It has always interested me whether a great racing driver can be taught, or whether he must have some special natural talent. I suspect it is a mixture of the two.
It might be useful to look, briefly, at the careers of Graham Hill and Lewis Hamilton, world champions forty years apart. Did they have a gift from on high, or did they simply keep grafting until they got there?
These two men won the ultimate prize in very different eras. And they achieved their dreams by following very different paths.
Lewis Hamilton won his first world championship when he was 24 years old, the youngest champion in history. Graham Hill did not sit in a racing car until he was 25, having only just passed his driving test. But this does not tell the whole story.
It is often said that Hill was not a naturally gifted driver, that he had to work at it, and that he achieved his success through sheer guts and determination. This implies that the gifted, as Hamilton surely is, do not have to work so hard. But there is much more to this than immediately hits the eye.
Interestingly, it took Hamilton 16 years – from the time he first raced a kart – to reach his goal at Interlagos in the autumn of 2008. Hill raced a car for the first time in 1954 and made his Grand Prix debut in Monaco just four years later. Then, four years after that, he was World Champion for the first time. Despite being a late developer, he made it to the top in short order, going straight into Team Lotus before joining BRM where he won his first ever Grand Prix in the same year that he took the title. Impressive, when you consider that he started out with no money, no sponsorship and precious few contacts.
Hamilton was not exactly born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but he did have an ambitious, and hard-working, father who devoted his waking hours to providing Lewis with an environment in which he could thrive. Once into karting he started winning races and championships, climbing steadily through the ranks and meeting Ron Dennis along the way. This was a pivotal moment. Graham Hill had met Colin Chapman but he was a grown man at the time, not a child, and Chapman’s idea of a ‘scholarship’ was to get Hill working as a mechanic (below) before putting him behind the wheel of a Lotus. Once in the cockpit, his rise to fame was more rapid even than Hamilton. The notion of ‘overnight success’ is simply a convenient tag line invented by the media
You might say that both these men would have made it anyway; such was the drive, ambition and application that they brought to bear on the task. But that is not the full story.
From the moment that Hamilton charmed a phone number out of Ron Dennis, he was on his way, sponsored and signed up to some very influential people. All he had to do was keep on winning races and, for him, that was the easy bit. That was the talent, the gift.
For Graham Hill, who began life as an engine room artificer in the Navy followed by a stint at Smiths Instruments, the path to glory was always a struggle, a test of his wits and dogged determination. But as soon as he got his hands on the BRM P57 in 1962, he won first time out. Hill went on to win the title emphatically, beating Jim Clark in the new Lotus 25. He won the Indianapolis 500 in 1966, another F1 title in 1968 and the Le Mans 24 hours in 1972, the only man ever to win this ‘triple crown’. And that’s where the talent came in, that was the easy bit. Nobody wins the Monaco GP five times without a fair degree of talent.
And it goes on. His son Damon won the world championship, the only son of a former champion to achieve this feat. Don’t tell me the talent came from his mother.
Always bugged me that some drivers are considered to have popped out of the womb fully formed, the concept is ridiculous. Senna was seen as the purest recent example of a so called ‘god given’ talent but even the most cursory investigation into his childhood shows a boy who simply worked his arse off.
He admits when he started racing he couldn’t drive in the wet to save his life but that once that weakness became apparent he ran to the track every time it rained and simply pounded round learning the art. No one is born with the perfect hell and toe technique hard wired into their brain it’s a skill to be learned and mastered.
What some people may have at birth are the basic building blocks, natural balance, muted reaction to adrenaline, good muscle memory etc. Maybe, as seen with some sons of racers, they have been driven quickly from an early age and are comfortable with high speeds allowing them to think clearly without being overwhelmed by the sensation.
All this does is make you feel comfortable driving quickly, it doesn’t guarantee you can do it well, that requires hard work and practice no matter what the surname.
Absolutely. Even those who become Gods did not start with a gift from God. Think of Bill gates. He was not born with a gift for clever software. It had not been invented………………….
Senna used to speak about everything being calm, and the scenery going by slowly, when he was on one of his very special laps. That’s what the ‘special ones’ have – they are ahead of the car and they always have plenty of time. By the time the car gets out of shape, they’re already on top of it. Watch Loeb in a forest.
So I think we agree. Not that there is any definitive answer here. There is a certain amount of mystery as well as all the hard graft, I think.
RW
I believe Jackie Stewart also described the art of going quickly as being able to ‘mentally’ slow it all down. Something that came to him through miles of driving quickly I’m sure, but there is a certain amount of intelligence required to get to that point and not all of these guys have the same amount perhaps….or they don’t choose to use it in the same way.
I think talent is like an empty measuring cup. Some of us are born with bigger cups than others, but someone who works hard to fill their smaller one to the brim (arguably, Graham Hill) will do better than someone with a huge cup that he can’t manage to fill (arguably, Jan Magnussen). And when you get someone with a huge cup and a work ethic to match (say, Jackie Stewart), he becomes very formidable indeed.
By the way, Rob, it’s absolutely none of my business, but I’ve always wanted to ask: are you related to Robin Widdows, former Olympian and one-time (literally) driver for Cooper in F1?
I’ve always wondered that too, Bobsleigh Driver wasn’t he?
ditto, moi?…….
It was bobsleigh indeed, I believe. Lone (as far as I know) GP start was Brands Hatch in 1968, where he qualified 18th in a Cooper-BRM V12, with a time of 1:34.0. By lap 20 he was running 12th, the final runner on the same lap as the leaders, but he retired after making several pit stops with a mysterious misfire.
I have always felt much greater respect to those drivers who came up like Hill, with hard work,resilience and not much more.
The path to F1 today is a much different one, as we all know. I highly doubt that, for example, a Scottish sheep farmer could ever become an F1 driver these days. It just does not happen. In some ways it’s a shame, but it is also completely understandable.
I don’t like Lewis Hamilton. I think he is yet way too immature to be a racing driver in a top team. He was definitely “spoilt” by getting his first drive in an A tier team. Driving for smaller teams builds character and it builds experience. Senna would not have been the driver he was if he didn’t suffer at Toleman. Alonso at Minardi is the same.
It is almost painful to me, as a Brazilian, to have to accept what happened in 2008 after singapore. Could we have seen Felipe win the world championship that year? Maybe. And I think, meaning no offense, that he deserved it more than Lewis. That he fought better.
What I think is the biggest shame, these days, is that GP drivers are no longer allowed to drive at Le Mans. Many of the greatest drivers of the golden era of F1 were employed by manufacturers to drive in all kinds of motorsport events. I can only imagine how much better they were for doing so..
Mario
OK, are you ready for this? Prepare to be disappointed.
I am not a former Grand Prix driver. Nor have I ever driven a bobsleigh. Although I have done some motor racing in my youth, most of which is not worth talking about. Well, maybe one very wet race at Brands, where I did quite well, but we’ll leave that for another day.
I think I must be related to Robin, as Widdows is quite a rare surname in the UK. And we are certainly in touch, as he gets asked the same question in reverse, if you see what I mean. After an impressive career in racing, and on a bobsligh, he went to work for Moet & Chandon as some kind of ambassador and I think he may now live in Mallorca. All of which sounds good to me!
Anyway, we have at least cleared that one up and I’m sure you’re all disappointed that I cannot tell stories about winning lots of F2 races and racing a Cooper-Maserati……………………ah, well.
Good blog this one, lots of interesting views. I too very much regret that GP drivers no longer get involved in Indy and Le Mans and other big stuff. It was always incredibly interesting, and exciting, to watch F1 drivers mixing it in the old F2, at the Brickyard and at La Sarthe. Those were the days.
And it looks like Graham Hill will always be the only man to win the Big Three. I was hoping that Jacques Villeneuve might win Le Mans for Peugeot to add his name to the achievement, but it didn’t happen for him.
Meanwhile, still no news on the British Grand Prix. My bet is that it will be at Silverstone next summer, and for many summers to come.
RW
Thanks for clearing that up. For the record, I never suspected you of being the man himself – you’re far too young!
Please don’t keep the story of the wet day at Brands to yourself for too long….
I, too was hoping that JV would win Le Mans. Was any reason ever given why he wasn’t part of the team this year? Was he not considered quick enough?
well, that certainly settles the mystery of the common surname. I believe on an earlier blog months ago, I posed the question if you ever raced at the old Spa…..thinking that if you were the same person, then you did…..but no response, which is to say you probably thought I had gone bonkers or something.
don’t fear, Mr. W., you’ve lost no respect to this blogger!
Whos says that F1 drivers are not allowed to race in other categories? Is there some kind of FIA law or is it imposed by their contracts?
It seems that becoming an F1 driver today means giving up racing for all but three hours or so every fortnight. It would do a hell of a lot for the sport if they were “allowed” to race on alternate weekends in touring cars or even F2. It would do some good for the F1 drivers as well!
This is a really good discussion point. I think there has to be a lot of God-given talent in the mix. Think of Jim Clark. In his early days, did he not ask why drivers such as Masten Gregory and others, were driving so slowly at the Goodwood TT, when in fact it was pointed out to him that he was going so quickly! (Also he could drive anything – including rally cars – and be ultra-competitive ).
Lewis Hamilton also has no idea why he is so much quicker than other drivers (look at his early karting videos) – he just is! Perhaps the likes of Graham Hill also had a huge amount of natural talent, it is just that the Clarks, Sennas and Hamiltons of this world, make everything look so effortless!
The latest 1 hour documentaries on Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart made this year for BBC4 (now on youtube) give an amazing insight on how well prepared these guys were. Very much worth watching.
Graham Hill, Jim Clark and most of the others in the old days didn’t have Dad in the pits at every race high fiving the crew. Can’t watch a GP without seeing Hamilton Sr. on camera—a little strange. You can watch a bunch of Indy car races and not see Mario-who has perhaps a legit reason to be on camera.
Chuck- Sally, Betty, and Helen were there, manning the stop watches, making themselves useful and providing excellent scenery.
I can tell you first-hand that at Indy Mario is in Marco’s pit. (Funny, I’ve got a photo of Mario at Indy a few years back in one of the AGR pits next to some girl – of course it was my wife who told me that that ‘girl’ was Ashley Judd…..) I just think he likes to take on a much lower profile, kinda like letting the grandkid do his own thing. There is no lack of interest on Mario’s part – he still desperately has the desire to succeed, and especially for Marco as the line might end there.
To quote the great Ben Hogan ” The more I practise, the luckier I get”. In any sport or other human endeavour success does not come without hard work. Musicians, artists, golfers, cricketers all have to put the hard yards in. Sure you have to have talent but nothing comes without hard work. Look at Tiger Woods nobody sees the hours of practice he undertakes every day to stay at the top, the difference between the greats and others is the level of commitment the greats have to get to where they want to go. Senna’s work in his kart to learn how to drive in the wet is an example of the drive those at the top have to succeed. It is interesting to note that Prost chose to drive at the Paul Ricard driving school because he thought he had a better chance to succeed there as he did not like driving in the rain. I guess it shows that the best recognise their weaknesses but put themselves in the right circumstances to overcome them.
Mario, thank you so much for referring to the BBC4 material. I had no idea it was out there. Rob, a listing of some of the historical resources on the web might make for a good article I would think. Not to try to list them all of course, but just some of the more juicy threads that one can then follow on their own, so to speak. Thanks ever for such a quality blog.
Good evening all from the town of Mantova in northern Italy where I have spent the day following the ghost of Tazio Nuvolari, walking the streets where he walked, visiting the houses where he lived and talking to those who live in awe of him to this day.
Mantova is Nuvolari, in the heart of motor racing country on Lombardy’s flat plains in the shadow of the mountains. He was born in nearby Castel D’Ario just five kilometres from the village where Alberto Ascari came into the world. There must be something in the air.
I must not give too much away as I will be writing at length in the magazine about the legend that is Tazio, the racing driver who remains a demi-God in this part of the world. But it has been a fascinating and moving experience, the autumn mist over the lakes adding to the mysteries of the man who lived the dream of every Italian boy but who came to know such tragedy in his family.
I am very pleased to see that the latest blog has created another interesting exchange of views and experiences. We all share a passion for our sport and it’s great to see that so many of you appreciate the lessons of history.
Today in Mantova the newspapers carried the stories of Mercedes taking over the Brawn team. The trusted and revered bible of sports news, the famous Gazzetta del Sport carried not only the Mercedes story but also the arrival ofAlonso and Massa in Valencia for the launch of their partnership at Ferrari in front of the Spanish fans.
All this seemed so far away, and strangely unreal, as I became drawn into the life of Nuvolari. The exhibition at the Palazzo Te is an absolute must for any enthusiast. It is open until December 18. Get here if you can. Nuvolari’s own photographs of his friends, family and career alone make this journey worthwhile, and a joy.
RW
One has to feel sorry for Mario: Marco has not and will not deliver as Michael did so he either has less talent or does not work at it as hard as is necessary because he certainly has not lacked resources. I fear his second place at the “500″ will be the highlight of his career. Nowadays Michael works with Danica Patrick so perhaps she is a driver with talent and who is prepared to work very hard to achieve – she certainly way outperforms Marco.
One has to agree with an earlier comment that the scenery in the pits at an Indy Car race is great – at the “500″ it is often more interesting than the racing!
I think Michael pays attention to Danica because she is the teams’ meal ticket and she wants to go to NASCAR, so he needs her to succeed where she is so she might stand a better chance of staying put, which is where I would like her to be. Does that make any sense at all?
Marco needs to get older and wiser…..maybe he should be running USAC Sprints and Midgets like his grandpaw did to learn racecraft.
I write to you from Mantova. Walking through the streets tonight it is dark and mysterious, this medieval town surrounded by lakes. Autumn hangs heavy in the air, a melancholy man plays accordion and sings mournful songs in the shadow of the great cathedral. I am walking in the footsteps of Tazio Nuvolari, following his ghost, in my quest to tell the story of a motor racing legend.
In a future edition of the magazine I will report in full on this journey to learn something of the man who is a God in this part of the world, a hero the world over.
Meanwhile I follow our latest debate with interest. We have, it seems, touched upon another subject that has given rise to some interesting stories and opinions. It is good to see that we, as enthusiasts, are getting together to swap tales of talent and graft.
When I return I will try to open a new debate, or perhaps to reflect upon the vast history of the sport.
Meanwhile, the world of Mercedes buying out Mr Brawn, and Fernando Alonso appearing before his fans in Valencia dressed already in Ferrari red, seems a world away.
Good evening from northern Italy, and thank you for all your contributions.
RW
I am eternally envious of you! Forza Nivola!
Do not be envious, It is not all plain sailing. But, yes, it is good to be reminded of a true hero. I would prefer fellow bloggers to be interested, or in some way inspired, rather than to feel envy. Only because work is work and actually I am now quite tired…..!! But, yes, it is a privileged way to earn a living and it is warming to know that men like Nuvolari are still revered alongside the likes of our modern superstars.
Talking of which Button is mad to go to McLaren. OK, I know it will be profitable, but Lewis is exceptionally fast and the team has taken him into its bosom. We will see. Maybe I will be proved wrong but I still think it will be Hamilton who is faster and who will fight for the title.
Must sign off. New blog on its way once I’m home. Apart from Nuvolari it has been invigorating to be in Italy. Such style, such quality of life. But you still get tired!
They do love cars here, they do love the passion of sport, and that is good.
As you say. Forza! Down the road from here in Maranello they will be burning the midnight oil to provide Signor Alonso with a winning car.
RW