Senna and Dennis say farewell to Goodyear F1 boss

Some of these guys [F1 drivers] don’t appreciate where their paycheques come from. The F1 system changes people. Success makes it hard for them to keep their heads straight. They’re spoiled, overpaid kids, and they don’t behave responsibly.”

Those were the words of Lee Gaug, flanked in this picture by Ayrton Senna, right, and McLaren’s Ron Dennis. Gaug was quoted in Adelaide’s The Advertiser newspaper on the morning practice began for the 1992 Australian Grand Prix.

But here’s the thing. Several of these ‘overpaid kids’ had no hesitation in turning up the next evening at this dinner in downtown Adelaide to mark Gaug’s retirement after 23 years with Goodyear, the final 12 as F1 racing manager. The drivers were not toeing a party line. Along with many F1 luminaries (Ken and Norah Tyrrell, for example, can be seen in the background), Riccardo Patrese, Nigel Mansell, Michele Alboreto and other drivers were keen to pay tribute to the plain-speaking American.

When you’ve been a fighter pilot with the US Marines in the Korean War, it tends to feel like a walk in the park when coping with F1 complaints about rubber on a racing car. Gaug was the media’s delight. A pillar of integrity and normality, he would refuse to disguise any performance shortcomings with corporate equivocation. “Everyone screws up sometimes,” he would say. “Hell, where’s the sense in lying about it? Guys who do that always get found out in the end, and who’s ever going to believe them again?”

It worked both ways, of course. If you were disparaging about tyre performance without first checking the facts, a call to the equivalent of a racing court martial in the Goodyear motorhome would not be long in coming. The conversation would be to the point, but accompanied by dry wit, an avuncular touch – and a cup of decent coffee.

Hosted by Marlboro, this relaxed valedictory gathering in Jack’s Grill had just one moment of formality. The pipe-smoking Gaug was given a carbon-fibre pipe mounted on a stand, along with a poster, signed by everyone present, of a Grumman F7F – the type he used to fly.

It was widely agreed the following morning that this had been the most laid-back and enjoyable evening in a long time. The passing of 30 years has done nothing to change that or the memory of a racer whose common sense and forthright opinions would be worth hearing in F1 right now.