Here, There, Everywhere: The Story of the 1994 Formula One Driver Market

[@terminateshere]

I remember an F1 magazine did a list of all the driver moves and the reason for each. Larousse's late-season changes were for reasons like "Yen better than Francs" and "Swiss Francs better than no Francs".

[@regen9918]

What I find crazy is that Tyrrell, Footwork, Minardi and strangely Pacific of all teams were the only ones to complete the season without a single mid-season driver change or substitution. Every other team had at least one swap including all the front-running teams Benetton, Williams, Ferrari, McLaren etc.

[@AidanMillward]

The ones you’d expect to have the money troubles as well.

[@ladela7348]

Tbh Williams kinda had to replace Senna as he died in a brutal crash

[@RACECAR]

I'm gonna assume they weren't as financially flexible due to said money troubles, though I also wonder if any of those Pay drivers on the Merry go-round even had interest in joining those teams at all (Perhaps they did, but again those team pockets were looking rather empty).

[@MotorsportManager-xd2vr]

@@ladela7348 But Williams has also replaced Coulthard with Mansell. Initially for marketing reasons (Bernie was also very interested), and then to win the constructors' title. The ‘replacement’ of Ratzenberger at Simtek had the same reason as the use of Coulthard at Williams.

[@rafaelcaus3762]

1994 was such a unique year. Great video!

[@LoganHunter82]

And sad year

[@oConshien]

Favorite 1994 memory?

[@rafaelcaus3762]

The first pole position Rubens got in Spa.

[@PH-jv4ik]

Game changing definitely the end and beginning of an era

[@Blyke14]

@@oConshienImola

[@chrisguardiano6143]

Fun fact about the 1994 driver lineup & where they went after their F1 run was over: 4 of the drivers (Zarnadi, Blundell, Lehto & Fittipladi) ended up racing in CART within a few years with Zarnadi winning the 1997 & 1998 CART titles with Chip Ganassi. As for Lehto he found success in the US not in CART but in the ALMS with BMW. Then with Fittipladi, he struggled to find success in CART winning only 2 races & then went to NASCAR (one of the few F1 drivers to make that transition) driving the famous #43 for Petty Enterprises in 2003. Lastly with Blundell, like Fittipladi, he struggled to find success in CART though he did win 3 races in 1997.

[@therrydicule]

Christian Fittipaldi wasn't too bad in Cart. I remember him... It was very competitive back when he competed and Christian Fittipaldi was the type of guy to be consistent. He was not exactly at the front, but when he had good material he had a lot of 3rd to 5th place. Like he was 5th in 1996 in Cart: not bad. Not great, but that ain't bad. But he got injured in 1997 (legs) and 1999 (subdural hematoma - which means he is lucky to still be alive). So that removed a lot of chances. The 1999 injury was probably hard for him because not only did he come close to dying, he was in the run for the title until he misses 5 races and came back too early in Houston. However, the guy was a safety risk whenever he crashed his car in CART, getting out very fast and running over the track. After Cart he went to Nascar and there he was truly horrible. Later he ended up in endurance and IMSA and finally had some success.

[@frevazz3364]

Fittipaldi went to Richard Petty's team but for years it had been a poor performing team so that didn't help.

[@JohnSmithShields]

46 drivers used and there was no Roberto Moreno? What sort of world was this?

[@joelapilainen]

Apparently he was supposed to replace Ratzenberger at Spain but it didn't end up happening

[@johndaniels4623]

Great work as always! I’d suggest doing the Schumacher black flag at Silverstone on the eve of the festivities of British GP for the whole “oh we’ve got a theme this week thing”. Second I’m sure you’ve already considered it, but you could easily make an entire documentary style playlist of race by race for 1994. Starting with the whole “they’re taking everything out the car” and “senna to Williams” stories. For nascar like stuff, KZbinr Brock Beard has an excellent series about the 2001 nascar season. Starting with when dodge announced they were coming back and tracking storylines and such throughout then till now after the 01 Daytona 500.

[@JohnSmithShields]

Oooo that has potential for a series. AIDAN!!!!!!

[@OutRunr47]

Lotus in 1994 went crazy with so many driver changes. Pedro Lamy, Johnny Herbert, Alex Zanardi, Philippe Adams, Eric Bernard and Mika Salo. The #11 car was practically changing drivers every race after Lamy's testing accident.

[@Andy_ATB]

Philippe Alliot in for Hakkinen at Hungary; and from memory Peugeot had been pressurising McLaren to replace Brundle.....

[@joelapilainen]

If I remember correctly they even removed a temporary chicane while testing after Brundle did his run to make Alliot look better

[@jonnyspa27]

Great video! After about 1/3rd of the ‘94 season, I remember feeling the morning of each race “ok what else is going to happen this weekend?!” If it wasn’t a driver swap, it was rules violations & the aftermath there of. “Madness” is a great adjective in describing ‘94.

[@periklaskyriakidis6064]

2010 driver market was even more wild, also thanks to all those rumoured teams that wanted to enter F1, but even if you exclude those, the rumours for that year's transfers were insane

[@PuncakeLena]

I'd love to see a video on that

[@ivaneurope]

The reason why Häkkinen was suspended for the Hungarian GP is that at the British GP (the same one The Michael got DQ for ingoring black flags) he was reprimanded for an incident with Barrichello. Basically "three strikes and you're out" situation for Mika there - the difference is that he was out after strike two. And the sloo of pay drivers at the tail end of the 1994 season was perhaps the reason why the 107% rule was introduced from 1996 onwards.

[@MrSniperfox29]

Partly, but mainly because the FIA and the other teams had finally had enough of the likes of Pacific/Simtek/Forti turning up and clearly being too slow with normal drivers let alone pay drivers.

[@AidanMillward]

107% was introduced because with the deaths of Larousse and Lotus and Forti turning up, they had 26 entries and the back of grid teams literally had to do one lap and be guaranteed to start no matter how fast or slow you were. Then Adelaide rolled round and it was obvious that it was needed.

[@MrSniperfox29]

@@AidanMillward While that is true, it's funny how in 1993 they had the same "problem" (13 teams entered) and instead they simply reduced the number of qualifiers to 25 (originally 24 but they felt it was mean if one team completely failed to qualify) This only last until Germany when the teams decided to let everyone race regardless. Still, an interesting comparison between the two similar circumstances.

[@AidanMillward]

@@MrSniperfox29 think they did it to get Scuderia Italia to leave as they were the only team without some sort of driver aid and the only one car team.

[@ibex485]

@@AidanMillward The 107% rule and why it was introduced is a reminder that F1 was once a sport, not the WWF1 show it is now. 😞

[@nathanpangilinan4397]

0:56 I see what you did there with the juxtaposition of that with an image of Maldonado crashing.

[@AidanMillward]

I just typed in “f1 crash” into Wiki Commons and that was the one that came up that was most modern.

[@davidgriffith8292]

Great video and loved the reference to whistle boy Simon Whistler! He could do a brain blaze on the 94 season of driver chaos.

[@heliumtrophy]

Schiattarella's one of my favourites to say because of the original F1 game hearing Murray Walker yelp "it's Ski-atta-rella." It's safe to say that the way Briatore operated that he bought Ligier out of its debts because he wanted access to the Renault engines and he was quite adept at working the system F1 had involved. It was said as a result of both Schumacher's ban and some of the dodgy dealings he did - Max Moseley made a pact with him that he could keep control only by offloading it to somebody else within the head of Benetton - Walkinshaw got the Ligier job and then the drivers you saw at the end of 1994 were supposed to be the drivers for 95 but that got turned around quite quickly with Aguri Suzuki supposed to be partnering Panis but then they signed Martin Brundle and had to do a driver share throughout the season. I wouldn't be lying when I said that there is enough bastardry, intrigue and downright Machiavellian tactics used in those couple of seasons alone that would leave most people scratching their heads as to see what happens next. In comparison Ryan Reynolds buying a stake in Alpine after Laurent Rossi's meltdown on French TV is about as exciting as it gets. I'll give Piastri credit though, he knew how to work it like an old-schooler.

[@retardray5701]

It was kind of surprising how solid Ligier's '95 season was in the middle of all that, being essentially a placeholder waiting for a new owner to show up. Walkinshaw definitely knew how to run a team and maybe with a bit of luck they got the Mugen V10 quickly working well with the adapted Benetton chassis. Generally 1994-95 was an interesting era. It was sad because of the deaths, career-ending accidents and a couple of established teams closing doors - but all those driver changes, behind-the-scenes fights and antics of the various newcomers were fascinating.

[@heliumtrophy]

@@retardray5701 Couldn't agree more - it adds another layer seldom seen since. I still miss Ligier though. No matter how rubbish the car was, like Minardi, they always stood out with some of the more stylish cars.

[@ibex485]

The 1995 Ligier was even a clone of the '94 Benetton. (Iirc the design was 'sold' to Ligier.) The Mugen engines were good then. Honda was quietly getting more involved again behind the scenes and a late-season engine upgrade gave the Lotus team a significant improvement in performance. (Had it come a little bit sooner, it could have saved the team from oblivion.) So the Ligier was all set to be a very competitive package from 1995 onwards. Sadly it was not to last. After Prost took over and the team got works Peugeot engines for 1998 in a swap with Jordan, it was clear Jordan got the better part of the deal. Mugen-Honda were on the up with Honda coming back fully, meanwhile Peugeot never understood F1 and its continuous development race. And the banning of berillyum hit them hard. Like Mercedes-Ilmor they were early adopters and added it to the alloy of some piston components to make it more elastic and allow the engine to rev higher without compromising torque. It's no coincidence that it was these two engines which produced the most regular and spectacular failures around 1997. But also the most power.

[@heliumtrophy]

@@ibex485 Yeah Prost really made a catalogue of bad decisions as team boss. On France's version of Spitting Image, they made the joke that the reason the Prost team were so slow was because it was fucked by a turtle....crass but effective.

[@ibex485]

@@heliumtrophy I don't blame Alain Prost. (He was one of the reasons Renault/Alpine have improved so much in recent years.) When it came to the Prost team he was hamstrung. It was supposed to become the French national team, so he was expected to use French suppliers & sponsors. And was subject to political interferance (but no support). But they failed to deliver. Peugeot didn't invest in engine development (that's why McLaren ditched them after 1 season - they didn't bring any mid-season developments in 1994, they didn't get that far more than any other catagory F1 is a continuous development race). The promised sponsorship from French companies just never materialised. They had some at he start, nowhere near enough. Then that soon disappeared. But Prost was still expected to be the French team with French sponsors. The team was doomed from as early as '98/'99 due to that, there's no way they could maintain their superb 1997 form.

[@craigmcghie6271]

I don't normally comment on KZbin videos but I felt that I had to this time. The research you put into your videos is amazing and every one of them either gives me a chuckle or, at very least, a smile with the humour you put into them. When you announced the Pacific team in this video I totally lost it 😂 keep up what you're doing, Aidan.

[@mrkipling2201]

I'd forgotten that Nigel Mansell drove for Williams again in the 1994 season, after the death of Ayrton Senna. This channel reminded me of that. Another reason why it's brilliant. It's educational. As well as interesting and bloody brilliant.

[@JutiMayranen]

Don't forget: This is still the only season that had three Finnish drivers starting on a same grand prix! The Japanese and Australian rounds featured JJ Lehto, who possibly had the worst start for a season he ever had (he missed out starting rounds due to injury and then was part of the infamous starting grid crash of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix. He was unceremoniously replaced by Jos Verstappen mid-season and got a chance to drive the Bennetton for a couple more races when The Michael was serving his suspension. Lehto got to replace de Cesaris in Sauber when the Italian driver surprised everyone and called it quits two rounds before seasons end. Mika Häkkinen who showed some of that talent of a future two-time world champion with couple of podiums during the 1994 campaign and would have been even better if the always tempermental French Peugeot powerplants were a little bit more reliable. Häkkinen would go on to finish 4th in the drivers championship standings which is somewhat overlooked from time to time. Mika Salo the newcomer who managed to get the somewhat hot seat on a Lotus team which was on it's last legs. Salo had some experience driving in Japan (which hosted the second to last round of the season) so he was able to convince the Lotus execs that he was the man for the job.

[@CyanRooper]

I think Häkkinen's 1994 season gets overlooked because of how bad the season was for McLaren (it was their worst season at the time and it was incredibly shocking to witness given how dominant they were during the 80s and early 90s). There's also the fact that Senna in 1993 kept telling Ron Dennis to pick Lamborghini engines for the 1994 season after McLaren secretly tested them (Aidan Millward made a video on that if you're interested) but Dennis believed the Peugeot engines were better (boy was he wrong). Many have argued that had Dennis listened to Senna then Senna would've stayed at McLaren and he would still be alive, further preventing F1 fans from wanting to remember McLaren's 1994 season.

[@dominicbarden4436]

@@CyanRooper McLaren's 1994 is a strange one for me. So many retirements, often due to unreliability, and yes they went winless but when the car got to the end, it still got 8 podiums in all (6 for Hakkinen, 2 for Brundle), and Hakkinen somehow got 4th in the championship by basically finishing on the podium whenever he finished a race!

[@AndyFromBeaverton]

I totally forgot about all of those injuries, some of which I never heard of.

[@gregfelix6979]

94 and 95 are my favourite seasons to watch and re-watch. Just love the cars, the colours, and the simplicity of the era. Peak F1.

[@phaedrussocrates7636]

For my brain this would be immensely easier in plain chronological form - going on race by race bases. At this race those were the new casualties or new firings and consequently these were the new hirings. Would be great to have an alternative video take, from this all I'm sure about is that it was dang complicated 😅

[@AidanMillward]

It was hard work doing just the last three rounds XD

[@mikeperry9746]

Thank you for doing these videos from my era of F1 growing up. Insightful and deftly communicated. Watched you from the start - less copyright compliant years. Keep it up.

[@Kam1Kaz3NL77]

good one. The 1994 season, except for Imola ofcourse, was a good season, but indeed saw a whole ****load of driver changes. Now i know why!

[@watermelonbanana1772]

1994 is so fascinating to me. The cars were the most beautiful of that early 90s era. And something about it just enthralled me so much, rewatching all the races. Even if the racing was boring, it was just amazing to watch the cars go around and round. It just had this cool feel to it, trying to immerse myself into the times, look at all the backstories and see where everyone was at this part of their careers. Ratzenberger and Senna’s death really detracted from it, which is usually why I never say that I love the 1994 season. I’ve been begging for a fully fledged 1994 mod in any major sim for some time now, to immerse myself in a career mode with vr in those car would seem all but a dream to me.

[@CookRacingUK]

"Martin Brundle taking a Benetton to the head" - Fair one.

[@eamonahern7495]

That graphic didn't work for me. I'm even more confused than I was at the start of the video.

[@AidanMillward]

I tried.

[@eamonahern7495]

@@AidanMillward I appreciate the effort. It's my own fault.

[@nomar5spaulding]

If we have a race with 19 DNFs in it, a Williams with the number 2 on it could win a race this year 😂

[@Slider5320]

Loved the comment ‘They put the full fist in’ 😂 great sense of humour as always. As a bit of constructive criticism I thought the driver changes could have been presented better visually. Two You tubers who I watch and do this kind of thing very well are ‘CGP Grey’ and ‘Oversimplified’ This is said with respect that an improved visual way of displaying it costs time and money, but thought I should mention it incase you may want to try networking with these guys if it helps you in the future. Look forward to the next video as always 👍

[@OWfan]

This brings back memories of watching the Duke Video F1 review of the season and Speed Channel's F1 Decade. I hadn't gotten into F1 yet (my first memories were from 1992, but watched more CART and NASCAR then), but goodness, it seemed like even the F1 reviewers got flustered, ha.

[@Hesitatedeye]

a Red 2 at that.

[@Woodie-xq1ew]

I’ve been watching you for a few years now. Are you ever going to mention Gachot without mentioning his attempt to knock a cabbies lights out? Don’t stop it’s hilarious, I’m just curious

[@davidsimpson5569]

Any videos concerning F1 94-98 would be fantastic 👌

[@mattwhorlow9900]

I'm almost annoyed that Roberto Morano didn't crop up in this one ;)

[@gokingsgoful]

I don't think you've done one on the 94 German GP but you REALLY REALLY REALLY need to. Ideally with some sort of Crazy World of Arthur Brown joke. I AM THE GOD OF HELLFIRE

[@mindujiman]

That's something I've always wondered. I'll watch it later at home

[@Scoobydcs]

this race was mansells last win wasnt it?

[@Sponge1310]

That Footwork livery was damn mint though.. 🔥🔥🔥

[@donathandorko]

IIRC, Herbert drove 3 consecutive grands prix for 3 different teams. That must be a record.

[@Minardimaniac]

in contrast, 1994 is was rather unusual for Minardi since they didn't swap drivers at all. Most seasons in their history were completed by 3-4 drivers.

[@minibus9]

excelent video

[@shaun_sharlev]

"Far Beyond Driven" was released by Pantera in 1994.

[@robertwills5757]

94 was the first season I watched & imola was the first race. The cars never looked better imo. There was virtually no overtaking & the races were free to watch on the bbc. No internet so any news was from ceefax ,magazines or the broadcast.

[@simontravers2715]

Only victory for a #2 Williams eh? Can always trust u with the eye opening trivia Aidan 👍🏻 “🖕🏻I’m going for 1st says John Cleland”

[@MrSniperfox29]

In 1994 yes Senna - 3 retirements Coulthard - Best of 2nd Mansell - Wins

[@kevinprior3549]

Prost won many GPs in 1993 with the no 2 on his Williams. How can anyone forget that?

[@F1Krazy]

@@kevinprior3549 Only victory THAT YEAR for the #2 Williams, Aidan says that very clearly (see also MrSniperfox's comment).

[@alexlazebat839]

apparently de cesaris thought wendlinger was coming back and went on holiday 41 drivers

[@ilionreactor1079]

You don't have to hide your face. Well, not entirely. Give us a glimpse during your wrap-up, or a moment of irony. Cheers!

[@Jusuff]

Reutemann won twice with the number 2 in 1981.

[@kevinprior3549]

I think you should be the writer for a movie about 1994. I think the movie should be called Imola 94.

[@davesouthword1298]

Didn’t Phillipe Alliot replace Hakkinen for Hungary when the Finn was banned for a start line crash somewhere?

[@Ligier_JS-P217]

7:07 Sargent W incoming

[@jakewhite3508]

Sausage, bean and cheese slices are so good 😍

[@MyUrbanExplorationOnline]

Hey, I have a question. Have there been a time where a farther and son ever raced in F1, at the same time?

[@F1Krazy]

No, this has never happened. There have been drivers who have raced against both a father and his son (Patrese raced against Mario and Michael Andretti, and Alonso and Raikkonen races against both Jos and Max Verstappen and Michael and Mick Schumacher), but no father-and-son duo have ever raced in F1 at the same time.

[@ibex485]

Looking at the list of teams, only Ferrari still have the same owners now as in 1994. And that's only if you overlook Fiat merging with first Chrysler, then PSA to form Stellantis. The Ojjeh family's TAG Group seems to still hold Mansour Ojjeh's minority share in McLaren Group, but Ron Dennis is long gone and the rest of the ownership has changed hands a few times. Likewise Sauber's changed ownership multiple times, since Peter Sauber sold to BMW. And Frank finally had to sell his team to Dorilton Capital.

[@TheFarCobra]

The “Pierre Luigi Martini” does seem like a drink name in search of a drink to name. Should probably be something tall and green …

[@TheFarCobra]

… do not Google “Pie fisting” though …

[@TheFarCobra]

… and I get a hard time for likening ham and pineapple pizza. (Sausage, bean and cheese?)

[@carsonneal]

your videos are so much better without the webcam, that shit was creepy

[@mramaz1ngarry728]

Is the 1994 Portuguese GP the last formula 1 race that didn't have a world champion on the grid? I know Hill and Hakkinen became World Champions but not until after. So they wasn't World champions at the time of the race.

[@patrickracer43]

1994 was so weird because they were all either injured or dead

[@RBenjo21]

Driver changes per race in 1994: Pacific: 2 (Suzuki to Jordan; Larini to Ferrari) San Marino: 2 (Lehto to Benetton; De Cesaris to Jordan) Monaco: 1 (Alesi to Ferrari) Spain: 4 (Coulthard to Williams; Zanardi to Lotus; Irvine to Jordan; Montermini to Simtek) Canada: 1 (De Cesaris to Sauber) France: 3 (Mansell to Williams; Verstappen to Benetton; Gounon to Simtek) United Kingdom: 1 (Coulthard to Williams) Germany: 0 Hungary: 1 (Alliot to McLaren) Belgium: 3 (Hakkinen to McLaren; Adams to Lotus; Alliot to Larrousse) Italy: 3 (Lehto to Benetton; Zanardi to Lotus; Dalmas to Larrousse) Portugal: 1 (Adams to Lotus) Europe: 7 (!) (Mansell to Williams; Schumacher to Benetton; Bernard to Lotus; Zanardi to Lotus; Noda to Larrousse; Herbert to Ligier; Schiattarella to Simtek) Japan: 5 (Herbert to Benetton; Salo to Lotus; Lagorce to Ligier; Lehto to Sauber; Inoue to Simtek) Australia: 2 (Deletraz to Larrousse; Schiattarella to Simtek).

[@privateinformation2960]

Ah yes the one where Schumacher fucking cheated and outright stole his first championship.

[@privateinformation2960]

Still the absolute peak of formula one.

[@Villani_AV]

I can see some Alonso or MV fans trying to say their driver would still win in that car if it was today lmfao

[@maza19]

The number 2 statistic isn't that crazy. Senna only had three races and he retired in all of them (and died in the last one of course), then Williams had a rookie and a part time 40 year old F1 driver even if his name was Mansell. Also Hill and Schumacher won every race except the ones that both of them didn't finish (Germany and Australia)

[@244Jackster]

Senna used 0

[@maza19]

@@244Jackster Hill used 0

[@joewegen8928]

I have a question. What are you gonna do when you get 100k?

[@AidanMillward]

Retire. I actually don’t know. I suppose I’ve got to put Moreno to bed

[@Shaggy_matt]

... eurgh, those sausage and bean slices are a dangerous gateway drug I swear! Lol