I'm amazed how Joakim Bonnier's victory in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix is never on these sorts of lists. In a 15 year career that was otherwise pretty unremarkable, Bonnier scored pole position in front of the Coopers and Ferraris - both better cars than his BRM and piloted by greats such as Brabham, Moss and Brooks - and then proceeded to lap the entire grid bar the other two podium finishers.
Call me crazy, but I don't think Lord Maldonado's win in 2012 was a fluke at all, that Williams car was VERY quick all year, and in fact an average qualifier like Maldonado was able to get into Q3 more times that Button, and Massa in 2012... he also out-qualified Webber and got very close to Alonso's average qualifying result. If there was a solid mid-field driver in that car, say a Hulk, Perez, Rosberg, Vergne etc, that car could have won multiple races, and would have had many podiums throughout the year. Rubens said they were losing 75% of their points due to their awful drivers, it was probably a better car than both the Sauber and Merc, and maybe (almost) as quick as either the Lotus or Ferrari over the season. Considering Maldonado's efforts in 2011 and 2013 - 2015 when he was dropped, its fair to say he was the worst driver on the grid by far, when the likes of Grosjean crushed him. It really does show that 2012 William's cars potential.
2012 was the only year that Maldonado had a quick car; the 2011 and 2013 Williams cars were both dog slow because Williams could not get the blown diffuser concept to work. And then Lotus in 2014 blew all their money on a crazy car concept that didn't work and the Renault engine was notoriously unreliable in 2014. 2015 with the Merc powerplant was slightly better but not enough to really trouble the frontrunners, and Maldonado was finally starting to show some consistency near the end of the season by chaining a few points finishes together when Renault bought the team and tore up his contract in favour of Jolyon Palmer, who was (let's be honest) much slower than Pastor even if he was less accident-prone. For me there were far worse drivers on the grid than Pastor Maldonado.
@@GeriatricFan1963 Worse drivers in F1 history, for sure, but in that era? It's hard to think of any, tbh. Jerome d'Ambrosio probably, but that's about it
I tend to agree, people forget that in terms of race pace and one lap pace, he was genuinely on the pace all weekend. The only randomness was down to how other teams were struggling to get to grips with the tyres Pirelli supplied
maybe just 1 win in f1 but also WRC 2 champ podium finish in DTM podium fininsh in Le Mans and just being racing hero here in poland (everything with this horible looking hand)
Another candidate for top 10 one win wonders, largely because of how his win was overshadowed by the wider goings on that day (more of which shortly). Alessandro Nanini had been showing promising speed towards the front of races with Benetton in the late 1980's. At the Japanese Grand Prix in 1989, he was running a distant third behind only the two Mclarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, who weren't just battling for the lead, but the championship as well. Very late in the race, the two championship contenders had their extremely controversial collision that ended up deciding the title in favour of Prost. After Senna rejoined, he had to do a lap with a damaged front wing before pitting to replace it. Long story short, Nanini found himself in the lead, but at the same place where he'd collided with Prost, Senna dived inside Nanini and took the chequered flag on track. However, as the Brazilian was making his way to the podium, he was summoned to the Stewards, who informed him that he'd been excluded from the race result. While this was going on there was a delay in the podium proceedings and nobody was more surprised to see Nanini on the top step than Nanini himself. His one win ended up being overshadowed by the furore that erupted over the way the championship battle between Prost and Senna had been decided. Sadly, Nanini wouldn't win another Grand Prix. Less than a year on from his 1989 win at Suzuka, he had been severely injured in a helicopter crash. Although he survived, he never raced in F1 again after 1990
A win AT ALL in Formula One deserves the respect. Maldonado ran a great race at Catalunya and had several other great runs throughout the season, admittedly with only a few finishes. Honestly, he ran that Williams in places it didn't truly belong, so in my opinion, some of his crashes can be forgiven.
His drive at Singapore that year was actually just as good as Spain, and he again defended brilliantly from Alonso; unfortunately the gearbox packed up on him so nobody remembers his excellent performance that day. Abu Dhabi was also a really good drive that season as Maldonado did the entire race without KERS after it packed up on him.
If we're honest, just genuinely getting on the grid - without any great history of junior racing and/or with daddy's money excepted (these days it's a far, _far_ less prominent thing than it used to be) - is something that we should respect. Because I'm pretty damned sure that just like me, 99.9% of viewers of this video just couldn't do it. I'm including respecting those in the days when only 6 drivers got in the points and only a relative handful of the huge grids finished the season with at least one point. I _know_ that _I_ absolutely couldn't get an F1 car safely around a track at speeds good enough to not be a rolling road block, and a dangerous one at that, not even when I was young, pretty fearless (and dumb enough to try... 🤦🏻♀️), and had been taught to drive by an ex-rally driver, one who'd been highly-rated. During the days of the amateur he was ranked 6th in the country, and "Mini" Cooper's "agent" (iirc car salesman and rally manager-type position, though I'm not 100% sure about it. Dad just said that Cooper gave him to Minis to rally) pleaded with him to be the first to race the Cooper S in our country. He was reluctant because he was 6' tall and his legs were particularly long... He did it though. One day his co-driver guided them up a tree in the dark. Long story... 🤣 Yeah, so that's what I think. Be more respectful to the majority of those names which popped up and faded away because they never got a half-decent crack at a point, let alone a podium, despite being good enough drivers. They weren't going to be champions, a single point would have meant everything to them, but the fact they didn't get one didn't necessarily make them bad drivers. It was worse for the champions that never got the car. Imagine if Newey had retired when Max joined RB, when he was still rough around the edges. It's possible he might never have got the chance to win a race, let alone multiple world championships. It's sad that there is a long list of "never champions" who we think should have been. 😓
It is inconceivable that a serious F1 journalist would not know how to pronounce Kubica - a driver of great prominence not very long ago in 2007-2010, and still active today as a test and reserve driver.
@@bfapple There is no such thing. It's a Polish name. It's pronounced either correctly or incorrectly. The situation with Kubica was exactly the same as when Ricciardo or Zhou or countless others came into the sport, and careless and thoughtless pundits couldn't be bothered to pay attention to how the drivers actually pronounced their own names. It took those drivers (being very young adults!) a while to find their feet and actually set the record straight, and these unnecessary misconceptions have stuck around for all of time as a result. This doesn't change the reality of how names are meant to be pronounced. It simply gives people an avenue to avoid admitting having knowingly made the same error for over a decade and refusing to correct it for some reason.
@@davidmccourt6139 as a German I do appreciate that, unfortunately some ‘foreign’ words are difficult to get right in english. Unfortunately that’s how we end up here…
@@fjadermediaoy I've followed his adventures in Japan, did really well in Super GT and rally over there. Now that he's moved back into Finland, you never know, might bump into Heikki himself at the tori.
@@elcactusdelamuerte506 when he finished the race, he was out of fuel. Back then drivers werent dsq'd from that, but now they are (Vettel Hungary 2021)
@@snobey but that doesn’t mean anything? Going by modern rules the whole race would be written off due to the fan invasion causing it to finish multiple laps early. Applying modern rules to the past is pointless and provides nothing If we were to take modern rules and apply it to the past entire championships and careers would be very different not just single races E.g. the great senna would have only won one title not three. Prost scored more points in 88, but lost due to the rules meaning so many races couldn’t be counted, and his ‘90 incident would of lead to a DQ and Alain being a 6 time champ. Hell given how the rules are written depending on how harsh they wanted to be on Ayrton he could of even been punished for the incident into ‘91 as well potentially taking that title from him (given the amount of bs the Brazilian was aiming at the fia, the public backlash they were receiving for said false information and the fact it was a clear retaliatory incident I wouldn’t be surprised if they leaned into the harsher punishment).
I recommend Forvo for checking correct pronunctiation. In German, Michael is pronunced [mihael] and not [maikøl] like you have in "Michael Jackson". And certainly not like Mike or Marcus. ;)
Only 20 cars going around the tracks for a couple hours and more than half the cars finishing a lap or more behind will get old at some point. Also who's running the sport here, Toto Wolff or FIA/F1? The teams are only interested in themselves and their profits, somebody has to take charge and look out for the growth and the overall health/future of the sport. Are they seriously trying to convince people that they're not interested in another US team after trying desperately to have 3 races in the US?? In other words, they just wanna make more money in the US without actually having a big US automaker participating in the sport??
"I'm not including Esteban Ocon because he could win another race." Spoiler alert: He doesn't have Papa Nando to hold back the most dominant car in F1 history for him anymore. It isn't happening.
@@formularacingstudios850 I don't know, man, it's just, it's an idea. If the tracks are too narrow/cars too heavy, stick current engines into them, and maybe, just maybe, the racing is better
Alesi a terrible driver? Go tell that to the tifosi and the 6 f1 teams that signed him. I love heikki but the dude was embarrassed two seasons straight by lewis (more than any other of his teammates), he also failed to beat two drivers who were on the cusp of retirement and then guy deemed slower and less consistent than Grosjean. He had his moments but he’s one of those drivers who’d have one good race and then not show up for the next 7. Alesi was arguably the most consistent driver of the mid 90s and only lost to a teammate twice. His debut season for ferrari where he lost to prost (a man who rated him so highly he spent a fortune to bring him to his team a few years later) and Berger who Jean beat in 4 of the 5 seasons they were together with his one loss just so happening to coincide with a serious back injury that ruled him out for two races and a streak of ten races where he was on the podium three times, had a mechanical DNF 6 times and then wiped out by barrichelo. You really trying to say a legend of the sport is a crap driver compared to someone judged by f1 as inferior to Grosjean who failed to beat any non-rookie teammate? Meanwhile Nanini is hard to judge as he had such a short career where he retired from more races than he completed and his only teammate of any real quality was Piquet who absolutely destroyed him
I'm amazed how Joakim Bonnier's victory in the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix is never on these sorts of lists. In a 15 year career that was otherwise pretty unremarkable, Bonnier scored pole position in front of the Coopers and Ferraris - both better cars than his BRM and piloted by greats such as Brabham, Moss and Brooks - and then proceeded to lap the entire grid bar the other two podium finishers.
Panis, just like Alesi, should have won more than a single race, but he was never the same after his accident in Canada in 1997
Call me crazy, but I don't think Lord Maldonado's win in 2012 was a fluke at all, that Williams car was VERY quick all year, and in fact an average qualifier like Maldonado was able to get into Q3 more times that Button, and Massa in 2012... he also out-qualified Webber and got very close to Alonso's average qualifying result. If there was a solid mid-field driver in that car, say a Hulk, Perez, Rosberg, Vergne etc, that car could have won multiple races, and would have had many podiums throughout the year. Rubens said they were losing 75% of their points due to their awful drivers, it was probably a better car than both the Sauber and Merc, and maybe (almost) as quick as either the Lotus or Ferrari over the season. Considering Maldonado's efforts in 2011 and 2013 - 2015 when he was dropped, its fair to say he was the worst driver on the grid by far, when the likes of Grosjean crushed him. It really does show that 2012 William's cars potential.
Exactly - the "fluke" was him managing to string together 305 and a bit km without hitting anything or anyone. The rest was there for the taking.
2012 was the only year that Maldonado had a quick car; the 2011 and 2013 Williams cars were both dog slow because Williams could not get the blown diffuser concept to work. And then Lotus in 2014 blew all their money on a crazy car concept that didn't work and the Renault engine was notoriously unreliable in 2014. 2015 with the Merc powerplant was slightly better but not enough to really trouble the frontrunners, and Maldonado was finally starting to show some consistency near the end of the season by chaining a few points finishes together when Renault bought the team and tore up his contract in favour of Jolyon Palmer, who was (let's be honest) much slower than Pastor even if he was less accident-prone. For me there were far worse drivers on the grid than Pastor Maldonado.
@@GeriatricFan1963 Worse drivers in F1 history, for sure, but in that era? It's hard to think of any, tbh. Jerome d'Ambrosio probably, but that's about it
I tend to agree, people forget that in terms of race pace and one lap pace, he was genuinely on the pace all weekend. The only randomness was down to how other teams were struggling to get to grips with the tyres Pirelli supplied
agreed. not to mention he was running in podium positions in valencia, singapore and abu dhabi
It's crazy that Kubica has only one win. He was phenomenal in 2008. What an incredible driver!
And to think 1 motor accident changed his entire career. Could seen Kubica in a Ferrari as it's been speculated he had a contract with them
maybe just 1 win in f1 but also WRC 2 champ podium finish in DTM podium fininsh in Le Mans and just being racing hero here in poland (everything with this horible looking hand)
And when will reporters learn his name.. its KubiTZA WITH "C" NOT kubiKa. Jesus.
@@nopetarpanExactly
Not including active drivers / one hit wonders but used G. Russell picture and doesn’t mentioned him as an active driver. Great job there GENIUS! 👏🏼
Another candidate for top 10 one win wonders, largely because of how his win was overshadowed by the wider goings on that day (more of which shortly). Alessandro Nanini had been showing promising speed towards the front of races with Benetton in the late 1980's. At the Japanese Grand Prix in 1989, he was running a distant third behind only the two Mclarens of Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, who weren't just battling for the lead, but the championship as well. Very late in the race, the two championship contenders had their extremely controversial collision that ended up deciding the title in favour of Prost. After Senna rejoined, he had to do a lap with a damaged front wing before pitting to replace it. Long story short, Nanini found himself in the lead, but at the same place where he'd collided with Prost, Senna dived inside Nanini and took the chequered flag on track.
However, as the Brazilian was making his way to the podium, he was summoned to the Stewards, who informed him that he'd been excluded from the race result. While this was going on there was a delay in the podium proceedings and nobody was more surprised to see Nanini on the top step than Nanini himself. His one win ended up being overshadowed by the furore that erupted over the way the championship battle between Prost and Senna had been decided. Sadly, Nanini wouldn't win another Grand Prix. Less than a year on from his 1989 win at Suzuka, he had been severely injured in a helicopter crash. Although he survived, he never raced in F1 again after 1990
Maldonado is the final ever Grand Prix winner for Frank Williams. Let that sink in.
The little known driver Mark Schumacher, is actually called Michael...
Ludovico Scarfiotti 1966 Italian Grand Prix. If you are Italian and you are only going to win one GP do it in a Ferrari at Monza.
A win AT ALL in Formula One deserves the respect. Maldonado ran a great race at Catalunya and had several other great runs throughout the season, admittedly with only a few finishes. Honestly, he ran that Williams in places it didn't truly belong, so in my opinion, some of his crashes can be forgiven.
His drive at Singapore that year was actually just as good as Spain, and he again defended brilliantly from Alonso; unfortunately the gearbox packed up on him so nobody remembers his excellent performance that day. Abu Dhabi was also a really good drive that season as Maldonado did the entire race without KERS after it packed up on him.
If we're honest, just genuinely getting on the grid - without any great history of junior racing and/or with daddy's money excepted (these days it's a far, _far_ less prominent thing than it used to be) - is something that we should respect. Because I'm pretty damned sure that just like me, 99.9% of viewers of this video just couldn't do it. I'm including respecting those in the days when only 6 drivers got in the points and only a relative handful of the huge grids finished the season with at least one point.
I _know_ that _I_ absolutely couldn't get an F1 car safely around a track at speeds good enough to not be a rolling road block, and a dangerous one at that, not even when I was young, pretty fearless (and dumb enough to try... 🤦🏻♀️), and had been taught to drive by an ex-rally driver, one who'd been highly-rated. During the days of the amateur he was ranked 6th in the country, and "Mini" Cooper's "agent" (iirc car salesman and rally manager-type position, though I'm not 100% sure about it. Dad just said that Cooper gave him to Minis to rally) pleaded with him to be the first to race the Cooper S in our country. He was reluctant because he was 6' tall and his legs were particularly long... He did it though. One day his co-driver guided them up a tree in the dark. Long story... 🤣
Yeah, so that's what I think. Be more respectful to the majority of those names which popped up and faded away because they never got a half-decent crack at a point, let alone a podium, despite being good enough drivers. They weren't going to be champions, a single point would have meant everything to them, but the fact they didn't get one didn't necessarily make them bad drivers. It was worse for the champions that never got the car. Imagine if Newey had retired when Max joined RB, when he was still rough around the edges. It's possible he might never have got the chance to win a race, let alone multiple world championships. It's sad that there is a long list of "never champions" who we think should have been. 😓
K and C are different letters, its not hard to remember his name
Who's this "Robert Koobika" chap? Never heard of him
and marcus schumacher?
In fairness, during his BMW days Robert liked to be called "Koobika" as he thought it sounded faster 😅 but yeah no idea what he called Schumacher 🤦♂️
It's quite clearly his accent (for the Michael schumacher pronunciation), but personally ive heard more people say 'kubicka' instead of 'kubiza
Love these F1 history videos
It is inconceivable that a serious F1 journalist would not know how to pronounce Kubica - a driver of great prominence not very long ago in 2007-2010, and still active today as a test and reserve driver.
He got the correct English pronunciation…
Schumacher,
Vettel, ...
@@bfapple There is no such thing. It's a Polish name. It's pronounced either correctly or incorrectly.
The situation with Kubica was exactly the same as when Ricciardo or Zhou or countless others came into the sport, and careless and thoughtless pundits couldn't be bothered to pay attention to how the drivers actually pronounced their own names. It took those drivers (being very young adults!) a while to find their feet and actually set the record straight, and these unnecessary misconceptions have stuck around for all of time as a result.
This doesn't change the reality of how names are meant to be pronounced. It simply gives people an avenue to avoid admitting having knowingly made the same error for over a decade and refusing to correct it for some reason.
@@davidmccourt6139 as a German I do appreciate that, unfortunately some ‘foreign’ words are difficult to get right in english. Unfortunately that’s how we end up here…
It's what the English do, have you watched football, they don't even bother pronouncing players names right even when corrected
Try to take better care in your pronounciations.
Gd it. This was literally my first video back i was writing haha great video great idea obviously!
Heikki Kovalainen?
Completely forgot he won a race. Too late for torille, I assume.
@@uhanalainen haha. It’s never too late for torille XD
Mika Salo might also be on the list albeit it is a little stretch.
@@fjadermediaoy I've followed his adventures in Japan, did really well in Super GT and rally over there. Now that he's moved back into Finland, you never know, might bump into Heikki himself at the tori.
Markel Schumacher
Giancarlo Baghetti, the only driver to win his first race, even though it was the only race he ever won.
If 95 Canadian GP had today rules, Alesi would be dsq'ed because of fuel...
And? That matters or changes anything how?
@@elcactusdelamuerte506 when he finished the race, he was out of fuel. Back then drivers werent dsq'd from that, but now they are (Vettel Hungary 2021)
@@snobey but that doesn’t mean anything? Going by modern rules the whole race would be written off due to the fan invasion causing it to finish multiple laps early. Applying modern rules to the past is pointless and provides nothing
If we were to take modern rules and apply it to the past entire championships and careers would be very different not just single races E.g. the great senna would have only won one title not three. Prost scored more points in 88, but lost due to the rules meaning so many races couldn’t be counted, and his ‘90 incident would of lead to a DQ and Alain being a 6 time champ. Hell given how the rules are written depending on how harsh they wanted to be on Ayrton he could of even been punished for the incident into ‘91 as well potentially taking that title from him (given the amount of bs the Brazilian was aiming at the fia, the public backlash they were receiving for said false information and the fact it was a clear retaliatory incident I wouldn’t be surprised if they leaned into the harsher punishment).
Carlos Pace?
Quite a good list…
Even though he was champion, could Jacques Villeneuve be considered a one hit wonder?
He was more than a one hit wonder in f1 and motorsport and I wouldn't say his music career came close to producing any hit
Before I watch this video...can I guess #1? Is it Maldonado in spain 2012? Ooh, close but no cigar.
nope
@@Delta_Sierra to be fair, when I think about that win, I still shake my head. How? I can't believe that's William's last win.
Honorable Mention: a few Indy 500 winners in the 50s
I recommend Forvo for checking correct pronunctiation. In German, Michael is pronunced [mihael] and not [maikøl] like you have in "Michael Jackson". And certainly not like Mike or Marcus. ;)
If this wasn’t exclusive to drivers, I would’ve said Brawn GP, came, won, left
Someone didn't watch the video where they said the definition was a driver who only won one race. How many races did brawn win in their single season?
Did notice the goof... using a 2013 photo for maldonado's win in 2012
Alesi looks like George
Robert!
who is 'robert cubicar"
KUBITSA!!!!
Koo-ITZA !!!
Wasnt Beltoise in 1973?
Nope 1972. In ‘73 Jackie Stewart won the monaco gp, while Beltoise DNF’ed
Only 20 cars going around the tracks for a couple hours and more than half the cars finishing a lap or more behind will get old at some point. Also who's running the sport here, Toto Wolff or FIA/F1? The teams are only interested in themselves and their profits, somebody has to take charge and look out for the growth and the overall health/future of the sport. Are they seriously trying to convince people that they're not interested in another US team after trying desperately to have 3 races in the US?? In other words, they just wanna make more money in the US without actually having a big US automaker participating in the sport??
"Kubika"
Seriously?
9:01 , didnt have a great start you say…. Against Alonso ? Probably is the best at starts ever… I guess Maldonado just had a normal start.. ;)
"I'm not including Esteban Ocon because he could win another race."
Spoiler alert: He doesn't have Papa Nando to hold back the most dominant car in F1 history for him anymore. It isn't happening.
List is kinda bad lowkey
1. Winkelhock..........rest
😢 9:21
Please work on your name pronounciantion.
Listening to your version of Kubica is painful.
Who here thinks that F1 should use Formula E Gen 1 cars?
literally no one
@@formularacingstudios850 I don't know, man, it's just, it's an idea.
If the tracks are too narrow/cars too heavy, stick current engines into them, and maybe, just maybe, the racing is better
Even FE don't want to use the gen 1 cars XD there's a reason they were abandoned
Alesi shouldn't be on the list. He was a terrible driver. Kovalainen and Nannini are better contenders for the top 10.
Alesi a terrible driver? Go tell that to the tifosi and the 6 f1 teams that signed him.
I love heikki but the dude was embarrassed two seasons straight by lewis (more than any other of his teammates), he also failed to beat two drivers who were on the cusp of retirement and then guy deemed slower and less consistent than Grosjean. He had his moments but he’s one of those drivers who’d have one good race and then not show up for the next 7.
Alesi was arguably the most consistent driver of the mid 90s and only lost to a teammate twice. His debut season for ferrari where he lost to prost (a man who rated him so highly he spent a fortune to bring him to his team a few years later) and Berger who Jean beat in 4 of the 5 seasons they were together with his one loss just so happening to coincide with a serious back injury that ruled him out for two races and a streak of ten races where he was on the podium three times, had a mechanical DNF 6 times and then wiped out by barrichelo.
You really trying to say a legend of the sport is a crap driver compared to someone judged by f1 as inferior to Grosjean who failed to beat any non-rookie teammate?
Meanwhile Nanini is hard to judge as he had such a short career where he retired from more races than he completed and his only teammate of any real quality was Piquet who absolutely destroyed him
Always thought maldonados win was very fishy. Just so happens the williams garage burst into flames after the race??? Sus. Very sus
Was either that or hell was gonna freeze over. Or pigs were gonna start flying. Lol
Maldonado wins is the last williams win till today 😆🥲