| BEFORE FORMULA ONE | ||
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Background
The worst ever? |
Meet Swiss driver Jean-Denis
Deletraz, born 1 October, 1963, arguably the worst driver in F1 history. This is the man who provided the often too-serious world of F1 which some much-needed comic relief in his three races in 1994-95, with displays so bizarre they had to be seen to be believed.
And even then hardened fans could hardly believe their eyes (or the timing monitors). This is the man whose aversion to straight-line speed, let alone cornering speed, makes you wonder whether or not he would have been better off playing contract bridge. |
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1983-87
2 wins in Formula Ford |
Which also makes you wonder how the Winfield School of Driving at Paul Ricard can muster the scruples to wax lyrically like this on their web-site regarding their former graduates:
"Those that have gone on to Formula One success include: Jean Alesi, Philippe Alliot, Rene Arnoux, Christian Danner, Jean-Denis Deletraz, Patrick Depailler, Bertrand Gachot, Damon Hill, Jacques Laffite, Olivier Panis, Didier Pironi ... and Alain Prost."To be fair, though, the early part of Deletraz's career did have a smattering of promise, other than just the promise of money. Coming 2nd in the 1983 Volant Avia driving school event at La Chatre, he raced Formula Fords in 1984 and 1985, taking 2 wins and 5 podium places. He then raced without much success in French F3 in 1986 and 1987. |
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1988-94
No points in 3 seasons of F3000 |
In 1988, apart from some sports car events, he moved up to F3000. Amazingly, though probably due to supernatural powers, he came 13th overall, somehow recording two 3rd places in his Lola/Cosworth - one at Le Mans.
More important, though, is that Deletraz failed to score any more points in his next three seasons of F3000 from 1989 to 1991. In a desperate bid to revive his career, he got himself a works Seat drive in the French Touring Car Championship from 1992 to 1994, but even here, good results were sorely lacking. |
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| FORMULA ONE | ||
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1994 Larrousse Out-performs Mimmo's Simtek |
What was clearly not lacking, however, was money, and he seemed to have lots of it. The
Larrousse/Ford F1 team liked the sound of that as it headed towards its doom at the end of 1994. Which is how Deletraz got himself his F1 debut for the final round of the year in Australia, in place of long-serving
Erik Comas.
With such a modest racing CV, not much was expected of the Swiss pay-driver, and the F1 community hardly gave him any notice. But nothing was going to prepare them for his onslaught of mediocrity. In all honesty, everyone was positively surprised when he qualified his car 25th, two seconds slower than David Brabham ahead of him, but just ahead of the better-rated Domenico Schiattarella. Surely this had more to do with the quality of the cars! |
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1994
Speeds in pitlane, but not on the track |
But the race was a different matter altogether. Having been passed by Schiattarella by the first corner, he began to progressively fall away from the field. He was, as Autosport put it, "staggeringly slow", to the point where he was lapped by Michael Schumacher and
Damon Hill on lap 10. In nine laps, he had already fallen behind by some 80 seconds.
At least he certainly succeeded in giving his sponsors a lot of exposure while the leaders constantly passed him. And it was certainly cause for some mirth when he was called in on lap 37 for a stop-go penalty for speeding in the pit lane after his first stop. After his second pit stop, the downshift on his gearbox began to falter, and eventually he got out of everyone's way by retiring on his 57th lap, by which stage he had been lapped ten times. |
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1995
5th at Le Mans |
Suffice to say that this display of profound ineptitude left everyone shaking their heads. Not surprisingly, Deletraz found himself back in the wilderness by the start of 1995, and he escaped to that favourite haven of F1 rejects, sports car racing, and the BPR Global GT series in particular. Incredibly he managed to come 5th at Le Mans in his McLaren F1, though I would attribute this more to the efforts of his team-mates Fabien Giroix and Olivier Grouillard. |
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1995 Pacific They must have been REALLY desperate for cash |
Amazingly, there were others in F1 attracted by Deletraz's cash if not his ability to drive. When
Giovanni Lavaggi ended his stint with Keith Wiggins'
Pacific/Ford F1 team, financially in its death-throes as well, Deletraz was called in to fill the seat for the last five races of the year. He certainly had great expectations:
"I am very happy to be returning to Formula One and we will work hard together to make this a competitive end to the season. Although the Pacific team is quite small, they have a lot of motivation and I think everyone knows that Keith Wiggins is determined to make strong progress in Formula One. For me it is a good opportunity to gain more Formula One experience, and to develop a programme which hopefully will lead to my participation in the 1996 Formula One World Championship."So everyone braced themselves for Deletraz's return with trepidation. And he didn't disappoint. On Friday qualifying in Portugal, he let the revs drop too low at one corner and stalled the car right on the racing line. He needed the marshals to push-start him, and for that his times for the day were disqualified. This astounding event moved the press corps so much, Nigel Roebuck proclaimed that Deletraz made Lavaggi look "like Nuvolari". Strike one. |
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1995
He would have qualified 22nd for F3000 |
Saturday qualifying saw him beset by gearbox problems, and while he kept on talking about making 'progress' as he learnt the car, he ended up qualifying the Pacific bog last, over 12 seconds slower than pole-sitter
David Coulthard, more than 5 seconds behind the cumbersome Fortis and almost 7 seconds away from his own
team-mate, Andrea Montermini.
His time would have only qualified him 22nd for the F3000 support race. When Damon Hill was asked for his opinion of Deletraz, he said, "Let's hope he breaks down early in the race." Strike two. |
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1995
Just 14 laps before left arm cramp |
Hill was not disappointed, although he did have to go through the inconvenience of lapping Deletraz, who had fallen behind by 40 seconds after three laps. Our man eventually retired after 14 laps with cramp in his left arm.
It came as a surprise to himself, especially when it was the first time, or so he claimed, that he had to retire with a physical problem. It came as a surprise to the rest of the world that his cramp was in his left arm, when Estoril was a clock-wise circuit where the right arm does more work. Strike three. |
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1995
Tours around at the rump end of the pack at Nurburgring |
And so the circus came to the European GP. After the excesses of Estoril, it came as a pleasant shock that Deletraz was not as out of his depth at the Nurburgring. In Friday qualifying he posted a time 9.1 seconds slower than
Coulthard who was fastest, a second behind the Fortis and just over 3 seconds adrift of
Montermini. Rain meant no improvement was possible on Saturday, but that didn't stop him from going out and colliding with a Tyrrell.
In the race, Deletraz toured slowly around at the back (what's new?), and actually managed to finish in 15th and last place, albeit 7 laps down. At one stage he was even able to pass Mark Blundell's McLaren, only because the Englishman was struggling around on slick tyres in the wet. At another stage during the race, Deletraz was the focus of a lovely slow-motion replay. Mind you, this was only because he was wedged in a raging battle between Schumacher, Hill and Gerhard Berger. One suspects this was what the producer was really focussing on. |
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1995
"What IS Deletraz doing?" |
Seemingly, a serene drive to his best F1 result, right? Wrong. What the above paragraph belies is one of the most bizarre things ever witnessed on an F1 racetrack. On one particular lap, having just been lapped, as he approached the Veedol Chicane behind the pits, Deletraz began to twitch his car from side to side as he reached the braking area.
He then proceeded to lurch to the inside of the track and twitch some more, almost running over a cone on the inside of the track before continuing on his merry way. All in full view of the cameras, and forcing Murray Walker to ask incredulously, "And what is Deletraz doing?" No account of the race records that he had a problem, so I guess he was merely doing it to get his jollies. |
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1995
Pay up, Jean-Denis! |
Still, Deletraz was happy to finish the event, and said that "we have now to make progress in Japan and Australia". But when the championship hit Aida for the Pacific
GP, Bertrand Gachot was back in the Pacific car. This was because Wiggins had failed to secure the services of Japanese driver Katsumi Yamamoto because they couldn't get a superlicence for him.
Now, I have never heard of Katsumi Yamamoto before, but I would hazard a guess that he would beat Deletraz in a straight fight hands down. This went some way to demonstrating just how Euro-centric superlicence requirements were, a bias which, thankfully, has since been corrected. But what happened to Jean-Denis Deletraz? I'll let Wiggins explain: "He was defaulted on payment and on ability alone we are not prepared to keep him."Summed things up neatly, that. |
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| AFTER FORMULA ONE | ||
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1996-97
2nd at Laguna Seca |
Needless to say, Deletraz never got his chance to participate full-time in F1 in 1996. And so he returned to sports cars in the BPR Global GT series in a McLaren F1 GTR, coming 2nd at Monza, with Fabien Giroix and Didier Cottaz. In the same car he did Le Mans with Giroix and M. Sala, retiring with an engine failure.
Teaming up with Giroix again in 1997, he entered the FIA GT championship in a Lotus Racing Elise GT1. He failed to qualify for Le Mans, and in the rest of the championship succumbed to mechanical problems most of the time. But in the Supreme GT championship race at Laguna Seca, the pair came 2nd. |
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1998
Jean-Denis' own mechanics protest |
In 1998, Deletraz joined Giroix and Armin Hahne in a Porsche 911 GT1-98 in the FIA GT series for Zakspeed. However, the team failed to pre-qualify at Le Mans after a tyre blew. Just like the Pacific experience, though, it looks like Deletraz wasn't particularly good at delivering money, to the point where his own mechanics went to the extreme of lying in front of his car in protest, refusing to let it out of the pits unless he paid up.
That year, Deletraz also tried his hand at ice racing in the Chamonix 24hr event, sharing a Foca Volt Peugeot 306 with Pierre Bennehard. He came up against ex-F1 stars and rallying legends, as well as tennis star Henri Leconte. It would have been interesting to see whether Leconte or Deletraz finished ahead. |
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1999-2000
Owns FIRST, more likely LAST |
In 1999, Deletraz and Giroix have took over co-ownership of the FIRST team. Together they also drove a Ferrari F50GT in the FIA GT championship. Deletraz also raced in the International Sports Racing Series, joining Enzo Calderari and Lilian Bryner in an Autosport Racing Ferrari 333SP at Donington, coming 8th.
This year there has been rumours of a disagreement between Giroix and Deletraz as to operations within their FIRST Racing team. This year has not been a smooth one, as they withdrew their brand new Ferrari 550 Maranello from the Monza and Silverstone rounds of the FIA GT Championship. The team preferred to concentrate on developing the car which they hope to have ready by the fifth round at Budapest on July 2. At Valencia the car made it only 14 laps before retiring, and at Monza it lasted only 9 laps. |
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