Exactly twenty years ago today, one of the most baffling moments in Formula One history happened: Taki Inoue got hit by the medical car at the 1995 Hungarian Grand Prix. Let’s take a moment to remember one of the most bizarre mishaps in F1, shall we?
Inoue pulled over after his car caught fire. Marshals initially came over to check on Inoue as he came out of the car, giving the rear of his car a squirt from the fire extinguisher.
Inoue didn’t think they were doing enough to put out the fire, regardless of the fact that his car was still on the racing surface and that’s a horrible place to just stand and do anything.
So, Inoue, who was about as situationally aware as he is socially appropriate, hustled to grab an extinguisher from the marshals as if putting out the fire meant that he could continue in the grand prix or something, and he gets run over by the medical car on the way back to his car. One of the marshals bumped into the front corner of the car as well, but Inoue took the brunt of the hit, comically rolling over the hood like a stunt man would.
Oof!
“Bang! Someone hits me very hard,” Inoue told Top Gear of the shunt. “But I landed on my feet, very good, perfect landing, I think nine-point-nine-nine.”
Perhaps Inoue missed his calling there. Finishing only five grands prix in eighteen starts is pretty terrible, and one of many reasons why Inoue is regarded as one of the worst—if not THE worst—F1 drivers of all time. Stunt work, however, is kind of cool.
Unfortunately, Inoue also broke his leg in the shunt, but he recovered in time for the next race.
To this day, Inoue keeps a surprisingly no-nonsense and often hilarious attitude about his terrible stint in F1 today. He knows he was bad, and seems to embrace it.
In honor of this dubious twentieth anniversary, Top Gear sat down for an interview with F1’s most unfiltered personality. Inoue even took the time to describe how the medical staff prefers to check up on drivers, recalling an incident at Monaco where his car was hit by a safety car:
My helmet was totally squashed. Then I see the doctor. Usual procedure - they try to see my dick first, touching my balls. It’s true! I learn that in UK. When balls move, brain is fine. When big crash, scissors, take off the overalls, see the balls, hit the balls, then when balls move, this guy’s fine. If balls don’t move, then there’s a problem with brain damage, I think.
Erm.
Uh.
I don’t think that’s how this works, but...
(no)
Clearly, Inoue wasn’t missing a calling in the medical profession. Stunt work, man. Should’ve gone into stunt work.
This isn’t the first time a Formula One driver has placed an inordinate amount of importance on their huevos, however. Lotus’ favorite bumper car driver Pastor Maldonado recently blamed deez huge nuts for his tendency to crash.
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.