May 2013 issue of Motor Sport magazine

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nigel roebuck

40-year rewind: “I didn’t know how lucky I was”

Geneva Motor Show How Ferrari trumped McLaren

Hall of Fame 2013 starring Lauda, Chapman, Kristensen & the Hills

WIN A NASCAR trip of a lifetime!

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ayrton

senna

•

lunch with

tony brooks “I had the best time of it.

And I survived” •

Landmark days at Donington

• The first F1 test • The greatest lap • Best Prost putdown…

Luca di Montezemolo Eyeball to eyeball...

“In the race, Alonso is the best”

The last true Targa Florio

Richard Williams on the Sicilian classic of ’73 new series

Racing Lives...

as a cartoon strip! may 2013

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the motor sport month

in pictures

march 17, 2013

Australian Grand Prix melbourne, australia

LAT

The three drivers most likely to win the 2013 Formula 1 World Championship? Sebastian Vettel, Kimi RäikkÜnen and Fernando Alonso share the champagne after finishing third, first and second respectively in the first Grand Prix of the year.

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Nigel Roebuck Reflections

Nigel Roebuck

K

Australian rain recalls Prost’s bold action at Adelaide 24 years back, while Räikkönen’s “easy” win highlights the contrast between the dour Finn and an innocent Chris Amon

“

IMI CAN DO SOME GOOD things this year,” said Anthony Davidson as we talked through the forthcoming Formula 1 season. “In fact, I reckon Lotus could be the dark horse of 2013…”

Melbourne is always said to be an atypical Grand Prix circuit, and its race not one from which too many conclusions should be drawn.

Well, perhaps that’s so, but on the strength of Räikkönen’s drive there, Davidson may be right on the mark.

What the Australian Grand Prix appeared to confirm was that this year, even more than last, tyre management is going to be the name of the game. Räikkönen may have qualified only seventh, but in the race he was instantly up to fourth, and thereafter capitalised on the Lotus’s light appetite for tyres, making only two stops – always the team’s plan, should it look attainable – while his rivals made three.

On the penultimate lap, no less, Kimi put in his fastest lap, and afterwards said that this had been one of the easier wins of his career. Disturbing for the rest.

Martin Whitmarsh will concede that during his McLaren years Räikkönen may not have been the easiest driver to manage, and perhaps none was less likely to have a fruitful relationship with Ron Dennis, but Martin has always been a fan, and gave serious thought, when Kimi’s Ferrari contract was terminated a year early, to bringing him back to the McLaren team in the post-Dennis era.

“It didn’t surprise me that Kimi went so well with Lotus last year,” he said. “He’s quite a misunderstood individual, I think. Yes, he does like to party and drink, but he’s actually much more disciplined about training than most people realise. He’s also one of the sharpest drivers

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out there – although people wouldn’t necessarily think that because he doesn’t say very much, and has a generally flippant demeanour.

In my opinion, too, he’s one of the best drivers when it comes to understanding the car, and for communicating that. He’s got all the ingredients – apart from the dedication, which is why we’ve never seen his full potential…”

It’s fact that, in terms of PR and other off-track activities, McLaren works its drivers harder than most. Lewis Hamilton has cited this as one of his reasons for leaving, and it was an aspect of life there that Räikkönen came increasingly to loathe.

Mario Andretti long ago suggested that if you didn’t want to be bothered with it, the solution was simple: “Just give back half the money…” Most racing drivers aren’t very good at that, though, and both Hamilton and Räikkönen appear now to have found a berth where such demands on them are much reduced. Lewis is apparently revelling in his ‘freedom to be himself’ at Mercedes, and Kimi undoubtedly enjoys the relatively relaxed approach of Eric Boullier.

Melbourne’s famously changeable weather was particularly capricious this time, Friday’s cloudless heat giving way to a mainly cheerless weekend. Had qualifying been completed in the rains of Saturday the likelihood is that Nico Rosberg’s deftly-driven Mercedes would have been on pole, but on Sunday morning, when Q2 and Q3 were run, the track gradually dried and the Red Bulls did their expected number, Sebastian Vettel on pole from Mark Webber, then Hamilton’s Mercedes in third, followed by the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso. Rosberg started sixth, one place ahead of Räikkönen.

The Kimster’s two-year dalliance with the WRC ended one event earlier than expected, when he declined to participate in the 2011 Rally Australia for no reason other than he couldn’t be bothered to fly all that way. Citroën folk were not impressed, but their agreement with him was coming to an end anyway, and he was entertaining thoughts of a return to F1, most probably, it was believed, with Williams.

In the end Räikkönen did a deal with Lotus, and it’s fair to say that many observers, myself included, were sceptical about what the Ma y 2 0 1 3

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“Kimi is misunderstood.

He’s one of the sharpest out there”

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in association with

A night at the Opera House

The fourth Motor Sport Hall of Fame took place in a new venue, but the evening’s allure remained unchanged writer

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rob widdows

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Ayrton Senna at Donington

The details remain fresh to all who bore witness, but 20 years have passed since Ayrton Senna won Donington Park’s only post-war Grand Prix. The weather was miserable, the spectacle unforgettable writer

simon arron

lap of the gods

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Peter Nygaard

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Ayrton Senna at Donington

white l i g h t,

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white heat

Thirty years ago, a bright spark called Ayrton Senna talked his way into a test in this Williams. That first historic run in an F1 car revealed all the traces of genius that would make him a Grand Prix superstar simon arron p h o t o g r a p h e r m att h e w h o w e l l writer

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1983 season of change

flaT

race Today, Formula 1 teams expect two years’ warning of technical rule changes. Thirty years ago, they got four months. Cue panic – then a prime example of pure inspiration paul fearnley LAT

writer

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LAT

A

ll stop!

The bombshell that sucked the air from beneath their skirts detonated on Thursday November 3: from two tonnes of ground-effect grip to ‘two tonnes of flat-bottomed fun’. Yet the governing body’s only concession to this immediate, swingeing change – originally mooted for 1985 – was a rescheduling of the impending ’83 season: February’s South African Grand Prix at Kyalami was tipped to the back of the calendar so that Jacarepaguá in Rio might open proceedings on March 13.

was coming.” Ferrari, in contrast, had tested a skirt-less 126C2 at Fiorano in late October.

Murray was in deep. Having reintroduced strategic stops to Formula 1 the previous season, he was aiming to cash in fully with his neater, lower ‘half-tank’ BT51 for 1983.

High-pressure refuelling rigs and tyre-warmers had been designed and made – “They took about as long to do as the car itself” – and pit stops had been practised, reviewed on video and practised again with ever-faster guns and captive wheel nuts. Another three weeks of honing at Paul Ricard beckoned, to be followed by – hey, you never know – a holiday. Bliss.

❖

Now hear this!

Murray: “We were going to lose the whole concept of pit stops if we took the skirts off the BT51, because everything – the centre of gravity, the centre of pressure, everything – would then be in the wrong place. With the skirts removed, the sidepods would be doing virtually nothing – that’s 60-70 per cent of your downforce gone – and you’d be back to 1970s (rearward) weight and aero distributions.”

A local rival was of a different mindset and thus in a slightly different position. Murray had already spent two years coping with the compromises – inlets canted awkwardly into the airstream and an insufficiently stiff block cradled in a subframe – that were forced on him by BMW’s admittedly powerful production-based

Battle stations!

Brabham designer Gordon Murray had been sitting pretty, so far advanced was his programme: his prototype ‘pit stop’ car had been testing since August/September and two further chassis were almost complete.

“Suddenly my philosophy of being well prepared meant that I was worse off than everybody else,” he says, his relationship with team boss Bernie Ecclestone having unusually got its wires crossed. “Bernie was, shall we say, guiding the rules, and I thought, ‘Fantastic, we’ve got the inside line.’ The rumours were strengthening, but he kept saying, ‘Forget them!

We’re keeping skirts.’ I had no inkling of what

❖

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Racing Lives by Guy Allen

Achille Varzi In the first of a new series, we take a (graphic) novel approach to telling stories about racing drivers. First up, one of the greats of pre-war Grands Prix Son of a wealthy Milanese textile manufacturer, the young Achille Varzi satisfied his love of speed by racing motorcycles.

For the 1930 Mille Miglia Varzi was up against his team-mate, Tazio Nuvolari, another Italian rider turned race driver.

After a gruelling 10-hour charge through the Italian countryside we approached the finish in darkness. With no sign of Nuvolari, we thought first place could be ours.

By his early twenties Varzi’s attention had turned to racing cars.

Good performances in his own cars led to the offer of a works drive from Alfa Romeo.

Varzi came out on top in the season’s other Italian marathon, the Targa Florio, but it was a close call.

With their fuel tank leaking, Varzi’s mechanic was forced to pour petrol into the moving car. Ignited by the hot exhaust, flames licked at the driver’s neck. Undeterred, Varzi raced on to claim a dramatic victory.

But Nuvolari had been tailing Varzi with his lights off, diving past to claim the win!

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Cool and calculating, Varzi always seemed to find himself in the right car at the right time.

Varzi’s rivalry with Nuvolari reached its peak at the 1933 Monaco Grand Prix.

In 1931 he left Alfa, and spent the next three seasons racing for me Ettore Bugatti.

Achille took the chequered flag after an epic 97-lap battle. The engine in Nuvolari’s Alfa expired on the final lap as both drivers pressed as hard as they dared.

This was the first GP at which practice times had been used to decide grid positions. Varzi was the first man on pole.

By the mid 1930s the German ‘Silver Arrows’ were dominant in Grand Prix racing.

The move brought Varzi success. But with it came divisive team politics and rumours of race fixing.

He began an affair with a team-mate’s wife.

And she introduced him to morphine to deal with the pain of a minor injury.

Achille became an addict. He had thrown it all away and missed much of the 1938 and ’39 seasons.

So I got myself a drive at Auto Union.

But during the War Varzi turned things around.

Married, and free from addiction, he rejoined the Alfa Romeo works team.

Whilst practicing for the 1948 Swiss Grand Prix at Bremgarten Achille Varzi lost control of his Alfetta. The car somersaulted.

Varzi was killed instantly.

A remarkably talented driver, it was only the second accident of his career.

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CO MI NG

Next Month

SO ON

15,000 mourners attended Varzi’s funeral. On the lid of his coffin lay his goggles and trademark white linen helmet.

THE RACING LIVES POSTER COLLECTION A monthly series of posters celebrating the lives and accomplishments of the greatest drivers.

Featuring newly created artwork by Guy Allen.

Full details next month...

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Luca di Montezemolo interview

During the Geneva Motor Show, we had an opportunity to chat to Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo about road cars, motor sport… and Bernie Ecclestone’s succession writer

A n d r e w F r a n k el

“ In the race itself,

L

uca Cordero di Montezemolo is late, but not by much. To be frank, I’m surprised I’m getting to see him at all.

It’s press day for the 2013 Geneva Motor Show, an event likely to be recalled by history as the LaFerrari Motor Show. Think what you like about the name of Maranello’s new hypercar, it didn’t so much steal the show from rivals as hold them at gunpoint while it ransacked the place. This is my 25th Geneva show and whether you think the car a pointless irrelevance or a technological masterpiece, I’ve never seen a car make a bigger impact.

It turns out the chairman of Ferrari has been meeting with Ratan Tata, the recently retired head of the Tata Group whose possessions include Jaguar and Land Rover. Now just 15 of our allocated 30 minutes remain but instead of being allowed to sit down and start the tape, di Montezemolo grabs my arm and marches me over to the part of the stand dedicated to Ferrari’s personal commissioning department.

Here he shows me how you can have the

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transmission tunnel of your Ferrari covered in the same diamond pattern quilted material used on the 250GTO, or have your seats upholstered in the same denim as your jeans. It’s fascinating, but not exactly what we’re here for.

His English is as good as you’d expect of a man whose former achievements include studying law at Columbia University in New York, running the Scuderia at the age of 27, being CEO of the company that owns La Stampa, arranging Italy’s first ever America’s Cup entry, chairing the Fiat Group and organising the 1990 World Cup. Since 1991 he has been the chairman of Ferrari and, although he is endlessly rumoured to be Italy’s next prime minister and a known supporter of Mario Monti, politics is the one item not on today’s agenda.

Finally we are ushered into a small anteroom.

I ask first about his new car, not simply because it is the fastest (218mph), most powerful (950bhp) and expensive (£1 million) Ferrari in history, but also because over the other side of the show, arch road and race rival McLaren is revealing the production version of its 218mph, 903bhp, £866,000 P1. I wonder how the chairman thinks the two compare.

Sutton

Alonso is thebest ”

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{ lunch with }

tony brooks Smooth, undramatic and always very fast, he remains one of the greatest Grand Prix drivers this country has ever produced

writer

simon taylor | photographer james mitchell

F

or today’s Formula 1 drivers, the glare of the media spotlight is relentless. TV cameras haunt every corner of the paddock, there are daily press conferences throughout a Grand Prix weekend, and harassed PRs are for ever setting up Meet the Driver sessions for journalists. So it’s impossible for, say, the Ferrari No1 to regard his time in the cockpit as the beginning and the end of his job.

In the 1950s, even if you were the Ferrari No1 fighting for the lead in the World Championship, it was very different. Of course many of the drivers were, by any measure, exceptional human beings; yet they remained normal people, not superstars. They were approachable if a serious motor-racing writer wanted an intelligent conversation, but there were none of the press scrums that drivers have to endure now. So, if you were by inclination a modest, self-effacing individual who thought motor racing was simply about what happened on the track, you could let your driving do the talking.

Tony Brooks was like that. In fact, maybe his natural reticence explains why today, half a century after he retired, it’s only true enthusiasts who appreciate that he is one of the greatest Grand Prix drivers this country has ever produced. This man won his first Formula 1 race. He finished second in his second grande épreuve, and he jointly won his third. If you like statistics, he won 15.8 per cent of the world championship rounds he started – a better ratio than World Champions like Surtees, Rindt, Farina, Rosberg, Hawthorn and Phil Hill.

Due to a couple of perhaps unfortunate career choices, he only had three seasons in properly competitive F1 cars. But during that time he won six of the 13 Grands Prix he finished, a remarkable 46 per cent. And as Ferrari team leader he only lost the world title in the final round, in a characteristic application of common sense over foolhardiness.

But more meaningful than the statistics is the reputation he built for a flawlessly smooth, inch-perfect, almost academic discipline at the wheel. Denis Jenkinson said that, watching Brooks, you thought he was slow until you looked at the stopwatch. www.motorsportmagazine.com 99

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Targa Florio an era ends

the last true targa It is 40 years since the lanes of Sicily last echoed to the full-blooded wail of a world championship race. A privileged spectator back then, Richard Williams recently retraced his steps

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LAT

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