Best / Worst Pay Driver

[mountainstar]

Originally posted by BootsOntheSide
I think Lauda paid towards his 74 Ferrari drive - surely last (or only) only case of a race-winning season being self-funded?

Straight from Lauda's mouth- For 1974, Ferrari paid off his outstanding debts and paid BRM for a release. Lauda didn't pay anything for the Ferrari drive.

[Seton Fanatic]

The best pay driver in purely statistical terms would have to be Niki Lauda. The worst could come from around twenty drivers over the history of Formula One.

[Logrence]

The best pay driver in purely statistical terms is clearly one M. Schumacher...

[noweels]

Ricardo Rosset owns 30 sportswear shops in Sao Paulo.
Tyrrel treated him "like a rag" quote Rosset.

[Kicking-back]

Unfair to blame Tyrrell - Ken left the team before the start of that 1998 season.

It was basically a "holding year" before BAR took full control.

[noweels]

ok so its fair to blame Rosset?

[Kicking-back]

I think Rosset proved at other times he is a capable driver.

Sometimes a particular driver/team combination just doesn't work.

When I said don't blame Tyrrell, I meant Ken himself.

It may be that blame can be laid at the door of those who ran the team that year, but it's one of those situations we'd have had to have been involved in to know for sure.

[GTRMagic]

Where does Satoru Nakajima fit in the scale of things... a works Honda engine at the time they were pretty special pieces of kit, and only a 4th place to show for it....

[noweels]

I was involved and believe me,the way he was treated was a disgrace.I understand your thinking, and to an outsider looking at Rosset's results it makes him looks bad.

[Fan]

Originally posted by noweels
I was involved and believe me,the way he was treated was a disgrace.I understand your thinking, and to an outsider looking at Rosset's results it makes him looks bad.

Good to hear - you don't win F3/F3000 races if you're not good. He's a quick driver - a case of wrong place/wrong time.

[N I Tram]

Rosset's defiantely not among the worst pay-drivers ever. People like Deletraz, Chiesa, Bertaggia and Noda are defiantely far worse, especially once you cosndier their CVs outside of F1 (although, incredibly, Deletraz has done well in sportscars)

[Kicking-back]

Deletraz also finished on an F3000 podium back in 1988.

[Attila]

I am glad that none of you mentioned Zsolt Baumgarner :-).

[ensign14]

Originally posted by cds_uk
I would consider DeCesaris decent, he was always quick when compared to any of his team mates, was a very good test driver, and you don`t stay around from 1980-1994 if you are a complete ******, i don`t care how much money you bring with you.

Daddy was head of Marlboro in Italy. He wasn't a total loser, as he was wildly fast at times, but grotesquely inconsistent and a perennial hazard. It's like his brain stopped growing when he was 11. However he was not the worst pay driver ever...

Someone mentioned Nakajima. He came in too late for his career but often outpaced Piquet. I'd place him above someone like Rebaque who couldn't get a podium in a WC winning car.

[BootsOntheSide]

Good point about Naka there ensign. Lotus may have had the championship-winning engines in 1988, but they didn't have anything else that was up to a high standard (even Piquet only managed 3 podiums with it all season, and Senna only won 5 races at Lotus in 3 seasons (1 with Hondas). He wasn't great, but defiantely not the worst - Johnny Dumfries was worse, although he did license the excellent 'Grand Prix Simulator' on the Commodore 64.

[Logrence]

Originally posted by Attila
I am glad that none of you mentioned Zsolt Baumgarner :-).

He's not a bad driver, just a liability.

[Kicking-back]

Not sure about that, Logrence.

Zsolt tends to keep it on the track

[Adam43]

Abusive posts towards drivers will be removed

[ensign14]

Another one that never really did much - Alex Soler-Roig. Maybe because he only had one-off drives in a 3rd string March or Lotus, but he had the opportunity.

Did George Eaton pay for his BRM drive? He had a season of nothing when his team-mates were winning races.

[Tweed]

I remember at Silverstone in 2001, Baumgartner's fastest lap in his F3000 car was a tenth slower than Takuma Sato in his F3 car!

[Attila]

Without trying to defend Zsolt, for whatever reason his driving style did not go well with F3000. I think Zsolt is a much better F1 driver compared to the opposition than an F3000 driver. Also, one should not forget, that in F-renault Baumgarner was one of the bests. If you look at his track record, he was very very good in F-Renault. He was not that bad in F3 either, however, he made some stupid choices about teams, but his first year in the scholarship class was not that bad. His seasons in F3000 were terrible, but than again as a Jordan tester he did not do too badly and right now Zsolt is not doing terribly.

[Kicking-back]

Originally posted by Tweed
I remember at Silverstone in 2001, Baumgartner's fastest lap in his F3000 car was a tenth slower than Takuma Sato in his F3 car!

There must have been different weather conditions involved, or you're making that up

[BootsOntheSide]

Well, at the 1995 Portugal race, Deletraz's best lap in teh Pacific was good enough for 22nd on the grid in the F3000 race - hsi team-mate was 7 seconds faster, and pole back to seocnd-last (in a Forti) was 7 seconds, so it's feasible.

[Kicking-back]

Baumgartner was never that bad in F3000 - he was a solid midfield man.

[Dani Filth]

i disagree . he had problems to qualify . when they had the field spit .. if my memory doesn;t play tricks on me