Biggest Driver Disappointment in F1?

Copy and paste from Wikipédia.

"For the 1993 season, Michael signed for Marlboro McLaren, to partner the triple World Drivers' Champion Ayrton Senna in their Ford HBD V8 powered MP4/8. He signed during the summer of 1992 and the deal was announced at Monza over the weekend of the 1992 Italian Grand Prix.

"I think he can win Grands Prix and become the World Champion," said Ron Dennis, McLaren's team principal. "It's not a question of which country you come from. It's how you demonstrate your desire to win." There were practical factors that mitigated against Andretti being able to show competitive form in his debut season in F1. The rule changes introduced that season destroyed his hopes of unrestricted laps in free practice during which he could learn the tracks, as most were unfamiliar to him. From the start of 1993, just 23 laps were allowed in the morning's untimed session and only twelve in the qualifying session.

With the pressure intensifying, Michael began the year with crashes in the Kyalami and at Interlagos. In the latter of these two, he had a massive collision at the start with Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari. He then qualified sixth for the Sega European Grand Prix at Donington Park, but he collided with Karl Wendlinger's Sauber on the opening lap. Next time out at Imola, he again fell foul of Wendlinger after a drive that might have ended with a visit to the podium, and many critics cited this as the key turning point for the American.

In the Gran Premio de España, Andretti finally completed a race, finishing fifth amongst the established front runners. However, his showing was criticized by former McLaren World Champion James Hunt because Andretti was lapped by his teammate Senna.

He would finish in the points on three occasions, but he could never quite string things together consistently. He never fully got to grips with the McLaren MP4/8. Highly technical aspects which he was not used to in the technologically simpler IndyCars such as active suspension and traction control hampered Andretti's chances as did the standing starts used in F1. Some in the industry also felt that since he commuted to races and test sessions from the United States, rather than relocating full-time to Europe was also a contributing factor to his lack of success in Formula One. At the time, McLaren's Special Projects Manager, long-time Andretti family friend Tyler Alexander, who had been involved in F1 since the mid-1960s, had urged Michael to relocate to England as he knew times had changed from when Mario had raced to the 1978 World Championship. True enough, he finished third at Monza (which would prove to be his last Formula One race), but with three races remaining, he left the team and the championship by mutual agreement after the race.

According to Michael's son Marco, the McLaren team "sabotaged" his father's chances at being competitive in order to replace him with the team's test driver Mika Häkkinen, who would require a smaller salary. "The reality of it was, they had Mika Häkkinen ready to come in for a lot less than what my dad was getting paid, and that's all it was. Right then and there, they had to make him look [bad]," claimed Marco in 2008. "They would make the car do weird things in the corner electronically, stuff out of his control." However, Andretti still had problems in practice for the Italian Grand Prix, and both he and Senna spun off with brake balance problems early in the race. Andretti was able to continue and fought back up to third, holding off Wendlinger. Throughout the season, Senna experienced similar reliability problems to Andretti, mainly electronic gremlins, particularly in San Marino, Canada, Hungary and Belgium, although Häkkinen equalled Andretti's third place Monza finish in Japan, while Senna won both the Japanese Grand Prix and the season ending Australian Grand Prix, his final race for McLaren. And according to Häkkinen in a much later interview, Andretti was commuting to Europe from the United States, and was not in Europe enough when testing needed to be done, allowing Häkkinen to consistently show his speed and build a relationship with the team. Häkkinen had also said that Andretti's mental approach was all wrong, and he did not realize the kind of incredible sacrifices one needed to make in order to succeed in Formula One.

It has also been reported that at the start of the 1993 season, Dennis signed Häkkinen as a backup to Senna, who was initially reluctant to commit to the team for the whole season (Senna's move to Williams had to wait until the next season because his rival Alain Prost was having his retirement season there and had it written into his contract that they could not sign the Brazilian triple World Champion as his teammate). This created a difficult atmosphere for Andretti, who would be in the shadow of the brilliant Brazilian, and also faced the threat of being replaced by Häkkinen. "


That says it all.

All credit to Wikipédia !!!

 

Ironically Michael's best result was in his last F1 race, a 3rd place at Monza. He won at the first race of his return to Indycar driving for Chip Ganassi. Yes he lacked commitment to F1 and I think that that there was a cultural aspect as well--he was a simple American kid and was uncomfortable in Europe. IMO he should have lived there and devoted everything to his F1 career--with one of the great teams and a great team mate(Senna).
Juan Pablo Montoya was another squandered talent, it was a great disappointment to me that he just walked away from F1. He won races at some of the greatest venues--Monza and Monaco.
Jacques Villeneuve could have achieved a few championships had he not been seduced by Craig Pollack into joining BAR. As the years go by I am less impressed by him.
My greatest disappointment is Jean Alesi, truly one of the great talents. Had he honored his commitment to Williams he would be a multi-WDC.

 

What the Wikepedia article doesn't say is that before Michael Andretti turned a Wheel at McLaren, his chances were already slim.
I think it was in late 92 that Senna announced to Ron Dennis he was seeking a drive at Williams.
With Berger already leaving for Ferrari, Dennis had to find 2 drivers for 1993.
That's how Micheal Andretti was signed, and Mika Hakkinen poached from the ailing Team Lotus.
Frank Williams took a while to make up his mind about signing Senna who was also asking for a lot of money!
Early in the year, Senna contacted Ron Dennis, asking if he could drive for him in 93, since Williams would only recruit him for the following year.
Ron Dennis agreed, and had now 3 drivers for ... 2 cars.
Obviously 3-time WDC Senna had priority at McLaren. When Hakkinen's manager heard of this, he insisted his client's contract had to be respected.
Andretti became overnight extra to requirement, but Dennis didn't tell him.
Instead, he sold to Andretti the idea that since he wouldn't relocate in UK, he would be exempted from testing duties.
Senna wasn't too fan of testing either, so Hakkinen's contract was respected in giving him all the testing time..
The lack of testing played against Andretti; who took time to adapt to a F1, and sealed his fate in the team.

I read somewhere that Andretti's wife wouldn't relocate in UK for him to be near the team.

 

Bottas

 

Scott Speed, Sebastian Bourdais, and of course . . . .

Zsolt Baumgartner

 

Michael Andretti: Senna said it was a very difficult car. To drop in new must have hard. Rumor was his 1st wife was giving problems also!

 

My biggest disappointment in F1 was Chris Amon.
He was quick and led races, but he was a really unlucky driver and never won a GP.
Amon was recruited by Ferrari in the strength of his win at Le Mans with Ford.
Amon had some F1 experience, having raced for a private team during the 1.5L era.

Amon was propelled as team leader after the death of Bandini and Scarfiotti's departure from the Scuderia.
During his period at Ferrari, Amon won in sports car races, but never a GP.
His car would pack up, or he would suffer a puncture, or other mischief when leading.
Ferrari wasn't at its best at that time, but a few wins were missed at the last minute because of unreliability.
When Ickx joined Ferrari, he won during his first season, and Amon left Ferrari shortly after, completely demoralised it seems.

Amon drove for March for a while, and then for Matra.
At Monza, he was leading comfortably during the Italian GP only to lose his goggles and finish down the field.
I think he drove for Ensign, and maybe Tecno later on, before building his own car without success.
Mario Andretti used to say: " Amon is the unluckiest guy I know. If he was undertaker, people would stop dying! "

Among other disappointments, Cristiano de Matta and Alex Zanardi, both came from CART after winning the championship and were respectively recruited by Toyota and Williams to be complete failure in F1.

 

Chris Amon gave up on Ferrari prior to the release of the 312B in 1970, just when Ferrari came good. He also drove briefly for BRM in 1974.

 

Montoya, as I really felt who could of won at least one championship. IMO one of the best I have seen. The other was Nick Heidfeld.

 

I would say Zanardi. Even more so than Michael A., he was a complete flop in F1 after dominating in CART.

 

Bruno Senna, Ralf Schumacher, Nelson Piquet jr. No justice to their surnames.

 

Quick Nick.

 

The problem was Michael’s attitude. He didn’t like the travel and spending long times in Europe. The Euro press pummeled him, even right down to his weight.

It didn’t help he could never live up to his legendary father and having Senna next to him.

 

I would toss Alessi into the mix and maybe Berger. It’s true they didn’t have great cars but neither did Il Leone. And he was much loved for his driving style.

But by far in away it was Alonso at Ferrari. Biggest let down of all time.

 

I remember the expectation was enormous when he signed for Ferrari.

 

The thing is Senna wasn't in the picture when M.Andretti signed for McLaren, and Hakkinen was unknown quantity then.
It must have come as a bad surprise when Ron Dennis announced later that the Brazilian was back !

 

He was supposed to get titles at Ferrari. That was his job.

 

My favorite Montoya story is the infamous crash into the back of the jet dryer at Daytona. (European members might not be familiar with jet dryers. They are big pickup trucks fitted with actual jet engines on the back that work like gigantic hair dryers to dry the tracks after a teeny bit of rain at a NASCAR race.)

One year at the Daytona 500, under caution, safety car on track, Montoya came swooping around the banking in turn three and absolutely plowed straight into the back of one of those jet dryers. The resulting explosion and release of jet fuel onto the track with massive flames actually melting the asphalt caused a red flag for (I think) six or eight hours or more.

Joie Chitwood, at the time president of Daytona International Speedway, was in race control and the TV folks and the NASCAR execs were screaming at him “How long is this going to take? We need to get back on the air! What’s taking so long?” He was trying to be nice and professional but finally shouted back “The ****ing track is on fire!! We don’t practice that ****!!”

The following year, FCA had a package at the Rolex 24, and one of the drivers that came to the meet and greet was Montoya. Before the drivers arrived, a representative from DIS came in and addressed the room, and said “You can ask whatever questions you like, but DO NOT ask JPM about the jet dryer incident.”

To his credit, a few years later JPM talked about it saying “You know, I’ve crashed into a lot of things in my career...”

 

Would recommend watching all parts of this excellent Doco on Mclaren 1993 season...but this episode in particular is very interesting re: Michael Andretti's time with the team.

 

Bruno Senna started late in motorsport because his family didn't want him to do it. He completely missed the important foundation of karting.

Ralf Schumacher was an above average driver who just got in F1 because of his famous surname. I hope that Mick Jr won't have the same fate.

Nelson Piquet Jr. was truly talented, he dominated the British F3 against some very good drivers at the time and at GP2 he was fighting with Lewis Hamilton at the same level and should have won that championship if his team hadn't left him without fuel on two occasions.

I think Montoya is one of the biggest disappointments. Also Nick Heildfeld, Timo Glock, Antonio Pizzonia, Ricardo Zonta, Christiano da Matta, Zanardi, ... They were all multi-champions before F1 but due to bad luck or their own bad decisions ended up leaving F1 from the back door.

 

I think it has to be Barrichello as well. I mean if only he was patient, stayed on with Ferrari post 2005, he would have been 2007 & 2008 WDC. Could have happily retired then.

 

Maston Gregory.

 

I was a great fan of Masten and followed him in the 60, but I couldn't understand his lack of success.
Years later, I read his biography and started to understand.
Masten Gregory prefered to be freelance, it seems, rather than signing contracts with teams, although he did it at times.
I think his bigger disappointment was not being retained at Cooper after a season where he proved to be faster than Jack Brabham.
That scuppered his ambitions in F1, and he only drove for private teams after that, often in obsolete cars.
In sports cars, Gregory was more successful, driving Listers for Ecurie Ecosse, Maseratis for CAMORADI, various Porsches, then Ferraris for Luigi Chinetti.
His win at Le Mans in 1965 was the last victory for Ferrari at la Sarthe. More drives for Chinetti and Filipinetti in endurance followed, mixed with several one-off drives in CANAM, and one or 2 attempts at Indy and then he signed at Alfa Romeo.
He didn't like being a factory driver, and returned to freelancing after one year.
One thing I couldn't understand at the time is why his great friend Caroll Shelby never took him in his team.
At the first Ford attempt to win Le Mans, Gregory had a Ford GT40 with Richie Ginther, entered Under the banner of Ford Advanced Vehicles by John Wyer.
Masten Gregory was accused by Wyer of mishandlng the Colotti gearbox that broke when the car was leading.
He was subsequently barred from the Ford programme later trusted to Shelby.
In his early days, Gregory was reckless and had many crashes, but he was also fast.
He said that he never expected to reach 30.
He retired in his early 40s, shocked by the death of Jo Bonnier.
He failed in several business ventures he had started, and died in his flat in Italy listening to opera, one of his passions.

 

Great shout on Piquet jr. Like you say he was fantastic in GP2 and as soon as he got to F1 it almost seemed he lost the capability of basic driving.

Zanardi also...He really should've been doing better. Couldn't get used to the carbon brakes and actually drove on Steel discs for a long time. A shame. Perhaps a different team than the ''my way or the highway'' Williams would've done more to get him adjusted to the sport.

Jos Verstappen IMO was another great disappointment. Great F3 career, got thrown into the deepend and barely given a chance to do anything before kicked out of Benetton. Then drifted in and out from **** team to **** team...I think he'd have been a great fit at Jordan at the time and later on Williams. He sure had the talent. Mistakes he made he learned from and taught to his son, however.