Top 10 Unwanted Formula 1 Records

[John S]

Andrea de Cesaris makes list 3 times & Brundle has his own dubious honour.       

[Irisado]

Thanks John, that's a good video.

I wonder about one of the facts though.  Apicella is frequently cited as having the shortest ever Grand Prix career, but I am sure that there are drivers who only ever entered a single race, which they failed to qualify for, or failed to start, so surely they would beat him?  I'll have to investigate further.

The video is also rather unkind to Brundle and De Cesaris.  When Brundle drove for McLaren and Williams the cars had no chance of winning a race.  The 1988 Williams was awful, and he only drove in one race deputising for Mansell, while the 1994 McLaren was the only fourth best car most of the time, and had Peugeot engines.....

De Cesaris drove for McLaren in 1980 when the car was terrible, while the 1991 Jordan was a good car, but didn't have the pace to challenge for wins.

As for Inoue, they forgot to mention that his car was also rammed and flipped over by the safety car at the end of a practice session at the 1995 Monaco Grand Prix while being recovered from the track after suffering a mechanical failure during the session, so he had two incidents with the safety car !

[John S]

Glad you liked it Irisado, F1 does seem to have a long, fascinating list of tales of woe.

My thought on Apicella is that he actually took part in a GP race for the shortest and only time, now others may have had less time in a GP car at a track with DNQ - but does that count as a GP career?    Surely starting at least one race must be a prerequisite for it to be stated as a career, anything else would fall under the wannabe or reject GP racer heading. 

Some drivers get the cars they deserve, both Brundle & de Cesaris fall into that category as far as I'm concerned.     

[Irisado]

I am pretty sure that actually taking part in a qualifying session counts, so all those who made it into an official qualifying session ought to count.  This would include pre-qualifying in the late 1980s and early 1990s, although those who took part in such sessions invariably did so on multiple occasions without getting through, so wouldn't be eligible.

For those who actually started a race, however, Apicella has the shortest career of anyone, that is a fact.

Regarding De Cesaris and Brundle, neither were world champions in the making, but they were at the top end of midfield performers.  You could also argue quite convincingly that De Cesaris had a pretty good car when he drove for Jordan, and could have won on two occasions, once driving for Alfa Romeo at the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix, that race where it rained at the end, and everyone started running out of fuel, and the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix, when he was closing in on Senna's ailing McLaren for the lead when the Jordan's Cosworth engine failed.

[Scott]

Nice to see Maldo already made the list.   

[cosworth151]

Good one, John. Thanks!

Not only that, it helped with the Advent clue today.