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TALENT WASTED IN F1

There were some super talented drivers with the potential to be champions, who showed their service wherever they raced in F1, but they didn't have cars to be champions or they were unlucky in the season or because they died early and had their careers cut short. Below is the list of these pilots:

STIRLING MOSS (16 wins and 186.6 points):

Stirling Moss was the 2nd best driver of the 50s. Outside of F1 he won 212 races in 528 races contested, that is, 40% of victories, impressive numbers. He was winner of the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally, the 12 hours of Sebring in 1954, the 1000 km of Buenos Aires in 1956 and the 1000 km of Nurburgring 56/58/59/60.

In F1 he competed for the title with Fangio in 55 and 56, but was runner-up in both years. In 1958 he competed for the title with Mike Hawthorn, but was runner-up because he testified in favor of Mike Hawthorn who would be disqualified from GP Monaco 58 and because Phill Hill played as a team in the last lap of GP Morocco 58, the last race of the year and with that Moss lost the title by 1 point and his compatriot took the championship.

In 1959 he competed for the title with Jack Brabham, but 4 crashes took away the title, including one in the last race of the year, in the US GP II 59, when Moss was going for the title. In 1960 he had a chance to be champion, but he suffered an accident, broke both legs and was left out for 3 races. When he returned to the track, he won the race and ended up in 3rd place in the championship. Maybe he would have been champion if he hadn't missed out on 3 races.

His results in F1 are impressive, in the period mentioned below he was always in the TOP 3:
1955- vice
1956- vice
1957- vice
1958- vice
1959- 3rd place
1960- 3rd place
1961- 3rd place

All these achievements show that Moss was a genius, but unfortunately he was not lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, but he was a driver who had everything to be a two or three-time champion. Moss was certainly more talented than world champions like Mike Hawthorn (1958) and Phil Hill (1961), which is why F1 isn't always fair.

DAN GURNEY (4 wins and 133 points):

Dan Gurney was one of the greatest drivers of the 60s, alongside Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, but he was not lucky enough to have a winning car on his hands. He raced in the BRABHAM team for 3 years, each year he defeated Jack Brabham within his own team, but unfortunately he left BBABHAM just when the Australian team was going to build a winning car. Very unlucky...

His comparative numbers show that he was worthy of being champion, and Jim Clark's father said at his son's funeral that Clark thought Dan Gurney was one of the best F1 drivers of that period.

Below is a comparison between Gurney and Brabham in the years (63, 64 and 65) of the BRABHAM team:

Dan Gurney x Jack Brabham:

Starts: 19 x 7

Arrivals: 10 x 6

Poles: 2 x 0

Wins: 1 x 0

Points: 63 x 24

These comparative numbers show that Jim Clark was right, Gurney was super talented, and had everything to win at least two titles in F1, if he had a winning car in his hands.

RONNIE PETERSON (10 wins and 206 points):

Ronnie Peterson was an excellent driver, very talented and deserved to be world champion at least once. Emerson Fittipaldi always praised the Swedish driver saying that he knew how to drive sliding on all four wheels and knew how to drive smoothly too. In 1973, he gave Emerson Fittipaldi trouble, and Colin Chapman had to give equal treatment to both drivers and this was one of the reasons the Brazilian left the legendary Lotus team.

Ronnie Peterson left Lotus in 1976 (Anuário Motores 76 pg 43), so much so that he left the team at the beginning of the year to race for Parnelli and then March, which were small teams. When the Swede returned to Lotus in 1978, he was treated as a 2nd driver, without equipment priority, including in the 1978 Italian GP, the Swede had a car behind Mario Andretti who was champion in that race.

In 1978, even running in some races (Belgium and Italy) with outdated equipment and even having died in Monza, the "flying Swede" scored 51 points against 64 points for champion Mario Andretti, this shows how talented he was and how he could be champion if he had the chance of equal treatment within Lotus.

CARLOS REUTEMANN (12 win e 310 points):

Carlos Reutemann was an excellent driver, very regular and fast, but he had bad luck choosing the right teams at the wrong times, he fought with the team in the year he had a chance of being champion and he even retired at the wrong time.

Due to Clay Regazzoni's poor performances in 75 and 76 at Ferrari, Carlos Reutemann was hired for the Italian team in 1977 and 1978. In those years Carlos did better than the Swiss driver, he won 5 races for Ferrari, but unfortunately he had a series of breaks that took away any chance of a title, placing him in 4th place in 1977 and 3rd place in 1978. Then he left Ferrari in 1979, precisely in the year that Ferrari would be world champion, and went to Lotus, which had been champion in the previous year, precisely the year that the English team did poorly in the championship. In 1980 he went to Williams and had two good seasons in 1980 and 1981.

In 1980 he came in 3rd place. In 1981, Reutemann competed for the title with Nelson Piquet, but fought with the team and in the last race of the year, the Williams team could be seen worrying more about Alan Jones' car than his car, Piquet ended up being champion. by 1 point. The Argentine retired from F1 at the beginning of 1982 (some sources say it was pressure from the English media because of the Falklands War), when he should have continued, as it was precisely the year that Keke Rosberg was champion with Williams, meaning he could have been the champion of that season too if he hadn't abandoned F1. A lot of bad luck.

JOSÉ CARLOS PACE (1 win e 58 points):

José Carlos Pace was not a genius like Fittipaldi, Piquet and Senna, but he was a very fast driver. Many who saw him race said he had the talent to be world champion. In the youth categories in England from 1969 to 1970, he reached the top 5 27 times in 35 races, set 7 track records on 10 English tracks and won the 1971 GP Imola in Formula 2 defeating Fittipaldi, Cevert and Regazzoni.

He debuted in F1 with Frank Williams' team in 1972, and in 1973, he was voted the 4th best driver in F1, behind only Stewart, Fittipaldi and Peterson. In 1975 and 1976 he raced alongside Carlos Reutemann at Brabham, he won the GP Brasil 75 doing a double with Emerson Fittipaldi, but even though he defeated the Argentine in training during the season, he lost in points overall. In 1976 the situation was reversed, Pace lost in training, but won in points, this shows that Pace was at the level of the best in F1. In 1975, in addition to winning the F1 Brazilian GP, he won the 25 hours of interlagos.

Unfortunately he died in 1977 in a plane crash in São Paulo, but he could have had the chance of a winning car to show his true talent as a driver.

TONY BRISE (1 point):

A little-known name was Tony Brise, who had everything to be the best English driver after Graham Hill. In the youth categories, his results showed that he had talent and Graham Hill himself saw potential in him and invited him to race on his team:

British karting champion 1969 (started karting at age 8)
Runner-up in F Ford 1600 1971
English and European F3 Champion 1973 (Bernie Ecclestone's team)
F3 Champion John Player Series 1973

Tony Brise debuted in F1 in 1975 in the small Hill team, which was a much inferior team to Ferrari, Brabham, Lotus, McLaren, but he still managed to qualify ahead of Emerson Fittipaldi (McLaren) in Belgium, Ronnie Peterson (Lotus) in Holland, France, England and Germany. In practice at GP Italy 75, he set an astonishing 6th time, ahead of much more experienced drivers such as Andretti (Parnelli), Peterson (Lotus), Hunt (Hesketh), Depailler (Tyrrell), Reutemann and Pace (both at Brabham) , this shows how "heavy footed" and talented Brise was.

Unfortunately, in 1975 he died in a plane crash in Graham Hill's plane, and we will never know how far this exceptional English pilot would go, who had a very short career in F1, but certainly had the talent to be a champion.

PATRICK DEPAILLER (2 wins and 141 points):

This excellent French driver gave future world champion Jody Scheckter trouble in 1975 and 1976 at Tyrrell, even starting ahead of the South African driver 16 times in two seasons. In 1977 he raced alongside Ronnie Peterson and also gave the Swedish driver a hard time in training, Depailler started 9 times ahead of Peterson in 16 races. In 1979 he defeated Didier Pironi in training 14 times, this shows that he was a very fast driver in training.

Unfortunately, he died in 1980 in a private Alfa Romeo testing session in Hockenheim, and we will never know how far the Frenchman would go, but one thing is certain, he had the talent to be a champion.

GILLES VILLENEUVE (6 wins and 107 points):

Some people say that "when a pilot dies his talent is highly valued", there is some truth to that, but this phrase cannot be generalized. Gilles Villeneuve is the ultimate symbol of a Ferrari driver, he was fast, combative and bold and deserved to be world champion, at least once.

As he had a somewhat high level of errors, Ferrari in 1979 bet on Jody Scheckter, who was more regular than the Canadian. At Monza, Ferrari asked Villeneuve not to attack the South African driver and he complied with the team order, and if the Canadian won he would have a great chance of being champion at the end of the season.

If anyone has any doubts about this, just look at how the 1979 championship turned out (Scheckter 51 x 47 Villeneuve with discards), and how it would have looked if Gilles had won at Monza (Scheckter 48 x 50 Villeneuve with discards). Villeneuve would have been the champion of the 1979 season.

JULES BIANCHI (2 points):

On September 13, 2011, in a test in Fiorano, Jules Bianchi was the fastest among all the drivers in the Ferrari Driver Academy. For 2013 and 2014, he was loaned to Marussia, drew a lot of attention for his performances in the 2nd worst car on the grid and was already seen as Ferrari's starting driver for 2015.

Bianchi defeated his teammate Max Chilton 26 x 8 in training, being on average 0.6s faster than the Brit. The Frenchman had great races in these seasons and had an extraordinary performance in the 2014 Monaco GP, he started from the pits, took two 5-second penalties, one served in the pits and another added to the final time of the race and still came in an excellent 9th place. If it weren't for the punishments, he could have reached 6th place, an exceptional result taking into account the weak Marussia car. Remembering that Monaco is the race that most demonstrates a driver's technical ability and an interesting fact is that his grandfather raced in F1 and came in 3rd place in the 1968 Monaco GP.

His results outside of F1 show that he was a different driver and deserved a better chance in his career:

Champion F Renault 2.0 2007
Runner-up F3 Euro Series 2008
1st place in F3 Master 2008
3rd in F3 Euro Series 2008
Champion 2009 F3 Euro Series
3rd place GP2 2010
3rd place GP2 2011
Runner-up GP2 Asia Series 2011
Runner-up F Renault 3.5 Series 2012
5th place Desafio das Estrelas 2012 (was the champion, but lost the title because he was underweight in the 2nd heat)
Challenge of the Stars Champion 2013

Unfortunately, he had an accident at the Japanese GP 2014, and he passed away in 2015, and we will never know how far he would go.