Harshest Sackings

[rjbetty]

The recent departing of Timo Glock, though not a sacking has made me think of some of the harshest or most unfair dismissals I've known or heard of. Here are some I can think of. Please feel free to add some good ones to mine - they can include all of motorsport!

MARTIN BRUNDLE - BENETTON, 1992
Retired from first 4 races, but recovered to score almost 40pts - just 18 off 2nd in WDC! Scored several podiums and outraced Schumacher on more than a few occasions. Never outqualified him though. Was dropped for Patrese who wasn't really any quicker in 1993 and scored only 20pts.

PEDRO DE LA ROSA - ARROWS, 2001
Pedro had been a revelation in the fast 2000 Arrows with the best ever livery challenging for several podiums. He was given a contract to stay at Arrows when he had offers from team like BAR. Only for the team to go back on it before the start of 2001, leaving Pedro out in the cold as the other seats were now filled.

HEIKKI KOVALAINEN - CATERHAM, 2013
Carried the Caterham team for 3 years, only to be basically told that HE should have been more grateful by Mike Gascoyne.

JARNO TRULLI - RENAULT, 2004
Okay I'm not holding back on this one - here goes: Jarno had been basically outperforming Fernando Alonso in 2004 against expectations. This came to a head in Monaco when Trulli won while Alonso crashed. All Flavio could hiss was "This changes nothing"! Trulli was 16pts ahead in the WDC as well as the quicker qualifier. The problem was that Alonso, like in 2007, wasn't too happy being beaten. Therefore, neither was his manager Flav. From that point on, Trulli's season mysteriously fell apart and he was ousted after Monza. Conversely, Alonso's performances perked up.

[BDunnell]

The ones where a driver was dropped in favour of someone for, in effect, money reasons — like Kovalainen — I'm not sure count. The Brundle and Trulli examples I agree with fully. The harshest I can think of is Jackie Oliver being fired by Colin Chapman after crashing, unavoidably, in the tunnel at the 1968 Monaco GP. The decision was reversed and Oliver went on to nearly win the British GP.

[rjbetty]

I'm considering Frentzen, Jordan 2001, since he was replaced by worse drivers, but he was quite poor against Trulli.
Maybe Villeneuve at BAR, but F1 rejects have a good article called "Who Barred Jacques?"
Irvine at Jaguar - he had improved every season and was set to make gains in 2003, but his horrible attitude cost him.

I think maybe Salo, Arrows 1999, same as de la Rosa, but both those Arrows drivers were better than Mika.

Sebastien Bourdais maybe, but again he had a bad attitude an kinda deserved it, though I hear Helmut Marko made his life miserable - in which case I can totally understand.



Please don't anyone suggest Vitantonio Liuzzi in the Force India!!

And definitely not Piquet Jr unless you're trolling.

[Mark]

DAMON HILL, WILLIAMS 1996
Leading the championship by a large margin and on his way to victory. He was sacked 3/4 of the way through the season which left him with little option but to drive for Arrows the following year. Rather unusual in the least to fire the driver who is leading the WDC and went on to win it. Of course his replacement Heinz Harald Frentzen proved to be quite average.

[FAL]

TIMO MAKINEN AND RAUNO AALTONEN BMC/BLMC 1968
Effectively, by Donald Stokes
....but then what's the point in having the best two in the world if you no longer have a competitive car for them....

[rjbetty]

DAMON HILL, WILLIAMS 1996
Leading the championship by a large margin and on his way to victory. He was sacked 3/4 of the way through the season which left him with little option but to drive for Arrows the following year. Rather unusual in the least to fire the driver who is leading the WDC and went on to win it. Of course his replacement Heinz Harald Frentzen proved to be quite average.

I kind of agree, but Williams felt that Frentzen had more natural talent. I think that was likely true, but HHF never managed to access much of it as he struggled at harsh Williams, and with his team-mate's mind games. I hear Damon turned own a Jordan drive for '97 though as Arrows offered more money...? I think that was a tough decision, as with the confidence of being champ, he my well have taken te '97 crown too.

WRC Nomiations
FREDDY LOIX, PEUGEOT 2004
Maybe this was fair, but I always felt it was a bit tough on Freddy to get sacked after just 2 rounds.

GILLES PANIZZI, MITSUBISHI 2005
A podium followed by a good 8th in Mexico (first gravel rally since Finland 2004 and only 3rd of any kind since) boded for a good season or Panizzi, but he was quietly and unofficially dropped in effect. The real villian of the piece was Max Mosley who seemed to make it his prsnl mission to rid the WRC of as many star drivers as pssible.

COLIN MCRAE, CITROEN 2003
A poor season by Colin's own admission, but new FIA rules forced Citroen's hand and a decision that then team boss Guy Frequelin called the touhest of his career.

P.S. my keyboard is extremely bad and missn letters out al thtime, though I am pressing hem hard enough! Please excuse te gaps - I'm so tired of keepingoing bac and correcting. To think 'm typing letters/CVs to emplyers at the mo!

[Don Capps]

Innes Ireland immediately came to my mind....

[BDunnell]

Innes Ireland immediately came to my mind....

Oh yes, definitely. A pretty shoddy tale.

[Mark]

I kind of agree, but Williams felt that Frentzen had more natural talent. I think that was likely true, but HHF never managed to access much of it as he struggled at harsh Williams, and with his team-mate's mind games. I hear Damon turned own a Jordan drive for '97 though as Arrows offered more money...? I think that was a tough decision, as with the confidence of being champ, he my well have taken te '97 crown too.

It may be that Frentzen did look like a better bet for the team. It's the fact that they fired the current championship leader and saw the world champion leaving the team. It's just very bad form IMO and to this day I can never bring myself to support Williams.

Who knows if he would have been champ in 1997, maybe, maybe he would have been bested by JV, but he should have been given the chance at least.

[wedge]

First that springs to mind is Prost saying as a matter of fact that his Ferrari was a truck at the 1991 Australian GP.

Gilles once called his Ferrari a Cadillac which I imagine was in jest and was never sacked.

MARTIN BRUNDLE - BENETTON, 1992
Retired from first 4 races, but recovered to score almost 40pts - just 18 off 2nd in WDC! Scored several podiums and outraced Schumacher on more than a few occasions. Never outqualified him though. Was dropped for Patrese who wasn't really any quicker in 1993 and scored only 20pts.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing Patrese was a race winner and solid #2. His motivation dropped massively in 1993. Also, the rivalry between Schumi and Brundle got out of hand at times.

PEDRO DE LA ROSA - ARROWS, 2001
Pedro had been a revelation in the fast 2000 Arrows with the best ever livery challenging for several podiums. He was given a contract to stay at Arrows when he had offers from team like BAR. Only for the team to go back on it before the start of 2001, leaving Pedro out in the cold as the other seats were now filled.

Very harsh but business as usual for Tom Walkinshaw. He did it time and again. He did the same to Mika Salo '98/99 season.

JARNO TRULLI - RENAULT, 2004
Okay I'm not holding back on this one - here goes: Jarno had been basically outperforming Fernando Alonso in 2004 against expectations. This came to a head in Monaco when Trulli won while Alonso crashed. All Flavio could hiss was "This changes nothing"! Trulli was 16pts ahead in the WDC as well as the quicker qualifier. The problem was that Alonso, like in 2007, wasn't too happy being beaten. Therefore, neither was his manager Flav. From that point on, Trulli's season mysteriously fell apart and he was ousted after Monza. Conversely, Alonso's performances perked up.

2004 French GP - Trulli lost P3 to Barrichello on the last lap and Flavio was visually disgusted. It went downhill for Trulli.

DAMON HILL, WILLIAMS 1996
Leading the championship by a large margin and on his way to victory. He was sacked 3/4 of the way through the season which left him with little option but to drive for Arrows the following year. Rather unusual in the least to fire the driver who is leading the WDC and went on to win it. Of course his replacement Heinz Harald Frentzen proved to be quite average.

They signed HHF on pre-contract in 1995 when Hill should have won the WDC. Hill wanted to be better paid and when a driver asks for more money FW always falls back on the prima donna excuse.