Obituaries

Fred Goddard (1941-2007)

The death of Fred Goddard in a road accident in the US has robbed British motor racing of one of its real characters. The 66-year-old team owner and engineer started his career in his native Zimbabwe before moving to South Africa, and even built his own F1 car before settling in Britain in 1989. He quickly developed a reputation for running talented drivers in F3 with limited funds, and in 2000 guided Gary Paffett to the British F3 scholarship class. More recently, his engineering skills were put to good use maintaining a number of recent F1 cars at his Silverstone workshop.

Jean Rédélé (1922-2007)

The man who created the Alpine marque died recently at the age of 85. The son of a garage owner, Rédélé (left) started his career running a Renault dealership in his home town of Dieppe. He rallied a Renault 4CV in the 1950s and created Alpine with the famous A106 in 1955, in memory of his Coupe des Alpes win in 1954. He joined forces with Renault in 1965, making Alpine the company’s sporting brand. Renault-Alpine won the World Rally Championship in 1973, while Alpine won the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1978.