Mad About Cars

In the long, proud history of Formula One, everyone remembers the greats of the sports, famous names such as Senna, Prost, Schumacher, Clark and Fangio. But quite often the rest of the cast disappears into history, long forgotten by most.

However, a pair of hardened Australian Formula One fans keep alive the memory of some of the sport’s less noteworthy drivers alive with their unique website ‘F1 Rejects’ (www.f1rejects.com)

The site has been operating since 1999, and features biographies of some of the sport’s least successful drivers and teams (judged by number of points scored in Formula One). Along with this, the website has regular reports and podcasts with topical Formula One discussion, and a number of correspondents have submitted articles about some of the sport’s less noteworthy achievers.

To the outsider, it may appear that the website serves to mock the ‘reject’ drivers, but upon reading the site’s  description and the driver biographies, it is obvious that the site serves to honour the memory of Formula One’s failures. The creators are fully aware that even the least successful driver is nonetheless hugely talented, and this shows in the quality of the writing. Even many of the drivers featured have gladly assisted the website with exclusive interviews about their Formula One careers.

All manner of drivers are featured, the young prodigies who failed to make the step-up (Corrado Fabi), gentleman clubman drivers (Desmond Titterington), drivers with more money than speed (Phillipe Adams), drivers who simply had no luck (Perry McCarthy) and those whose racing careers were a huge success with the exception of Formula One (Hans Heyer, Eric van de Poele)

What makes for interesting reading is the wide manner of stories, backgrounds and anecdotes these more obscure drivers produce. The site is a real labour of love and is well recommended for the Formula One fan who is after something a little out of the ordinary.

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