Biggest team moves in history?

I've only been watching F1 in more modern times so wondering what some of you "F1 historians" think ware some of the biggest team swaps of all time?

My thoughts:
Hammy to Merc - never thought he'd leave his 'family'.
Kimi back to the Scud - several predicted/wanted this to happen, but I thought "surely, never".
Newey to Ferrari - Just hasn't been made public yet.


Your thoughts?

 

The biggest shocker - which is alluded to in the new movie "Rush" - was at the end of 1975 when Emerson Fittipaldi left McLaren, for whom he had placed 1st and 2nd in 2 World Championships, to join his brother Wilson's Copersucar team. (That's what provided the opening for James Hunt to join McLaren.)

Copersucar was just one year old and had accomplished very little in 1975 with Wilson driving. Everyone knew that Emmo was throwing away a chance at more race wins and possible championships, but it turns out that the Brazilian sugar cooperative that was backing the team was willing to pay him far more than McLaren could have ever thought of.

The pundits were right - Emerson never won another GP, with a couple of 2nds being his highest placing during his years with Copersucar. Eventually he retired from F1, only to pop up in CART about a decade later and do quite well.

 

You wish. So do I, frankly. This is one of the few things where I actually believe "never" might unfortunately be accurate.

 

Really wanted the Kimi Ferrari thing to happen but didn't think it was going to. When the rumours started to gain momentum I started believing it and about a week or 10 days before official announcement I was 99% sure.

When the day and a bit delay came I almost worn out my F5 button, there was still that bit of insecurity that it might not happen after all!

Schumacher comeback was pretty huge.

Schumacher from his 2nd WDC to a failing Ferrari was mad and daring. Pretty good move it turned out to be though .

 

IMO, Schumacher to Ferrari was a very bold move by a top driver. It was a move that sets him apart from other greats as he took on the challenge to turn a team around. It was a move that he did not have to make as he could have gone to wherever he wanted.

A close second for me was when Senna went to Williams. I honestly never thought that he would ever leave McLaren behind. I guess the desire to equal Prost on WDC titles proves to be stronger than loyalty to one individual team. This is also why I was not that surprised about Hamilton's move to Mercedes, it was no where near earth shaking for me when compared to Senna's decision.

 

I'll second the Senna to Williams move. It was big in a number of different ways.

At the time, it looked like the best possible move for Senna, jumping into what was hands down and far away the best car.

In hindsight it was one of the worst moves ever, because the active suspension rule change made the car absolutely horrendous after Senna had already signed on.

History is full of "what if it had been different" moments. However this is one that I think started out to be great, but turned out to be awful.

(And we all now how it turned out in the end.)

 

Lauda to Brabbham
Lauda retire - back to Mclaren
Prost from McLaren - Ferrari
Senna Toleman to lotus - to McLaren... all shocking
Gordon Murray Brabbham to McLaren
Piquet - Williams to Lotus - bad move
Mansell - williams to Ferrari

Jack Brabbham to his own team from Cooper
Bruce Mclaren from cooper to own team

Schumacher Jordan - bennetton - ferrari retire then to Mercedes... all shocking

 

Well put.

 

good list.

I'll add:

Villeneuve to BAR
Damon Hill to Arrows as reigning champion
Mansell to IndyCar (?!?) as reigning champion

 

+1

Many $ and his old school teacher in charge.....

*Many*, many $.....

Nobody wanted the whining *****.

Still remains the luckiest WDC in history IMESHO.

Cheers,
Ian

 

MS IMO.

He took a huge risk, when there was Williams, and Mclaren.

 

I thought Hill went to Arrows after getting dropped by Williams for HHF...Arrows was one of the few seats open at the time. I wasn't aware of big $$ from Arrows to lure him there.

agree with you on the other two points

 

Schumacher to Ferrari
Alonso to McLaren

 

I have no idea how you can say this after 1986, he was robbed of that WDC

 

Mansell was not robbed of the championship - the tyre exposion was bad luck... he could have been further along that season had he not got caught up in the politics at Williams with Piquet.. in 92 when he won - he had the most advanced F-1 car ever.. and still complained about it!

 

Right, that's what I was referring to. Simply awful luck when he had that WDC wrapped up. '92 was just karma coming back his way.

 

+100.

Those were really shocking.

 

Alan Jones to Beatrice Haas.
Comeback wasn't really succesfull though.

 

John Surtees: From MV Augusta to Lotus in 1960

 

I believe this is part of what motivated hamilton to drive for merc. Though they werent in dire straights they were miles away from red bull (who isnt).