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The de Angelis’ of today

Nigel Roebuck — Thu, 12 May 2011 14:12:03 +0000

Dear Nigel,

In a previous podcast it was remarked on how Elio de Angelis was a lovely guy – a well-rounded person with interests, knowledge and experience of things outside Formula 1. Who of the current crop of F1 drivers is the most similar in that regard (and what are their outside interests)?

Dave Cottam

[caption id="attachment_13871" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell"][/caption]

Dear Dave,

To be honest, I can’t really think of anyone in F1 today who really puts me in mind of Elio de Angelis, whom I always thought of – in terms of attitude – as the Chris Amon of his time. In one important respect they were different, for Amon was as good a development driver as ever there has been, and loved testing, whereas de Angelis loathed it – but essentially both were lovely guys, who regarded motor racing as one of the good things in life, rather than life itself.

Of today’s drivers, Mark Webber strikes me as the most ‘normal’ and down to earth, certainly well aware that there is life beyond Formula 1. He has the typical Aussie’s interest in virtually all sports, from cricket to speedway, and goes to events as a pure fan, what’s more. I was invited, in 2009, to be a guest in his box at the Speedway British Grand Prix in Cardiff, and was mighty disappointed that last year’s event clashed with Silverstone. So, too, was Mark – to the point that he later, on a weekend off, flew to Poland for a round of the championship.

As well as that, I admire Webber for being brave enough to say what he thinks about all aspects of F1, including ‘political’ hot potatoes that most of his colleagues decline to discuss on the record. Very good company, Mark.

Not all drivers have motor racing as their only interest. Fernando Alonso, for example, has been fascinated all his life by magic, and is very skilled at sophisticated card tricks. And Adrian Sutil, like Elio (and François Cevert) before him, is a classically trained pianist.

If I had to pick one driver above all, though, who strikes me as being different from the norm, it would be Dario Franchitti, whom I have always regarded as a great loss to F1 (although I’m not sure, given the life he has in the US, he would necessarily agree). Franchitti, like Webber, is a ‘proper bloke’, well-informed and interesting on a wide variety of topics – not least the history of his own sport, which makes him close to unique in 2011 (although India’s two F1 drivers, Karun Chandhok and Narain Karthikeyan, both have a knowledge of the heritage of F1 which would put their colleagues to shame…)

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Why Monza is a must-visit

Rob Widdows — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 16:08:17 +0000

Why Monza is a must-visit

It’s time for Monza. What a delicious prospect. Passion, pasta, Peroni and the Prancing Horse. Then there’s the traffic, the tifosi and the double-booking of grandstand seats…

The Italian Grand Prix has been held every year since 1950 and, along with the British race, is the only round to have been on the calendar for so many consecutive years. One of the truly great things about this race is that it is held at the Autodromo di Monza – a true Grand Prix circuit situated in parkland just outside Milan.

I had my first experience of this place back in 1969. And what a race it was. We had seats in the huge grandstand opposite the pits – when I say seats, in those days you perched on bare concrete steps that reached skyward from the edge of that everlasting straight from Parabolica to Curva Grande. No silly chicanes, just a highly dangerous, slipstreaming blast from corner to corner. That year the Italians had double-booked our seats, so we were jammed into a long row of very excitable Ferrari fans. They stood and cheered every time the red cars went by. Fantastic. The man selling bags of nuts and drinks was unable to make his way up the steps.

This was one of the closest races in the history of the sport. Less than a second covered the first four cars as they came out of Parabolica in formation before ducking and weaving over the line. But there wasn’t much for the tifosi to cheer. Amon and Rodréguez struggled with an uncompetitive car, the Mexican finally finishing sixth, two laps down, while Jackie Stewart won the slipstreaming contest by mere feet from Rindt, Beltoise and McLaren. That secured his first World Championship and the Constructors’ title for Matra. By the end of this thrilling encounter we had a little more room, many of the locals having long ago walked away.

Two years later we were back, having again driven from Sussex, over the Alps and down to Lake Como – a good place to stay to make the most of an Italian GP weekend. Milan is easier, but not in Sunday traffic. Again we were treated to a classic Monza experience. This time Peter Gethin was the last man to duck out of the slipstream and cross the line in the lead, less than a second ahead of Peterson, Cevert, Hailwood and Ganley. It could have been any one of them, but it was Gethin in the BRM, and he still talks about it. The red cars, now raced by Ickx and Regazzoni, retired. The traffic started early.

Of course we no longer have four cars abreast, and nor do we have the same daunting circuit. But Monza is Monza, and you have to go there at least once in your life. Like Silverstone, Spa, Monte Carlo and Interlagos, it’s a pilgrimage for which you must put aside the pennies and go.

It’s not just Monza, it’s Ferrari, it’s the passion, it’s the blinding speed and noise, the flashes of colour in the trees through the Lesmos, the whole wonder of Italy. Ah, Forza Ferrari.

No, I am not biased – I simply believe that Ferrari and Italy are vital ingredients of Grand Prix racing. I don’t like team orders, and I very much hope that the stupid rule (Article 39.1) introduced by Max Mosley to outlaw the practice will be banished, and that Ferrari will not be singled out.

Meanwhile, Monza goes ahead as it always must. OK, the place has been emasculated in the interests of safety, but this is still one of the great sporting arenas. The atmosphere remains intact – the people have seen to that.

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The right sort of Tecno music

Rob Widdows — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:12:56 +0000

The right sort of Tecno music

Every year at the end of May, those who are truly passionate about speed on wheels make a pilgrimage to the village of Gotherington deep in the Gloucestershire countryside. In this very English setting the Prescott Speed Hillclimb stages La Vie en Bleu, a celebration of what the Prescott people call French Motoring Excellence.

Prescott, as well as being England’s most famous hillclimb, is home to the Bugatti Owners Club. So they know a bit about French racing cars. If you want to see wonderful cars roaring up hills, then this is the place to be in early summer.

This year my friend Nick Wadham brought not only his Renault Alpine, in which he climbed the hill faster than any Alpine has previously achieved, but also his Tecno Formula 2 car. This is chassis 00716, as raced by legends such as Francois Cevert, Patrick Depailler, Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Tino Brambilla. To drive this car is to drive a piece of history and, in the rain at Prescott, not a task to be taken lightly. The Tecno-tuned Cosworth BDA engine now runs with twin Weber carburettors for ease of maintenance, as opposed to the original fuel injection system. Otherwise it is precisely as raced by the Elf-sponsored works team in 1971.

Nick and chief mechanic Andy Kirkby have spent a lot of time and money on preserving the car that played its part in bringing both Cevert and Depailler to the attention of Grand Prix teams. The two Frenchmen suffered from poor reliability throughout 1971, the Pederzani brothers (who founded Tecno) being distracted by their decision to build a Formula 1 car, but these days it runs like a dream. The set-up is softer than racers would like, and revs are strictly red-lined at 9000rpm, but the little blue car is otherwise everything you’d expect from the company that began by making hydraulic pumps, went on to build karts and within 10 years had produced a Grand Prix car. But it was F2 for which Tecno remains famous.

On wet tyres on a damp track (well, it is the British summer) Nick took it easy up the daunting Prescott hill, saving himself for a record-breaking run in the little Alpine. But the event is about much more than speed – it’s a gathering for those who simply love to savour the sounds and sights of motor racing history. Cevert, still loved and revered, was one of the true greats, his full potential yet to be realised at the time of his tragic accident. And Depailler, whose name remains on the Tecno’s cockpit, was another true hero lost to the sport far too soon.

Thanks to guys like Nick and Andy, these cars are still racing, doing what they were built to do. And events like La Vie en Bleu, or the Goodwood Festival of Speed in July, take us back to the days when French racing cars were blue and Grand Prix drivers mixed it with the hotshots of F2. Vive Le Sport!

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Psychological battles

Nigel Roebuck — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:44:40 +0000

Psychological battles

Dear Nigel,
Having just watched both the qualifying at Melbourne and highlights of the 1969 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, courtesy of YouTube, I was struck by the enormous gulf between F1 then and now. I was born in 1974 and my earliest memories of motor racing come from the early ’80s, but I’m a huge fan of ’60s and ’70s racing.

The biggest difference, it seems to me, is that the psychological challenge was greater in earlier years than it is now, when climbing into a racing car and going to the limit was extremely perilous. The kind of ‘mind management’ needed to overcome natural fears of death or injury mark out yesterday’s drivers as a breed apart.

I’m always staggered at the reaction to François Cevert’s death in 1973. The accident couldn’t have been more horrific, yet both drivers and team managers seemed able to put it behind them and get on with the job of racing. In Peter Revson’s biography, Peter Manso mentions Revson going to an exhibition of motor sport art which looked out on the spot where Cevert was killed that same day without batting an eyelid. Bernie Ecclestone has recalled mentioning the accident to Carlos Reutemann, and then the two of them moving on to discuss tyre choices for Sunday! Meanwhile Jody Scheckter, who did at least admit that what he saw changed his outlook on motor racing forever, was already in discussion with Ken Tyrrell with regards to joining the team in ’74. The only driver, it seems, who reacted ‘normally’ was James Hunt, who was described as looking pale and visibly shaken, yet remarkably he went on to finish second the next day!

Did it ever strike you that this sport is not only very exciting but also callous and indifferent to the lives of its main protagonists, and did you ever entertain doubts about whether it was all worth it?
Ryan

Dear Ryan,
No getting away from it, Grand Prix racing has changed out of recognition in the last 40 years, and no change has been more dramatic than that in safety. At Jacky Ickx recently said to me, “Nowadays you can do it, and you’re almost at risk zero – and that’s wonderful…”

It wasn’t like that in his era, though, and to some degree there was a sort of ‘Spitfire pilot’ attitude to the risks involved. During 1971, my first year of working as an F1 journalist, three Grand Prix drivers – Ignazio Giunti, Pedro Rodríguez, Jo Siffert – all lost their lives in racing accidents (although only Siffert was killed in an F1 race). That wasn’t untypical of the time. The year before, Piers Courage, Bruce McLaren and Jochen Rindt had all died. No surprise that Ickx – as you can read in the next issue of the magazine – is so grateful that he is still around.

I think you’re wrong, though, to suggest that the attitude within the sport to these tragedies was callous. Certainly, the death of a driver was more commonplace in those days, and therefore the sport’s participants were more accustomed to dealing with it, but that didn’t mean that the losses were not keenly felt. Of Jimmy Clark’s death, for example, Chris Amon said this: “We all felt we’d lost our leader. If it could happen to Jimmy, what chance did the rest of us have?”

It’s a fact that I have on occasion encountered callousness in motor racing – less than an hour after Gilles Villeneuve’s accident in 1982, another driver asked me, “Who d’you think will get the Ferrari drive?” – but it’s been very much the exception to the rule. The fact is, times were different, death was more prevalent by far – and the belief, I think, was that it had always been part of the sport. Very regrettable, but occasionally inevitable. And bear in mind, too, that this was all long before ‘public grieving’ became so fashionable. Motor racing people may have borne their grievances discreetly, but certainly they felt them.

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Cevert was secure at Tyrrell

Nigel Roebuck — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:10:14 +0000

Cevert was secure at Tyrrell

Dear Nigel,
In 1973, we lost François Cevert in a horrific qualifying accident at the US GP at Watkins Glen. My question is: did François know at the time of his accident that Tyrrell was retaining him for 1974? Jody Scheckter was confirmed for Tyrrell that weekend. He and Cevert had been involved in an accident in the previous round in Canada and François had hurt his ankle. He was quite angry with Jody.

Anyone watching Cevert over the US GP weekend thought he was driving a bit over the limit. Do you think that caused him to loose it in the uphill section? Did Arturo Mezario, blending into the course from the pits, affect his line?

And finally, did he have a solid offer to go to Ferrari in ’74? As we know, François had an amazing season, with six second places, three of them 1-2 with Jackie Stewart. It’s very sad that we lost him before he reached his peak.
Allan Fields

Dear Allan,
Yes, François knew absolutely that he would be a Tyrrell driver in 1974, although he never knew that Jody Scheckter was to be at Tyrrell because he never knew that Jackie Stewart was going to retire at the end of ’73. In April of that year JYS informed Ken Tyrrell and Ford’s Walter Hayes of his decision, but told no one else – not even his wife Helen.

There has never been any doubt that Cevert’s accident was the result of driver error – he was going for it, and he overdid it, and in those days, sadly, there was a strong possibility that a high-speed accident would result in a driver’s death. The Tyrrell hit the near-at-hand guardrail at 150mph, and François had little chance of survival. I have no recollection of any inadvertent involvement of Arturo Merzario.

As for your last question, there’s no doubt that Ferrari talked with Cevert about a move there, but François was extraordinarily loyal to Ken Tyrrell, who had given him his break into F1, and had no interest in leaving the team.

Personally I’ve no doubts at all that Cevert was good enough to become World Champion. He was a lovely bloke, and – like Pedro Rodríguez – he just got better and better. As well as that, he was utterly devoid of jealousy and never resented the successes of Stewart, whom he worshipped, and from whom he learned a lot. Yes, he won only one Grand Prix, at Watkins Glen in 1971, but think of the number of times he finished on Stewart’s tail, as the pair reeled off 1-2 results for Tyrrell.

A little story Ken told me: “The car Jackie won his last championship with, in ’73, was 005, and it was a very quick car – he and François finished 1-2 on several occasions, including at the Nürburgring. The old Nürburgring. Now you’ve heard how Jackie helped Francois – he couldn’t have done more, told him everything, OK? Well, in that race at the Nürburgring, they went round together, from start to finish, first and second – and afterwards Jackie said to me, ‘François could have passed me any time he liked…’”

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