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F1 can be a vanilla sport at times. The races take place at the scheduled times, and everything is more or less in order. Drivers turn up when they need to, they behave as they're supposed to, and there's nothing out of the ordinary that could act as a surprise to everyone.
Even when we talk about the prominent figures in the sport, they're all dedicated, hard-working, and even hard-nosed at times, but more or less, they stick to the job at hand. You won't find too many Flavio Briatores and Eddie Jordans in the paddock. There are occasions, however, when a spanner is thrown into the works and things go haywire. One such scenario is when a driver that is scheduled to take part in a race ends up missing it for innocuous reasons.
In the history of the sport, there have been a few occasions when drivers have missed a race for strange reasons. In this piece, let's take a look at some of these reasons.
#1 Ending up in Jail (Bertrand Gachot, 1991 F1 Belgian GP)
One of the strangest reasons to miss a race was what happened to Bertrand Gachot ahead of the 1991 Belgian GP. The Jordan driver was involved in an altercation with a cab driver in December 1990 where he sprayed the driver with CS gas to defend himself.
The trial was expected to take place just before the Belgian GP and Gachot was to receive a fine or a suspended sentence. As it turned out to the surprise of many, the Frenchman was sent to jail for his actions with a sentence of 18 months at HMP Brixton. Gachot, who was in good form in the previous race, was in no position to race at the Belgian GP for Jordan.
Interestingly though, this incident paved the way for the debut of a certain Michael Schumacher in F1.
#2 Untimely back surgery amid contract issues (Kimi Raikkonen, 2013 F1 Abu Dhabi GP)
Kimi Raikkonen's return to the sport was nothing short of a pleasant surprise for his fans. The Finnish driver put together one consistent performance after another, so much so that he was third in the championship standings in 2012 behind only Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.
Throughout this honeymoon period, however, a ticking timebomb was already in place. Based on the pay structure, the Finnish driver was going to get a bonus over every point he scored for the team. Lotus, unable to anticipate how competitive its car was going to be, ended up agreeing to those terms. While the team rose to prominence on the grid in 2012, so did the compensation for Raikkonen.
It was all fine in 2012, but when in 2013 the team struck financial trouble, Raikkonen's pay was kept on hold and the dues started to pile up. Amidst growing tensions between the team and the driver, Raikkonen, who was starting from the back of the grid in the F1 Abu Dhabi GP, would innocuously crash on the first lap. He would then announce an immediate back surgery that would rule him out of the races left in the season.
#3 Unable to fit inside the car (Nigel Mansell, first 2 races of 1995 F1 season)
Formula 1 drivers and fitness is something that goes hand in hand more often than not. In the later stages of his career, however, Nigel Mansell had grown a bit thicker around the waist. The former champion was on borrowed time after retiring from the sport at the end of 1992 and then making a comeback with Williams in 1994. For the 1995 F1 season, the Briton agreed to a deal with McLaren late into the season. Things soon turned for the worse when it was discovered that Mansell could not fit inside the car.
As a result, he had to skip the first two races of the season as McLaren made adjustments to his car. Mansell's stay was short-lived, however, as he took part in just two races for the team before walking away.
