Favourite Reject Driver and Team

SuperAguri · Post by **SuperAguri** » 30 Mar 2009, 13:58

So as not all of us could have attended Australia for the Aussie GP (I would have gone but I've been banned from Australia for prefering Chilian wines over Australian ones) to meet Jamie and Enouch and have them ask us some questions, I thought we could do it here.

So what is your favourite driver and team that are rejects

(in the F1 Reject terms of
• a 4th, 3rd, 2nd or 1st place, or
• a 5th place, plus any other top-6 result, or
• three or more 6th places)

Mine would be Taki Inoue for having his worst accidents with safety cars and Life F1 for making Andrea Moda look like a Ron Dennis like team.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 30 Mar 2009, 14:26

Hi

My favourite reject team is one that most of you have forgotten: Osella Squadra Corse! They were benchmark in the 80's for slow and unreliable cars. Suddenly, in the end of the 1989, they were dominating the pre-qualifying sessions with their Pirelli tyres. How I loved to see Nicola Larini in the rain that poured on the 1989 Canadian Grand Prix running a solid 3rd, only to retire following the Osella tradition!

Roberto Moreno and Nicola Larini would be my choices for favourite reject drivers, since they drove consistently for reject teams, but unfortunately they got a 2nd places in their curricula. So my choice is Gabriele Tarquini, who drove for Osella, Coloni, AGS and Fondmetal, what an impressive curriculum! He was fast but always in awful teams with no chance at all to progress. My vote goes for his persistence and his memorable battle with the Williams of Thierry Boutsen in the dying laps of the 1989 US Grand Prix.

Cheers from Brazil

Ricardo

Post by **Nuppiz** » 30 Mar 2009, 14:31

Well, my choices for the drivers are quite a few guys that showed good talent in F1 or other classes, but were never allowed to drive in a competitive car or were sidelined by their team. So here we go: Olivier Beretta, Norberto Fontana and Franck Lagorce. After a bit of cosideration, I would pick up Fontana based on his pre-F1 performance. Maybe Sauber got his driving morale low or his fondness with open-wheelers down, but after that rather short F1 stint he claimed success only in tin-tops.

Now for the favorite team: Simtek. Not much to tell here, I would have loved to see what they could've achieved if the would've had enough money.

SuperAguri · Post by **SuperAguri** » 30 Mar 2009, 14:52

rffp wrote:Hi

My favourite reject team is one that most of you have forgotten: Osella Squadra Corse!

Sadly they scored 5 points, a 4th in the mostly FOCA boycotted race of San Marino in 1982 where Jean-Pierre Jarier in a 14 race car field got his car to the end of the race, a lap down but two laps ahead of Eliseo Salazar in the ATS (who was the last classified person as Manfred Winkelhock was disqualified 6 laps down with an unweight car and Teo Fabi in the Toleman was 8 laps down and not classified... It was also the last race that Gilles Villeneuve competed in as he was killed in Qualifying two weeks later) and 5th in the 1984 America West GP in Dalla where Piercarlo Ghinzani nipped pasted the retiring Nigel Mansell in the Lotus to get 5th in one of the hottest GPs in history (40C), only 8 cars finished and he finished ahead of Corrado Fabi's Brabham.

I am sure F1 Rejects could throw out the rules for Osella as they were pretty poor in the other races and apart from the 5th, the 4th was a gift like Tiago Monteiro getting 3rd in the 2005 USA GP.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 30 Mar 2009, 15:06

SuperAguri wrote:
It was also the last race that Gilles Villeneuve competed in as he was killed in Qualifying two weeks later) and 5th in the 1984 America West GP in Dalla where Piercarlo Ghinzani nipped pasted the retiring Nigel Mansell in the Lotus to get 5th in one of the hottest GPs in history (40C), only 8 cars finished and he finished ahead of Corrado Fabi's Brabham.

I am sure F1 Rejects could throw out the rules for Osella as they were pretty poor in the other races and apart from the 5th, the 4th was a gift like Tiago Monteiro getting 3rd in the 2005 USA GP.

They also finished 5th in the 1984 Italian Grand Prix with Jo Gartner, but were not awarded points! Well, Rial and Onyx got profiles with 6 points, so I hope Osella one day could get one too, or be inclued in "You Lucky Bastard" for teams.

But anyway, a second choice would be Zakspeed and that dud engine of theirs! And in their last year in F-1 they debuted the Yamaha Reject Engine. Also, Christian Danner managed to finish behind Moreno in the dreadful AGS in the 1987 Australian GP.

Post by **Nuppiz** » 30 Mar 2009, 15:11

rffp wrote:
SuperAguri wrote:I am sure F1 Rejects could throw out the rules for Osella as they were pretty poor in the other races and apart from the 5th, the 4th was a gift like Tiago Monteiro getting 3rd in the 2005 USA GP.
Well, Rial and Onyx got profiles with 6 points, so I hope Osella one day could get one too, or be inclued in "You Lucky Bastard" for teams.

As the "rules" in the Team Index state:

F1 Rejects wrote:All a former Formula One team needs to have done to get a page on this site is ...

• to have attempted to qualify at at least 2 Grands Prix and
• to have scored 6 points or fewer

How hard can that be? Very!

So no need to make an exception

Chilled Phill · Post by **Chilled Phill** » 30 Mar 2009, 17:34

Being a Welsh Formula One fan, one has to give a special mention to the ill fated Token team. A special mention because they were the team to give the great Tom Pryce his début in Grand Prix racing.

However, my favourite Reject team would have to be Mastercard Lola.

Reject driver on the other hand is a little more harder to choose. Clearly, a top three for myself can be made: Al Prease, Jean-Denis Deletraz and HWMNBN... :lol:

Debaser · Post by **Debaser** » 30 Mar 2009, 18:00

My favourite reject team has to be Life. They turned up in 1990 with a W12 engine,were regularly 20 odd seconds from making out of pre-qualifying and had Bruno Giacomelli and Gary Brabham (Giacomelli must have been ancient by then) driving. Not only was the car incredibly slow,it rarely lasted for more than a lap or two. And when they ditched the W12 engine and got a Judd V8,the engine cover didn't fit and the car didn't go out on track.For sheer crap-ness they're my favourite. On a reject driver,I'd pick Ricardo Londono-Bridge. For his name and lack of a racing past,I'd pick him.

jonnyeol · Post by **jonnyeol** » 30 Mar 2009, 18:52

For the driver.....it has to be Jean-Denis Deletraz. I actually named a series of RPG characters with the name, and to this day they still feature in my games.

The team....Andrea Moda. The car might have actually been OK had it been run properly, but their story is just plain comical. I was also sad to see the back of Simtek, because they would have escaped reject status with a bit more money.

jonnyeol · Post by **jonnyeol** » 30 Mar 2009, 18:53

Debaser wrote:My favourite reject team has to be Life. They turned up in 1990 with a W12 engine,were regularly 20 odd seconds from making out of pre-qualifying and had Bruno Giacomelli and Gary Brabham (Giacomelli must have been ancient by then) driving.

Well spotted! They were totally useless, weren't they.

Ide · Post by **Ide** » 30 Mar 2009, 19:07

For the team, I'd have to go for Life as well. An "F1" team that would have struggled to qualify for an F3000 race - just a total shambles! You have to feel sorry for the drivers, what a waste of time

Driver? Inoue or Ide (would qualify) for the comical value, plus I've had the fortune of seeing Ide race!
As for my favourite driver to appear on the site, it has to be Zanardi, but not because he's a reject. To bounce back from what would have totally ruined the lives of many people to being competitive again, and still enjoying life too. He's a great guy, and an inspiration to many

RejectSteve · Post by **RejectSteve** » 30 Mar 2009, 21:25

rffp wrote:So my choice is Gabriele Tarquini, who drove for Osella, Coloni, AGS and Fondmetal, what an impressive curriculum! He was fast but always in awful teams with no chance at all to progress. My vote goes for his persistence and his memorable battle with the Williams of Thierry Boutsen in the dying laps of the 1989 US Grand Prix.

Don't forget his one-off drive for Tyrrell at the 1995 European GP temporarily replacing no lesser than the greatest driver grand prix racing ever produced, Ukyo Katayama.

In the teams category, Forti is my favourite reject team. I'm sure Andrea Moda or Life accomplished less, but hey, I only started to see the championship in 1994. Forti had it all in 1995, a good driver who never had a decent car (Moreno), a pay driver (Diniz), a grossly underpowered customer engine, and a car designed 3 years earlier. With such a brilliant package, Forti along with Pacific were responsible for the 107% rule, and not even Deletraz in a Larrousse could make that rule change!

The following season, they couldn't qualify their 1995 car despite another good driver (Massa, err, Badoer) and pay driver (Montermini) and once they built a 1996-spec car, their sponsor went bust and the team went under. Forti had class though, the neon green wheels of 1995 and the cars were always vibrantly painted.

The driver who takes the cake is Yuji Ide. Perry McCarthy's superlicense was revoked but he did get it back, Ide didn't.

jonnyeol · Post by **jonnyeol** » 30 Mar 2009, 21:59

RejectSteve wrote:
rffp wrote: Forti had class though, the neon green wheels of 1995 and the cars were always vibrantly painted..

Yep, not so much a case of 'Grooved Tyres' as 'Groovy Tyres'.

Cynon · Post by **Cynon** » 31 Mar 2009, 01:03

My pick for favorite reject driver is Hans Heyer for being to Formula 1 what Delma Cowart was to NASCAR. Illegally starting a race gets you some awesome points, and especially doing it without the stewards noticing what's going on!

Favorite reject team... ... Andrea Moda, just for how hilariously inept they were.

@jonnyeol - You named RPG characters after JDD?! I presume for the RPG Maker series, eh? Having reviewed a game on RPG Maker, I'd be interested in checking it out, if only for the Jean Denis Deletraz mention.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 31 Mar 2009, 01:10

Andrea Moda. They're like North Korea, the Funniest Evil Dictatorship. I actually do fancy myself as a bit of a writer, and I've always wanted to see a proper story about racing, but it's hard to write something where the cars are doing laps on end. Instead, I figure the best way to do it would be to write a story showing a new team with theworst luck in the world, with Andrea Moda forming a good serving of the source amterial for the antics in the story.

Revelo · Post by **Revelo** » 31 Mar 2009, 01:32

I'm going to have to say Andrea Moda is my pick of the reject teams. After reading the account of them on the website I was inspired to get Perry McCarthy's book and see more of the goings on behind that shambles. it always gives me a couple of laughs when I am down. I was tempted to say Pacific due to being downright rubbish on the track but really nothing can compare to Andrea Moda.

As for reject drivers it can only be the legend himself: Jean Denis-Delatraz!

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 31 Mar 2009, 02:31

As far as teams go:

Super Aguri- They were so close to not being rejects, but then Honda said "Last year's car is not better than this year's car," and proceeded to screw Aguri Suzuki's outfit completely.

Driver:

Luca Badoer- That Mika Salo thing probably still stings him to this day.

Bleu · Post by **Bleu** » 31 Mar 2009, 10:51

I have read those profiles but I would like to choose those who I remember in action.

Team: Simtek. I liked their colours. They had huge amount of bad luck and while they started to show promise with Verstappen, they were gone.

Driver: Not necessarily my favourite, but I want to choose driver I have seen winning the race in person: Tomas Enge. While he was probably hoping to get back to F1, he failed drug test.

Yannick · Post by **Yannick** » 31 Mar 2009, 11:12

The question of who would be my favourite F1 Reject Driver is a difficult one, because when I visited Spa in 92 and 93 and Hungaroring in 95, I've seen so many of them racing in their prime.

I was still a teenager, when I saw qualifying for the Imola GP of 1994, but a regular reader of an Austrian F1 journal. Oh my, how I cried when Roland Ratzenberger died. It's making me sad again already. Luckily for me, I didn't watch the race, but went with my family to the boring birthday celebrations of a distant relative, because you all know what happened on the Sunday (RIP)

Anyway, my first memories of watching F1 on TV are from the 80s, usually Monaco, with my family, but I don't remember any drivers. Then, the TV rights went to a satellite station, and my parents didn't have satellite TV. We visited my aunt who did receive the station on the day of the 1991 Imola GP, and I was impressed by Eric Van De Poele's performance. He really would have deserved to get out of prequalifying that day.
He was very kind when I talked to him at Spa '92, having sneaked into the paddock on Thursday without a ticket, and signed an autograph. So I guess he's my favourite F1 Reject driver.

It certainly cannot be Jean-Christophe Bouillion, whose performance at Hungaroring in 95 was quite shocking to me, having been a regular Sauber supporter. It was the year that Sauber had the Ford works engine deal and they absolutely went nowhere. They were just like Jaguar that year really.
And it's hard not to name Perry McCarthy my favourite F1 Reject driver, because I was sitting at Eau Rouge on Friday afternoon, Spa 92, awaiting his arrival, knowing in advance he wouldn't come around too often. When he did, it looked kind of unimpressive from the outside because he slowed down coming up the slope, and the engine wasn't roaring at full blast. Only when I read his profile on this site, I realized the kind of precarious trouble he must have been in in that exact same moment.
Moreno in the sister car came around a little more often. So I guess Andrea Moda qualifies as my favourite F1 Reject Team.
Taki Inoue, on the other hand, is somebody who was just an extremely unlucky fella. I could have seen his legendary accident in Hungary 95 from the point where I was sitting, but didn't because at the moment, I looked elsewhere, as the front of the field was passing by my location. I didn't find out until later that he was hurt.

Super Aguri, with their overenthusiastic name, had always been a team that had "eligible to the site" written on them right from the start, having been formed at the last minute only to give the reigning Reject Of the Year a new cockpit. I was so happy when they scored their first points - and at Barcelona, the world's most overtested track at that!
Still, the historical significance of having seen Perry McCarthy drive his black Andrea Moda around Spa makes them my favourite Reject Team.

Kuwashima · Post by **Kuwashima** » 31 Mar 2009, 11:59

Yannick - what great stories. You have truly seen some of the greats moments in rejects history. Someone alive saw BOTH Perry McCarthy at Eau Rouge and Taki Inoue in Hungary? What joy!!

McLaren Racing · Post by **McLaren Racing** » 31 Mar 2009, 16:04

I tend to follow teams not drivers.

I always enjoyed Zakspeed's efforts. Although they never reached the depths of those merry band of DNPQ-ers* their failure was almost always both public and spectacular. One could almost always rely on a turbo blow-up at some stage of a race.

Except of course their glorious finale season: 30 DNPQs and 2 retirements.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 31 Mar 2009, 17:28

Andrea Moda and Life were the results of a lack of common sense from people that did not belong to racing at all resulting in short lived adventures.
To race every year with lousy machinery, to sign drivers like C.Fabi, Rothengatter, Berg, Forini, and of course the one and only Piercarlo Ghinzani, to not score a point in 6 consecutive seasons, well that is all a reject team aims to be. That is Osella!

pattav2 · Post by **pattav2** » 02 Apr 2009, 07:37

My Favourite reject team would be Andrea Moda, lack of pace, lack of organisation, lack of money, lack of everything. Then a 2nd place for me would be Life, never seemed to be a threat in Pre qualfying. and in 3rd for me would be mastercard lola, 1 grandprix and didnt race in it and that was all. Favourite reject driver would be Yugi Ide.

TomWazzleshaw · Post by **TomWazzleshaw** » 02 Apr 2009, 08:36

My favourite reject team has to be Mastercard Lola. They obviously predicted the "How not to run a Formula 1 team guide" and decided that they will follow by the rules of that book. The results were obvious. 2nd favourite reject team would have to be Forti. I mean who can't like drivable bananas? :lol:

3rd favourite would have to be Andrea Moda. Simply because even I have more management skills than that team ever had.

Favourite Driver has to be Yuji Ide. He must have been perfecting his skills in replicating Spa 98 in the drives that he did for Super Aguri. :lol:

Ben Gilbert · Post by **Ben Gilbert** » 02 Apr 2009, 09:07

I think my favouites would be Andrea Moda and Simtek, because both teams battled on against everything, before they both collapsed.

My favourite reject driver isn't mentioned on the site: David Purley, for 3 very good reasons.

1- He was in the Royal Paratroopers before he started racing in F1 (maybe the army wasn't dangerous enough?).

2- He gave up his own race in Netherlands '73 to try and save Roger Williamson, a man who he did not know, but saw burning in his car. Probably one of the saddest videos ever recorded is the footage of David trying first to turn the March back upright, and then put the fire out, while the marshals stood watching unable to help.

3- David Purley holds a record. At Silverstone in '77, his LEC (a possible reject team) chassis left the road, and slammed into the barriers. In terms of g force, this the biggest ever sports accident. The car was a write-off, and David suffered over 30 broken bones, and 6 heart stoppages, but still survived.

Plus the fact that according to someone close to him, Purley had a real talent for racing, but had no clue what was going on. He would say stuff like there was a red car coming uo behind him, before being reminded that it was a ferrari, and he should get out of its way.

ranig · Post by **ranig** » 02 Apr 2009, 11:53

My favorite driver is Riccardo Rosset, for his stupid maneuver at Monaco 98. It was so hilarous!

My favorite team is Lola 97. I love the car (and it was funny to have 2 DNQ for the 1st and only grand prix).

runningboots · Post by **runningboots** » 02 Apr 2009, 12:19

My favourite reject team/car has to be the Coloni with the Subaru flat-12 engine. The image below is rarer than footage of the Loch Ness Monster as it shows one of these travelling at speed. Note the two sidepod air ducts which usually were only seen on turbo cars.

In 1980, Ferarri knew that their flat-12 was too old and ruined the new important field of underbody aero development. The designer of their fabulous flat-12 (Carlo Chitti, below) evidently disagreed as, after producing the fabulously successful Motori Moderni V6 turbo for AGS and Minardi, decided that the flat-12 was the way to go and badged it a Subaru for Coloni. To be fair, it was probably a developed version of the 312-T series engine, with better valve springs.

I was very lucky to attend the 1989 British GP, when my friend and I got in for free and our Dads paid £30 each (yes that was the cost back then for race day access). While other fans waited for Senna, Prost and Mansell, my friend and I were very excited about seeing the rejects we read about in Autosport each week, most notably the Coloni-Subaru. We knew we might only see it come past a few times. In morning warm-up, it came round once, with smoke bellowing from the back and a sounding like a wet fart. Alas the race was not much better, and we saw it a few times before it retired. :cry:

The highlight of that race was the Minardis finishing 5th and 6th, thereby avoiding Pre-qualifying. They drew alongside each other at Becketts and Luis Perez Sala shook his fist triumphatly at Pierluigi Martini, who put his fist in the air !

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 02 Apr 2009, 15:29

Coloni-Subaru ran (?) in 1990, not in 1989, when Coloni used Cosworth engines. Moreno qualified for that race, but could not near avoid his relegation to pre-qualifying.

midgrid · Post by **midgrid** » 02 Apr 2009, 20:01

RejectSteve wrote:
rffp wrote:So my choice is Gabriele Tarquini, who drove for Osella, Coloni, AGS and Fondmetal, what an impressive curriculum! He was fast but always in awful teams with no chance at all to progress. My vote goes for his persistence and his memorable battle with the Williams of Thierry Boutsen in the dying laps of the 1989 US Grand Prix.
Don't forget his one-off drive for Tyrrell at the 1995 European GP temporarily replacing no lesser than the greatest driver grand prix racing ever produced, Ukyo Katayama.

In the teams category, Forti is my favourite reject team. I'm sure Andrea Moda or Life accomplished less, but hey, I only started to see the championship in 1994. Forti had it all in 1995, a good driver who never had a decent car (Moreno), a pay driver (Diniz), a grossly underpowered customer engine, and a car designed 3 years earlier. With such a brilliant package, Forti along with Pacific were responsible for the 107% rule, and not even Deletraz in a Larrousse could make that rule change!

The following season, they couldn't qualify their 1995 car despite another good driver (Massa, err, Badoer) and pay driver (Montermini) and once they built a 1996-spec car, their sponsor went bust and the team went under. Forti had class though, the neon green wheels of 1995 and the cars were always vibrantly painted.

Forti's my favourite reject team as well - having grown accustomed to the close-fought F1 of recent years, it's a shock to go back to 1995 and see these two cars (and the other backmarkers) up to ten seconds off the pace at some circuits. In addition to what Steve already said, I think Forti was also the last team not to be classified in a GP simply for being too slow to compete the 90% race distance cut-off point, at the 1995 San Marino Grand Prix.

As for drivers, I'll go for Jean-Denis Deletraz. Qualifying seven seconds slower than one's team-mate in modern F1 with is almost incomprehensible. Not to mention stalling on the track because you were driving so slowly!

Leachalc · Post by **Leachalc** » 03 Apr 2009, 03:45

I admit I have not read the entire forum but after skimming and listening to the podcast I am schoked no one has endorsed the now defunct Honda as the biggest reject team. The shear ammound of capital and manpower invested into that team, along with their 07/08 season results in my mind automatically put them head and shoulders above all other reject, teams raising the bar to new hights of inferiority.

Captain Hammer · Post by **Captain Hammer** » 03 Apr 2009, 04:17

Leachalc wrote:I admit I have not read the entire forum but after skimming and listening to the podcast I am schoked no one has endorsed the now defunct Honda as the biggest reject team. The shear ammound of capital and manpower invested into that team, along with their 07/08 season results in my mind automatically put them head and shoulders above all other reject, teams raising the bar to new hights of inferiority.

Except that they scored more than enough points in their three years - one hundred and six points in twenty-eight finishes, including a win and three podiums - to avoid reject status. The 2007 and 2008 campaigns may have been dismal (though Barrichello's podium at Silverstone last year is enough to avoid classification as a reject), but don't forget that Honda existed as a team in 2006 as well, and Jenson Button was one of the highest-scoring drivers in the second half of the season.

Rave BLW · Post by **Rave BLW** » 03 Apr 2009, 22:05

Well Being Canadian I have to go with Geroge Eaton he is not on web page but he did drive a BRM 13 starts 1969-71. He was part of the Famous Canadian store owner "Eaton's". Best finish was 1970 10th Canadian GP driving the 3rd Yardley
Team BRM,

thehemogoblin · Post by **thehemogoblin** » 04 Apr 2009, 04:09

Leachalc wrote:I admit I have not read the entire forum but after skimming and listening to the podcast I am schoked no one has endorsed the now defunct Honda as the biggest reject team. The shear ammound of capital and manpower invested into that team, along with their 07/08 season results in my mind automatically put them head and shoulders above all other reject, teams raising the bar to new hights of inferiority.

You do know they won a race, right?

Life w12 · Post by **Life w12** » 04 Apr 2009, 07:04

My favorite reject driver would be Danny Ongais, who raced in 6 grand prix from 1977-1978. Ongais raced everything from top fuel dragsters, motorcycles, indy cars, sports cars and he was usually good at it too as he won the 1964 NHRA Winternationals in AA/Gas dragster, he won many races in Mickey Thompson's Mustang Funny Cars in the late 60's and early 70's he won the 1979 Daytona 24 hours and in 1996, he replaced the fatally injured Scott Brayton in the Indy 500 and despite starting in the back he finished 7th. He was one of the most universally gifted racers of all time

CarlosFerreira · Post by **CarlosFerreira** » 04 Apr 2009, 12:14

As for Reject team, MastercardLola takes some beating. Talk about afterthought - they simply raced a year before their time. AndreaModa is interesting as well, with the owner being first shot at in Italy, arrested during the GP for fraud, the team trying to kill Percy, etc.

For drivers, I'm picking up Pedro Lamy. Extremely gifted, as he went on to show everywhere he raced (Le Mans, LMS, GT Series, Sebring, 'Ring - he won them all!), but Lotus and Minardi just didn't provide.

rffp · Post by **rffp** » 04 Apr 2009, 22:20

CarlosFerreira wrote:For drivers, I'm picking up Pedro Lamy. Extremely gifted, as he went on to show everywhere he raced (Le Mans, LMS, GT Series, Sebring, 'Ring - he won them all!), but Lotus and Minardi just didn't provide.

By the way, talking about reject drivers and races, which was the race in F3000 that Lamy was in the lead and started celebrating the victory one lap before the end, hence giving the victory on Olivier Panis' lap?

CarlosFerreira · Post by **CarlosFerreira** » 05 Apr 2009, 10:54

rffp wrote:
CarlosFerreira wrote:For drivers, I'm picking up Pedro Lamy. Extremely gifted, as he went on to show everywhere he raced (Le Mans, LMS, GT Series, Sebring, 'Ring - he won them all!), but Lotus and Minardi just didn't provide.

By the way, talking about reject drivers and races, which was the race in F3000 that Lamy was in the lead and started celebrating the victory one lap before the end, hence giving the victory on Olivier Panis' lap?

Did that really happen? Wow! I know Pedro lost out the F3000 champ to Panis because he effectively lost it to go into Lotus, substituting Zanardi, who got hurt in a big off in Spa - I think.

Henrique · Post by **Henrique** » 05 Apr 2009, 22:54

My favorite reject team is Forti. Although, back in their days, I followed the fight at the top, Forti was that team that I always checked to see if they finished or if they scored points. For me, they were like that lower division football club that you support. I just liked their yellow cars and their full Brazilian driver line-up. Just a few years ago, when I played EA Sports F1 game, I spent quite a long time looking for a custom season package with their yellow cars.

My favorite reject driver is Pedro Lamy. I supported him 100% when he was in F1 and I still think he's the best Portuguese driver out there, although I have high hopes for Álvaro Parente.

Carlos, according to Wikipedia (and my memory of the events), he did finish his F3000 season against Panis, which Panis won by just one point. I remember the last race, when both of them had a problem at the start of the race. They both pitted, Pedro Lamy returned to the track, although at a large distance from scoring any points, while Panis had something more serious. I still remember Panis trying to go "Piquet-Salazar" on a mechanic, but someone held his arms.

CarlosFerreira · Post by **CarlosFerreira** » 05 Apr 2009, 23:10

Henrique wrote:Carlos, according to Wikipedia (and my memory of the events), he did finish his F3000 season against Panis, which Panis won by just one point. I remember the last race, when both of them had a problem at the start of the race. They both pitted, Pedro Lamy returned to the track, although at a large distance from scoring any points, while Panis had something more serious. I still remember Panis trying to go "Piquet-Salazar" on a mechanic, but someone held his arms.

You're right, I remember that. Heard the race in my father's car - so, so long ago... I seem to remember Pedro went into F1 and lost out a race or two - or am I confusing him with someone else?

lefturn99 · Post by **lefturn99** » 11 Apr 2009, 03:57

Life w12 wrote:My favorite reject driver would be Danny Ongais, who raced in 6 grand prix from 1977-1978. Ongais raced everything from top fuel dragsters, motorcycles, indy cars, sports cars and he was usually good at it too as he won the 1964 NHRA Winternationals in AA/Gas dragster, he won many races in Mickey Thompson's Mustang Funny Cars in the late 60's and early 70's he won the 1979 Daytona 24 hours and in 1996, he replaced the fatally injured Scott Brayton in the Indy 500 and despite starting in the back he finished 7th. He was one of the most universally gifted racers of all time

Danny On The Gas! One of my all time favorites. In an era of brave drivers, he was as brave as any. One of the great characters of racing.