Denis Jenkinson has been gone for nearly 20 years now, yet still there are times – many times – when something happens in the world of Formula 1, and I find myself wondering, ‘Now what would Jenks would have made of this…?’
We were close friends for a very long time, and I like to think that – on most occasions, anyway – I could take a stab at his reaction to this or that, and not be too far from the mark. Given his passion for absolute combativeness in a racing driver, for example, it’s beyond doubt that Jenks would have been a fan of Alonso, just as he was of Moss and Villeneuve and Senna, and equally certain, given his esteem of the man, is that he would have been much gratified by Adrian Newey’s continuing success down the years.
When it came to racing cars, though, DSJ’s primary passion always lay with engines – with horsepower – and it should surprise no one that the turbo era (pioneered by Renault in 1977, and running through to the end of ’88) was his favourite period of Grand Prix racing. At the end of it, he was disappointed by the FIA’s introduction of the 3.5-litre normally-aspirated F1 engine, dismayed when this was later reduced to 3-litres, and I really don’t care to think about what he would have made of the 2.4-litre V8.
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