what's the biggest brain fart you're ever seen a drive have?

I think we were talking about Michael Schumacher, not Andretti.

In the '00 USGP at Indy, when way in front, MS spun on the infield, but got it back on track.

That confusion at the finish line in '02 wasn't brain fade -- it was guilt over having Rubens pull over at Austria. After all, who wants "12 wins in a season" in the record books, knowing that one of them wasn't really yours? He was giving back the "borrowed" win -- after all, he did win 11 races that year -- just not the ones he was on the books for.

 

I still have to say DC crashing into the Pit Entrance in the 95 Australian GP, capped his season off.

 

Actually MS didn't put a wheel wrong at that first GP in 2000. He did spin off in 2001 as he was bored from being out front for so long. I don't think he tried gift RB at that particular race in 2002, I think he miscalculated where the start finish line was.

 

Brazilian GP 2001 when Montoya over took Schumacher and then Coulthard a few laps latter in the rain. Then a few laps latter Micheal spins it. Luckily ends up finishing third.

 

Jack Brabham leading the 1970 Monaco GP and being caught by Jochen Rindt in his aged Lotus 49 (the most beautiful F1 car ever), put it into the haybales at the Gasworks corner (last corner of the last lap) and Rindt went on to win.

http://www.ddavid.com/formula1/monaco1970.htm

The unsuccessful attempt to produce a competitive four-wheel drive car for Formula 1 had finally run its course, Lotus finally abandoned the effort and set about designing a car that would return them to the top. That car would be the famous Lotus 72. After its disappointing debut at Jarama, Rindt was resigned to drive the old Lotus 49C with new front suspension at the next race, Monaco. Rindt had come to Lotus in 1969 and was very much a man in a hurry. He often spoke of making one major attempt at the World Championship before retiring and in his mind this would be the year. He was hesitant about joining Lotus as he felt that their cars were un-safe and after his accident at Jarama the year before, when his rear-wing failed he was even more certain of this being the case but he also knew that when Lotus got it right it could be unstoppable.

Meanwhile Jack Brabham, ironically Rindt’s previous boss was competing in the last season of a great career that saw him win three World Championships, the last in his own car. He had previously promised his wife, Betty, that 1969 would be his last year but unable to secure the services of a top flight driver and wanting to try his hand in the new monocoque BT33 he decided to drive one more year. An added incentive was the fact that many in the press were calling for his retirement, which must have caused even this most taciturn Australian’s blood to boil. In response to these calls Brabham was preparing his answer. He well knew of Lotus’ new car but felt that the car would take some time to be sorted out. His main fear was actually Ferrari and that his best chance for a successful year was to collect sufficient points early in the season. This was a Brabham trademark tactic as his cars while tending to be conservative were always well prepared.

The opening race at Kyalami in South Africa resulted in an impressive victory for Brabham. Rindt was involved in an accident with the eventual race winner and his chance of victory was gone before a single lap had been completed. Both Rindt and Brabham failed to finish at the next race in Spain though Brabham was challenging for the lead at the time of his car’s demise. The stage was now set for Monaco.

Brabham, despite having brake problems was able to qualify fourth fastest behind Hulme, Amon and Stewart. Rindt, having a terrible weekend including having to deal with a case of sea-sickness caused by a sleepless night on a yacht in Monaco’s harbor, was on the fourth row. The Austrian feeling that he had no chance in the Lotus 49C told his wife Nina that he would "just drive around".

The start of the race saw Stewart storm into the lead while Brabham found himself stuck behind Amon’s March. Eventually out-braking Amon he took off in pursuit of Stewart. On lap 6 Stewart’s engine began to misfire and Brabham was able to assume the lead. Brabham would later remark that he would often find himself driving too conservatively when leading a race rather than destroying his opposition. Rindt’s race was going in the opposite direction as he was passed by the Matra of Henri Pescarolo and puttered around in seventh. Not the place to be for a man wanting to win the World Championship. But other factors were hard at work on this day as the race came to Rindt when Ickx and Beltoise retired in front of him. With Stewart’s engine misfire Rindt was now in 5th behind Brabham, Amon, Hulme and Pescarolo. Like a tiger being awakened from a sound sleep Rindt began to stir. On lap 36 he repassed Pescarolo and on lap 41, Hulme. Amon’s turn was next but before his turn came he had to retire due to suspension failure. It was now a straight race behind the wily veteran Brabham and the "awakened tiger". Fifteen seconds still separated them and Brabham still felt that he had the race well in hand. Someone forgot to tell Rindt as he continued his charge. Throwing the old Lotus around the circuit at Monaco was a sight that still lives in the memory of those lucky thousands who were there and the millions who saw the race on television including those in the United States where the race was shown on the Wide World of Sports. Urging the Austrian on while sitting on the floor in front of the television watching the greatest finish in "modern" Grand Prix history is not something soon forgotten by this author.

Driving his Lotus on the ragged edge it seemed certain that he must crash. Rindt would later remark that he had never driven a car faster than that day and hoped he would never have to again. Still there seemed no chance for victory but as stated earlier other factors were hard at work. With four laps to go Brabham was still nine seconds in front but on lap 77 he encountered Jo Siffert’s weaving March as he attempted to find the last drops of fuel to make it back to the pits. Five seconds were lost before Brabham was able to make his way past. The gap was now 2.4 seconds and Brabham sensing that things were getting a little dicey increased the gap the next time around by 2 seconds as Rindt loss time in one of his many near-misses with the Armco. Rindt then matched Brabham’s fastest lap of 1m24.4s with his own time of 1m23.3s.

It was now the final lap and at Tabac, Brabham came upon three backmarkers and had to struggle to get pass. Rindt just behind forced his way through and was now just behind the leader but still it seemed impossible that he could get past, another lap maybe but not now. Approaching the Gasworks hairpin Brabham came upon the slow moving de Tamaso of Piers Courage. Left or right – all seemed closed off. Brabham for an instant thought of following the stricken car through and had he done so all might have been different but fearing that Rindt was closer than he actually was decided to pass but by then he had missed his braking point and in an instant he was in the strawbales as Rindt flashed past. Rindt could actually be seen looking across at Brabham and shaking his head in disbelief. The next scene saw the famous cap thrown in the air signifying another win by one of Chapman’s cars.

Brabham’s problems were still not finished. Having stalled his engine a marshal at the scene, caught up in the excitement of the moment, jumped over the barrier and attempted to give the stalled car a push. This would have meant immediate disqualification. Brabham knowing this, was able to fire up the engine and slam it into reverse just as the marshal arrived. The marshal now pushing thin air lost his balance and ended up sprawled over the front of the car! Brabham knew it wouldn’t look quite right to cross the finish line with a flag marshal draped over his car and jammed on the brake causing the stunned marshal to fall on his rear. Finally the marshal regained his senses and moved out of the way as Brabham inched past and limped home second.

Rindt overcome by his stunning victory climbed the steps to the Royal Box with tears streaming down his face. Trembling, he shook hands with the Royal couple while the British and Austrian anthems were played. Waves of cheers from the delirious fans rolled over him for they had surly seen a miracle.

What would cause a driver without any hope for victory suddenly to awaken and drive with such reckless abandon - certainly it was the stuff of champions.

 

Payback for 89.

 

This one is worth seeing:

http://video.search.yahoo.com/video/view?&h=118&w=145&type=mpeg&rurl=www.f1world.be%2FNederlandstalig%2Fdownloads.php&vurl=www.gvde.yucom.be%2Fhockenheim-piquet-salazar.mpg&back=p%3Dpiquet%2Bsalazar%26sm%3DYahoo%2521%2BSearch%26toggle%3D1%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr%3DFP-tab-img-t&turl=re2.mm-so.yimg.com%2Fimage%2F1505612246&name=hockenheim-<b>piquet</b>-<b>salazar</b>.mpg&no=1&tt=1&p=piquet+salazar&size=3.0MB&dur=51

 

Was that 1982 German GP?

 

I checked and it was in fact the 1982 German GP: one of my favorite races because the Scuderia was so down and Tambay gave them a great, morale boosting win.

PS-Piquet fights like a biatch....

 

Paul, what was that psuedo Karate? Piquet was really pissed that weekend at what happened to Pironi and when ES knocked him out he made that ridiculous fight.

 

Clearly Nelson did not have a future as an "Ultimate Fighter"......

I was in Italy at the time of Pironi's accident and Nelson's comments that weekend were directed at ripping Ferrari a new a**hole in that both Villeneuve' s and Pironi's cars fell apart in the same manner, that the cars were structurally unsound, and doubted he would ever drive for Ferrari, etc. Made great press and sold lots of the "Gazzetta Dello Sport". Of course Nelson never did drive for Ferrari, but he did drive those "extremely tough" Lotus GP cars.....

I think Nelson was on the (radical back then) 2 stop fuel/tire strategy in that race-as such he needed to get by the backmarkers ASAP and Salazar failed to yield to the defending WC, although he probably should have. Goes to show how hard making a clean pass in F1 really is.....

That reminds me.....

Does anybody have Senna and Nakajima (Brazil 1990) on video? Similar accident except it was very late in the race and Senna had no business fooling with him.

 

Couldn't find the senna/nakajima video but this one is very cool!

http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=piquet+senna&sm=Yahoo%21+Search&fr=FP-tab-vid-t&toggle=1&ei=UTF-8


I personally prefer Piquet.

 

According to my notes, MS finished second to Mika in '01. Michael was off his pace for a couple of races after Zinardi's crash.

At the '02 USGP, Michael would have to say it wasn't intentional -- team orders were banned after Austria.

 

There have been some classic blunders out there, no doubt, but I think the last lap fiascos have to be the worst: Nigel @ Canada (1991), Brabham @ Monaco ('70) and Bjorn at Monaco in F3000. Bjorn just flat made a mistake assuming that he had won the race and coasted to the finish line. I remember watching that on Speed and I couldn't believe it!! Man, how do you face your team after that?

 

Anyone remember during an indycar race when Mario "forgot" about a parked car next to the wall (street race) and just drove right into it shearing off the right side wheels and suspension of his car? After the race he explained that he thought the disabled car had been removed by course workers. That was a large B. fart.

 

How about Senna leading the Monaco GP by miles, then putting the car into the Armco ??


Or when he try to pass Schlesser at Monza and crashed out !