Grand Prix Rejects

Izzyeviel wrote:I liked Ralf, he was a decent enough driver. But at Jordan he was the next big thing and whilst I know he won races at Williams, I don't remember any of them or his other performances. The only 2 drives I can recall are the two at Indy where he certainly made a big impact. I have no idea when he joined Toyota. 2004? 2007?

Speaking of Toyota - did Zonta drive for them at some point?

Ralf joined Trulli at Toyota in 2005. And Zonta did indeed drive for them briefly, taking da Matta's place towards the end of 2004, and was brought in to substitute for Ralf after practice in Indy 2005 before, well, you know...

Izzyeviel wrote:Speaking of Toyota - did Zonta drive for them at some point?

Yes he did! But don't ask me when.

This wrote:

Izzyeviel wrote:Speaking of Toyota - did Zonta drive for them at some point?

Yes he did! But don't ask me when.

I did remember that, but when I started looking for his results for Toyota, I noticed that he drove 2 races for Jordan in 2001. Does anyone remember that?

I remember Spa 2004, when Zonta's engine blew up while he was in 4th place Some things are too terrible to forget...

Rob Dylan wrote:I remember Spa 2004, when Zonta's engine blew up while he was in 4th place Some things are too terrible to forget...

It was a very mad race, Antonio Pizzonia of all people was looking at a podium finish before his gearbox packed in.

Speaking of which, Pizzonia's time at Williams was quite forgettable wasn't it?

Izzyeviel wrote:Speaking of Toyota - did Zonta drive for them at some point?

Yes. He was the TD for a while, and when Cristiano da Matta dared criticise the team for building a dud car, he was sacked and Zonta was drafted in immediately. They then picked up Trulli who had been sacked by Flav mid-season, so Zonta went back to the bench, only to be almost immediately recalled when Panis retired with a race to spare in the season. So Toyota managed to finish 2004 with a completely different lineup to which they started, and strangely enough with their lead driver going into the season finishing it as a test & reserve driver.

Zonta also had a bit of a paradoxial call-up the following year - he was Ralf's mid-weekend replacement at Indy, but Ralf's accident was what really brought the integrity of the Michelin tyre into question and thus caused his DNS.

Ghinzani drove a Toleman!

Izzyeviel wrote:Ghinzani drove a Toleman!

Yes indeed, he drove cars that weren't an Osella a couple of times, including a Ligier and a Zakspeed! Still, his name will forever be associated with Osella, like Martini to Minardi.

Izzyeviel wrote:Ghinzani drove a Toleman!

Similarly: Martini drove a Toleman!

I completely forgot that Charles Pic was in F1, let alone the fact he drove for Marussia and Caterham

I only remembered this one when going through random Wikipedia articles.

Manfred Winkelhock apparently competed in the 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix for Brabham. He finished tenth.

I had forgotten that Gianni Morbidelli had driven for Sauber until I read it again in the "This Day in Reject History" thread.

dr-baker wrote:I had forgotten that Gianni Morbidelli had driven for Sauber until I read it again in the "This Day in Reject History" thread.

Nicola Larini at some point also drove for Sauber.

Miguel98 wrote:

dr-baker wrote:I had forgotten that Gianni Morbidelli had driven for Sauber until I read it again in the "This Day in Reject History" thread.

Nicola Larini at some point also drove for Sauber.

Same year too. Pretty much anyone in the #17 car in 1997 seems to have been forgotten.

Miguel98 wrote:

dr-baker wrote:I had forgotten that Gianni Morbidelli had driven for Sauber until I read it again in the "This Day in Reject History" thread.

Nicola Larini at some point also drove for Sauber.

He even scored a point!

This wrote:

Miguel98 wrote:

dr-baker wrote:I had forgotten that Gianni Morbidelli had driven for Sauber until I read it again in the "This Day in Reject History" thread.

Nicola Larini at some point also drove for Sauber.

He even scored a point!

Between the pair of them, they scored one point all year!

The German Markus Winkelhock who raced for Spyker F1 in 2007...I doubt any of you guys remember him. xD

He was a test driver for Midland in 2006 and later got a one race drive with Spyker at the 2007 European GP.

ChequeredFlagNope wrote:The German Markus Winkelhock who raced for Spyker F1 in 2007...I doubt any of you guys remember him. xD

He was a test driver for Midland in 2006 and later got a one race drive with Spyker at the 2007 European GP.

Indeed. He did one race for them, was miles off the pace in qualifying and was even further away from anybody in the race, eventually going out with a hydraulics problem.

Simtek wrote:

ChequeredFlagNope wrote:The German Markus Winkelhock who raced for Spyker F1 in 2007...I doubt any of you guys remember him. xD

He was a test driver for Midland in 2006 and later got a one race drive with Spyker at the 2007 European GP.

Indeed. He did one race for them, was miles off the pace in qualifying and was even further away from anybody in the race, eventually going out with a hydraulics problem.

Of course. I don't recall the bloke doing anything else of note in that race weekend. Seemed a bit hopeless in the rain, though.

Wait what?

This is GP Rejects, we ought to only be interested in the back of the grid. For Winkelhock to be forgettable by us, he must have been a race leader in his only race...

dr-baker wrote:This is GP Rejects, we ought to only be interested in the back of the grid. For Winkelhock to be forgettable by us, he must have been a race leader in his only race...

Race leader mostly by default... Those pit overtakes must of been hard....

I remember Larini standing in at Ferrari when Alesi was injured in 1994, of course taking the podium in the tragic Imola race, but I had completely forgotten he also did a couple of races at the end of 1992, when Capelli was sacked.

MorbidelliObese wrote:I remember Larini standing in at Ferrari when Alesi was injured in 1994, of course taking the podium in the tragic Imola race, but I had completely forgotten he also did a couple of races at the end of 1992, when Capelli was sacked.

To continue the Larini/Morbidelli saga, Morbidelli also had a brief stint for the Scuderia, driving in the place of Prost when he was sacked. He scored a point though. (well, half-a-point).

Miguel98 wrote:

MorbidelliObese wrote:I remember Larini standing in at Ferrari when Alesi was injured in 1994, of course taking the podium in the tragic Imola race, but I had completely forgotten he also did a couple of races at the end of 1992, when Capelli was sacked.

To continue the Larini/Morbidelli saga, Morbidelli also had a brief stint for the Scuderia, driving in the place of Prost when he was sacked. He scored a point though. (well, half-a-point).

That's another one although personally I very much do remember that one as that's the race he became my 2nd favourite driver he was actually up to third behind Senna and Piquet after Mansell and Berger both binned it and he got by Patrese somewhere, but the whole countback rule when a race is red-flagged put him back to sixth.

You guys are here talking about anonymous F1 stints for drivers, but as for teams?….

…I forgot Midland was even a word multiple times, let alone its existence in Formula One.

WaffleCat wrote:You guys are here talking about anonymous F1 stints for drivers, but as for teams?….

…I forgot Midland was even a word multiple times, let alone its existence in Formula One.

When it comes to teams, you could say a lot of teams that never once made the grid would qualify for anonymous, but we obviously know all about them

Izzyeviel wrote:I liked Ralf, he was a decent enough driver. But at Jordan he was the next big thing and whilst I know he won races at Williams, I don't remember any of them or his other performances. The only 2 drives I can recall are the two at Indy where he certainly made a big impact. I have no idea when he joined Toyota. 2004? 2007?

Speaking of Toyota - did Zonta drive for them at some point?

Was test driver in 2004 and 2005 Replaced Da Matta from Hungary on until Japan and was TD in '05

WaffleCat wrote:You guys are here talking about anonymous F1 stints for drivers, but as for teams?….

…I forgot Midland was even a word multiple times, let alone its existence in Formula One.

The only thing I can remember about them is that their drivers collided in successive races. Arguably the dullest Formula 1 team that has ever existed, and given that they competed when Toyota was around, that takes some doing.

Maybe i'm still a little bitter, as Jordan are/were my favourite Formula 1 team of all time, and it was sad to see the end of them.

I do recall Monteiro crashing a lot that year. Literally the only thing I remember about that team, Monteiro crashing every other race.

FullMetalJack wrote:

Rob Dylan wrote:I remember Spa 2004, when Zonta's engine blew up while he was in 4th place Some things are too terrible to forget...

It was a very mad race, Antonio Pizzonia of all people was looking at a podium finish before his gearbox packed in.

Speaking of which, Pizzonia's time at Williams was quite forgettable wasn't it?

Well, he crashed with Montoya while trying to unlap himself in the 2005 Belgian Grand Prix. I remember Ron Dennis getting mad in the pit wall. Not only this but this crash helped a bit Alonso in that year.

Sebastien Bourdais actually had already done testing for Arrows all the way back in 2002 (about a week before they went bankrupt) before he became a Toro Rosso driver 6 years later and did all those interesting things that he did.

Gaston Mazzacane, Ricardo Pizzonia...

el_chasco wrote:Gaston Mazzacane, Ricardo Pizzonia...

So anonymous that you forgot that Pizzonia's first name is actually Antonio?

Two that I used to think were so anonymous I actually think about them quite regularly now are Thomas Enge and Nicholas Kiesa.

AndreaModa wrote:Two that I used to think were so anonymous I actually think about them quite regularly now are Thomas Enge and Nicholas Kiesa.

Tomas Enge, didn't he lose his superlicence for a while becuase he tested positive for Cannabis?

AdrianSutil wrote:

AndreaModa wrote:Two that I used to think were so anonymous I actually think about them quite regularly now are Thomas Enge and Nicholas Kiesa.

Tomas Enge, didn't he lose his superlicence for a while becuase he tested positive for Cannabis?

Yes he did. He was also stripped of the 2002 F3000 title because of it, as he was disqualified from the Hungarian round, which he'd won. The 10 points lost put him in third.

Rob Dylan wrote:Sebastien Bourdais actually had already done testing for Arrows all the way back in 2002 (about a week before they went bankrupt) before he became a Toro Rosso driver 6 years later and did all those interesting things that he did.

It was in Valencia in July. I remember it well, I was there. He was impressive, very good feedback but it would have taken a lot more testing for him to adapt to a then-current Formula 1 car. He just didn't commit sufficiently in braking and corner turn-in.

Anthony Davidson in 2002. Brought in to replace Yoong who couldn't qualify, and Anthony himself couldn't finish. And on that note, I might also add Anthony Davidson 2005, Anthony Davidson 2007 and Anthony Davidson 2008.

Rob Dylan wrote:Anthony Davidson in 2002. Brought in to replace Yoong who couldn't qualify, and Anthony himself couldn't finish. And on that note, I might also add Anthony Davidson 2005, Anthony Davidson 2007 and Anthony Davidson 2008.

Not really for 07-08 because:
a. Bahrain 2007: Davidson was in SIXTH place with laps to go before the damn engine let go :'(
b. Other 2007 occassions
c. 2008: Because the team collapsed (or tricked?)