F1 entries/rumours that never came to be

[S griffin]

Yes, we mentioned that earlier. Look under my post that does the 1986 season

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by peebee2

Any news on Ekstrom?

He was good in DTM!

[S griffin]

TOM's were planning on coming in in 1993. Hitoshi Ogawa was going to be one of the drivers, before his untimely death

[saxoflute03]

A few more F1 rumours that were scuppered by tragedy:

Denis Dayan and Jean-Luc Salomon were rumoured to be entering the 1970 French GP.

Gerry Birrell was believed to be a possible replacement for the retiring Jackie Stewart at Tyrrell for 1974.

Gary Hocking was due to enter the 1962 South African GP.

Markus Hottinger was due to drive for ATS in the 1980 Austrian GP.

[S griffin]

Also Ronnie Peterson would have gone to McLaren for 79 if fate hadn’t intervened

[saxoflute03]

BRM and Tyrrell also showed interest in Roger Williamson, the former even gave him his first test in an F1 car, Tom Wheatcroft wouldn't let his protege go that easily.

[S griffin]

Ferrari actually approached Prost to partner Villeneuve at Ferrari for 81. He didn’t want to break his McLaren contract at the time though, although he eventually got a release at the end of 80 to race for Renault, as he felt the McLaren cars were too dangerous due to the amount of accidents he had that year due to parts of the car breaking

[saxoflute03]

Jorge de Bagration and Alex Soler-Roig tried to enter the 1968 Spanish GP in F2 Lolas but their entry was refused.

Shaw Hayami, Dave Walker and Brian McGuire were all supposed to have tested and been intended as race drivers for the infamous Maki team over the course of 1974 and 1975.

John Nicholson tried and failed to secure a privateer McLaren M23 after entering the British GP in 1974 and 1975 with his Lyncar.

Silvio Moser was due to make his F1 return in a Scuderia Finotto Brabham at the 1974 Spanish GP but the sportscar crash that ultimately killed him put paid to that. Reine Wisell, Cees Siewertsen, Manfred Mohr, Andy Sutcliffe and Jean-Louis Lafosse are also all connected with failed Scuderia Finotto entries.

Was the movie Rush right about McLaren showing interest in Jacky Ickx for 1976, before signing James Hunt?

Brian McGuire entered a privateer Iso-Marlboro/Williams in the 1976 British GP but only got as a far as the reserve list. The following year, Brian returned with the same car, now called the McGuire but he failed to prequalify.

Another Iso-Marlboro/Williams derivative, the Apollon, entered but never qualified in the hands of Loris Kessel in 1977.

Marco Apicella and Pierluigi Martini were linked to FIRST for 1989, though when the team appeared on the entry list, Gabriele Tarquini and Julian Bailey were written in as the intended drivers.

Life offered Paulo Carcasci a race seat for 1990 but he turned it down.

Cor Euser came close to replacing Bertrand Gachot at Jordan in 1991.

Michael Andretti had a Ferrari contract for 1992.

[S griffin]

Yes, McLaren did consider Ickx before choosing Hunt for 76

Apparently Enzo Coloni came close to driving for Arrows in 83

https://www.oldracingcars.com/teamboss/Enzo_Coloni

[saxoflute03]

When Nigel Mansell became ill in 1988 and had to miss Spa and Monza, Martin Brundle took his place for the former but Tom Walkinshaw wouldn't release Brundle from his Jaguar World Sportscar commitments a second time, so Williams had to find someone else.

They tried unsuccessfully to prise Roberto Moreno out of his Ferrari testing role and also tried to persuade Keke Rosberg out of retirement but ended up hiring Jean-Louis Schlesser.

[saxoflute03]

2003:

Eddie Irvine was linked to a possible return to Jordan before deciding to retire, Enrique Bernoldi also came close to a race seat at the team.

2004:

Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Allan McNish, Ralph Firman, Richard Lyons, Bjorn Wirdheim and Vitaly Petrov were all linked to Jordan.

2005:

Jordan were briefly linked to a switch to Renault engines, which may well have meant having to run Franck Montagny as one of their drivers, before securing Toyota engines.

Mika Hakkinen was linked to a possible return with Williams alongside Mark Webber, then Buttongate happened and the link shifted to BAR then back to Williams, but Hakkinen decided against it in the end.

F1 Magazine's 2005 Season quoted the 2nd Minardi seat as being a contest between Nicolas Kiesa and Zsolt Baumgartner.

Anthony Davidson was rumoured to be replacing Jacques Villeneuve at Sauber and Narain Karthikeyan at Jordan during the season.

2006:

Patrick Friesacher was an outside prospect for Midland.

Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were the original intended drivers for Super Aguri, numerous Japanese drivers were also linked to the team, Sakon Yamamoto, Yuji Ide, Kosuke Matsuura, Daisuke Ito and (I think) Satoshi Motoyama to name a few.

2007:

Mika Hakkinen was briefly linked to a return with McLaren. Pedro de la Rosa was also in the frame to partner Fernando Alonso.

Renault briefly considered replacing Heikki Kovalainen with Nelson Piquet Jr.

2008:

Luca Filippi and Narain Karthikeyan were both linked to Super Aguri.

Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson were rumoured to be possible replacements for Nelson Piquet Jr. at Renault.

Bruno Spengler was briefly linked to Prodrive.

[saxoflute03]

Eddie Irvine and his business partner Roustam Tariko once tried unsuccessfully to buy Jordan and Minardi.

Team Dubai and Arden both tried unsuccessfully to buy Jordan before Midland struck lucky.

Arden and Midland looked into buying Jaguar before Red Bull struck lucky.

I'm intrigued as to who else tried to buy Minardi from Paul Stoddart as he claimed Red Bull's offer was about the 38th or 39th offer he'd received.

The Merzario team intended to return in 1980 with the A5.

Louis Stanley planned for BRM to return in 1978.

[S griffin]

Clay Regazzoni was offered drives from both McLaren and Brabham for 77, but turned them down, as he assumed he was staying with Ferrari. When that turned out to be not the case, Bernie made a reduced offer for him, which Clay turned down

https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/ni...06094/4406094/

[saxoflute03]

Originally Posted by saxoflute03

Louis Stanley planned for BRM to return in 1978.

...or, failing that, 1979.

[saxoflute03]

Originally Posted by S griffin

TOM's were planning on coming in in 1993. Hitoshi Ogawa was going to be one of the drivers, before his untimely death

I wonder if Rickard Rydell would have been in the frame? He certainly could have gone the way of Ogawa as they were sharing a seat in Japanese F3000 at the time.

[saxoflute03]

According to F1/GP Racing Magazine, there was a possibility that Ferrari could tempt Mika Hakkinen for a 2006 return.

[saxoflute03]

2009:

Takuma Sato tested for Toro Rosso and came close to replacing Sébastien Bourdais.

Potential replacements for Felipe Massa at Ferrari after his accident included Marc Gene (which, given his first outing would have been Valencia, probably would have made more sense. No offence to Badoer), Jules Bianchi, Mirko Bortolotti, Valentino Rossi to name a few.

[S griffin]

Davidson, Hulkenberg, Piquet and Bourdais were also named as potential replacements

Chris Amon was offered drives by both McLaren and Ferrari for 1974, but decided to remain loyal to his own project. He was also offered the chance to replace Rikki von Opel at Brabham mid-season, but turned that down too

[saxoflute03]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Davidson, Hulkenberg, Piquet and Bourdais were also named as potential replacements

Chris Amon was offered drives by both McLaren and Ferrari for 1974, but decided to remain loyal to his own project. He was also offered the chance to replace Rikki von Opel at Brabham mid-season, but turned that down too

I knew there were other candidates, just couldn't remember any others outside of the ones I mentioned at first, I did vaguely remember Nico Hulkenberg being in the frame.

Chris Amon planned for himself and Larry Perkins to share testing duties at the Amon team in 1974 with the idea of promoting Perkins to a race seat in 1975 or 1976.

Some more outlandish rumours linked Juan Pablo Montoya and Mika Hakkinen to Toro Rosso for 2007, Sebastien Bourdais was also a possibility, such were the team's doubts over retaining Scott Speed.

There was a possibility of Hakkinen coming back for 2003 following his 2002 sabbatical.

[saxoflute03]

1995:

There were rumours suggesting Damon Hill would not take up his Williams F1 seat in 1996. It was mooted that the Englishman would swap with the Benetton-bound Gerhard Berger, or that Sauber’s Heinz-Harald Frentzen may end up at Williams with their future partnership with BMW initially mooted for 1997.

Jan Magnussen was linked with an Arrows drive for 1996.

Guy Smith tested for Williams as a prize for winning the Formula Renault Sport title, impressing with his performance at Silverstone.

Oliver Gavin was, apparently, meant to be replacing Andrea Montermini at Pacific for Adelaide.

Hutumo Mandala Putra was rumoured to be planning the first-ever Indonesian Formula One team.

Kelvin Burt was linked to a testing role at Ligier.

[S griffin]

Burt did actually get the testing role in 96, helped by driving for TWR Volvo in the BTCC

[saxoflute03]

Originally Posted by S griffin

Burt did actually get the testing role in 96, helped by driving for TWR Volvo in the BTCC

I thought Kelvin Burt ended up as Arrows' test driver? He also tested for Jordan in 1994 and was considered for a race seat.

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by saxoflute03

I thought Kelvin Burt ended up as Arrows' test driver? He also tested for Jordan in 1994 and was considered for a race seat.

Kelvin had a few things go against him after his F3 title year.

He was already nearly 26 years old abd he was considerably older than most main rivals in F3.
He had a mysteriously ordinary F3000 test with Supernova which puzzled everyone including hinnelf, and he didn't have anywhere near the budget required to buy a seat in F1.

I always rated him as one of the top drivers of his generation, definitely talent unfulfilled at the top level.

[saxoflute03]

Originally Posted by chunterer

Kelvin had a few things go against him after his F3 title year.

He was already nearly 26 years old abd he was considerably older than most main rivals in F3.
He had a mysteriously ordinary F3000 test with Supernova which puzzled everyone including hinnelf, and he didn't have anywhere near the budget required to buy a seat in F1.

I always rated him as one of the top drivers of his generation, definitely talent unfulfilled at the top level.

I'm guessing the F3000 test was also 1994? His Jordan testing role started mid-season.

[saxoflute03]

Klaus Ludwig tested a 2nd ATS-owned Penske ahead of the 1977 German GP but the drive went to Hans Heyer.

Zakspeed originally intended to debut in 1984 and it is known Manfred Winkelhock tested the car.

AGS planned to enter in 1985 and one of their intended drivers was Mario Hytten.