Let’s turn the usual question on its head and have a look at what makes an unsuccessful driver. Many drivers come into F1 with a lot of promise, but fail to become true championship contenders. Whether it’s a lack of pace, lack of discipline, the inability to make the most of a flawed car, or an inability to perform under pressure, they fail to make that step up to the top. So let’s have a look at some of the current crop of beautiful losers:
- Juan Pablo Montoya — a driver with great mental toughness, great car control, excellent pace, and a history of winning in CART should be able to win in F1. Yet somehow he has found a way to disappoint. He has thrown away races with dumb moves, been beaten to race wins by his teammate when in a dominant car (even when his teammate was Ralf), and has generally been the victim of his own overaggressiveness and lack of discipline. After years of looking like he might be the next great driver, it is starting to look like he’ll only be the teammate of the next great driver.
- Jenson Button — curiously, Button is almost the complete opposite of Montoya. He is always under control, always cool-headed, always ready to concede a position rather than risk being taken out of the race. But this behaviour seems to be proving to be his downfall. By staying so firmly in his comfort zone, Button looks to be dutifully progressing through a career that will be remembered for his steadiness and competence, rather than brilliance. For most drivers, a hundred Grands Prix is most of a career, but Button still acts like he’s a rookie taking it easy and learning the ropes. He could luck into a championship through having a dominant car and an underperforming teammate, but few people would consider him a true championship contender.
- Rubens Barrichello — if he hadn’t become Michael Schumacher’s teammate, it is likely that a lot of people would still rate him as one of the best in F1. When he demolished Johnny Herbert, it looked like Rubens was right at the top of the heap. Many people expected him to give Schumacher a real run for his money. But it never happened, and not just due to Ferrari favouring Schumacher. Rubens was rarely quick enough to match Michael, and had far too many lacklustre performances. He did enough to get a dream seat at Ferrari for their years of dominance, but came away with only a handful of race victories.
- Giancarlo Fisichella — like Rubens, Fisichella had a great reputation when he drove for midfield teams. He had a habit of demolishing his teammates, and was expected to have some brilliant victories if he ever got a seat in a top car. The only nagging question was his consistency. But then he, like Rubens, got a seat at a team with a championship-winning car and was unable to perform at the level of his teammate. It might be a bit early to write him off entirely, but 2005 showed a Fisichella who was often off the pace of his teammate and too often failed to perform to the best of the car’s ability on race day. He has the raw pace to match Alonso, but something is missing.
- Jarno Trulli — nobody has any serious questions about Trulli’s pace, but he has usually left people shaking their heads at his inability to perform for 60 laps at anything like the level he performed for one lap on the previous day. Trulli’s flaws have been the subject of much talk over the past few seasons, and seem to stem from his inability to manage a car that is not perfectly balanced and his tendency to freeze up under pressure.
- Takuma Sato — it is very rare for a driver to be so astonishingly good in F3 and fail so totally in F1. Past drivers who have dominated F3 have generally become at least very good F1 drivers. But Sato was usually slow, and was very erratic whenever he pushed the car hard. In a few short seasons, he went from being a driver who was thought of as utterly brilliant to one who most people would prefer to leave F1.
- Jacques Villeneuve — like Montoya, he came into F1 and showed excellent pace and car control. Like Montoya, he continues to make “rookie mistakes” after many F1 seasons, through his own overaggressiveness and lack of discipline. In only his second season, Villeneuve was lucky to find himself in a dominant car with an underperforming teammate, and won (barely!) the title. Nobody can take that away from him, but he has given ample proof since then that he is no championship contender.
- Ralf Schumacher — of course he’s always been in Michael’s shadow, but Ralf has shown such excellent pace so often that many fans were expecting to see a second Schumacher taking titles. But he never even came close. When he’s good, he’s very good indeed, as when he was out-racing Montoya to race wins in the dominant Williams during the early summer of 2003. But those races are very few and far between, and he is much more likely to be an underperforming sulk for long stretches of any given season. Perhaps an inferiority complex — whatever it is, nobody expects much from him these days.
When you look at how many excellent drivers fail to make the final step to the top, it shows just how special drivers like Senna, Schumacher, Hakkinen, Raikkonen, and Alonso are.
