Unrealised F1 Entries/Rumours

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Following the recent passing of Sir Frank Williams, the first one that springs to my mind is the time Jenson Button controversially tried to switch to Williams for 2005 despite being contracted to BAR. The CRB declared Button to remain with the latter.

Edited by Nononsensecapeesh on Monday 29th November 18:24

[Piginapoke]

And then in 2005 he paid Williams a reported £20m to be released from his contract!

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Exactly!

Williams offered Jean Alesi a contract for 1991 but in the end, Alesi went to Ferrari, Williams brought back Nigel Mansell from his intended retirement.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Rubens Barrichello, Alain Prost, Ricardo Patrese and Derek Warwick were all contacted or at least mentioned in connection with replacing Ayrton Senna after his death at Imola until David Coulthard and Mansell got the nod.

[StevieBee]

Nononsensecapeesh said:

David Coulthard and Mansell got the nod.

It was very very nearly Perry McCarthy and Mansell. It wasn't entirely certain that Coulthard would take the drive so McCarthy was offered it and accepted only for Coulthard to then say yes.

[105.4]

Nononsensecapeesh said:

Exactly!

Williams offered Jean Alesi a contract for 1991 but in the end, Alesi went to Ferrari, Williams brought back Nigel Mansell from his intended retirement.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen, Rubens Barrichello, Alain Prost, Ricardo Patrese and Derek Warwick were all contacted or at least mentioned in connection with replacing Ayrton Senna after his death at Imola until David Coulthard and Mansell got the nod.

Alesi was the first one that sprung to my mind too.

IIRC, he’d signed some sort of agreements to drive for McLaren, Tyrell, Williams and Ferrari all at the same time

[Nononsensecapeesh]

105.4 said:

Alesi was the first one that sprung to my mind too.

IIRC, he’d signed some sort of agreements to drive for McLaren, Tyrell, Williams and Ferrari all at the same time

Now that is crazy!

Jonathan Palmer and Gerhard Berger were tentatively named as McLaren's 1990 drivers, pending Senna's initial suspension from competing, following the fall-out from his 1989 Suzuka clash with Prost.

[Sandpit Steve]

Senna raced for McLaren in 1993 without a proper contract, after Honda walked away and McLaren couldn’t afford both an engine supply and a star driver.

https://thesportsrush.com/f1-news-5-million-dollar...

They eventually sorted something out half way thought the season.

[Teddy Lop]

The thing is button actually was signed to Williams though wasn't he, and essentially and not that willingly on loan to BAR?

Probably not the topic to discuss too deeply in the current moment...

[ralphrj]

Nononsensecapeesh said:

Williams offered Jean Alesi a contract for 1991 but in the end, Alesi went to Ferrari, Williams brought back Nigel Mansell from his intended retirement.

Williams didn't just offer Alesi a contract - Alesi accepted and signed it! However, later that year Mansell announced that he was going to retire and Ferrari needed to find a replacement. Alesi couldn't resist the appeal of racing for Ferrari so asked Williams to release him from the contract. Eventually a compromise was agreed with a rumoured compensation payment of USD 4m and a 1990 Ferrari 641 (as this took place in 1990 this was Ferrari's current car!). To protect the IP the car was not delivered until 1993 and was displayed as part of the Williams collection for several years before being sold.

[ralphrj]

I should add that around the same time Williams tested James Hunt who was looking to make a comeback. Hunt was penniless as he had invested his savings as a Name in Lloyds of London.

[105.4]

ralphrj said:

I should add that around the same time Williams tested James Hunt who was looking to make a comeback. Hunt was penniless as he had invested his savings as a Name in Lloyds of London.

I remember reading about that test in Autosport.

[anonymous-user]

It was 1989, Hunt was 42, physically unfit and 5 seconds off the pace at Paul Ricard…

Lauda tested a Jaguar in 2002, to better learn how the electronics in the car operated, did ten laps, spun twice.

Mika tested the MP4/21 at Catalunya in Nov 06, slowest of the day but did 70+ trouble free laps

Prost, having retired in 93, drove a Red Bull in 2014 at Silverstone, not sure what the reason was.

None of them rumours or comeback attempts bar Hunt, though that depends who you believe, but still mildly interesting

[Nononsensecapeesh]

pablo said:

It was 1989, Hunt was 42, physically unfit and 5 seconds off the pace at Paul Ricard…

Lauda tested a Jaguar in 2002, to better learn how the electronics in the car operated, did ten laps, spun twice.

Mika tested the MP4/21 at Catalunya in Nov 06, slowest of the day but did 70+ trouble free laps

Prost, having retired in 93, drove a Red Bull in 2014 at Silverstone, not sure what the reason was.

None of them rumours or comeback attempts bar Hunt, though that depends who you believe, but still mildly interesting

Tests, regardless of how serious they were, can also be included.

[realjv]

Dario Franchitti - Jaguar test in 2000 - can't remember if he was offered a contract or not but he did turn down a McLaren test driver contract.

Rick Mears - tested for Brabham in 1980. Turned down Bernie's contract offer to stay with Penske in Indycar. Worked out OK!

[Muzzer79]

realjv said:

Dario Franchitti - Jaguar test in 2000 - can't remember if he was offered a contract or not but he did turn down a McLaren test driver contract.

Dario was there at the behest of Ford but the team was so disjointed in terms of management, that some of the actual F1 team personnel didn't think he should be there.

So, he ran one day then the next day the car was "completely different" and not in a good way. Dario ended up spotting that this wouldn't end well, Jaguar weren't that impressed with him, nothing came of it.

Arguably the most famous almost-but-not-quite for this thread would be Valentino Rossi, who tested for Ferrari and who Jean Todt (allegedly) was up for to put in the car for 2007 alongside Michael Schumacher.

Allegedly, Montezemelo talked Rossi out of it because he wanted Raikkonen in, which he ultimately got.

Also:

Scott Dixon tested for Williams in 2003 but would have had to go in as a test driver - something he didn't want to do having been current Indycar champion.

[cgt2]

I'm glad the Ferrari debacle was mentioned, it was a 1990 car that Prost nearly won the championship with (a 640).

Alesi would definitely have had one if not more championships to his name if he hadn't broken that contract!

[Nononsensecapeesh]

cgt2 said:

I'm glad the Ferrari debacle was mentioned, it was a 1990 car that Prost nearly won the championship with (a 640).

Alesi would definitely have had one if not more championships to his name if he hadn't broken that contract!

The 640 was the 1989 car.

Alan Jones and Eddie Cheever lost out on a Ferrari seat to Gilles Villeneuve in 1978. Ironically, Jones was among the candidates to replace Villeneuve after his death in 1982.

Villeneuve of course lost out on a McLaren drive to Patrick Tambay after his 1977 debut.

Haas-Lola tried to hire Michael Andretti in 1986 but he wasn't granted a super licence.

[ralphrj]

Prost retired at the end of the 1993 season but was persuaded to test the MP4/9 by Ron Dennis with the hope of tempting him to return to McLaren.



Prost declined after the test and Martin Brundle got the drive. Brundle was present at the test and said that you tell from the look on Alain's face when he got out of the car that the engine was not good.

If the engine had been better then I'm not sure how likely it would have been that Prost would have taken the drive. Technically he was contracted to drive for Williams in 1994 but retired when the team announced that Senna would be joining them.

[ralphrj]

Michael Schumacher famously made his F1 debut with Jordan at Spa in 1991 but he was also in discussions to drive for Footwork. Schumacher raced in the WSC round at the Nurburgring and flew to England afterwards for a meeting with Footwork Team Principal, Jackie Oliver, the next day. After the meeting he went to visit Eddie Jordan to discover that Mercedes had got him the drive at Spa the next weekend. He tested the Jordan on the Tuesday and made his debut 3 days later.

[IanUAE]

Muzzer79 said:

Arguably the most famous almost-but-not-quite for this thread would be Valentino Rossi, who tested for Ferrari and who Jean Todt (allegedly) was up for to put in the car for 2007 alongside Michael Schumacher.

Allegedly, Montezemelo talked Rossi out of it because he wanted Raikkonen in, which he ultimately got.

One version I heard from the Midweek Motorsport podcast that Rossi would have to have done 1 or 2 years of F2 (or whatever it was called back then) before he could race the Ferrari in F1. Rossi wasn't that far off Schumachers times by all account. And so ended that idea.