Time for some nostalgy - DC, GF, JT, NH, RB, RS.

[jens]

When I joined this forum (2006), those drivers were still very much active in F1. But by now the F1 careers of all of them have come to an end, in 2012 they have not been racing in F1 (last of them retired in 2011). And it is unlikely we are going to see any of them in F1 again. They guys I am talking about, in alphabetical order: Barrichello, Coulthard, Fisichella, Heidfeld, Ralf Schumacher, Trulli.

Back in the day there was some discussion about these drivers on the forums. At that time they were still active, but already quite experienced and many questioned if they should keep their seats at all. But by now the momentary emotions are over, dust has sort of settled down and we can reflect on their careers in retrospect - this time on the whole. What are your thoughts? How would you sum up their careers?

None of them were world champions, but they had long careers and were sort of a natural, integral part of F1. Always there or thereabouts in competing for points and podiums. When I think of 'noughties' in F1, I can't help but recall them a lot. In addition to World Champions and title contenders they were those, who made the decade.

Perhaps you can express some of your memories. What are the first things to come to your mind about those drivers? Perhaps you can share some interesting moments, emotions regarding them.

[Malbec]

All of the drivers you named promised to be great talents but none managed to fulfil their potential.

I have to say that by far the most interesting driver for me was Ralf.

I read a fascinating interview with Ralf after his retirement. He hated the press and always kept his barriers up except for this one interview which gave an insight into his personality. He obviously found life difficult growing up as being 'the little brother'. I'm not even sure he actually truly enjoyed racing unlike his brother. He didn't seem to be able to take on board that he was actually quite a handy driver in his time once one got past the name. One thing he was open about was that his earnings were far in excess of his talent and that that was one thing he knew he'd done well on though again he didn't seem proud. I thought he was a truly conflicted and complex individual which I found intriguing.

I can't say I was ever a fan but the one race that sticks in my memory was when he and his brother scored a 1-2 the weekend after their mother's death. Very poignant.

[wedge]

All got what they deserved, apart from Nick who probably deserved a race win - arguably 2008 Canadian GP.

Rubens and DC were consumate #2's; Nick was solid, dependable but nothing more it seems; the others I only see disappointment due to their inconsistencies.

Ralf peaked at Williams it was great disappointment going to Toyota - taking the money knowing how his career was going to pan out, knowing he would not at least get a Williams-esque car again.

Trulli - great quali driver but inconsistent racer.

Fisi - great for midfield teams but great disappointment at Renault. Poor race craft in 2005 Japanese GP gifted Kimi the win; winning Malaysia 2006 was very scruffy cf. Maldonado's maiden win this year who drove like an F1 pro should.

[Rudy Tamasz]

I believe in Lady Luck. I think once you refuse her gift, your racing career is over. DC handed two successive race wins to Hakkinen in 1997 and 1998 while in the lead and from that point on he has never been a title contender. Nick let Kubica win and he wasn't to become a winner ever after. Rubens' surrenders to Schumi are too numerous to mention. They all blew their chances.

[rjbetty]

I always thought Barrichello and Trulli in particular were very underrated.

Coulthard I felt was a little overrated, especially by the British press/Autosport. People always used to speak about his so called terrible luck, but I don't see how being in a top car for 10 years was unlucky. Most of his career was spent in Adrian Newey cars. Coulthard was also consistently rated as being better than Barrichello which I disagree with.

Fisi is my most favourite driver ever. He beat the more fancied Ralf at Jordan in a very similar way to how Ricciardo bested Vergne this year - though it must be said they both had a half-season extra experience in a bottom team over their young team-mate.

Ralf was underrated because he had a horrible personality, but he was actually very good and despite what JPM fanboys will tell you, he compared VERY well with the Colombian driver.

Heidfeld was also underrated because of his nature and driving style. I was disappointed with Mark Webber's catty remarks against Nick in 2005, just because Nick was outpointing him fair and square. Very unpleasant and unlike Mark indeed.



In a bit more detail:
Jarno Trulli - I was only getting into F1 in 1997 so don't recall much other than he qualified around 15th in a Minardi on his debut? People weren't impressed but that looks darn impressive to me. He easily beat the actually very good Katayama. At Prost he qualified 6th at France, finished 4th at Hockenheim and famously led Austria from 3rd on the grid, despite having a developing engine problem throughout the race. For my first full season in '98 I noticed he was unable to score points though he often seemed good against Panis. I felt sorry for him as he deserved much better. I remember him running 5th at that crazy Spa race, but he must have been passed by Diniz at some point cos he ended 6th. This result made me so happy, to see him finally score a point for Prost - their only one of the year.

I remember reading in F1 racing in a short interview with Alain Prost before the 1999 season started that he felt 3rd in the WCC was a reasonable target. This made me LOL - it wasn't quite as hilarious as Jackie Stewart predicting, with a straight face, that his team could win a race that year - boy did we all eat our words! Anyway, it was nice to see Trulli qualify a decent 12th in Melbourne and run as high as 3rd before retiring. His drive to 6th in Spain in a race of little attrition was remarkable, as was his qualifying 7th in Monaco, well over 1sec ahead of Panis. In fact, Trulli actually very quietly and diligently qualified in the top 10 almost more often than not, and this went largely unnoticed. It was so good to see Jarno score his first podium, tenaciously holding off Barrichello at the Nurburgring. I was disappointed at Alain Prost's bitter reaction that Jarno was lucky. I'm glad Jarno got out of that team in that case.

Much was promised as he replaced Damon Hill at Jordan for the dawn of a new era in 2000. I predicted he could win a race and score around 26-32pts. In testing, he looked like he could be quicker than Frentzen (who was on brilliant form). This was very exciting indeed. But sadly the season was a disaster as Jordan were unreliable and slow in races, while McLaren and Ferrari were too consistent. He only scored 6pts and no podiums; This seemed to affect him very badly. It wasn't all bad news as he qualified on the front row at drivers' circuits Monaco and Spa. In the former he ended up leading David Coulthard and despite what many may say, there is absolutely NO reason why Jarno couldn't have held on to the finish and won. Sadly he was robbed by mechanical failure - a fate all too common on Jarno's career.

2001 saw Trulli dominate Frentzen in qualifying in particular. In fact, Trulli was only outqualified twice all year! He was a top 6 regular in what was not a top 3 car. His race pace was also quicker than Frentzen, but again the car was weaker in races and still unreliable. He was more consistent in bagging 12pts but still no podium. I firmly believe Jarno was the 2nd best driver in qualifying in 2001.

2002 saw Trulli finally fulfill his destiny by joining manager Flavio Briatore at Renault. His first half of the season was nothing special, but once it was announced Jenson was on his way out, Trulli picked up and ended his season strongly with 4th at Monza (from 12th on the grid) Martin Brundle was asked to choose his driver of the day, to which he replied "I never thought I'd say this, but Jarno Trulli". Trulli followed that up with a good 5th at Indy; Did anyone ever notice that Jarno was actually a bit of an Indy specalist?

2003 was disappointing in terms of race results compared with Fernando Alonso. But his qualifying, when analysed, was electric. Mark Hughes wrote an article in Autosport around 2005/6 about the best qualifiers in F1 history. As I remember, Jarno was rated 7th ever! Ahead of Schumacher and Hakkinen. Hughes wrote that Fernando Alonso (champion at the time) was so stunned by Trulli's qualifying speed he simply shrugged his shoulders and said "what can I do?" Trulli scored a noteworthy podium at Hockenheim ahead of Alonso, despite being ill; He really did look very pale and sick on the podium.

However, this time was the height of the Trulli train era, in which Jarno was widely regarded as a poor and slow racer. This view was strengthened by races like Hungary where he was lapped by his winner team-mate Alonso en-route to 7th. Unknown to us however, this day was a turning point. Being lapped by Alonso really woke Trulli up once and for all. For Indy Jarno was again quickest in Friday qualifying before finishing 4th on Michelin tyres in a wet race. Suzuka however was the most impressive. From the back of the grid he fought his way up to a strong 5th, which had people talking.

2004 was to be a great season. It started off slowly with a poor 7th in Melbourne, followed by 5th and 4th next time out. The race that seemed to change something was Spain where Trulli beat Alonso to 3rd in a straight fight. Then the day of days at Monaco - a truly outstanding pole, and his maiden win, in style the next day!

Now that Monaco qualifying lap is my one defining Trulli moment in all of history; it is something which I have deeply admired him for. One of my favourite writers Anthony Rowlinson wrote, in his poetically descriptive style style about Jarno's lap, describing it as "exquisitely beautiful" and equal to "the same amount of skill required to take two drawing pins, pushing them together at their points using only the index finger on the end of each pin, and keeping them held there". This interested me so much that I purchased a set of drawing pins, took two of them and tried it myself, only to find it was an extremely difficult task, almost impossible.

Now back then (2005ish), I myself was very serious about racing myself and was doing some karting myself, although at 21 I was too old for a serious career. I was so amazed by this story of Trulli that I determined in myself to achieve that level of skill. This is my abiding memory of Jarno Trulli and is why I find it distasteful that he was criticised so much and told to retire etc. Every time people dissed him, this lap and others like it is what I thought of. The man deserved respect.

2005 was probably his best season. I was very concerned pre season about Toyota's tyre wear, though excited that with 2 good drivers and Mike Gascoyne, Toyota could make a good leap forward. Starting 2nd in Melbourne was great but happened cos of qualifying being messed up by rain. Dropping to a result of 9th looked bad.

It was amazing therefore to see him repeat the front row feat in Malaysia - in the dry! He was obviously going to drop way back in the race right? I was astonished to see that he raced very strongly and kept up with Alonso well to actually finish in 2nd, scoring by far Toyota's best result, and their first podium!! More staggering was that he repeated this next time out in Bahrain. Jarno even entertained thoughts of a title challenge, seeing that he was 2nd at this time. In a weaker Imola race he still came 5th before scoring another podium at Barcelona. He was completely dominating Ralf. It was written that Jarno was getting paid 3 times less than Ralf even though he was 3 times faster! It was revealed recently that it was around this time (it's obvious) that Jean Todt approached Trulli with an offer to drive for his beloved Ferrari the following season. Jarno did the honourable thing and kept to his contract with Toyota. The cynicism of many internet morons is very disappointing in that they couldn't possibly imagine he would do this, when in fact it is very much in keeping with his character.

Jarno qualified 5th at the Nurburgring and IIRC he described his qualifying lap as his best ever. It was very unheralded compared to Monaco 2004, but it must have therefore ben even better than that! Looking at the times, he was a massive 0.4sec quicker than Ralf, who was very quick at that track... As with Alonso in 2003, Ralf Schumacher acknowledged that he simply was unable to match Jarno's qualifying speed. It seemed that he then went down the Didier Pironi route and sought every opportunity to bring Jarno down. As team leader, he had changes made to the car for what likely was the sole reason that it would harm Trulli's performance, and thus bring him below Ralf. This is what happened and as Nigel Roebuck said, it was an injustice that Ralf ended up 2pts ahead of Trulli.

This was the reason that Ralf had an edge on Trulli for the whole of 2006, but for 2007 Trulli asserted himself again though the car was poor. He scored a strong 6th place and helped put Ralf's career out of it's misery.

I didn't watch F1 after 2007 (and only sporadically in 2007) till the end of 2009 so can't say much, but I hear he scored a good 3rd in Magny-Cours in 2008, perhaps atoning for his 2004 last corner loss.

[rjbetty]

The Lotus/Caterham chapter may not have brought the success hoped for, but for those 2 years he very much deserved to be there. The whole time. there were cries for his retirement. But no-one would have done as good as job as Jarno. He may have been past his best, but he was still miles better than most, and the experience and technical/testing expertise he brought were invaluable. He was absolutely the right man for the job.

Somehow when he won at Monaco, I felt at the time that he would be like Alesi and it would be the only one - but he did it in style!



Whew I got carried away. I might say some more about the rest sometime.

[steveaki13]

Trulli was brilliant that day at Monaco in one of the best Monaco GP ever.

We had a brilliant race between, Trulli, Alonso, Button & Schumacher early on, then craziness of retirements and accidents then Heidfeld racing up the field in a slow Jordan. Then a final sprint between Trulli & Button and only 9 finishers. Trulli kept calm and was fastest all day. What a way to win your one and only race.

[rjbetty]

Trulli was brilliant that day at Monaco in one of the best Monaco GP ever.

We had a brilliant race between, Trulli, Alonso, Button & Schumacher early on, then craziness of retirements and accidents then Heidfeld racing up the field in a slow Jordan. Then a final sprint between Trulli & Button and only 9 finishers. Trulli kept calm and was fastest all day. What a way to win your one and only race.

I agree. I was happy to see Heidfeld take points for 7th but disappointed for Fisi. It looked like he was careless driving into the back of Coulthard, but the thick smoke made it almost impossible to see, and apparently he hit Coulthard at only 34mph...? What could you do? Given that Massa, who was almost 1sec slower than Fisi in qualifying finished 5th, Fisi could have been on for a pretty big result.

[steveaki13]

Its amazing really that going into DC that slowly could flip him over, but all that smoke it was amazing the whole track wasnt blocked like the 2005 Albers spin.

[rjbetty]

DAVID COULTHARD
When I watched my first proper F1 race, Argentina 1997, during the ITV build up, they spoke to a guy on the grid. I didn't know anybody except Damon Hill then, and needed someone to support for now. The guy they were speaking to seemed really nice and professional, as he was talking about his hopes from 10th on the grid. This was David Coulthard. It didn't go well as he was out at turn 1. Missed out badly in Canada, on for the win before the safety car. He did win Monza though, prompting ITV to run an advert to the tune of The Blue Danube "...and in Italy (Coulthard Coulthard), he won the Grand Prix! (Coulthard Coulthard)..." Does anyone remember that? I wish I could remember the words. I also liked the can-can-Coulthard advert after Monaco '98. ITV did some weird adverts back then; "This time, it's personal"? Err why?

In Jerez 1997 there was an infamous and unsporting incident that sadly took place: I am of course talking about Ron Dennis making Coulthard move over to give the win that he earned fair and square to Mika Hakkinen to help Mika's confidence and title aspirations for '98? What about Coulthard's?!! This is why I don't like it when Ron boasts about being "a racer". He is in fact the number 1 person in favour of the way F1 was in 2002 etc. The way he treated Bernoldi after Monaco 2001 stunk. Ken Tyrrell once said about Flav "I don't necessarily mind people who are in F1 for the business, and Flav is straight about not being a racer; it's the ones who say they're in it for the racing when you know they're not, who get me". I guess it's up to us to determine who he had in mind.

Sadly, Coulthard was fairly rubbish in '98 as the team was biased toward Mika. But I think David may have been too complacent, as shown by confidently betting the race on getting to the first corner 1st in Melbourne, only to find that Mika had been doing his homework in all areas. David did get the brunt of reliability problems though. He could have won maybe 7 races so the cards didn't fall particularly well.

1999 was even worse and he was extremely fortunate to keep his seat for 2000, only because Zonta had disappointed and Heidfeld was too untried. Eddie Irvine declared after Canada that his stock is going down at every race.

I didn't expect much from him in 2000, so it was a pleasant surprise to see how close he was to Mika in Brazil, winning Silverstone fair and square and blasting to 2nd in Spain with painful ribs from that bad plane crash. He then took pole at the Nurburgring, his first in 2 years. His driving had reached a new level. Jackie Stewart declared Coulthard could be world champion that year (surprise).

2001 was his best season yet, outperforming Mika all round (though Mika was past it - at 32!) but despite what people will say, I truly believe the McLaren was only about a tenth slower than the Ferrari on average - it was just Michael's brilliance that made the difference. DC did well to beat Barrichello anyway. But even so, I felt he was a tad overrated and at this time was particularly frustrated that Fisichella had to keep driving that awful Benetton at the back very well while others less worthy hogged the top seats year after year (Irvine, Coulthard, R.Schumacher). I didn't mind so much if DC was on good form.

I have to say I was quite disappointed that Raikkonen beat DC in qualifying in 2002, but he still drove well to finish just behind the Williams drivers in the WDC. 2003 was terrible though, embarrasingly far behind Raikkonen, though he kept insisting his reeeace peeeace (sic) was good. This tried my patience as Fisichella was languishing in a Jordan. 2004 promised an improvement but it never came. David's stock was at an all time low. He kept insisting he was better than Fisichella even though he finished only 2pts ahead in the WDC armed with a McLaren against a Sauber!

At this time, there was a Williams drive up for grabs. Many names were mentioned including Anthony Davidson, Coulthard, Scott Dixon, Heidfeld, and most deserving of all Fisi. Frankly, for Coulthard to get that drive ahead of Fisi in particular would have been a huge injustice. Coulthard moaned about being a proven race winner etc while sneering that some drivers only have "potential" - I took it he was referring to Fisi! How dare he! DC even visited the Williams factory to make a presentation of why he should get the drive. I imagine that must have been hilarious and Frank and Patrick would have been busting to LOL. They were singularly unimpressed and thankfully chose to give someone else a chance.

When Coulthard was then linked to Red Bull, everyone including me felt it was time to give it up. Mr Mate****z said he wasn't interested, so reportedly DC then approached the struggling Jordan team! Red Bull suddenly changed their mind though and he was signed. I wasn't expecting much for 2005, given that there would be 6 top teams fighting for 8 points scoring positions. I was convinced that points would be extremely rare and DC would do well to get maybe 9pts, more like 6!

So imagine the surprise that though DC and Klien qualified 5th and 6th in wet Melbourne qualifying (and the expectation was that MAYBE DC could hold on for a point, or even 2) that he only went forward, barged past Webber's Williams, ran a strong 2nd for much of the race and finished 4th beating Webber fair and square! He even could have held 2nd were it not for a slow final pitstop. David was absolutely confident that he could have held off Barrichello and Alonso, and I believe him. David had won my respect.

Following this up with a great 6th in Malaysia (which apparently could have been 4th!), he then suffered an electrical disaster in Bahrain. Even then he came home 8th. He collided with Massa at Imola, but given that rookie team-mate Liuzzi who was slower eventually came 8th, DC would have scored yet again. At a car track such as Spain, he brilliantly held off Barrichello and Heidfeld to claim another points for 8th. In Monaco he was flying before being caught up in Michael's Mirabeau spin. He was out. DC felt he could have got 2nd that day. I agree and think at least 4th was pretty certain.

Even on a bad day he still qualified 14th at the Nurburgring. Remarkably he got up to 4th after the turn 1 collision, and held onto it! He even led the race and was flying until he just put a wheel on the pit exit line and got a drive-thru, costing him 15 seconds. Given that he finished exactly that amount behind Heidfeld/Barrichello, there is every chance he could have taken 2nd! In Canada he again finished 7th with Klien 8th, before scoring again in Germany. In Hungary, Red Bull qualified well down the field but were both out on lap 1. They said they were on a very heavy fuel load, so looked set for a big finish. Williams who were slower came 6th and 7th. Another 7th and 8th in Turkey was followed by beating Michael in Japan and losing out on 5th in China.

Ever since he joined Red Bull and escaped the shackles of McLaren, DC seemed like a new man. He was massively more likeable. The beard (with silver bits appearing) only served to make him even more of a cooler dude. Gone was the boring wooden PR robot of McLaren , replaced by a person who was fun and who could speak his mind, and seemed to relish the opportunity to do so.

For some strange reason, Red Bull went with Ferrari engines for 2006 and duly suffered, but he still got a memorable 3rd in Monaco, and unlike 5 or 10 years earlier, I thought he really looked the part in the Superman cape. He spoke up for his team-mate who was harshly dumped before the season ended.

The underrated Webber joined for '07 and thrashed DC in qualifying, but DC still led the team very well and scored good points.

I only watched the end of the Canadian Grand Prix in 2008, but the feel-good result was not the BMW 1-2, but the "very happy Scot" who came 3rd. It was delightful to see him celebrate 3rd, and I enjoyed the fact that I was now truly happy for him doing well, rather than cheering when he retired in the late 90s (as I supported Schumacher and Irvine).

To think that almost everyone insisted he should leave after '04. If he had retired then, what would the memories and his legacy be? I am now so glad he got those extra years which have done so much to increase his stock. I feel they also prepared him for his current role with the BBC, at which he is becoming increasingly more comfortable and proficient at.

The most impressive thing for me was that most drivers in his situation would stop giving their best after joining a lower team having spent most of their career in winning/WDC cars, but DC totally got stuck in and I feel he did a lot to make Red Bull what they are today, considering the Jaguar mess they had been before. Tony Purnell was impressed and surprised at David's passion for Formula 1, exclaiming that he was a real fan! The young drivers were also surprised at his actual peeeaace on track, having thought they'd get it quite easy against him. So all in all thumbs up for DC.