It’s Friday and the weekend is almost here, so The Gurgler editorial team decided they needed some filler for a Friday, something light-hearted, preferably sporting based. Something quick and easy to balance out all the stats-heavy sporting onslaughts usually available. This week because of the return of Daniel Ricciardo to F1 ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix we list Five Great Formula 1 Comebacks.
READ MORE: HUNGARIAN F1 PRIX-VIEW
THE FIVE GREAT F1 COMEBACKS
NIKI LAUDA
Technically, the Austrian triple World Champions qualifies for two comebacks, one of them epic.
His first comeback came in 1976 when he sat back in his Ferrari less than two months after fiery crash at the Nurburgring almost killed him. The movie Rush documents this more entertainingly than we could do, but his fourth place was simply heroic, less than 20 seconds behind the winner on F1’s fastest track at the time. While he missed out on the 1976 championship by a point after voluntarily retiring from the wet season-ending Japanese Grand Prix, he won the title with Ferrari the following year, then head to Brabham before retiring before the end of the 1979 season.
The second Niki Lauda comeback also ended in Championship glory, but it took just a little longer. He was hoaxed out of his F1 retirement in 1982, which he had spent running his airline Lauda Air to drive for the Marlboro McLaren team in their distinctive paint job. Lauda won two races in his first comeback season, then in 1984 beat the arguably faster team mate Alain Prost to the title by half a point though better race craft. 1985 was a disappointing last season, but he had done and had enough by then.
ALAIN PROST
While not as a spectacular story, Alain Prost also won another World Championship on his comeback, and in his first year back.
Granted the car was the 1993 Williams, which was the equivalent of an IPhone up against the Nokia 3210 of most of the field, but still he won seven of the 16 races and eased to his 51st race win and fourth championship.
On hearing Ayrton Senna would join for 1994 he promptly retired for good, avoiding a second dose of heartburn.
FERNANDO ALONSO
Although Fernando Alonso’s comeback hasn’t yet ended in a World Championship and probably won’t, it’s pretty safe to say that it has been quite successful.
The double World Champion retired in 2018, similar to this weekend’s comeback kid Daniel Ricciardo after being bored of driving an underperforming McLaren. He spent his time after that qualifying for the Indy 500, winning Le Mans and driving in the Dakar rally.
Alonso returned to Alpine/Renault in 2021 for his third stint with the team that brought both of his World Championships, and to the surprise of very few his speed remained. Maybe not all the time, but where the car allowed, and the track or conditions suited, he was competitive. He outqualified his younger team mate Esteban Ocon 23-21 over the two seasons.
But after Alpine tried to hedge their bets for drivers for the 2023 season between Alonso and Oscar Piastri and kept neither, Alonso took offence and his skills off to Aston Martin.
What looked like a pension building final stint has seen Fernando Alonso be the revelation of the 2023 season, with six podiums in the first 10 races, and was clearly the best driver behind Max Verstappen at most race weekends. A shame the Red Bull and Verstappen have to be so far in front this season, as it would be great to see Alonso take the top step of the podium before the season is out.
KIMI RAIKKONEN
Kimi Raikkonen was one of F1’s enigmas. A driver praised for his personality despite appearing to have none at all. He once entered a snow mobile race under the name James Hunt and they had a fair bit in common. Both won a single World Championship, both liked to party, and both retired possibly too soon.
Luckily for Kimi, and his many fans around the world he came back in 2012 after retiring in 2009 to go and be a Rally driver with limited success.
Raikkonen first came back to Lotus-Renault, which used to be called Renault and are now called Alpine and won the race in Abu Dhabi with the infamous radio chat telling his tell team “Leave Me Alone, I Know What I’m Doing” and finished third in the Championship with many podium and points finishes. Another win the following season and 5th in the Championship saw him earn a move to Ferrari for 2014, the team he had retired from in 2009.
His second Ferrari stint saw just one more win in the 2018 US Grand Prix, and 25 podiums alongside Sebastian Vettel for most seasons. He eventually was shifted out for Charles Leclerc and spent three more seasons showing flashes of speed in the Alfa Romeo team before retiring at the end of the 2022 season.
PIERLUIGI MARTINI
One for the fans of obscure F1 drivers from the 1980’s and 1990’s. And we doubt there are more than a handful here who recognise the name. A shame as we name our driver of the year award after him.
While Pierluigi Martini would feature in very few lists, let alone great F1 comebacks, it is still a decent story.
The Italian drove a single Minardi in 1985 and the first time constrictor was considerably out of its depth and he finished just three times in 16 races that season. Martini took the blame and was dumped for 1986, where in fairness to him, the Minardi team only managed four finishes over the next two seasons with two drivers.
So many drivers in the 1980’s came and went, as it was much easier to get into or buy your way into a seat back then, as there were more teams of varying quality to drive for. So to get another drive would be hard after being panned so badly in 1985.
But he returned to Minardi halfway through 1988 and scored the team’s first ever point in that very first race. Back in the day where only the top six got a reward.
He went on to have an unbelievable 1989 with Minardi with many finishes, a couple in the points, he led a race for a lap at the Portuguese Grand Prix, and qualified the lowly car 5th, 4th and 3rd in his last three races of that season. Martini went one better in the first race of 1990 with Minardi’s only front row start.
A couple of fourth place finishes in 1991 were his career highlight in terms of finishes but probably not the high of 1989. Martini raced on until 1995 which by the time he was replaced mid season had scored most of Minardi’s F1 points to that time.
Maybe not the greatest F1 career of all time, but one worth remembering, as we do here.
