Bad British F1 Drivers
Discussion
Life Saab Itch said:
This.
Gifted an F2 title by being followed by the fastest man of the time in the best car the formula had ever seen.
Some crap drives in some crap F1 cars followed, but Uncle Ken stuck by him u ntil Alesi came along and blew him out of the water.
?
If you're ever in earshot of him, probably best not to mention the Lancia rally car test....
Didn't palmer win the f1 normally aspirated trophy for drivers in '87 or '88?Gifted an F2 title by being followed by the fastest man of the time in the best car the formula had ever seen.
Some crap drives in some crap F1 cars followed, but Uncle Ken stuck by him u ntil Alesi came along and blew him out of the water.
?
If you're ever in earshot of him, probably best not to mention the Lancia rally car test....
woof said:
bebee said:
Anthony Davidson
Allan McNish
What ???Allan McNish
Alan McNish - is right at the top of the ladder. Look was he's achieved with Audi.
Any Davidson is another top driver - just didn't get the breaks.
Anthony Davidson never impressed me, Button was clearly better.
Eric Mc said:
freedman said:
Martin Donnelly
Kenny Acheson
Tommy Byrne
Not quite British I guess but none the less
Donelly and Acheson were/are British.Kenny Acheson
Tommy Byrne
Not quite British I guess but none the less
Tommy had other problems which dented his capabilities.
The man has bigger balls than you, I'll wager. Although he never returned to F1 he got back into racing as soon as he was fit, and more recently has done regular demonstration laps at Goodwood and Cholmondeley in the rebuilt and restored Lotus that nearly killed him in the late Eighties.
bebee said:
woof said:
bebee said:
Anthony Davidson
Allan McNish
What ???Allan McNish
Alan McNish - is right at the top of the ladder. Look was he's achieved with Audi.
Any Davidson is another top driver - just didn't get the breaks.
Anthony Davidson never impressed me, Button was clearly better.
However, this is a thread about bad F1 drivers and whilst he wasn't world championship-status he could hustle the thing fairly well. His Friday sessions in the Honda indicated he knew which pedals to press.
He certainly wasn't Chanock Nissany anyway.
DanDC5 said:
Munter said:
Tiff wasn't the best was he?
Tiff never really had a chance though to be fair, 2 races in a the worst car on the grid, the 1st being at Monaco were never a fair crack at it, especially give the guys he used to beat in other formula who went on to F1.Twincam16 said:
And IIRC Donnolly wasn't a bad driver - it's just that he had that awful accident not long into his career that put him out of contention.
The man has bigger balls than you, I'll wager. Although he never returned to F1 he got back into racing as soon as he was fit, and more recently has done regular demonstration laps at Goodwood and Cholmondeley in the rebuilt and restored Lotus that nearly killed him in the late Eighties.
A couple of points;The man has bigger balls than you, I'll wager. Although he never returned to F1 he got back into racing as soon as he was fit, and more recently has done regular demonstration laps at Goodwood and Cholmondeley in the rebuilt and restored Lotus that nearly killed him in the late Eighties.
The accident was in the nineties,not the eighties.
I strongly doubt that it's "the" rebuilt and restored Lotus that nearly killed him.
If ever a car was a write-off,that car was. The carbon tub had disintegrated, with the seat still attached to Donelly and the bag fuel tank falling out of the exposed hole. The bit between the front wheels was spread over a good couple of hundred metres.
The car he drives at good wood etc will be a different chassis of the same type.
Ant Davidson was/is a brilliant driver he was just lumbered with a Super Aguri the equivalent of driving a HRT today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXi1SROihSM this say it all ! I personally think in the same car he would have matched maybe even beaten Button.
Muzzer79 said:
Granted, he had poor equipment in F1, but he certainly had reasonable cars in other formula and didn't cut the mustard there either.
1975 Kent Messenger FF Championship Champion (only took part in half the races).1976 FF2000 - 2nd in Championship, Dunlop Qualifying Award.
Then F3 - Unipart team with underpowered Triumph engines which were no good compared to the Toyotas. Could stay with Piquet in wet conditions at Cadwell Park though. I'd call that poor equipment.
bebee said:
woof said:
bebee said:
Anthony Davidson
Allan McNish
What ???Allan McNish
Alan McNish - is right at the top of the ladder. Look was he's achieved with Audi.
Any Davidson is another top driver - just didn't get the breaks.
Anthony Davidson never impressed me, Button was clearly better.
Ok neither is going to be a World Champion in the Formula, but were a safe enough pair of hands to get a car around. - I don't know how unobtainably high some peoples standards are, but 'bad'* McNish certainly wasn't.
*For bad see Taki Inoue, Lavaggi, Deletraz, Rosset etc.
TVR500Morgan said:
Ant Davidson was/is a brilliant driver he was just lumbered with a Super Aguri the equivalent of driving a HRT today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXi1SROihSM this say it all ! I personally think in the same car he would have matched maybe even beaten Button.
Didn't the Super Aguris use last year's Honda chassis, making them quicker than the "World car" turd occasionally. 
EDLT said:
Didn't the Super Aguris use last year's Honda chassis, making them quicker than the "World car" turd occasionally.
They used the 06 Honda in 07 and outscored Honda at Spain and Canada, only Barrichello's 5th in Japan moved Honda above Super Aguri in the manufacturers championship at the end of the year.Bad in terms of results...Davidson, Acheson, McNish, Byrne are all good shouts. But they were very talented, as proven in other formula before and after their F1 careers.
Palmer was considered very promising in 84-87, until Alesi came along. He had some great drives, particularly in the 88 Tyrrell, which was a real dog. I wouldn't put him in the 'bad' category at all.
One I could never fathom was Brian Henton. He popped up several times for one-offs with Lotus, March, Thoeodore, Tyrrell in the 70s and 80s. I'm assuming he was a paydriver, like Rupert Keegan, but he did dominate F2 in 1980, beating Derek Warwick ,
There was also Geoff Lees, who was brilliant in F2, but failed to shine in several F1 appearances in the early 80s. So my vote would be Keegan, Henton and McCarthy as the top trio of Brit 'badness'
It is interesting that the OP mentioned Grosjean as the inspiration for the thread. Personally, I think Grosjean is the revelation of the season - having eclipsed Kimi on pace several times. He could become a great driver.
As mentioned before, other drivers such as Coulthard, Perez, Alonso had a few shunts in their early career. However, Grosjean needs to learn very quickly.
Palmer was considered very promising in 84-87, until Alesi came along. He had some great drives, particularly in the 88 Tyrrell, which was a real dog. I wouldn't put him in the 'bad' category at all.
One I could never fathom was Brian Henton. He popped up several times for one-offs with Lotus, March, Thoeodore, Tyrrell in the 70s and 80s. I'm assuming he was a paydriver, like Rupert Keegan, but he did dominate F2 in 1980, beating Derek Warwick ,
There was also Geoff Lees, who was brilliant in F2, but failed to shine in several F1 appearances in the early 80s. So my vote would be Keegan, Henton and McCarthy as the top trio of Brit 'badness'
It is interesting that the OP mentioned Grosjean as the inspiration for the thread. Personally, I think Grosjean is the revelation of the season - having eclipsed Kimi on pace several times. He could become a great driver.
As mentioned before, other drivers such as Coulthard, Perez, Alonso had a few shunts in their early career. However, Grosjean needs to learn very quickly.
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