Motor racing comebacks good and bad

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Something different.

An obvious good comeback would be the late Niki Lauda coming back to F1 in 1982 as he went on to win the 1984 title.

Bad, first one that springs to mind are Alex Zanardi's F1 comeback with Williams in 1999.

Any others? Not just in F1?

[Everso Biggyballies]

Schumacher to Mercedes in 2010.....

58 races, zero wins, zero 2nds, I very fortunate 3rd that he inherited after Hamilton and Maldonado ahead tangled and Vettel DNFd
(ISTR Schu went from 8th to 3rd in 4 laps at the end I think without actually overtaking anyone.)

Finished behind his teamate in every WDC at Mercedes, managing 8th, 9th and 13th in his final year

A disappointing number of points finishes. An alarming number of driver errors and collisions. Whilst his teamate was winning, scoring multiple podiums and multiple points finishes.

My memories of his comeback were why, facepalms and no flashes of the real Michael we once knew. Maybe some kind of mid-life crisis It was not pretty to witness.

I m sure others if they were rabid Michael fans might see different.

Have there been any worse comebacks?

[JBT]

Alan Jones to Haas Lola in 85/86? Best finish of 4th all year, 11 retirements in '86 (and all three of his '85 appearances). The poor year was mostly down to the car though. Had he have come back with Williams for example I think he would have had some wins at least.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Alex Zanardi's return to CART in 2001, even before the accident at Lausitz.

Same goes for Cristiano da Matta when he returned to Champcar. Granted he won a race in 2005 but considering he'd left the series as the dominant champion....

[Vassago]

Nigel Mansell with McLaren in 1995. He was basically too fat for the cockpit...

[Nononsensecapeesh]

Bruno Giacomelli in 1990 though it wasn't anything to do with him because he was driving for Life.

[EB]

Jimmy Bryan, the dominant US driver of the 1950s, retired from running the full champcar circuit in 1957 though still ran at Indy.

He came back to dirt champcars in 1960, and was killed in his first race, on the first lap, in the first turn.

[Everso Biggyballies]

Jimmy Bryan, the dominant US driver of the 1950s, retired from running the full champcar circuit in 1957 though still ran at Indy.

He came back to dirt champcars in 1960, and was killed in his first race, on the first lap, in the first turn.

Sad tale. Thanks for sharing.

[Nononsensecapeesh]

The NGTC-era BTCC was too tough for Alain Menu and Fabrizio Giovanardi when they both returned in 2014.

[MonteCristo]

He came back to dirt champcars in 1960, and was killed in his first race, on the first lap, in the first turn.

DNQ at Milwaukee.

[EB]

In a dirt champcar? Not unheard of but more likely it was his Indy machine.

[MonteCristo]

In a dirt champcar? Not unheard of but more likely it was his Indy machine.

Ahh, not sure. But he did Indy, the mile and Langhorne that year in USAC.

[MonteCristo]

Kubica was a feel good story, but pretty awful competitively (which is pretty understandable all things considered).

[acerogers58]

Neil Bonnett's comeback to racing after 3 years out due to a head injury was incredibly tragic. In his first race back he flipped into the catchfence at Talladega, he was uninjured and returned to the broadcast booth to call the rest of the race. He would run the final race of the season at Atlanta but retired after just 3 laps, the reason officially being engine failure however its common knowledge RCR entered the car to assist Dale Earnhardt in winning the title. In 1994 he signed a 5 race deal with Phoenix Racing, however he would tragically be killed in a practice accident at Daytona aged 47.

In the same race that Bonnett returned, Stanley Smith suffered a basilar skull fracture and immense blood loss after slamming the wall head on in the same accident that Jimmy Horton infamously flipped out of the track. The broadcast footage captured Smith covered in blood and he was given virtually no chance of survival. Against the odds, he pulled through, left paralyzed on the left side of his face due to nerve damage. Despite not featuring in a NASCAR Cup event after his crash, he would return to the lower series in 1995 and would go on to win the 2000 Snowflake 100, as well as a NASCAR Southeast race at Kentucky in 2004. Smith would retire following the 2008 Snowball Derby and he passed away in December 2020 aged 71.

Ernie Irvan's comeback after being given a 10% chance to survive due to a head injury following a crash at Michigan was great in the short term, but not so good in the long term. His first Cup race back, coming at North Wilkesboro in 1995 would see him lead 31 laps and finish in 6th spot, followed up by an impressive 1996 season in which he obtained 12 top-five and 16 top-10 finishes. In 1997 he would complete his comeback by winning at the very track that nearly took his life. In 1998 however he suffered injuries during a crash at Talladega which again sidelined him, he returned in 1999 before another practice crash at Michigan ended his career.

[Vassago]

In a dirt champcar? Not unheard of but more likely it was his Indy machine.

Back then Indy, Milwaukee & Trenton were the only paved ovals on the USAC calendar. Indy Roadsters would never fit on short dirt ovals like Langhorne and Bryan was driving the so-called Indy dirt car - a brand new one build by AJ Watson. In fact he was replacing Rodger Ward in the Leader Card #1 entry as Ward hated Langhorne and failed to qualify three years in a row for that race. After Bryan was killed Ward didn't enter Langhorne until 1965 when it was finally paved. He promptly DNQ again. Langhorne was removed from USAC calendar after 1970.

This is Ward's 1960 Indianapolis 500 Watson-Offenhauser.



This is Bryan at Langhorne 1960 practice. Also Watson-Offenhauser but the "dirt" model and obviously a different car to the one above.