Stupidest retirements for technical reasons

[Sebp]

What I would like this thread to be:

A collection of the worst errors in setting up an F1-car aswell as the funniest reasons for retirements due to technical reasons.


For example...
Gerhard Berger retired from second place in the Italian GP 1995 because the camera on Jean Alesis car, who was running in front of him at the time, fell off and smashed his suspension.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzKopMagWQE[/youtube]

[Just_a_fan]

Mansell allowed his Williams to die whilst leading and waving to the crowd...Canada 91. What made it even funnier is that it let Piquet through for his last F1 win. And Mansell disliked Piquet following their time together at Williams...

[tinhouse]

Interesting that the third car in that scrap was Herbert, who retired from the 1998 Italian Grand Prix after a Sauber mechanic left a pait of pliers in the cockpit of the car. They got tangled under his brake pedal causing him to spin out.

(Wikipedia reports that it was a spanner, but I remember the commentary at the time reporting it was pliers and there was a cartoon at the time which refers to 'a spanner, or rather pliers, in the works'.)

[Muulka]

I do remember that once one driver had to retire (Webber maybe... Don't remember...) because some heat shielding on their seat failed, and so his buttock were burnt

The official reason for retirement was 'Overheating.'

Beat that.

[andartop]

How about: "hit by safety car, from the back"?

It happened at an F3 race and the star was Alex Wurz.

I have posted this before in a different thread, but still remains one of my all time favourites.

Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8lutheieVs

There was a part 2 as well, starring Nick Heidfeld vs the medics car. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWq8zH5GjA0

EDIT: ...And, of course, Taki Inoue vs the Safety Car, though he had already retired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pa3GrLf ... re=related

[Roland Ehnström]

David Coulthard in 1995:

Spinning out (from pole) during the warm-up lap at Monza:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1tskI0ALAo[/youtube]

Crashing into the wall (from the lead) while entering the pits at Adelaide:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xl6QV85N7g[/youtube]

[Roland Ehnström]

OK, technically these were not retirements for technical reasons, but I'd say David's driving technique failed pretty badly.

[Poleman]

Last year Button in Monaco..

[PlatinumZealot]

Alguershari running out of fuel after the first stint in Abudahbi 2009.

[andrew]

OK, technically these were not retirements for technical reasons, but I'd say David's driving technique failed pretty badly.

Actually the cars were broken due to Coulthards inability to steer. I would say that is quite technical!

Jean Alesi driving for Benetton in 1997, at the Australian GP. Ran out of fuel despite being called into the pits 5 laps before his car died of thirst.

[bot6]

Chinese GP 2005, Montoya retired because he broke his wheel on a manhole cover... That was kind of special... Not a technical failure of the car, but a technical failure of the manhole cover. Those things are usually quite reliable are they not?

Muulka -> That was indeed Webber, Suzuka 2004. 2nd degree burns to the bottom. Shows how long the poor guy toughed it out before he had to retire. I think that has to be in the top 3 somewhere.

Olivier Panis, Silverstone 2004: had to retire because of an exploding... extinguisher. Yes. His extinguisher exploded. That has to be up there among the most ironic technical retirements!

[bot6]

I'll add another one:

Imola 2001, Kimi's steering wheel comes off.

[mx_tifoso]

Bot6, didn't Kubica or someone also have problems with a manhole cover? But this was in Monaco a season or two ago.

And why would they have manhole covers on a purpose-built cicuit?

[bot6]

It was just off the circuit on a runoff area, Montoya took the turn a bit wide and *bam* no wheel.

Wasn't that Barrichello in Monaco last year, crashing because the manhole cover was sucked up by his floor?

[andrew]

Said drain cover.



Actually, it is a channel drain grating and not a manhole cover.