F1 entries/rumours that never came to be

[AnonymityRules]

According to the late Tom Walkinshaw, Pedro Diniz was supposed to stay at Arrows for 1999 instead of going to Sauber, the matter went to court in 2002 and the case was ruled in favour of Diniz and was just one of a myriad of contributory factors in the team folding in early 2003.

Arrows were very good at sacking drivers on the eve of the season during the TWR years:

Mika Salo for Pedro de la Rosa in 1999.

PDLR for Enrique Bernoldi in 2001.

Jos Verstappen for Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 2002 despite the Dutchman having a valid contract.

Tom Coronel was in the frame to replace Toranosuke Takagi for 2000 until Arrows hired Verstappen.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Midland showed interest in Mario Dominguez prior to buying out Jordan and hiring Narain Karthikeyan and Tiago Montero.

[AnonymityRules]

Jimmy Vasser was mentioned in Autosport as being among the candidates to partner Jacques Villeneuve at BAR for debut season in 1999 although Ricardo Zonta was always the most likely.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

If Lotus had survived into 1995, their intention was continue running Alessandro Zanardi and Mika Salo, following on from the last two rounds of 1994.

[AnonymityRules]

Alain Prost returned to McLaren as a test driver/advisor from 1994 to 1996. McLaren tried to interest Prost in a race seat for 1994 after Ayrton Senna made his ill-fated switch to Williams. This was largely to try and hire a French driver at the behest of Peugeot but Marlborough wanted a British driver. In the end, it came down to either Martin Brundle or Philippe Alliot. Brundle got to race, Alliot to test but the latter later stood in for the suspended Mika Häkkinen in Hungary.

Christian Fittipaldi was in the frame for seats at McLaren and Forti for 1995. He would have been Marlborough's preferred choice for the former but Mercedes pushed for the ill-fated signing of Nigel Mansell.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by AnonymityRules

Alain Prost returned to McLaren as a test driver/advisor from 1994 to 1996. McLaren tried to interest Prost in a race seat for 1994 after Ayrton Senna made his ill-fated switch to Williams. This was largely to try and hire a French driver at the behest of Peugeot but Marlborough wanted a British driver. In the end, it came down to either Martin Brundle or Philippe Alliot. Brundle got to race, Alliot to test but the latter later stood in for the suspended Mika Häkkinen in Hungary.

Christian Fittipaldi was in the frame for seats at McLaren and Forti for 1995. He would have been Marlborough's preferred choice for the former but Mercedes pushed for the ill-fated signing of Nigel Mansell.

Of course, Nigel Mansell hoped to return to Williams full-time for 1995 and David Coulthard signed for McLaren a year early but then Williams chose Coulthard to partner Damon Hill, leading to a contract dispute with McLaren that the CRB ruled in favour of Williams.

[AnonymityRules]

Mark Blundell lost to Johnny Herbert for the chance to partner Frentzen at Sauber in 1996.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Alex Zanardi originally signed for Williams in 1999 on a 3-year contract, one pointless year later, he was out. Jenson Button took his place but it could have been Bruno Junqueira, Warren Hughes, Darren Manning to name a few.

[AnonymityRules]

Nick Heidfeld beat Antonio Pizzonia in the shoot-out to partner Mark Webber at Williams in 2005.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Minardi intended to run Esteban Tuero and Marc Gene in 1999 until Tuero suddenly announced his retirement and was replaced by Luca Badoer.

Tuero was only meant to do the first rounds of 1998, after which, Laurent Redon would have taken over.

[AnonymityRules]

Who would have partnered Damon Hill at Williams in F1 after the death of Ayrton Senna if David Coulthard had taken up the Mazda seat in the 1994 BTCC, at least when Nigel Mansell was unable to race due to his Indycar commitments?

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by AnonymityRules

Who would have partnered Damon Hill at Williams in F1 after the death of Ayrton Senna if David Coulthard had taken up the Mazda seat in the 1994 BTCC, at least when Nigel Mansell was unable to race due to his Indycar commitments?

That certainly would have limited the Williams team's options since Alain Prost refused to come back out of respect for Ayrton and Sauber would not release Frentzen. I know these things from The Life of Senna.

[chunterer]

Warwick, Patrese were the other names contacted.

[S griffin]

This reminds me of the Retro Silly Season thread we did

Further to the second Williams seat in 1994, I think Rubinho and HHF were also contacted about the drive, but both chose to stay with their respective teams

And Patrese actually agreed to the drive, but changed his mind when he got home from the Williams factory IIRC

[Nononsensecapeesh]

The stillborn USF1 team were going to run José Maria Lopez and James Rossiter, Adrian Valles was also mentioned at one point. Of course, when USF1 announced their plans, all sorts of names were mentioned such as Scott Speed, Jonathan Summertom, JR Hildebrand to name a few.

[AnonymityRules]

Stefan GP have tried a few times, most notably 1998 with the abandoned 1997 Lolas and 2010 with the stillborn Toyota TF110, the latter attempt would have featured Kazuki Nakajima and Jacques Villeneuve as the drivers.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

After their respective performances in the 2005 Indy 500, Danica Patrick and the late Dan Wheldon were linked to BAR/Honda for 2006, if not for a race seat then at least for a testing role.

[AnonymityRules]

Dario Franchitti was linked to Jaguar for 2001.

[S griffin]

1978
Kojima were planning to do a full season in 78 with Rosberg as their driver. Think Kauhsen might have had something to do with it? And wasn’t Mikko can’t-spell-his-surname also linked to the project?

Ferrari were originally going to go with Jones, before deciding on Villeneuve. Also Cheever was an option for them

Gunnar Nilsson was originally going to drive for Arrows, before being diagnosed with the cancer that he sadly eventually succumbed to. Ian Scheckter was originally going to be his replacement

1979
Tiff Needell was going to take the Ensign seat at the French GP onwards, but was refused a superlicence

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by S griffin

1978
Kojima were planning to do a full season in 78 with Rosberg as their driver. Think Kauhsen might have had something to do with it? And wasn’t Mikko can’t-spell-his-surname also linked to the project?

Ferrari were originally going to go with Jones, before deciding on Villeneuve. Also Cheever was an option for them

Gunnar Nilsson was originally going to drive for Arrows, before being diagnosed with the cancer that he sadly eventually succumbed to. Ian Scheckter was originally going to be his replacement

1979
Tiff Needell was going to take the Ensign seat at the French GP onwards, but was refused a superlicence

Mikko Kozarowitzky

Ricardo Londono-Bridge had the same problem as Needell when Ensign tried to hire him for 1981.

Jorge de Bagration was due to drive a privately entered Surtees in the 1974 Spanish GP.

[crmalcolm]

Originally Posted by Nononsensecapeesh

Ricardo Londono-Bridge had the same problem as Needell when Ensign tried to hire him for 1981.

True - but in fairness to both it is probably worth highlighting how different their respective circumstances were:

Tiff Needell: "The FIA had only just introduced it, without really thinking it through. As an F3 driver, to qualify you had to finish in the top six of an international race 10 times, or something like that; I think it was five times if you were an F2 driver. The big problem was that the most competitive F3 championship at that time, the British, was being run under a national licence and so none of us qualified for a Superlicence. I was a test case and they rewrote the rules afterwards. Max and Bernie, bless ’em, tried to get me a licence, but the French said ‘Non’."

Ricardo Londoño-Bridge: "He had his chance to run in the untimed familiarisation at Jacarepaguá ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix. There he sent some respectable times but fell foul of the other drivers when Keke Rosberg gave him a brake test and the helpless Columbian punted him off. With the usual drivers kicking off Londoño-Bridge was never going to get the paperwork, and he headed off to a brief career in F2 before returning to tin-tops." And there are also the rumours that are attributed to Formula One's commercial rights owner Bernie Ecclestone discovering Londoño's links with the Medell?*n Cartel and Escobar.

[S griffin]

1980
Osella were going to run a second car alongside Cheever with Gabbiani

Mention of Mears earlier. Brabham did offer him a drive at Long Beach after he tested with them, but he turned it down

Also the original choices to replace the injured Prost at that race were James Hunt and Hans Stuck. Hunt of course got injured skiing and Stuck either turned it down or McLaren couldn’t get hold of him.

[AnonymityRules]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Warwick, Patrese were the other names contacted.

Derek Warwick could have gone to Williams for 1985 but chose to stay at Renault. A certain Nigel Mansell got the drive instead.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

The infamous Phoenix Finance (or DART) tried to enter the 2002 Season with updated 2001 Prost AP04 chassis', Arrows-Hart engines from the 1998/1999 seasons and a driver line-up of Gaston Mazzacane and Tarso Marques, the FIA were having none of it.

Prost did manage to build a wind-tunnel model of what would have been the 2002 AP05 chassis.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Originally Posted by BTCC frog

Thanks to nononsensecapeesh for inspiring these other threads. Let's have one for Formula 1.

I think the most interesting silly season story is that of Jenson Button in 2004-6. Button was signed for BAR but tried to sign a contract with Williams. They went through a whole contract dispute in which Button tried to get out of his deal with BAR and instead drive for Williams, but eventually BAR won and retained the services of Jenson Button for 2005. Button then signed a contract with Williams for 2006. However, due to Williams struggling in 2005 as much as BAR, and losing BMW as an engine supplier while BAR were getting increased backing from Honda, Button then decided he wanted to stay with BAR and went back into contract disputes between the two teams, but with the roles reversed. Eventually, Button had to pay Williams to get out of his contract and remain with BAR.

What about drivers who entered but never qualified?