This Day in Reject History

[Bobby Doorknobs]

I was out all day, so yeah...

November 18th

2012 - Bruno Senna scored the last point of his F1 career in Austin, finishing in 10th, less than a second behind his Williams teammate Pastor Maldonado.

November 19th

1981 - The LottererLegend was born.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 20th

1960 - Bob Drake, the last driver profiled by F1 Rejects, drove in his only Grand Prix at Riverside. He finished 13th in a Maserati 250F, the final race for one of the most legendary racing cars of the 1950s.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 21st

2014 - GP3 reject Adderly Fong drove in the opening practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for Sauber. He was second slowest, beating only Caterham's Will Stevens, who was making his Grand Prix début after Marcus Ericsson had left the team.

[AdrianBelmonte_]

November 21st

2014 - GP3 reject Adderly Fong drove in the opening practice session of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix for Sauber. He was second slowest, beating only Caterham's Will Stevens, who was making his Grand Prix début after Marcus Ericsson had left the team.

GP3 reject and a huge fan of Eminem, as i could see on his liked videos on his Youtube channel

#NotRelevantStuff

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 22nd

1934 - Jackie Pretorius was born. One of many South Africans to race in his home Grand Prix and not much else besides, Jackie was one of only a few drivers from his part of the world to actually race for one of the European teams that came to visit every year. He was relatively successful in the South African F1 Championship, achieving two wins with a Brabham in 1971. After three previous attempts as a privateer and with Team Gunston, Jackie got a drive with Frank Williams for the 1973 SAGP. He was the slowest in qualifying, around 2.5 seconds slower than his teammate Howden Ganley. However, he was able to stay ahead of the Kiwi for much of the race, until he dropped out after 35 laps. Jackie Pretorius died in 2009 after being in a coma for three weeks following an attack in his home. He was 74.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 23rd

2014 - The final race for Fondmetal Team Malaysia, aka Caterham. For their swansong they effectively did what March did in the 1992 Canadian Grand Prix by putting a boatload of small sponsors on their car. Kobayashi retired from the race at a fairly late stage, while rookie Will Stevens drove well to finish 17th and, well, last. He was only a lap down though, and he also gave us an amusing moment by overtaking Fernando Alonso on the back straight. This was also the last we saw of two reject drivers: Jean-Éric Vergne and Esteban Gutiérrez, though as of the time of writing Gutiérrez is contracted to drive for Haas in 2016.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 24th

2013 - The Brazilian Grand Prix marked the final race for Caterham teammates Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde, the former having since found a new home in Formula E while the latter has not been doing an awful lot other than sign a race contract with a team that can't count how many drivers they have. It was also the race that saw Max Chilton succeed where the likes of Tiago Monteiro and Heikki Kovalainen failed by becoming the first driver to finish every race in his rookie season. Such a feat requires true talent.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 25th

2012 - Another Brazilian Grand Prix that marked the final race for a number of drivers, as well as a team. Only one of these drivers was a reject however, and that was Bruno Senna, who was eliminated in a first lap collision with Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Pérez. If this had not happened, the race would likely not have been lauded as a classic title showdown, certainly not to the degree it was in reality. Further back, HRT also raced their last race. As usual, they were well behind even the Caterhams and Marussias and filled the last row on the grid. The team had to secure a buyer by the end of the month if they were to have any hope of continuing. Sadly, this never happened, and this meant it would be the final race for the Spanish team and their drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa.

[Rob Dylan]

November 25th

2012 - Another Brazilian Grand Prix that marked the final race for a number of drivers, as well as a team. Only one of these drivers was a reject however, and that was Bruno Senna, who was eliminated in a first lap collision with Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Pérez. If this had not happened, the race would likely not have been lauded as a classic title showdown, certainly not to the degree it was in reality. Further back, HRT also raced their last race. As usual, they were well behind even the Caterhams and Marussias and filled the last row on the grid. The team had to secure a buyer by the end of the month if they were to have any hope of continuing. Sadly, this never happened, and this meant it would be the final race for the Spanish team and their drivers Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa.

De la Rosa did do a testing stint for Ferrari in the beginning of 2013 as well. Man, that guy can stretch out a career

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 26th

1953 - Desiré Wilson, the only woman to win a Formula One race (in the Aurora series) was born.

[dr-baker]

November 26th

1953 - Desiré Wilson, the only woman to win a Formula One race (in the Aurora series) was born.

[UncreativeUsername37]

November 26th

1953 - Desiré Wilson, the only woman to win a Formula One race (in the Aurora series) was born.

You've got so predictable you're parodying yourself. "This post mentions a female racing driver. I will express a simple and positive opinion."

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 27th

2011 - While Rubens Barrichello was celebrating his kind-of-maybe-the-team-haven't-made-an-announcement-yet-but-I've-got-a-special-helmet-design-which-is-nice 326th and final Grand Prix, it was also the last race for a driver who came closer than most to unrejectification, and even in this race out-qualified his future race-winning teammate Daniel Ricciardo. He was formerly a member of Red Bull's infamous young driver programme, the last ever champion of International Formula 3000 and, more importantly, 2010 Reject of the Year. I am of course referring to Vitantonio "Tonio" Liuzzi! Despite still having a contract with HRT Liuzzi was dropped in favour of Narain Karthikeyan before the beginning of the 2012 season. With Jarno Trulli also being shown the door at Caterham during pre-season testing this meant that the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix also marked the last of 626 consecutive races with at least one Italian driver, a streak that goes all the way back to the 1973 Austrian Grand Prix. No Italian driver has raced in F1 since, a sad state of affairs as the home of Ferrari has had the second highest number of reject drivers (not counting American Indy 500 drivers in the '50s) behind the UK.

Oh yeah, and some race winners and world champions

[AndreaModa]

Does anyone know how many consecutive races there's been with a British driver in F1? Does it beat the Italian record?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Does anyone know how many consecutive races there's been with a British driver in F1? Does it beat the Italian record?

It quite easily beats the Italian record! Out of the 934 World Championship Grands Prix, only 14 of them didn't have a British driver on the grid: The 11 Indy 500s, the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix and the 1951 Belgian and Spanish Grands Prix, and even in the case of the latter three there was at least one British driver on the entry list. So that's every race since the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix counting the Indy 500, every race since the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix not counting it, or every single race since the championship began if you just go by entry lists (and again, discrediting the Indy 500).

[AndreaModa]

Crikey, that is impressive. I imagined that perhaps in the lean years of the late 70s/early 80s there might have been a race or two where none were present. Clearly not!

[Rob Dylan]

My immediate reaction was to look up those 2 BAR races where Button and Sato were excluded, but then I remembered Coulthard was driving the Red Bull those races. I shortly thereafter remembered that I posted up most of Coulthard's Red Bull stint onto the "Most Anonymous Stints" thread.

[Izzyeviel]

Does anyone know how many consecutive races there's been with a British driver in F1? Does it beat the Italian record?

It quite easily beats the Italian record! Out of the 934 World Championship Grands Prix, only 14 of them didn't have a British driver on the grid: The 11 Indy 500s, the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix and the 1951 Belgian and Spanish Grands Prix, and even in the case of the latter three there was at least one British driver on the entry list. So that's every race since the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix counting the Indy 500, every race since the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix not counting it, or every single race since the championship began if you just go by entry lists (and again, discrediting the Indy 500).

No British drivers started the 2005 United States GP. Have there been others where a British driver has qualified but not started?

[novitopoli]

Does anyone know how many consecutive races there's been with a British driver in F1? Does it beat the Italian record?

It quite easily beats the Italian record! Out of the 934 World Championship Grands Prix, only 14 of them didn't have a British driver on the grid: The 11 Indy 500s, the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix and the 1951 Belgian and Spanish Grands Prix, and even in the case of the latter three there was at least one British driver on the entry list. So that's every race since the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix counting the Indy 500, every race since the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix not counting it, or every single race since the championship began if you just go by entry lists (and again, discrediting the Indy 500).

No British drivers started the 2005 United States GP. Have there been others where a British driver has qualified but not started?

Well, no Italian drivers started either...

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Does anyone know how many consecutive races there's been with a British driver in F1? Does it beat the Italian record?

It quite easily beats the Italian record! Out of the 934 World Championship Grands Prix, only 14 of them didn't have a British driver on the grid: The 11 Indy 500s, the 1950 Swiss Grand Prix and the 1951 Belgian and Spanish Grands Prix, and even in the case of the latter three there was at least one British driver on the entry list. So that's every race since the 1960 Dutch Grand Prix counting the Indy 500, every race since the 1952 Swiss Grand Prix not counting it, or every single race since the championship began if you just go by entry lists (and again, discrediting the Indy 500).

No British drivers started the 2005 United States GP. Have there been others where a British driver has qualified but not started?

In the case of drivers participating in a Grand Prix but not making it as far as the start there is only (along with Indy '05) the 1980 Monaco Grand Prix, where, due to Monaco's then-infamous reduced grid size, there were plenty of DNQs, including all three British drivers entered for the event (John Watson, Geoff Lees and Tiff Needell).

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 28th

2014 - Carlos Sainz, Jr. was announced to be Max Verstappen's teammate at Toro Rosso.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 29th

1975 - 23-year-old Tony Brise, considered one of the great lost talents of the 1970s, lost his life in a plane crash along with five other members of the Embassy Hill team: Team founder and former two-time World Champion Graham Hill, Andy Smallman the chassis designer, team manager Ray Brimble and two mechanics, Terry Richards and Tony Alcock. With the team now consisting only of the deputy team manager and two mechanics it was deemed impossible to continue, putting an end to the fledgling outfit.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

November 30th

1935 - Trevor Blokdyk was born. His Formula One participations, like most South African F1 drivers, consisted entirely of entries in his home race, but he did race elsewhere. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he raced speedway bikes only to switch to cars in 1962. He had a successful Formula Junior career and also achieved good results in Formula Three before returning to South Africa before the end of the decade. He retired and became a farmer, but died of a heart attack in 1995, aged 59.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 1st

1948 - Guy Tunmer, yet another South African reject, was born. Unlike Trevor Blokdyk, he never really competed outside of his home country. His F1 career consists of one start at the 1975 South African GP in a Team Gunston-entered Lotus 72. He suffered a violent crash in practice, but recovered and by some miracle he managed to haul the five-year-old car from 25th on the grid to 11th out of 15 finishers by the chequered flag. He was killed in a motorcycle accident in Johannesburg in 1999, aged 50.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 2nd

1930 - David Piper was born. He achieved little success in the world of single-seater racing, which included three World Championship F1 outings in a Lotus 16 in 1959-60 and a best result of 12th. He moved on to sportscars where he was more successful, becoming known for driving cars with a distinctive green livery. He lost part of a leg in a crash at the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, during the shooting of the famous Steve McQueen film, Le Mans.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 3rd

1932 - Prince Gaetano Starrabba di Giardinelli, an aristocratic racing driver, was born. Gaetano Starrabba's F1 career lasted all of 19 laps, as the Maserati Tipo 6 engine powering the Italian prince's Lotus 18 gave up after less than half distance in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix. He also drove the same car in a number of non-championship races over the next two years before concentrating more on sportscars. He retired from motor racing in 1969.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 4th

1965 - Peter de Klerk finished second in the Rand Grand Prix at the wheel of a Brabham, just under six seconds down the road from race winner Jack Brabham. Joining them on the podium would be fellow reject Paul Hawkins in a Reg Parnell-entered Lotus.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 5th

1917 - Ken Downing was born. He began racing in a Healey at the age of 21, and would compete in sportscar events for much of the next 15 years, the most successful of which was 1951, when he won 17 races at the wheel of a Connaught. He switched to single seaters in 1952, the year he also made his first World Championship start at Silverstone driving a Connaught Type A. He finished 9th after running as high as 4th before spinning while lapping a backmarker. That same year he also won the Madgwick Cup at Goodwood and came within several metres of winning the Grand Prix des Frontières at Chimay, only to lose out to Paul Frère at the finish. He made one more World Championship start at Zandvoort (a DNF) before getting an Aston Martin DB3S for 1953 and then retiring a short time later. He emigrated to South Africa in 1955 and later lived in Monaco, where he died in 2004, aged 86.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 5th

1982 - While she doesn't fulfil the criteria for F1 reject status, she is still a DTM reject and a British F3 reject if we apply the same criteria to those two series. Also, she is the first woman to have taken part in a Grand Prix weekend since an actual F1 reject (Giovanna Amati) did so in 1992. So I suppose it is somewhat fitting that I use this thread to wish Susie Wolff a happy 33rd birthday.

[novitopoli]

December 7th

1925 - Hermano "Nano" Da Silva Ramos was born in Paris. The Franco-Brazilian driver was lined up in 7 races for the Gordini works team between 1955 and 1956. He actually came quite close to unrejectify himself, with a best finish of 5th in the 1956 Monaco GP, and became thus the Brazilian driver with most points in Formula 1 for fourteen years, 'till a certain Emerson Fittipaldi debuted...

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 8th

2011 - The Lotus name saga got even more confusing even after Fondmetal Team Malaysia changed their name to Caterham, as Renault formally announced the adoption of the Lotus name.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 9th

1936 - Dutch Olympic clay pigeon shooter, vintner and of course, F1 reject Ben Pon was born in Amersfoort. The son of the first car dealer to sell Volkswagens outside of Germany, after whom he was named, Pon was a personal friend of the eccentric Carel Godin de Beaufort and even drove for the nobleman's Ecurie Maarsbergen in the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix. This would prove to be Pon's only Grand Prix start, as he spectacularly flipped his Porsche 787 and was thrown from the car, vowing never to race single seaters again as a result, going on to have a successful sports car career instead. Since retiring from professional driving in 1965, Ben Pon has represented the Netherlands in clay pigeon shooting in he Munich Olympics in 1972 and has been working in the wine trade, owning a winery in California and the oldest wine negotiating business in the Netherlands.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 10th

2010 - Jacques Swaters, an F1 reject who competed between 1951 and 1954 and founded Ecurie Francorchamps, which was merged with Johnny Claes' Ecurie Belge to become Ecurie Nationale Belge, died aged 84.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 11th

1959 - Definitely one of the more rejectful qualifying sessions in F1, as Harry Schell got away with cutting a substantial part of the Sebring track on a hot lap, allowing him to gain six seconds of time and getting him on the front row of the grid. Meanwhile, Rodger Ward was forced to eat his own words, as the Indy 500 winner qualified last after boasting of how he was going to beat the superior European Formula One cars, including the dominant rear-engined Coopers, with a front-engined Kurtis Kraft Midget.

I mean look at it!

[golic_2004]

*points and laughs at the car*

[dinizintheoven]

I hope those words tasted good with tons of plastic cheese, pancake syrup and A.1. Steak Sauce, Rog. Yeeeeeeee-haaaaaaaaaaaw!

(Disclaimer: I have nothing against the above products... I just wouldn't put them all together on the same pile of words.)

[novitopoli]

December 12th

1948 - Roelof Wunderink was born in Eindhoven. The Dutch driver had 6 outings for Ensign during the 1975 season: three DNQs, two DNFs and one NC were everything he could achieve. His F1 path was also hampered by a Formula 5000 crash: to add insult to injury, his fellow countryman Gijs van Lennep managed to finish all of the three races he replaced Wunderink in, even scoring a point in Germany. After this season, and despite his personal sponsor, HB Bewaking, personally fielding the Ensign N175 chassis under the Boro name, Wunderink fully retired from motorsport. According to some sources, he cut all ties with Formula 1 and isn't willing to speak much about those times.

[novitopoli]

December 13th

1945 - Brian McGuire was born in East Melbourne. The Australian driver tried to take part in the British GP twice: in 1976, when he was listed as a reserve entry with a privateer Williams FW04, and in 1977, when he failed to prequalify driving a McGuire MG1, which wasn't anything other than a modified version of his FW04 he had worked on during the winter. Sadly, he was killed later that year at Brands Hatch, while driving his own self-made car.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 14th

2011 - Scuderia Toro Rosso controversially announced the departures of both Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari at a time some felt was too late for either of them to secure a drive for 2012. Alguersuari in particular had shown signs of improvement during the 2011 season and at his young age the 21-year-old could surely improve in the future. Alguersuari spent the next couple of seasons trying to find a way back onto the grid, which hindered his racing career and eventually left him bitter and disillusioned with the sport, giving up on motor racing altogether after a rather lacklustre season in Formula E. It hasn't been so bad for Buemi though, with the Swiss driver getting a spot on Toyota's WEC lineup, going on to take the Drivers' Championship with Anthony Davidson in 2014. He is also currently a frontrunner in Formula E, almost taking the championship in the category's first season and is favourite to win the title this season. And he still has some connection with the world of Formula One, as he is currently Red Bull's reserve driver.

[Bobby Doorknobs]

December 15th

1962 - Gary Hocking showed what he could do in a racing car by finishing fourth in the Rand Grand Prix in Rob Walker's old Lotus 24 after starting eleventh, and a lap down on race winner Jim Clark in the newer 25 model. We didn't get to see what more the former motorcycle world champion could do though, as he was killed six days later practicing for the Natal Grand Prix. He was only 25.