Drivers Who Didn't Make It, But You Thought Were Good Enough?

[Parabolica]

Rather than a "Best" discussion, I thought it would be interesting to know who the forum members would have liked to have seen make it to Formula One but who never did.

Or even those that the members thought would make it, but who, for whatever reason, didn't.

So, Gentlemen - and Ladies - if you would care to share?

[anfield5]

Mauricio Gugelmin. Had some outstanding drives for the Leyton House March outfit including an excellent 3rd in the 89 Brazilian GP, but after that could only scrape a solitary sixth place finish in Belgium 1990. A victim of a good driver in a poor car, it's a crying shame that he wasn't picked up by one of the bigger teams

[anfield5]

Mauricio Gugelmin. Had some outstanding drives for the Leyton House March outfit including an excellent 3rd in the 89 Brazilian GP, but after that could only scrape a solitary sixth place finish in Belgium 1990. A victim of a good driver in a poor car, it's a crying shame that he wasn't picked up by one of the bigger teams.

Plus he had an awesome crash hat design
http://img59.exs.cx/img59/353/mauriciogugelmin911kq.png

[anfield5]

Mike Thackwell from a NZ perspective. Won the last ever Formula 2 title in a Ralt RT4 (after finishing runner-up to team mate Johnathon Palmer the previous year). He had 1 race for Arrows (DNQ) and two for Tyrrell (ret and DNQ) as a stand in driver before returning to F2 where he had a massive accident in pre-season testing. Eventually rejoining the works Ralt team in 1983 (winning 1 race, with 5 seconds and 3 thirds) In 1984 after Plamer had moved on to F1 with RAM. Thackwell was nearly unbeatable (7 wins and 1 second from 11 races).
Other drivers including Thackwell's team mate Roberto Morano ( and drivers like Nannini, Strieff, Danner, Pirro and even the hopeless Pascal Fabre) were given a chance in F1, Thackwell strangely wasn't and F1 missed out on a talented driver

[Corvettian]

Johnny Dumfries was Ayrton Senna's team-mate at Lotus in 1986, having been Ferrari test driver the previous year. He had some reasonable results and was well-liked by the team, but was replaced by Satoru Nakajima when Lotus changed to Honda engines for 1987. He won Le Mans with Jaguar in 1987, before driving for Toyota in 1988 and '89.

[Parabolica]

Now by no means am I suggesting that these two were the best drivers never too, but it always surprised me that, in an era when you couldn't walk down the street without falling over a French Formula One driver, neither Alain or Michel Ferte ever made it to F1.

I know that, for a while, Michel had Marlboro backing in F3 and F2, and Alain scored several good F2 results, even if neither of them were dominating in that category. To be fair, though, if you didn't drive a works Ralt you were never going to do that in that era.
They were not out-classed in F2, and compared well in comparison to the likes of Alliot, Streiff and Grouillard.

I assume it is the age-old lack-of-funds story that stopped their progression. Especially as, at one point in the 1980's, half the male population of France seemed to have a Super-Licence.

I do know that Alain ended up in Truck racing. No idea what happened to his younger sibling.

[wedge]

Big Mo - I don't see the fuss. He was a midfielder. LH were great given the circumstances and the genius of Newey so by the same token Ivan Cappelli was rated at the time only to become the nadir of Ferrari's barren two decades of WDC near misses and underachievement.

Tommy Byrne - a truly gifted driver though he had a stint with Theodore he had a legendary McLaren/Silverstone test which ended up destroying his F1 career.

Craig Lowndes - highly rated and sensational in the junior Aussi ranks. A brief stint as Peter Brock's protege with Holden in Aussie V8s before managing a single season in F3000 as he quickly ran out of money.

Gil De Ferran - F3000 whi couldn't land a drive in F1 but forged a successful career in Indycar.

Dario Franchitti - one of the top drivers in DTM. Used his Merc connection to land a drive in Champcar and went on to become one of the best drivers of his generation. He turned down Jaguar which even in hinsight is still debatable.

[jens]

I don't know if they would have cut it or been anything above average, but back then I was wondering whether Jörg Müller or Björn Wirdheim could have been given a chance. Müller was with in a shot of the 1998 TWR Arrows drive before Diniz outbid him with $10M.

[MAXMAD]

TOMMY BYRNE....Read the book CRASH or BYRNE if you can find it....great read !!! and a hell of a Driver

[D-Type]

What surprises me is that when you look at the winners of the F1 feeder series: European F2 Championship, Formula 3000, GP2, nearly all of them did get Formula 1 drives, but only Hamilton has become a World Champion. Some secured a couple of wins but were essentially midfield runners and never championship contenders while the majority scarcely made it past the rear half of the grid.

[anfield5]

What surprises me is that when you look at the winners of the F1 feeder series: European F2 Championship, Formula 3000, GP2, nearly all of them did get Formula 1 drives, but only Hamilton has become a World Champion. Some secured a couple of wins but were essentially midfield runners and never championship contenders while the majority scarcely made it past the rear half of the grid.

Many of the truely gifted drivers were picked up directly from F3, GP3 etc and simply missed the second step. I guess then this questions the validity of the second tier as step to the top.

[Ex-Jagboy]

Masten Gregory was one of those rare talents who seemed destined for great things, but a career perhaps best remembered for a number of high speed bale-outs ignores the fact that on his day, his hard charging style made him one of the fastest drivers around, his victory in the Ecurie Ecosse Lister Jag at Silverstone in 58, when he beat most of the best drivers and cars around at that time, was right out of the top drawer, and the following year upon joining the works Cooper team, was frequently quicker than both Brabham and McClaren, His drive at the ultra fast Avus circuit when he slipstreamed the much faster Ferraris, particularly round the steep banking, only for his brilliant effort ruined by Gurney running over the gearbox of his Cooper, was yet another example of one of the most exciting drivers of that era.

Unceremoniously sacked by Coopers at the end of 59, he spent the remainder of his career campaigning in largely uncompetitive machinery, before retiring in the 60s, but for a mixture of bad luck and circumstances Masten could easily have been numbered among the best drivers of that era.

[D28]

Masten Gregory was one of those rare talents who seemed destined for great things, but a career perhaps best remembered for a number of high speed bale-outs ignores the fact that on his day, his hard charging style made him one of the fastest drivers around, his victory in the Ecurie Ecosse Lister Jag at Silverstone in 58, when he beat most of the best drivers and cars around at that time, was right out of the top drawer, and the following year upon joining the works Cooper team, was frequently quicker than both Brabham and McClaren, His drive at the ultra fast Avus circuit when he slipstreamed the much faster Ferraris, particularly round the steep banking, only for his brilliant effort ruined by Gurney running over the gearbox of his Cooper, was yet another example of one of the most exciting drivers of that era.

Unceremoniously sacked by Coopers at the end of 59, he spent the remainder of his career campaigning in largely uncompetitive machinery, before retiring in the 60s, but for a mixture of bad luck and circumstances Masten could easily have been numbered among the best drivers of that era.

Absolutely, The Kansas City Flash was indeed one quick, spectacular driver. Also a loyal Cooper team player, he had 2 podiums in 1959. A GP win was inevitable, had he managed to stay with Cooper, but logistics and money dictated a 2 car team. McLaren was not quicker, but he was an accomplished setup man; I don't believe Gregory was in the same league in engineering skills.
He was an early 2 time winner at the tricky Mosport circuit; also he managed the final win at Le Mans for Ferrari. He and Rindt took an unexpected win for NART in 65, the only win for the US team.

[Ex-Jagboy]

Following his brief and fleeting career Chris Bristow left a legacy of divided opinion and unanswered questions, with many claiming that he had the qualities of a future world champion, while his detractors felt that he was simply too wild, but there was no denying that he was exceptionally fast for one so young and inexperienced, qualities that were immediately self evident, for those of us who were watching him closely at the time, whether or not he was the world champion we never had, is something we will never know, but he demonstrated perhaps, the greatest potential of any British driver,then and since, with the certainty that in different circumstances he would have been one of the leading figures in motor sport.

[Bruce D]

Interestingly enough I was reading a book over the weekend where they ask Alastair Gibson (who was the chief engineer at BAR from 99 to 2008) who the best driver he worked with was and he said it was Kenny Brack, who he felt was faster and better than Button, Barrichello and the rest he worked with.

[journeyman racer]

I like the nomination of Jorg Muller. I remember reading about him in profiles or race reports and got the impression he was genuinely superior to most in the lower/middle formulas. I'm not sure how Europeans, who saw him live, thought of him.

I think it was a bad career move from Ricardo Zonta to join BAR, the wrong team to join F1, particularly debut. He was light years better than his F1 record. In Mercedes GT, he was Premier League to Webber's A-League. Considering Webber's moderate performance in F1 (despite his inflated reputation) he would've cost himself a title. Certainly in the case of the 10 season, if Zonta found himself in the exact position Mark was in, he'd have won the title with a race to spare, I reckon.

Gil de Ferran? He was probably better off not making it in F1.

I would've expected more in F1 from Christiano da Matta. His career ended barely before it started! Like with Zonta, maybe a case of going to the wrong team to debut.

I'm not sure about the Craig Lowndes's nomination. Talking about him with a friend of mine, he came up with an opinion which I understood and agreed with, in that he's too much of an Aussie to have made it in F1/Europe. He has it too easy over here.

Of the other Aussies? I'm most interested in why Ryan Briscoe didn't progress further in his F1 career. He appeared to be the real deal with a FReanult and Euro F3 titles. I'd be intrigued to know what Toyota thought his weaknesses were? Maybe Toyota were good at wrecking careers?

David Besnard could've done a lot more. I don't think he worked hard enough the higher he went up the ladder.