Daniel Ricciardo’s somewhat dismal Singapore Grand Prix was not just a disappointingly inappropriate end to a great F1 career.
Was it a limp performance similar to Ricciardo’s – he was running last and sacrificed himself to prevent Red Bull’s title rival from gaining bonus points in the final race before being eliminated? We choose: Or was it just bad luck that robbed the driver of his great swan song? The other 10 times saw drivers who at one point were considered F1’s best drivers retire on a flat note.
We are not including great drivers who ended their careers or lives before, during, or immediately after their final race.
David Coulthard – 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
Special one-off Wings for Life white Red Bull livery? Check. A helmet camera with a rare (at the time) perspective? check. Have any trucks won before? Check.
All the elements of a typical farewell were in place, but David Coulthard’s 246th and final F1 start ended with just one corner as his beautiful white Red Bull crashed into a one-two with Williams driver Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima. The punch only broke his bones.
Rosberg tapped Coulthard from behind in the Senna S, sending him into a recoverable spin, but a helpless Nakajima’s swipe soon made it unrecoverable.
This means the 13-time race winner played no further role in one of the greatest F1 title races of all time, with the switch from F1 driver to F1 spectator two hours earlier than expected.
Jenson Button – 2017 Monaco Grand Prix
2009 champion Jenson Button, who replaced Stoffel Vandoorne at McLaren, did not immediately call his departure at the end of 2016 a legitimate retirement. And he remained true to his word, returning to McLaren six races into the 2017 season as a replacement for Fernando Alonso, who was making his Indianapolis 500 debut.
McLaren are in the final year of their disastrous Honda Alliance, with reliability issues early in the season resulting in Button receiving a 15-place grid penalty and effectively starting last on a track with the least opportunities for overtaking. has been confirmed.
Still, Button showed that he had lost none of his single-lap speed in qualifying, dragging his McLaren into Q3.
Button effectively ran 57 of 78 laps in last place, and his attempt to improve his position at Portier ended in disaster.
He looked inside Pascal Wehrlein’s Sauber but found the door closed and the Sauber flipped sideways against the barrier.
Both drivers were sent off, but the three-place grid penalty that Button never served due to his mismanagement was not a fitting end to a great Grand Prix career.
Emerson Fittipaldi – 1980 American Grand Prix
Emerson Fittipaldi had the potential to be more than just a two-time F1 champion, but is often the disappointing answer to the problem of the worst team transfer in F1 history.
Fittipaldi won the championship in 1972 with Lotus and in 1974 with McLaren, but after finishing runner-up to Niki Lauda in 1975, Fittipaldi left McLaren to join the Koperskar team founded by his brother Wilson. He made the surprising decision to transfer.
He finished on the podium just twice in his five years with the team before withdrawing from F1 at the end of 1980, and his final F1 race lasted just 15 laps at Watkins Glen before suffering terminal suspension problems.
However, Fittipaldi went on to have great success in CART, winning 23 races and taking the title in 1989, providing the closest competition to Nigel Mansell when he crossed the pond in 1993.
Damon Hill – 1999 Japanese Grand Prix
Damon Hill knew before the start of the 1999 season, his second year with Jordan, that it would be his last in F1. But what followed was an unexpectedly difficult battle to end it on his terms.
Hill, who took Jordan’s first win in 1998 by defeating teammate Ralf Schumacher, suddenly found himself second to new teammate Heinz-Harald Frentzen as he struggled with his waning love for F1. It happened.
After a miserable, rain-soaked French Grand Prix, in which Frentzen won the race, Hill was “grateful” that the race ended prematurely due to electrical problems – Hill withdrew from F1 in late June. I was thinking that the next race at Silverstone would be in jeopardy. The perfect sign-off point.
Ironically, team principal Eddie Jordan tried to replace Hill before the British Grand Prix, but subsequent negotiations led Hill’s management to accept the offer despite Hill’s desire to finish after Silverstone. , agreed to let Hill stay until the end of the year.
“I was trapped in a nightmare and wanted to quit right away, but I couldn’t because I feared the financial repercussions,” Hill explained in his excellent 2016 autobiography.
“All that mattered by that stage was that I survived and was able to take care of my family and not put them through the same thing I had to endure losing my father.”
The whole ordeal took a toll on Hill. He suffered from panic attacks throughout the remainder of the season and voluntarily declared his time 32 laps early at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. “I have reached the limit of what I can endure in this dangerous sport.”
Of course, especially in hindsight, Suzuka’s deliberate retirement was more of an unreasonably slow and painful march towards it than a disappointing ending.
Kimi Raikkonen – 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Kimi Raikkonen says he is still eligible to be on the F1 grid after Ferrari replaced Charles Leclerc, effectively ending Antonio Giovinazzi’s F1 career after three years together at Alfa Romeo proved that.
Giovinazzi’s one-lap advantage was offset by Raikkonen’s still sharp racecraft, and by 2021 the two were even.
However, at the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi, Giovinazzi was six tenths faster in qualifying than Raikkonen, who was eliminated in Q1.
His race was going well and he was running 18th, just a few seconds behind Giovinazzi, until a brake failure caused him to spin at the turn 6/7 chicane and crash into the barrier.
Raikkonen managed to get the Alfa back to the garage, but the problem turned out to be terminal, marking the end of his illustrious F1 career.
Jacques Villeneuve – 2006 German GP
Most of Jacques Villeneuve’s F1 career was a disappointment after his title-winning 1997 season, but his parting ways with the sport were particularly bitter.
Villeneuve had a two-year contract with Sauber for 2005-06 before embarking on a lackluster three-race Renault cameo at the end of 2004.
He didn’t exactly blow inexperienced teammate Felipe Massa out of the water in 2005, but he was signed before BMW when the company completed its acquisition for 2006. It was clear that Villeneuve was on borrowed time with Nick Heidfeld. Leading the team, third driver Robert Kubica will be waiting in the wing.
Villeneuve’s performance in 2006 was far from disastrous, scoring four points to Heidfeld’s six and outscoring him 7-5 in qualifying, but BMW were keen to rate Kubica.
Villeneuve, who crashed in the final corner at Hockenheim and destroyed his car, was only planning to leave him on the bench for the Hungarian Grand Prix. BMW will decide who will see the season through to the end.
Unimpressed, Villeneuve was not willing to wait to find out who had won the shootout and immediately parted ways with the team, ensuring that he crashed out of Hockenheim in an attempt to recover from a first-lap collision, and in his second year. It was a disappointing end to an F1 career that had reached its peak. .
Niki Lauda – 1985 Australian Grand Prix
Niki Lauda was already convinced that his bizarre mid-week withdrawal from the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix would not end his F1 career. He returned two years later, deciding it was no longer worth driving an unreliable Brabham in a dangerous sport. McLaren.
By his third year back, he had won the 1984 title, beating teammate Alain Prost by half a point, making him a three-time champion.
The following year was less successful and particularly unreliable, with Lauda retiring in 10 of the 14 races he entered, two of which he missed due to a wrist injury.
But he won at Zandvoort, and five races later, at the season’s final race in Adelaide, it looked like Lauda would have his dream swan song.
He dropped to 16th in qualifying, but due to energetic charging and problems with many of the leaders, Lauda passed Ayrton Senna and took the lead with 25 laps remaining.
However, it was not intended that a brake problem would cause Lauda’s McLaren to crash into the wall and take him out of the race. This was a continuation of the reliability issues that hampered Lauda’s better-than-appearing final season in F1.
Juan Pablo Montoya – 2006 American GP
Two races before Villeneuve withdrew, F1 lost another grand prix winner when Juan Pablo Montoya parted ways with McLaren after the American Grand Prix.
This may also be remembered as retaliation for Montoya’s multi-car crash at Indianapolis, which eliminated four cars at the scene, including his and McLaren teammate Kimi Raikkonen. However, Montoya had already committed to moving to NASCAR in 2007, and McLaren boss Ron had announced his intention. Dennis suggested we hurry.
McLaren Montoya was a tantalizing prospect on paper and incredibly strong at his best, as Montoya’s three Grand Prix wins in 2005 demonstrate. However, the partnership was always doomed to collapse when McLaren slipped down the pecking order with the V8-powered McLaren MP4-21, which contradicted Montoya’s stubborn driving style.
Not one of Montoya’s true (but rare) best times of 2006, such as his third at Imola after the famous Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso rematch, but Montoya’s worst first lap in F1 It’s a shame that it happened after that.
Carlos Reutemann – 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix
Carlos Reutemann reversed his decision to sing F1’s swan song after a heartbreaking defeat in the 1981 title race, and while teammate Alan Jones retired (temporarily, he himself was not disappointed) He continued with Williams in 1982 (before making a very lucrative return to F1). the original “Haas” team).
However, despite a strong result at the opening round of Kyalami (above), Reutemann retired permanently from F1 after he caught the Williams and René Arnoux’s Renault in the catch fence at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Theories vary as to why Reutemann actually pulled out, ranging from fear for his place in the British team as the Falklands War loomed, to growing disillusionment with racing following a near-miss in the 1981 title race. There was.
Whatever the real reason, Williams teammate Keke Rosberg went on to win the title that Reutemann narrowly missed out on a year ago.
Nigel Mansell – 1995 Spanish Grand Prix
Nigel Mansell suffered a number of farewells in F1 throughout the latter half of his F1 career, but his trademark tenacity and heroism were absent from the actual final race.
After Williams appointed David Coulthard in 1995, Mansell instead linked up with long-time rivals McLaren. But there was one small problem. He couldn’t fit in the cockpit.
Mansell therefore missed the first two races while McLaren redesigned the car.
After a disastrous weekend in Imola and Barcelona, it was hardly worth the wait. The latter ended 47 laps early, with Mansell retiring his healthy McLaren as he felt the car was “undriveable”.
He wrote in his 2015 autobiography: “It was tough watching Damon[Hill]and David Coulthard drive a Williams in 1995 because my car didn’t even fit me. I couldn’t believe it. It was very unpleasant and very uncompetitive.”
Mansell chose to leave McLaren and F1 due to disillusionment. “For better or worse, I felt like the whole world was on my shoulders. I felt like some people were taking away from me and not giving me any support.”
