Rumoured/possible driver moves which did not happen?

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Bottom post of the previous page:

WTCC 2013:

Markus Winkelhock was due to partner Rene Munnich and Marc Basseng at Munnich Motorsport, each driving a SEAT Leon but Winkelhock preferred to stay in GT Racing and relinquished the seat to reigning champion Rob Huff pre-season.

[Vassago]

The forgotten saga of denied FIA super licences in 1995. After Giovanni Lavaggi & Jean-Denis Deletraz run out of money Keith Wiggins wanted to finish out the season with Katsumi Yamamoto in Aida & Suzuka and test driver Olivier Gavin in Adelaide. Both were denied the super licenses and Bertrand Gachot came back to finish the season for the Pacific team.

Hideki Noda was also denied a superlicense for the 1995 Australian GP where he was supposed to drive instead of Roberto Moreno at Forti.

Ah yes, there seemed to be a bias against Japanese drivers getting a super licence in the first half of the 1990s, that's what stopped Brabham hiring Akihiko Nakaya for the 1992 Season and led to Giovanna Amati being signed.

Well, Noda closed out the 1994 season for Larrousse so he had previous F1 experience but he kinda cut a bad figure at Jerez when he was touring back to the pits with a gearbox failure and got in the way of Frentzen and Mansell as he was driving in the middle of the corner. Frentzen passed him on the outside but Mansell clipped him and damaged the front wing. Add this to some of Taki Inoue's antics in 1995 and FIA probably thought F1 doesn't exactly need a Hideki Noda comeback

Check here from 22:25 @ Berger's onboard and replay at 23:15.

[Everso Biggyballies]

The forgotten saga of denied FIA super licences in 1995. After Giovanni Lavaggi & Jean-Denis Deletraz run out of money Keith Wiggins wanted to finish out the season with Katsumi Yamamoto in Aida & Suzuka and test driver Olivier Gavin in Adelaide. Both were denied the super licenses and Bertrand Gachot came back to finish the season for the Pacific team.

Hideki Noda was also denied a superlicense for the 1995 Australian GP where he was supposed to drive instead of Roberto Moreno at Forti.

Ah yes, there seemed to be a bias against Japanese drivers getting a super licence in the first half of the 1990s, that's what stopped Brabham hiring Akihiko Nakaya for the 1992 Season and led to Giovanna Amati being signed.

Well, Noda closed out the 1994 season for Larrousse so he had previous F1 experience but he kinda cut a bad figure at Jerez when he was touring back to the pits with a gearbox failure and got in the way of Frentzen and Mansell as he was driving in the middle of the corner. Frentzen passed him on the outside but Mansell clipped him and damaged the front wing. Add this to some of Taki Inoue's antics in 1995 and FIA probably thought F1 doesn't exactly need a Hideki Noda comeback

..... which the FIA seemed to overlook when Yuki Ide came along to join Super Aguri in 2006. Amazing what a few million bucks and some generous Japanese sponsorship (Mobilecast?) (and likely a word from Honda) can do to help ink a signature. The ink was barely dry on his S/L before that got torn up.

[Michael Ferner]

What was Mansell thinking??? Hoping Noda would go offline, and box Frentzen while Nigel would take the inside line? That was never going to happen, and it's difficult to see what Noda could have done differently. 100 % on Mansell.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

David Coulthard was linked to a move to the BTCC with the Mazda works team in 1994, he would have partnered Matt Neal with Matt's father Steve Neal running the team and Noel Edmonds sponsoring them. If that had worked out, who would have stood in for Ayrton Senna at Williams after his death at Imola?

[Nononsensecapeesh]

The Maxtreme team that briefly ran Liam McMillan in a SEAT Toledo in the 2009 BTCC were originally offered a Chevrolet Lacetti, and also turned down the opportunity to buy Dave Pinkney’s Alfa Romeo.

[Everso Biggyballies]

David Coulthard was linked to a move to the BTCC with the Mazda works team in 1994, he would have partnered Matt Neal with Matt's father Steve Neal running the team and Noel Edmonds sponsoring them. If that had worked out, who would have stood in for Ayrton Senna at Williams after his death at Imola?

Didnt DC drive a Vauxhall once in BTCC 1990? Well I know he did. Ive seen the video of him at Brands. That was well before his F1 days and when he was doing junior open wheelers. I know he wasnt impressed with BTCC.

Surely a move to BTCC in 1994 would have been a backward step given he was (and had been) doing F3000 for a couple of years, and Sports car appearances (ie Le Mans with TWR Jag) by then. He was also the Williams official Test driver at a time when the title meant something, in 1993 and was contracted for that role in 1994.

I know he has spoken of how awful BTCC cars were (or certainly the Vauxhall). I also recall him being thankfull he broke his legs which curtailed his having to endure the second Vauxhall outing he had signed for back in 1990..

Im sure his focus was by 1993/4 on F1 not BTCC. Its all very well sponsors / third parties / journos suggesting something but if the driver himself had no intention it was never more than idyllic fantasy, far less anything of substance. Sort of situation where someone says to a hungry journo we want to get DC and suddenly its in the press so voila it must be true. I

m sure it was never more than someone else's fantasy and not something DC would have remotely considered given where his career was already at, and his less than enjoyable previous BTCC experience a few years before.

I guess it all comes down to when does a link go from one sided fantasy to becoming something of substance something two sides involved have seen as worth a chat about. This 'link' I dont believe ever got that far.

Having said that I have seen a picture of DC in a Williams run Renault Laguna at some promo function at a time when he was firmly established in F1.

Edit: I found the Laguna thing... it was a swap day DC and Hill doing a Renault promo swap run with Menu and Hoy. DC commented after driving it how unatural and weird it felt to drive a race car "when your head is in front of your arse".

Also dont take my negative view of your suggestion personally! I just dont agree with the total validity for the reasons I mentioned. As I said it does not mean it was not in the press. Back to my when does a link become worthy / credible. When driver and team have both said lets take this further?

Welcome to the forum btw.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

I probably made the wrong choice of words. That's a common problem with me because I am Autistic. I know it was never likely to be a serious proposition for DC but if it had, it does make one wonder who would have stood in for Ayrton?

If that doesn't sound crazy enough, Sir Frank Williams (Lord rest his soul) apparently had Alain Menu lined up for a possible F1 switch if he didn't succeed in hiring Jacques Villeneuve!

[Everso Biggyballies]

I probably made the wrong choice of words. That's a common problem with me because I am Autistic. I know it was never likely to be a serious proposition for DC but if it had, it does make one wonder who would have stood in for Ayrton?

If that doesn't sound crazy enough, Sir Frank Williams (Lord rest his soul) apparently had Alain Menu lined up for a possible F1 switch if he didn't succeed in hiring Jacques Villeneuve!

No need for any apologies and your contributions are welcome and appreciated. At least it has sparked some friendly debate which can only be good!
Lol at the Menu suggestion.... not heard of that one before, but in reality he went from F3 and a bit of F3000 before joining the BTCC so he did have an open wheeler background. And SFW was well known for some of his quirky driver decisions.

I remember in 1997 when the Williams Lagunas came to Australia for Bathurst (run that year under Supertouring regs). Alan Jones was in one of the cars with the guy who brokered the trip, Graham Moore. Menu and Plato were in the other. The Williams set up was quite memorable and F1 like in comparison to the locals..... a couple of dozen engineers and container loads of equipment and multiple spares of everything including a few engines and gearboxes for each car and more laptop and computer stuff than anyone had ever seen.. The only things they didnt bring were Frank and Patrick!

Menu was stunning.... never seen the place and was fastest in P1 by a margin. Menu almost got pole and Plato led the race by a hefty margin when he swapped with Menu who was lapping seconds faster than anyone, but DNFd after damaging the diff on a kerb. Jones on the other hand crashed out at quarter distance!. The team certainly left their mark though with the locals looking very amateurish relatively.

Anyway I dragged things away from the topic with my little nostalgic ramble of William's Lagunas racing downunder.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

No problemo, I did start the ball rolling with regards to rumours relating to other touring car series that never came to fruition.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Derek Warwick tested for the Hall/VDS Indycar team in 1992.

[Vassago]

One last throwback to Japanese drivers of 1990s. Taki Inoue was the original selection for Minardi in 1996 alongside Pedro Lamy. But his sponsorship fell through in late February. It was from Unimat. Through Autosport we know the deal was worth 4.25 million USD. Unimat was a client of Inoue's management company and the missed payment eventually got brought up in 2001 when Minardi sued then-Clearly Canadian beverage CEO who back in 1996 was the exclusive dealer of CC in Japan through Nippack/Unimat brands. Hah! Too much for ya?

If Inoue found 1.3m by end of February 1996 he'd still get to drive in the Australian GP opener on March 10th. Instead one Giancarlo Fisichella got the nod.

Inoue was present when Minardi revealed the car on February 10th, 1996:



Court documents from 2001:

https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/01/0 ... sc0108.htm

[Everso Biggyballies]

Quite an involved set of events and a fair chunk of cash involved. I cant say I read every word but it seems that these offset payments and middle-men involved make it a scary thing for teams chasing pay drivers and said drivers backers for money owed against basically loans on deferred payments. Moral of the story get the money up front. Im sure SFW would have done a better job than Giancarlo Minardi did..

Oh and Minardi in this case seemed to have an artificially high ticket on their perceived value to sponsors being a team that basically got exposure only in the brief seconds they were being lapped, or sat at the side of a fence somewhere!

[DoubleFart]

I don't know, Inoue might have provided decades of replay and meme footage.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Forti originally signed Franck Lagorce to partner Andrea Montermini in 1996 until Luca Badoer turned up with more sponsorship.

[Vassago]

Yeah, Lagorce was quite promising but never got more in F1 than a couple of late outings with Ligier in 1994 after they ditched Eric Bernard. Ligier couldn't afford going without pay-drivers after that, first Aguri Suzuki and then Pedro Diniz followed by Shinji Nakano in the Mugen-Honda Prost takeover.

I did an entire thread on Michel Ferte last year, why he never got his chance even when Ligier ditched the Alfa Romeo engines in 1987 yet still kept Ghinzani for the season. Guess they'd have to give the money back if they decided to release him too. The idea of Rene Arnoux wasting everyone's time back then is long documented.

A little less know fact is that Roland Ratzenberger only had funding for five races in 1994 so he'd be gone after Spanish GP anyway and the Simtek muscial chairs would continue regardless of the Imola tragedy. What is even less known is that Ratzenberger tested for Dick Simon Racing in 1991 and was also one of prime candidates for the inaugural Jordan seat in 1991. Ultimately a Japanese sponsor pulled out and Bertrand Gachot had more money and got the drive opposite Andrea de Cesaris (word is Jordan wanted 4m USD for the seat).