test driver in 2002 but they went with Jungle Boy instead for the following season. Possibly a mistake. In the last two years he has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright twice, become FIA World Endurance Champion once and become Formula Nippon champion once.

Neel Jani was a tester for Sauber and Toro Rosso, and beat Piquet Jr. in GP2 in 2005. Probably would have been a better bet than Scott Speed...

Tomas Schekter(sp?) Was Jaguar test-driver in early 00's before an 'incident' with a 'lady of the night'. Sacked immediately and never sat in an F1 car again. Had talent too, so I reckon he could've been in a race seat within 2 years.

Luiz Razia might get a mention here soon...?

The mighty Bas Leinders! First became Gillet's official test driver, now a respected GT driver.

Ryan Briscoe - Was Toyota's third driver during their early days, went stateside in the mid 00s and became a very solid if unspectacular operator in IndyCar ever since.

Luiz Razia

Backmarker wrote:Luiz Razia

Poor guy. I do feel quite sorry for him because it wasn't his fault, and nor was it Marussia's. They had an agreement and the people with the money didn't pay up. The good thing is it seems the team and Razia are staying in touch and that they'd like to work with him in the future, so there's no bad blood.

AndreaModa wrote:

Backmarker wrote:Luiz Razia

Poor guy. I do feel quite sorry for him because it wasn't his fault, and nor was it Marussia's. They had an agreement and the people with the money didn't pay up. The good thing is it seems the team and Razia are staying in touch and that they'd like to work with him in the future, so there's no bad blood.

I'm taking consolation in the fact that he's shite.

Backmarker wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:

Backmarker wrote:Luiz Razia

Poor guy. I do feel quite sorry for him because it wasn't his fault, and nor was it Marussia's. They had an agreement and the people with the money didn't pay up. The good thing is it seems the team and Razia are staying in touch and that they'd like to work with him in the future, so there's no bad blood.

I'm taking consolation in the fact that he's shite.

This. He couldn't even crack the top 10 in GP2 until 2012. He'dve been another d'Ambrosio/di Grassi. He's better off following Bruno Senna to GT.

Hidetoshi Mitsusada- Tested Benetton's during 2000, but a look at his record in the junior formulae indicates he was probably there with backing (financial or otherwise)

Shizuka wrote:Max Wilson.

Mad Max lived up to his name. Had a few tests with Williams, then had a few years in CART, then joined up in the V8 Supercars grid for Dick Johnson's team with Shell backing.

Met him here during motor shows etc, sounds like a great chap.

Ataxia [BacLettNinj] wrote:Neel Jani was a tester for Sauber and Toro Rosso, and beat Piquet Jr. in GP2 in 2005. Probably would have been a better bet than Scott Speed...

Honestly, I disagree with the notion that Jani would have been better than Scott Speed. I didn't find Jani that impressive, but then again, maybe I'm a bit sour because he lucked into a few podiums in Champ Car that he had no business getting.

If you're Toro Rosso, and you have to pick between Neel Jani and Scott Speed, you're getting the short end of the stick no matter who you pick.

I recently read an interview with Timo Scheider, where he said he was close to a Formula One cockpit in 1999. He didn't mention any Teams, though.

Paul Tracy tested with Benetton in 1994 and was offered a contract with the team. In a year when J. J. Lehto, Jos Verstappen and Johnny Herbert drove for the team, Paul Tracy would have had a definite chance of an actual race seat. But he called his dad for advice, Tony Tracy didn't have like what Benetton were offering, and called Bernie Ecclestone to get Benetton to drop the contract so that Paul could still test. Tony Tracy was also friends with Eddie Jordan, who was keen to sign the Canadian, but took too long to offer him a deal, so Tony Tracy walked away.

Björn Wirdheim- If Jaguar would have continued I think he would have got the drive there in 2004, 2005.

Kenny Bräck - Was close to a race seat in the mid 90's with TWR Arrows IIRC.

Bruno Junqueira - Well while I understand why Williams went for Button in 2000 the fact that Junqueira never got a race seat is just wrong. His manager must've been horrible.

Ryan Briscoe - Toyota should've gone for Briscoe instead of Ralf Schumacher in 2005. Would've saved the team a lot of money in salary. Briscoe won the FRenault 2000 Italy in 2001 and the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2003.

Alexandre Prémat

Jorge de Bagration is maybe the only one with an F1Rejects profile.

Benetton wrote:Kenny Bräck - Was close to a race seat in the mid 90's with TWR Arrows IIRC.

I heard that, he was linked to the seat because of the TWR Arrows/Volvo connection from what I've read

Backmarker wrote:Unless something happens, it seems likely that Brendon Hartley will never race in F1, despite testing for Toro Rosso, Red Bull and Mercedes. He was a Red Bull Junior Team member, but ended up being outclassed by Jaime Alguersuari and Daniel Ricciardo, before being dropped for Jean-Éric Vergne. It's not inconceivable that he would have made it to F1 with a bit of luck.

Until HRT went bust it looked likely that the Spanish team would at some point give debuts to Dani Clos and Ma Qing Hua, both of whom tested for HRT during 2012.

Sébastian Loeb was due to make his debut at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but he was not granted an FIA Super Licence (despite at the time being a 6-time FIA World Rally Championship champion).

I am afraid to say that A.J. Allmendinger would have been a better choice considering he actually raced in CART and even outran Bourdais on occasion and jumped into the Red Bull NASCAR program.

Warren Hughes wrote:See username and avatar

So you are referring to Anthony Reid

Not really[/badjoke]

Bernd Maylander, despite leading more Grands Prix than the entire field.

Unless already mentioned: Oliver Gavin. He was Pacific's 'test-driver' in 1994 and would've raced (by raced, i mean failed to qualify) at Australia but was denied a superlicense.

AdrianSutil wrote:Unless already mentioned: Oliver Gavin. He was Pacific's 'test-driver' in 1994 and would've raced (by raced, i mean failed to qualify) at Australia but was denied a superlicense.

Nobody DNQed in 1995, IIRC. Pacific even makes it to the every single race this year. Also, you're needed in IFRC and F1RDS threads.

FMecha wrote:

AdrianSutil wrote:Unless already mentioned: Oliver Gavin. He was Pacific's 'test-driver' in 1994 and would've raced (by raced, i mean failed to qualify) at Australia but was denied a superlicense.

Nobody DNQed in 1995, IIRC. Pacific even makes it to the every single race this year. Also, you're needed in IFRC and F1RDS threads.

I know that. But I was talking about 1994.

Dario Franchitti - Jaguar test driver in 2000

Backmarker wrote:

pi314159 wrote:Alx Danielsson (2006 WSR champion)

Failed to qualify for the K&N race at Bristol this weekend. (K&N would be something like Formula Ford in comparison to F1 when thinking about the NASCAR ladder)

Ben Collins (aka 'sacked' stig). I think he was in British F3 in the same year as Mark Webber (1997)

Mauro Bianchi (grandfather of Jules, brother of Lucien), intended to start the 1968 French GP with an Alpine car, but didn't get permission from Renault.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Luca Filippi.
He's been in and out of GP2 since 2006. In 2008 he was signed as a test driver with Honda. Still not even close to F1, and he's Lewis Hamilton's age-mate, mind you.

Same goes for Andy Soucek.
Varied performance in GP2, but shone out in F2 in 2009, winning the title and test drive with Williams, where he was doing quite well.
He was signed as a test driver for Virgin, but all he did was wearing their T-shirts.

Pointrox wrote:I'm surprised nobody mentioned Luca Filippi.
He's been in and out of GP2 since 2006. In 2008 he was signed as a test driver with Honda. Still not even close to F1, and he's Lewis Hamilton's age-mate, mind you.

Same goes for Andy Soucek.

Luca Filippi is one of those drivers like Gary Paffett whose destiny is to always be on the fringes of F1 but never actually make it there.

Andy Soucek on the other hand is a douchebag who has a bad habit of suing his teams and only won F2 because everybody else was 5 years younger than him.

Rickard Rydell - Raced in F3 until 1994 where he switched to touring cars.

darkapprentice77 wrote:Rickard Rydell - Raced in F3 until 1994 where he switched to touring cars.

Kelvin Burt did the same I believe

Tomas Kaiser, the overweight swedish drummer, James Hunt's bloke, F-2 and F-3000 journeyman. He was very close to a Brabham seat in 1987, but FISA didn't grant him the Super Licence.

Paulo Carcasci, a very talented Brazilian driver that put up most of his career in Japan. Refused an invitation to race for Life in 1990 and tried to afford a seat in Pacific for the two first rounds of the 1995 season, but didn't have USD 300k that Keith Wiggins asked to him.

Michael Ammermüller. A lot of people rated him as high as Vettel. By the end of 2006, it seemed that his career would skyrocket in a short time. How wrong were we...

Emmanuel Collard, test driver for several teams in Formula One. Rumoured to replace Olivier Panis following his frightening crash at Montreal in 1997.

Jason Watt. HE was the guy to partner Pedro de la Rosa in Arrows in the 2000 season. Damn motorcycle!

Laurent Redon, former Minardi and Benetton test driver. Back in late 90s, he was one of the beloved pay-drivers around in lower formulae because of Kickers, his father's company. Rumoured to race with Minardi in 1998. Rumoured also to replace Luca Badoer in the 1999 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Allan McNish ALMOST became a good name to show up in this topic.

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Kelvin Burt did the same I believe

Was Kelvin Ligiers 3rd driver in 96, or is that a GPRM2 fantasy?

Myrvold wrote:

takagi_for_the_win wrote:Kelvin Burt did the same I believe

Was Kelvin Ligiers 3rd driver in 96, or is that a GPRM2 fantasy?

He also did testing for Footwork in 96. Burt got both roles through his TWR contacts. Ligier's other test driver in 1996 was Kenny Brack, who they had an option for for 1997 and 1998 which they never used.