MOTORSPORT SHOWCASE
On the comeback trail
Fernando Alonso genuinely thought he was done with F1 at the end of 2018 and went off to race sportscars, Indycars and in the Dakar Rally. But the pull of his old ‘Enstone’ team proved too great and he has returned with Alpine for another crack at F1
Spectators at the 1997 Luxembourg GP welcome back Olivier Panis. The Frenchman had missed seven races, following a high-speed accident at the Canadian GP where he broke both his legs. He managed sixth place on his return to action
Mike Thackwell qualified for the 1980 Canadian GP but had to hand his Tyrrell over to Jean-pierre Jarier after a race-stopping first lap accident. Four years later Thackwell made his first official F1 start and so completed his ‘comeback’ at the same race
After doing 25 F1 races in bit part seasons from 1991 to 1994, Alex Zanardi went to the US and won two consecutive Champ Car titles. Williams brought him back to F1 on a three-year contract, starting in 1999, but Zanardi only lasted a single season after being overwhelmingly beaten by teammate Ralf Schumacher
When Jenson Button called a halt to his F1 career at the end of 2016, Mclaren retained him as a reserve driver for 2017. And when Fernando Alonso went to race in the Indy 500 Button was forced to stand in for Alonso at Monaco, a situation Button was contractually unable to extricate himself from
A year after Pete Lovely turned up to race for Lotus at the 1959 Monaco GP, only to find the car hadn’t arrived, he made his F1 debut in a privateer Cooper. Nine years then passed before Lovely visited F1 again. In 1969, after two non-championship outings, he entered and ran a Lotus 49B in the last three races of the season
Robert Kubica was set to stay with Renault for 2011 and had already signed a contract with Ferrari for 2012 when he had his life-threatening rally accident in February 2011. After a long rehabilitation, racing in other disciplines, some testing and a season as a reserve driver in 2018, Kubica finally returned to an F1 race seat with Williams in 2019
The face of Niki Lauda at the Italian GP just six weeks after he nearly died in the 1976 German GP. Lauda’s amazing return to try to claim a second world championship came up short, but he triumphed the following season. Lauda also returned to F1 in 1982, after retiring before the end of 1979, and won a third title in 1984
After a failed comeback in 1999, after two seasons away, Luca Badoer fell back on his role as Ferrari’s F1 test driver. When Felipe Massa was injured at the 2009 Hungarian GP and Michael Schumacher was unable to replace him, Ferrari drafted Badoer in for the European GP, the first Italian to drive for the Scuderia in 15 years. Badoer was well off the pace and Ferrari binned him after two starts
Jan Lammers scored no points during four bit-part seasons with backmarker teams from 1979-1982. After a successful sportscar career and a season of Japanese F3000 in 1991 Lammers, aged 36, was parachuted in at March for the final two races of 1992, as a replacement for Sauber-bound Karl Wendlinger. Those 10 years and three months between starts remains an F1 record
Although Ayrton Senna had qualified his Mclaren on pole for the 1988 Japanese GP, after he stalled at the start the Brazilian dropped to 14th. With the world title at stake he began his fightback immediately and regained six places on lap one. Fourth by the end of lap four, Senna eventually forced his way past team-mate and title rival Alain Prost on lap 28 before pulling away for the win and the championship
The 1967 Italian GP at Monza was a race of contrasts for Jim Clark. He qualified his Lotus on pole, bogged down at the start, recovered to lead by lap three, only to lose that lead and an entire lap when he pitted on lap 12 with a puncture. He rejoined 15th, spent the next 48 laps battling his way back and re-took the lead on lap 60. Then, on the final lap, a fuel feed problem cruelly robbed him of the win and dropped him to third
Nigel Mansell won the 1992 world championship with Williams and promptly ‘retired’ from F1 after team and driver were unable to agree a new deal. He left to race in America but, following Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994, Williams brought Mansell back to F1 for the French GP, and the final three races of the season. Mansell moved on to Mclaren for 1995, but only drove for the team twice before he stepped away from F1 for good
Mika Hakkinen (left) and David Coulthard lift Rubens Barrichello after the Ferrari driver made the podium for the 2000 German GP. It was Barrichello’s first F1 win and it came after he had started from 18th on the grid due to an oil leak in qualifying. Barrichello had stayed out on slicks during a crucial period of the race, when most drivers switched to wet tyres...
Juan Manuel Fangio began the 1957 German GP at the Nürburgring with softer tyres and the fuel tanks on his Maserati half full, to counter the strategy of the Ferraris. His planned pitstop on lap 13 was a disaster though, and he went from 30s ahead to 51s adrift of the lead duo of Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins. Nine lap records later, Fangio crossed the line 3.6s ahead of Hawthorn for his final F1 win