A racing driver’s legs are always vulnerable. Olivier Panis and Martin Brundle were two of several drivers in the 1980s and 1990s whose career was shaped by serious injuries to his legs. Both drivers – former team mates at Ligier in 1995 – were affected in different ways at different points in their careers, and fans of both have been left wondering what might have been had their fateful accidents not happened.
Panis was at the top of his game in 1997, his fourth season in F1. Since 1994, he had been driving for the Ligier team, which by 1997 had been renamed Prost – a Frenchman in a French car, destined to have a French engine from 1998, and managed by the first French F1 champion. Panis, the F3000 champion back in 1993, had developed an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time. Despite driving uncompetitive machinery in his first three years in F1, he had scored three podiums: second places at Hockenheim in 1994 and Adelaide in 1995, and then the biggest prize of all at Monaco in 1996, all as a result of attritional races. His successes had been something of a fluke – he was generally regarded as a good driver who rarely made mistakes but unlikely to challenge the front runners. Ligier seemed to be his level.
1997 changed all that. Armed with an improved car and Bridgestone tyres, Panis began to make an impact in the South American races. At Interlagos, he finished an impressive third behind Jacques Villeneuve and Gerhard Berger, and in Buenos Aires, he began to threaten Villeneuve for the lead when his car suffered electrical failure on lap 19, sending him out of the race. He finished fourth in the rain at Monaco, before charging through the field on his more durable tyres to finish second in Barcelona. As F1 headed across the Atlantic to Montreal, he lay third in the championship on 15 points, the best of the rest behind Villeneuve and Michael Schumacher.
Unfortunately that’s where the fairytale ended. After setting the fastest time in the warm-up, he was involved in a first-lap crash that left him way down the field, and with two laps to go he suffered a suspension failure in the high-speed turn 5, pitching his car into the tyres. As the monocoque twisted and crumpled, he suffered two broken legs, and was out of action for three months. His career would never recover the upward trajectory it had before the crash.
F1 fans have often speculated whether Panis “lost something” with his injuries. In reality, it seems the only thing he lost was the opportunity to drive a quick car: on his return at the Nürburgring, he finished an impressive sixth, before finishing seventh in the season finale at Jerez. When the Prost AP01 and AP02 – the first two cars developed under the new regime – were married to a Peugeot engine, the team’s performances nose-dived, and Panis was outshone for two years by the rapid Jarno Trulli.
However, though he was possibly hampered by the pins remaining in his legs for a year after his crash, his performances don’t seem to be noticeably worse than his pre-1997 form. Trulli was the fastest team mate Panis had been paired with up to this point – prior to this, had been fortunate to be paired with Éric Bernard in 1994, who himself had suffered serious leg injuries in at Suzuka in 1991, Aguri Suzuki for much of 1995, Pedro Diniz in 1996, and Shinji Nakano in 1997, none of whom were exceptional drivers. On the occasions where he was paired with experienced drivers – namely Herbert at Jerez in 1994 and Brundle for some of 1995 – his record was patchy at best.
Panis chose to leave Prost at the end of 1999, being replaced by Jean Alesi and the highly-rated rookie Nick Heidfeld, who both suffered similar difficulties with the team. Instead, he rebuilt his reputation in 2000 by acting as McLaren test driver – he even turned down a potential race seat with Williams, which eventually went to rookie Jenson Button. Having demonstrated his value to the team in their battle for the championship, he eventually earned a return to the grid in 2001 with BAR, the ambitious Brackley-based team who were entering their third season overall, their second with the works backing of Honda.
He continued his solid but unspectacular form in two years with the team, where he was generally outperformed by Jacques Villeneuve, before heading to Toyota for two further years of much the same. With the team signing Trulli and Ralf Schumacher for 2005, Panis chose to retire from racing in F1, but even after this, he remained a valuable test driver for the team for a further two years, such was the respect for his technical feedback. Alongside this, he continued to pop up at sportscar races, most notably with Oreca, and was a regular in the Andros Trophy ice races.
In contrast to Panis’ luck in attritional races, Brundle always seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In his 165-race career, he drove for five former world champion teams – Williams, McLaren, Benetton, Brabham and Tyrrell – and yet somehow only once found himself in a race-winning car. It was a bitter disappointment for the man who had competed head-to-head with Ayrton Senna in British Formula Three, and finished second in his eighth F1 race in Detroit – a result later taken from him by the FIA, who excluded his Tyrrell team from every race in 1984.
Brundle’s career was shaped by what happened in the next race weekend after Detroit. Brimming with confidence, he took to the streets of Dallas aiming for a good grid position, but his weekend ended with a hard impact with a concrete wall, leaving him with serious ankle and foot injuries. Much like Johnny Herbert’s injuries four years later, it left him with reduced mobility for the rest of his career, and perhaps took some of his prodigious pace.
However, Brundle also suffered from misfortune in his career moves. He stayed loyal to Tyrrell for three seasons, but the team struggled to adapt to the turbo era, and for 1987 he made an ill-fated decision to move to the German Zakspeed team. After a disastrous season in which he scored only one points finish, he found himself exiled to sportscars for 1988, going on to win the World Sportscar Championship with TWR’s Jaguar team. However, he did step in for one race with Williams at Spa due to Nigel Mansell’s ill health. The Williams FW12, powered by a normally-aspirated Judd V8 after the departure of Honda, was their worst of the decade, though Brundle still finished a respectable seventh.
Martin returned to F1 full-time for 1989 with Brabham, who were returning to competition under new ownership after a year on the sidelines. Despite being forced through the rigmarole of pre-qualifying, he had more solid performances, but suffered by comparison to team mate Stefano Modena, who had a more eye-catching result with third place in Monaco. Brundle again returned to sportscars for 1990, winning Le Mans with TWR and Jaguar, before returning to Brabham for 1991, with the team now in deep financial trouble and relying on Yamaha engines. Paired with rookie and future business partner Mark Blundell, it would prove to be a challenging season, with Brundle scoring his only points of the season with fifth place in the Japanese Grand Prix.
However, Tom Walkinshaw’s arrival at Benetton provided Martin with a lifeline, and for 1992 he found himself replacing Nelson Piquet in one of the leading seats on the grid. It would prove to be his best season in F1, taking five podiums (officially the first of his career) including second place at Monza. While overshadowed by his outstanding young team mate Schumacher, he proved that he was worth a front-running drive, taking advantage of the improved performance of the team’s B192.
But it could have been even better. In Montreal, with championship leader Mansell and reigning champion Senna both out, Brundle was hunting down Gerhard Berger’s McLaren for the lead when the transmission failed with 24 laps to go. It would be the closest he would never get to winning a grand prix. Ironically, he would go on to finish every remaining race in 1992, never finishing out of the points and rising to sixth in the standings.
Despite this, Martin found himself dropped by Benetton for 1993 in favour of Riccardo Patrese, a decision Flavio Briatore later stated was a mistake. He was a strong contender for the second Williams seat alongside Alain Prost, a move that surely would have given him race wins, but was surprisingly overlooked in favour of test driver Damon Hill. He sought refuge at Ligier and once again impressed, taking a podium at Imola and finishing seventh in the championship. When Prost turned down the opportunity to join McLaren for 1994, Brundle was given the drive. It seemed like another major break, with McLaren having won at least one race in the previous 13 seasons.
However, it soon became apparent that the new Peugeot engine was deeply unreliable, and the team was way off the pace set by Benetton and Williams. Brundle finished second in Monaco, third in Adelaide and seventh overall, but was generally outperformed by Mika Häkkinen and found himself on the receiving end of a lot of criticism from the McLaren team. For 1995, under pressure from sponsors Marlboro, McLaren pursued bigger name drivers, and when their efforts to sign Schumacher came to nothing, they found themselves in a marriage of convenience with former rival Mansell.
Once again unemployed, Brundle found himself taking a part-time racing role back at Ligier, sharing a seat in the Mugen-powered car with Honda-backed Japanese driver Aguri Suzuka. He starred in mixed conditions at Magny-Cours and Spa, finishing a narrow fourth and third respectively, and outqualified Panis 8-3. Fresh from this positive year, Brundle agreed to reunite with his former F3 team boss Eddie Jordan for 1996, but with a mediocre car and a quick team mate in Rubens Barrichello, he struggled to make an impact – well, apart from in his violent accident in the season opener in Melbourne.
When he was overlooked for the 1997 drive in favour of Giancarlo Fisichella, he was forced to take up a new career in the commentary box with ITV. However, he has kept his hand in racing ever since, initially as test driver for Walkinshaw’s Arrows team, and then continuing to race sportscars and GTs. He has also found himself in many an F1 car in the years since as part of his commentary role – he is now probably the driver who has driven the most different F1 cars in history!
Comparison
Unlike most of our head-to-heads so far, we have an actual direct comparison to work with from the 1995 season. Brundle had only a partial season in the Ligier team, and yet despite the lack of mileage, he still comfortably outperformed Panis in qualifying and got two headline results, compared to Olivier’s rather fortunate second place in Adelaide.
Easy decision? Well, not quite – Brundle was a decade into his F1 career at this point, while Panis was only in his second season, so perhaps it would be unfair to solely base the choice on this. It’s definitely true to say Olivier improved as a driver after this, taking that remarkable win in Monaco and going on to star in 1997. However, the circumstances for his success just prior to his Montreal crash were unique: a new tyre supplier who had stolen a march on their rivals, and a strong car with a underrated engine. Panis was undoubtedly a highly respected development driver who could be relied upon to bring the car home, but based on their entire careers, and in particular for the way he dealt with being team mate to one of the greatest drivers of all time, Brundle edges it.
Histor’s choice: Martin Brundle
Histor's Eye 