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WORST F1 DRIVERS:
Many people call a driver bad because he takes 3 or 4 tenths of a second from the team's main driver, but in fact any driver who takes that time is NOT A BAD DRIVER.
To demystify this subject, I did a survey of the drivers who took up absurd amounts of time from the team's main driver, and that's why they can literally be called BAD PILOTS. The 90s is the period with the most bad drivers in the history of F1, as in addition to the lack of geniuses in the top teams (with the exception of Schumacher), some paying drivers without talent bought a place and raced in F1.
1) Al Pease (CAN) in 1969: he was black flagged and disqualified in the 1969 Canadian GP for going too slowly on the track, a unique case in the history of F1.
2) Dave Walker (AUS) in 1971 and 1972: he was a teammate of Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 at Lotus, but took an average of 3 seconds from the Brazilian in training. He is the only driver in history to have the following negative record: he raced in a champion car (Lotus 1972) without scoring a single point during the entire season, all points for the team were scored by Emerson.
3) Otto Stuppacher (AUT) in 1976: took 42s from the last time of GP Italy/76 and took 8s from the last time of GP Canada/76, both by Tyrrell, but was prevented from running in both races.
4) Claudio Langes (ITA) in 90: this Italian driver has the record of 14 non-classifications in the pre-classification for official F1 training in one season. He ran for the very weak EuroBrum, but what makes him on this list is that he took on average almost 6s from his teammate Roberto Moreno. And in some trainings (Brazil, Canada and Mexico), he took 15s, 13s and 18s respectively from the Brazilian. But I have to mention that EuroBrum didn't have money for engines and racing tires, so they played a role in training for the sponsors, but didn't make an effort to qualify for the races. It's bizarre but true, this was confirmed by Roberto Moreno.
5) Perry MacCarthy (ING) in 92: ele did not even qualify for a race. He took 16s and 10s respectively from Roberto Moreno in pre-qualifying at the British GP 92 and at the Belgian GP 92 by Andrea Moda. It is not known if it was a lack of equipment (small teams are not able to provide the same equipment to both pilots) or if it was a lack of talent or both. Still, 16s is a lot of difference.
CURIOSITY: Perry MacCarthy was best man at Mark Blundell's wedding.
6) Philippe Adams (BEL) in 94: he bought a place at Lotus in GP Belgium 94 and in GP Portugal 94 he took 6s and 1.9s respectively from Herbert in training. Even compared to other driversF1 payers like De Cesaris, Diniz, Stroll, Latifi and Mazepin, this Belgian is way behind them in terms of talent.
7) Jean Dennis-Deletraz (SUI) in 94 and 95: in the Australian GP 94 for Larrouse he took 2.3s from that of the weak Japanese driver Hideki Noda. In the GP Portugal 95 and the GP Europe 95 for Pacif he took 4.6s and 3.2s respectively from the average Italian driver Andrea Montermini. This Swiss pilot was a “tough arm”.
8) Giovanni Lavaggi (ITA) in 95 and 96: in GP Germany 95, GP Hungary 95, GP Belgium 95 and GP Portugal 95 for Pacific he took respectively 1.2s, 2.2s, 4s and 4.6s from Italian driver Andrea Montermini. Then in the GP Germany 96, in the GP Hungary/96, in the GP Italy/96, in the GP Portugal/96 and in the GP Japan/96 for Minardi he took respectively 1.9s, 0.7s, 0.9s, 1.1s and 1 .9s from Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy.
NOTE: In the 90s, there were so many bad drivers that it is said that the FIA stipulated the rule of 112% of the time in practice for the race, precisely to prevent these drivers from starting.
9) Yuji Ide (JAP) in 2006: took an average of 4s from the good driver Takuma Sato in Super Aguri. At the 2006 San Marino GP, Ide caused a serious accident with Christijan Albers due to the Japanese driver's fault in a clumsy maneuver. He was banned from racing in F1, as he was considered dangerous. Regardless of this, taking 4s from your teammate qualifies you to enter this list.
10) Nikita Mazepin (RUS) in 2021: He made his F1 debut in 2021, financed by his father, a Russian billionaire. In that year, he lost in practice by 19 to 3 to Mick Schumacher, his teammate at the Haas team, being on average 0.4s slower. In 2022, Mazepin was replaced by Kevin Magnussen, who was on average 0.3s faster in practice than Mick Schumacher, who had beaten Mazepin in 2021. To make matters worse, in 2023, the same Kevin Magnussen had Nico Hulkenberg as his teammate and was 0.3s slower on average in practice than Nico.
By this comparison, everything indicates that if Mazepin were Hulkenberg's teammate, he would be losing close to 1 second per lap to the German driver, who everyone knows is a very good driver, but he is not a genius. In other words, Mazepin was 2 levels below the average for F1 drivers, which is why he deserves to be on this list.
