Jan Lammers

Jan Lammers, a Dutch driver born in 1956, started 24 Grands Prix in a Formula 1 career that began in 1979 and, unusually, did not conclude until 1992. He drove for five different teams without ever scoring a championship point.

He entered the sport with Shadow in 1979 at the age of 23, then spent two seasons with ATS in 1980 and 1981 before a campaign with Theodore in 1982. All of these were small outfits operating at the back of the grid, and competitive results proved out of reach.

What sets Lammers's record apart is the gap that followed: after 1982 he disappeared from the championship for a full decade, only to return with March in 1992, by then in his mid-thirties. Ten years between Formula 1 seasons is among the longest such intervals on record.

His final statistics show no points from 24 starts, but the spread of his career, from the ground-effect era of the late 1970s to the early 1990s, gives it an unusual shape few drivers share.