Gonzalez Wins Silverstone Spectacularly For Ferrari

The Wild Bull Of The Pampas flogs his Prancing Horse at Silverstone to score Ferrari's first F1 win (autosport.com photo)

 

1951 BRITISH GRAND PRIX

'Never has such driving been seen in this country. Juan Manuel Fangio drove the race of his life. His Argentine compatriot Jose Froilan Gonzalez was even more spectacular. Their neck-and-neck struggle provided the greatest race ever seen at Silverstone.' - Gregor Grant in Autosport

The Gonzalez weekend in England got off to a flying start, when he planted his Ferrari quite firmly on pole, setting a time that was a full second faster than his friend Fangio. Joining them on the front row were their respective team mates, Farina and Ascari, while the presence on the second row of Villoresi's Ferrari and the Alfetta's of Sanesi and Bonetto promised another battle between the Italian cars. While Fangio was favoured to lead the Alfa Romeo assault, few prognosticators considered the polesitter, in only his second appearance for Ferrari, to be a serious threat for overall honours - but that was to sell Jose Froilan Gonzalez far too short.

Born in 1922, he was 11 years younger than Juan and came from Arrecifes, about 75 miles outside Buenos Aires, where his father operated a Chevrolet dealership. Like Juan, Gonzalez was short and stocky, though much more so, and his tendency towards corpulence was at the root of two of his several nicknames. Because of a somewhat oversized cranium perched on a short neck Gonzalez was known in Argentina as 'El Cabezon' - fathead. But unlike his bow-legged countryman El Chueco, El Cabezon did not drive as much with his head, but was noted instead for relying on a heavy right foot, which was why 'Lead Foot' became another of the appelations applied to him. In his homeland, where he distinguished himself as a dirt track daredevil, with a propensity for starting explosively then lashing himself into a car-flogging frenzy, he was also called 'The Whip.' In England, his bullish physique and bull-headed, sometimes bull-in-a-china-shop approach to racing caused him to be known as 'The Wild Bull of the Pampas' or 'The Pampas Bull.' From the way he seemed to grab the car by the scruff of the neck and wrestle with it in a series of strangleholds as if to throttle it into submission, the Europeans decided he resembled the ferocious mountain lion of the Americas and nicknamed him 'The Puma.'

Everyone agreed Gonzalez had explosive talent, though he needed to manage it with his mind. His new boss Enzo Ferrari, who fancied himself as a talent-spotter who could polish a diamond-in-the-rough, noted that while the likes of Fangio or Ascari could be relied upon to go round and round like clockwork, Gonzalez alternated between marking time and unleashing furious bursts of speed. The latter motion was used to attack adversaries from behind. Once he had accomplished an overtaking manouevre, Ferrari felt, Gonzalez tended to slacken speed and allow himself to be overtaken. Ferrari could never understand why he was so extraordinarly inconsistent and sometimes wondered - given the amount of mental and physical exhaustion he seemed to suffer - why Gonzalez raced at all.

***

Ferrari's new recruit was very nervous and tense in the moments before the start at Silverstone, where he walked to and fro around his car on the grid. Muttering to himself in Spanish, and with his brow furrowed in deep concentration, it seemed as if Gonzalez was in a trance. He ignored the attempts at conversation made by worried Ferrari mechanics who tried in vain to calm him. With five minutes to go he ran off in search of the Silversone toilets. Since he couldn't speak English he had no idea what the track announcers were saying on the loudspeakers. At the last minute he rushed back from relieving himself and heaved his hefty self into the cramped cockpit. 

In the 1951 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, the Pampas Bull whipped the Prancing Horse into the forefront as never before. Demonstrating all the good and bad qualities attributed to him - though the former far more than the latter - El Cabezon lead-footed his way to a sensational victory over Fangio, in a private race that was considered to be the most thrilling ever seen at Silverstone. While Fangio raced with his usual style and grace, Gonzalez attacked the track with ferocious abandon, sometimes shortening his route by using his Ferrari as a battering ram to scatter aside straw bales, and once even an oil drum. Round and round he thundered, barrelling down the straights, bellowing around the corners in spectacular, tyre-smoking 100mph powerslides, his rotund upper torso bulging out of the cockpit, his beefy arms flailing wildly and his Ferrari's engine note howling ever higher as if in anguished protest against such a merciless flogging.

Everyone was transfixed by the astonishing display, even his team mate Ascari, whose Ferrari had retired with a broken gearbox. When Gonzalez stopped for fuel on the 61st lap, he shouted an offer of his car to Ascari, who shook his head and gestured that the Argentine phenomenon should continue to pursue the triumph he so obviously deserved. Though Fangio was handicapped somewhat by his car's extra fuel requirements, and had to make two pit stops, he still managed to lead a third of the race's 90 laps, but Gonzalez was in front for all the others and after 2 hours, 42 minutes and 18.2 seconds of supreme effort he led Fangio across the finish line by half a minute. His friend did not begrudge being beaten.

On the podium, where they were joined by the third-placed finisher Villoresi, Gonzalez became very emotional when his Argentine amigo hugged and congratulated him. The last time this had happened was when Juan acted as best man at his friend's wedding.

"I was embraced warmly by Fangio," Gonzalez said. "That meant a lot to me. Then they played the Argentine national anthem. I had never experienced anything like this before. When I saw my country's flag being hoisted, it was just too much for me and I cried."

The Gonzalez win was historic from several points of view. It was Alfa Romeo's first defeat after 27 straight Grand Prix victories since 1946. It was the first time an unsupercharged car had won a world championship race. Most of all, it was the first world championship win for Enzo Ferrari, whose earlier successes had come when he ran the pre-war Alfa Romeo team. After the momentous milestone achieved by Gonzalez, whom he congratulated for his combination of courage and tenacity, Ferrari was moved to tears that he confessed were a mixture of joy - at winning with one of his own cars, and sadness - at having beaten his former team. 

- from FANGIO The Life Behind The Legend by Gerald Donaldson 





http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fangio-Life-Behind-Legend-ebook/dp/B009EQG924

Road Rage

“Someone should punch him in the face,” an enraged Kimi Raikkonen said of the “stupid moves” made by Sergio Perez with whom he collided at Monaco. “An idiot” is how  an incensed Daniel Ricciardo described Romain Grosjean who crashed him out of the race at Monaco.

The FIA has banned swearing on the podium but  outbursts of red-faced road rage featuring curse-strewn name-calling, as well as occasional physical altercations between drivers, have long been a feature of the sport.

A fairly comprehensive but seldom seen bustup occurred in Montreal in 1982 between Chico Serra and Raul Boesel whose argument over the same piece of road in qualifying spilled over into the pits. The conflict can be seen on a Youtube clip which also puts their unseemly spat into harsh perspective since it contains a brief glimpse of a smiling Riccardo Paletti who was sadly destined to be killed at the start of the race.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx4681a9DVI

In the 1982 German Grand Prix Nelson Piquet’s overtaking move on Eliseo Salazar resulted in a race-ending collision, after which a berserk Piquet dementedly punched and kicked poor Salazar. Both drivers still had their helmets on so their comments were not heard, though their brief but balletic ‘handbags at dawn’ duel is a Youtube favourite. Murray Walker and James Hunt describe the proceedings for BBC TV...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG6ZGWA_xiA

The 1993 Japanese Grand Prix featured a notorious post-race confrontation between race winner Ayrton Senna and F1 debutant Eddie Irvine, who had the temerity to try and unlap himself by overtaking Senna late in the race. In his defense Irvine said: “But I’m a racing driver!” Senna, while being forcibly restrained by mechanics from punching out Irvine, screamed: “You’re not a racing driver, you’re a f*****g idiot!”  

Variations on the theme of ‘f*****g’ and ‘idiot’ were favourite terms of abuse deployed against Irvine, who had a history of aggravating his opponents. At Adelaide in 1997 he crashed into Jacques Villeneuve, who described it as “a stupid, idiotic move!” Later that year at Jerez Villeneuve accused Irvine of deliberately blocking him in qualifying. Villeneuve: “Irvine is a f*****g idiot!” 

At the 2001 Canadian Grand Prix the outspoken Villeneuve engaged in a dangerous war of words with a belligerent Juan Pablo Montoya. Villeneuve accused Montoya of blocking him in qualifying. Montoya accused Villeneuve of brake testing him. Montoya: “You do that again and I’ll put you in the f*****g wall!” Villeneuve: “I’ll put you in the f*****g trees!”. Montoya (referring to Villeneuve’s accident earlier that year in Australia in which a marshal died): “You’ve already killed someone this season!”

In these kinder, gentler, more politically correct times many drivers don’t have obscenities in their vocabulary, or they modify their remarks for public consumption.
 
In Montreal this year Mark Webber felt he was destined for a podium finish until his wing was damaged because he “caught a pay driver with no mirrors." Though his nose was out of joint Webber backtracked a bit in his condemnation of backmarker Giedo van der Garde. Remembering his own early F1 days in a slow car, Webber said: “I’ve been there in a shitbox.”

 

 

James Hunt's F1 Debut

Monaco 1973: the upstart team owned by 'The Good Lord' Hesketh, managed by 'Bubbles' Horsley and featuring 'Superstar' Hunt was at first regarded as a joke...

 

Early in 1973 Hesketh Racing had announced that not only would James Hunt contest the Formula 2 series, he would also sometime during the year make his Formula 1 debut as part of an exploratory program prior to embarking on a full Formula 1 season in 1974.

This startling news was greeted with considerable scepticism by the motor racing establishment. There was amazement at the arrogance and presumption of Hesketh Racing, owned by a zany, playboy peer and managed by a failed Formula 3 driver named Bubbles, whose ignorance of the finer points of the sport was confirmed by his choice of driver.

While Hesketh's plans represented an amazing change of fortune for James his critics felt he would always be Hunt The Shunt. Playing into their hands was the broken arm James suffered a few weeks before the start of the season. "I was down in the country having lunch", said James, "then started playing silly games on the lawn afterwards, like they do in the country, and just fell over."

For disbelievers this laconic public schoolboy explanation only reinforced their conviction that the incorrigible Hunt lacked the necessary seriousness of intent to ever become a proper racing driver. Further ridicule was heaped on his absurdly ambitious upstart team when it was learned that the Hesketh personnel would defy the tradition of dull, drab (and usually dirty) uniforms by being kitted out in garish outfits 'like American footballers.'

For his team colours Lord Alexander Hesketh chose stripes of red, white and blue on a white background, not because they were the racing colours of the Hesketh stables, but for reasons of patriotism.

In the past motor racing entries from various countries were assigned colours: silver for Germany, Red for Italy, Green for Britain, and so on. Lord Hesketh thought "British racing green was magnificent, though rather too subtle. But I'm a great believer in this country. So we ran with the colours of the Union Jack."

In the tradition of American footballers each Hesketh Racing team member had their name stencilled on their shirts and anoraks. Alexander thought it "would look rather ridiculous" to give such prominence to 'Lord Hesketh' but wanted something to show he was the proprietor. He chose 'Le Patron' which was originally used by the famous French car constructor and racing team entrant Ettore Bugatti.

The team mechanics rejoiced in such labels as 'Ball Of String', 'Ferret', 'Rabbit' and 'Thomas The Tank Engine.' Bubbles was, of course, 'Bubbles' (and still signs cheques and legal documents that way). Le Patron, still referred to by James as "The Good Lord", called his driver "Superstar because I thought it was very important to endorse the product early on so there was no misunderstanding."

To "bait the pompous" motor racing establishment was a prime motivator for Lord Hesketh, who still derives considerable satisfaction from having done that.

"At the top of every undertaking, in sport, in politics, you name it, the establishment always like to preserve the impression that they have a number of great skills and arts which are not easily acquired or, even more to the point, impossible to acquire. And one of the great advantages of being young is that you can take that on. You don't mind driving into brick walls and picking yourself up and carrying on. With perseverance and a bit of luck you can make huge strides. And that's what we did." 

***

In explaining his reason for funding Hesketh racing Lord Hesketh said: "A lot of people want to make a lot of money to store it away. I want to make a lot of money to be able to spend it. I like spending to create something which is entirely my own and this is why I have the racing team."

But the road to riches for a private entrant in motor racing is  rocky and Le Patron soon learned the truth of the old adage that it's easy to become a millionaire in the sport as long as you're prepared to spend two million to get it.

All the other Formula 1 teams were funded by sponsors, some of them to the tune of several million pounds. John Player Team Lotus, Elf Team Tyrrell, Yardley Team McLaren, Marlboro BRM and the others measured their success in terms of public exposure for the brand names and consumer product messages that adorned the bodywork of their cars.

But the defiantly pure livery of the Hesketh March, white with the Union Jack stripes, meant the team was racing for the glory of England and Le Patron's personal satisfaction. Thus, his return from his investment would have to come from seeing his team produce positive results and he admits that he "used to be hysterical with fury if we weren't on the first three rows of the grid."

Since Formula 2 was causing him hysterics it took little persuasion for Bubbles and James to convince Le Patron to accelerate their Formula 1 program.

James noted that "Alexander's attitude was that we were doing pretty badly in Formula 2 and for very little additional cost we could do badly in Formula 1!  

"He felt that there would be a hell of a lot more fun doing proper Grand Prix racing, so he said, 'Let's go and mess about at the back of Formula 1.' Monaco happened to be the first race that we were ready for. But that suited his Lordship very well. He could arrive with a bit of flash!" 

***

Hesketh Racing's headquarters at the Monaco Grand Prix was aboard the 162 foot Southern Breeze, one of the biggest yachts in the harbour, but not big enough for Le Patron who was disappointed to find another team had commandeered a craft 20 feet longer than his. He took some solace in having the most exotic tender in the harbour, his Bell Jet Ranger helicopter, with which he whisked his guests back and forth from the Nice airport.

For ground transportation there was the pin-striped Rolls Royce Corniche, an exotic new Porsche Carrera and an expensive Suzuki motorcycle. The galley in the Southern Breeze was presided over by a master chef in white regalia but the crew seemed composed mostly of scantily clad, nubile young ladies.   

In the Hesketh pit under the umbrella pines beside the harbour sat a brand new March 731, which had been bought from Max 'The Great Chicken of Bicester' Mosley. Watching over the March was the team's new recruit, Dr. Harvey Postlethwaite PhD, BSc, who had been lured away from March Engineering where he was the chief development engineer.

'The Doc', as he became known at Hesketh, was highly respected in the rather black art of building racing cars, though his detatched, professorial demeanour meant he was considered to be something of an eccentric in racing circles. Confirmation of this, for many at Monaco, was his decision to associate himself with Le Patron's band of dashing dilettantes. The Doc's explanation of his move to Hesketh was that "They got me drunk."

Pete Lyons, the veteran Autosport Grand Prix journalist, was amused by Hesketh Racing's gaudy trappings and colourful antics and welcomed the team as a breath of fresh air in the staid and rigidly conformist 'F1 circus.' He was particularly intrigued by 'Superstar,' the Hesketh driver.

'He looked to be comfortable on the Monte Carlo quais', Lyons wrote. 'Tall, lean, good looking in a hard-lined sort of way, he favoured shirts that showed the fine suntan and the strings of beads on his chest, and his splended Nordic hair was left dashingly long.

'He made a good photographer's fashion model; or perhaps he was a rising film actor; or maybe he was only a rich playboy. But anyway he fitted in well on the Riviera. He had the kind of appearance that attracts the eye; once seen, he was remembered.'

 

'Superstar' Hunt (dianefineart.ca)

 

***

 

James was anything but comfortable and composed as he sat strapped into the March on the Monaco starting grid. After qualifying 18th in the field of 25 cars here he was buried among all the famous names in racing.

On the front row were Jackie Stewart in his Tyrrell and Ronnie Peterson in a Lotus. Next up were Denny Hulme in a McLaren and Stewart's team mate Francois Cevert, followed by Emerson Fittipaldi in the other Lotus and Niki Lauda in a BRM. There were several other drivers James had raced against before but any comforting familiarity he felt was dwarfed by his fears about what lay ahead in his first Grand Prix.

The Monaco circuit had mercifully not claimed many lives but in this race six years earlier Lorenzo Bandini had been burned to death in his Ferrari. Sitting there, surrounded by 40 gallons of volatile petrol in the fat-tyred March's fuel tanks and with power the equivalent of 500 runaway horses reverberating against his backside, James was petrified.

"I was nervous, very nervous. Before any race I became nervous, particularly if it was important to me. And that race was very important. Monaco is a pretty tough place to start a Grand Prix career. The track is so narrow, you're shifting gears all the time and there is absolutely no room for error. Five hundred horsepower is a lot to tame in that confined space. Before I got into the car I was puking all over the place and on the grid I was just a shaking wreck.

***

Alone in the cockpit James blinked rapidly, trying to concentrate on the task at hand. Steeling himself for the start he was oblivious to the mass of humanity packed into the tiny Principality to witness the most glamourous of all motor races.

James' forward view was confined to the wide rear wings and tyres of the cars immediately in front of his March. He glanced at his instrument panel where the needle of the rev counter flicked up and down in response to his agitated right foot tramping on the accelerator pedal. Were his heart being monitored it would register levels three times its normal rate.

As he popped the clutch James' helmet jerked backward and banged on the rollbar. Immediately the discomforts of his churning stomach and splitting heachache were obliterated in billowing clouds of tyre and oil smoke and the crescendo of noise from 12,500 collective horsepower.

As the pack erupted forward in a melee of shaking metal and spinning rubber that spanned the full width of the road James' gloved right hand flicked the tiny gearlever from first into second, then third, while his left hand remained firmly clenched on the small, thickly padded steering wheel. His large racing shoes, with the toes cut away so he could operate the pedals in the narrow footwell, tapped out a frantic tattoo on the clutch and accelerator.

The March slingshotted forward with tremendous velocity, then slowed abruptly as James' right foot stomped hard on the brake to negotiate Monaco's first corner, the Ste Devote hairpin. There were 78 laps to go but already his driving suit was soaked with persperation and the sweat was pouring off his forehead beneath his fireproof balaclava.

While Jackie Stewart went on to an untroubled win at Monaco, his 25th world championship victory in 90 Grand Prix appearances, James Hunt was classified ninth at the finish of his first Grand Prix, though his car did not take the chequered flag.

When the engine in his March blew up on the 73rd lap James, who had been running as high as sixth, was not unhappy to end what had become an ordeal that left him white-faced and trembling with exhaustion.

"I was going well for the first third of the race, then suddenly it hit me. I couldn't drive at that pace any more. I was simply going to drive off the road. The heat plus the physical effort of driving the car had me completely knackered."

But he recovered quickly and James was the ringleader of a riotous celebration that went on until dawn aboard 'The Southern Breeze' where the tumult and the shouting was made all the more satisfying since it annoyed the F1 establishment that had previously greeted the arrival of the upstart team with hoots of derision.

-excerpt from James HUNT, The Biography - by Gerald Donaldson
available in print and eBook editions from Amazon and others...


http://www.amazon.co.uk/James-Hunt-The-Biography-ebook/dp/B00AQK80OC



 

1950 Grand Prix de Monaco

Juan Manuel Fangio’s first victory in the newly organised Formula 1 World Championship series came in the 1950 Grand Prix de Monaco. Clinging to the precipitous cliffs of the Alpes Maritime, overlooking the blue Mediterranean, the tiny, picturepostcard-perfect principality's splendid architecture was crammed into crowded confines that afforded even its privileged citizens precious little room to manouevre. Yet as a glamourous and exotic backdrop for a motor race it was a spectacular theatre second to none, and had been since 1929.

But before that 1929 race through the storied streets many safety-conscious observers questioned the wisdom of setting loose high-powered racing cars on tight and twisting thoroughfares where even horses, let alone horseless carriages driven at a sedate pace, needed to be exercised with extreme caution. The day before the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix the Nice-Matin newspaper issued a warning: 'The race circuit, laid out entirely within the Principality, works out to be just over 3 kilometers. It goes without saying that the track is made up entirely of bends, steep  uphill climbs and fast downhill runs. Any respectable traffic system would have covered the track with DANGER signposts, left, right and centre.'

Very little had changed since then, except that the cars were now much faster, and on the evening before his first appearance there Juan conducted some private research into previous races. The 15 drivers entered in the 1950 Grand Prix were invited to a reception at the Monaco Automobile Club's headquarters, where Juan entertained himself by examining  photograph alblums documenting highlights of past events, many of which featured accidents. For the 1936 race Juan found a photo showing a tangle of wrecked cars, among them two Mercedes-Benzs, a Maserati, and an Alfa Romeo driven by his now team mate, Farina. Studying the shot in detail Juan came to the conclusion that the crash had likely occurred because one of the cars had spun across the track and stalled in the middle of a sharp corner. Because the closely following drivers were unable to see over the stone walls that lined the track they had ploughed into the stationary vehicle. Perhaps, Juan thought, they had been too preoccupied to take note of the flags that must have been waved in warning by track marshals. Anyway, he concluded, it would be important to be prepared for such emergencies, and he filed the information away in a memory bank in which he had already deposited many cautionary notes concerning Monaco's myriad hazards.

Though it was one of the shortest of all circuits, 1.976 miles in its 1950 configuration, it was filled with complications out of all proportion to its length. With no straight worthy of the name the entire lap was a continuous struggle against centrifugal force around a profusion of corners, many of them acute and several of them accompanied by an abrupt loss or gain of elevation as the circuit rose and fell around the heights above the palm-tree lined, yacht-filled harbour. Bounded by stone curbs and ballustrades, its undulating surface treacherously disfigured by painted traffic markings and manhole covers, the desperately narrow course was in some places barely wide enough to accomodate a single car, whose occupant must maintain concentration of the highest order to drive with the inch-perfect precision necessary to avoid making even the slightest mistake. While there was absolutely no margin for an error in judgement, there was also an extreme demand placed on manual dexterity, since the steering wheel, brakes, clutch, accelerator and gear lever were in constant use. With at least 20 gearchanges per lap there would be over 2,000 of them in the 100 laps of the race that would last for over three hours - for those who survived that long.

One of those who did not make the race was Juan's compatriot Alfredo Pian, who was driving one of the Achille Varzi team's Maseratis, a Formula 2 car that was among several of this type that were invited to compete because there wasn't yet enough Formula 1 machinery to fill the grid. In the final practice session Pian lost control and crashed heavily on the entry to the notoriously difficult Casino Square. Pian was pulled from his wrecked car suffering a painfully broken leg.

But Argentina was still featured front and centre in the race, since pole position was claimed by Juan Manuel Fangio. Beside him on the starting grid was his Alfa Romeo team mate Guiseppe Farina, while on the outside of the front row was the second Achille Varzi entry, the Maserati driven by Jose Froilan Gonzalez, whose unexpected pace was the talk of the town. Behind these three the impressive entry list boasted the new Formula 1 team fielded by Enzo Ferrari, whose choice of Monaco for his cars' World Championship debut added considerable lustre to the event and whose drivers Luigi Villoresi, Alberto Ascari and Raymond Sommer would, the organiser's hoped, provide more competition for the much-favoured Three F's – Farina, Fagioli, Fangio - in the Alfa Romeos. Also taking the start was the closest Monaco had to a home team, the Gordinis driven by Maurice Trintignant and Robert Manzon, while France was also represented by the Talbots of Rosier, Etancelin and Claes, and though he was driving an Italian car the great Louis Chiron sported the French flag on his Maserati.

The Start of the first world championship Monaco GP (Automobile Club de Monaco photo)

At the start, wary of his team mate Farina's reputation for a recklessness which meant he was not to be trusted in close quarters, especially in the early laps, Juan fought strenously to preserve the advantage afforded by his pole position. Farina battled back, but was also occupied with defending his position against Villoresi, who had sensationally powered his Ferrari forward from the third row of the grid. By the time the wildly jostling pack rounded the Ste Devote corner, Juan's closest pursuer as they charged up the hill was Villoresi, who had managed to elbow aside Farina's Alfetta and was also in front of Liugi Fagioli in the third of the F-driven cars.

In a crescendo of noise reverberating off the walls of the buildings, the fiercely fighting field tore up the hill and roared through Casino Square, rocketed down the hill to Mirabeau, careened around the station hairpin, blasted through the darkness of the long tunnel and shot out into the bright sunlight along the harbourfront. As Fangio and Villoresi pounded past the Bureau de Tabac, chaos erupted behind them.

At the Tabac corner Farina's Alfetta came unstuck on the slick of water thrown up from the waves crashing against the harbour wall. Farina's frantic corrections fell far short of what was necessary to salvage the situation, and his wildly oscillating car struck the curb and rebounded sideways - directly in front of oncoming traffic. Confronted with this sudden emergency, his team mate Fagioli threw his car into an avoidance manouevre that failed. Just as the two Alfettas smashed together the closely following Maserati of Gonzalez speared into the wreckage with enough force to part the entwined Alfas and emerge on the other side. Also managaging to squeeze through the aperture created by the Gonzalez battering ram were Chiron, Sommer and Ascari. When Rosier arrived on the scene he braked suddenly, whereupon his Talbot was rear-ended by Manzon's Gordini, thus setting off a chain reaction of spins and crashes that within seconds left the track littered with nine crippled cars, several of them with ruptured fuel tanks that dripped their volatile contents across the debris-laden road.

"I came onto the harbour front and I could detect agitation among the spectators. They were not looking at me leading the race, but were looking the other way. I braked very hard." - Juan Manuel Fangio

While the melee was over the race wasn't and as Juan sped through the harbour chicane he caught a glimpse of yellow flags being waved in the distance. Also, in his peripheral vision, he noticed that the densely-packed crowd was paying no attention to the passage of his race-leading Alfetta. Instead, the spectators' faces were turned toward the forthcoming Tabac corner. In a flash Juan remembered the photo of the 1936 accident scene and immediately applied the brakes, while also raising his hand to warn his pursuers of likely danger ahead. 

 

 

- Carambolage @ Tabac (ACM photo)

At the crash site, where miraculously no one had been been hurt, the route was still blocked by a confusion of sidelined cars that frantic track marshals and course workers were having difficulty clearing aside. Juan took matters into his own hands and quickly sorted out the puzzle of intertwined wheels. Manouevreing his Alfetta alongside one of the trapped cars, he reached out and managed to push it aside far enough to create a gap through which he eased his Alfetta. Villoresi, after some to-ing and fro-ing, followed Fangio's cue, as did Ascari and the few others that remained in the Monaco Grand Prix.

None of them came close to catching Fangio, who finished a lap ahead of Ascari, whose Ferrari team mate Villoresi retired with a seized axle, leaving Chiron's Maserati to claim third, two laps behind the leader, who finished three laps ahead of fourth-placed Sommer in the third Ferrari. Only three other cars survived the gruelling contest of stamina and skill, which Juan won - at an average speed of 61mph - after three hours and 13 minutes of extreme effort. His fastest race lap of 64mph, which was only a fraction slower than his pole position time, gave him a total of 9 championship points, tying him with Farina.

***

"It was a good feeling to win for the first time in the championship, but there was also concern for my injured friends." - Juan Manuel Fangio

Yet Juan's first world championship victory, his complete dominance of the notoriously difficult race, and his prestigious reward - receiving the winner's trophy from Monaco's Prince Rainier at the traditional post-race ceremony - were made less enjoyable by his concern for his injured friend Gonzalez, whose escape from the multiple crash at Tabac had been followed by a fiery disaster.

When Gonzalez scraped between the two crashed Alfettas his Maserati's fuel filler cap, located just behind the driver's head, had become dislodged. A few moments later, as Gonzalez was braking for a corner, the sloshing fuel sprayed out into the cockpit and was ignited by the backfiring engine. Gonzalez, momentarily engulfed in flames, lept out of the car while it was still moving and rolled over and over on the tarmac. Spectators rushed to his aid, pulling him off the track and tearing off his smouldering shirt. Gonzalez, suffering from serious burns to his arms and back, was taken to the hospital, where his compatriot Pian was also being treated for his badly broken leg.

Juan, though he was due to race the next weekend at Monza, spent half the week attending to the welfare of his injured fellow Argentinians. Two days after his Monaco win he removed the seats from his Alfa Romeo road car to make room for a stretcher and drove Pian to a hospital in Bologna that specialized in treating orthopaedic injuries. Juan then returned to Monaco, where he loaded Gonzalez into his improvised ambulance and transported him back to Italy, to a burns clinic in Novara.

***

- excerpt from Juan Manuel FANGIO, The Life Behind The Legend      

  by Gerald Donaldson

Link for Preview, Reviews and Download of FANGIO eBook...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fangio-Life-Behind-Legend-ebook/dp/B009EQG924

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shared Passions: Honda & Ferrari

“The value of life can be measured by how many times your soul has been stirred” – Soichiro Honda (1906-1991)

“The day I saw my first motor race I felt profound emotion” – Enzo Ferrari (1898-1988)

There are a number of parallels in the lives of the founders of the automotive dynasties that bear their names. Both Soichiro Honda and Enzo Ferrari shared twin passions for creating automotive machines and for racing them.

Honda and Ferrari were born worlds apart though both were the sons of men who worked with metal. In Italy Ferrari's father was the proprietor of a small iron working shop and in Japan Honda grew up as the eldest son of a blacksmith. Both families were poor and couldn't afford to properly educate their children. Enzo Ferrari had only seven years of formal schooling before he had to go to work to earn a living and Soichiro Honda left school when he was 16.

While one of Ferrari's first jobs was as a test driver for a small car manufacturer Honda started as an apprentice in an automotive repair shop and by the time he was 25 he owned his own garage. In 1936 Honda set up a business to manufacture piston rings for engines and, shortly after this, Ferrari began building machinery to make ball bearings. Both enterprises contributed to the war effort in their respective countries.

In 1945 Honda sold his piston ring business and set up the Honda Technical Research Institute. He bought surplus military engines, fitted them to bicycles, and could hardly keep up with the demand for his machines. He formed the Honda Motor Company and in 1949 the first motorcycle to bear the 'Honda' name was built. Honda called this 98cc creation 'The Dream' and his business grew and prospered beyond his wildest dreams.

But Honda had another dream, which had its origins in the 1920's when in his spare time he had built a primitive racing car using an old V8 engine. At the same time Ferrari had also been bitten by the racing bug and before the Second World War he was an amateur racing driver, then founded his own team, the Scuderia Ferrari, using Alfa Romeo cars. In 1946 Ferrari began making his own racing cars and soon began producing less highly tuned versions for use on public roads. These sports cars, riding on the success of the Ferrari racing cars, became the most desirable machines for wealthy automotive enthusiasts and exotic status symbols for the rich and famous.

Meanwhile Honda also began to use racing as a means to promote his vehicles, not just in Japan but around the world and not just on two wheels, but four. After winning successive Motorcycle World Championships, in 1961 and 1962, Honda produced his first sports car (based on a motorcycle engine) and to realise his ambition to become a major international manufacturer of passenger cars Honda decided, like Ferrari, to compete at the pinnacle of motorsport.

While Ferrari began entering his cars from the beginning of the World Championship series, in 1950, Honda did not make his F1 debut until 1964. From then to 1968 Honda built both the chassis and engine for his F1 cars but Honda's greatest success came when he concentrated on supplying engines to existing F1 teams – from 1983 to 1992, then from 2006 to 2008. Five times the World Driving Champions had Honda engines behind their backs and Honda-powered teams won six Constructors' Championships. Over the years Ferrari's record is 15 driving titles and 16 team championships but the dry statistics in the record books don't do justice to the influence of the two men who masterminded the machines, nor do the numbers reveal the full impact their mechanical creations have had on the public, especially F1 fans. 

It's significant that both the screaming Ferrari and Honda engines (especially the V12s) made arguably the most evocative noises in F1 history. That eerie, high-pitched, spine-tingling wail that so captured the public imagination added much to the mystique of the sport. It's as if those unearthly sounds echoed the passion that drove Enzo Ferrari and Soichiro Honda.

 

 

The F1 Rich List

Much of the money involved in the world’s most expensive sport is spent on technology but a select few F1 people have become very rich.

The 2013 Sunday Times Rich List (published by the British newspaper)reveals that during his career the total earnings of Michael Schumacher amounted to (US)$810 million, second only to golfer Tiger Woods($889m). In this category of high earning sportsmen Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen are ranked 18^th and 20^th, with respective earnings of $179m and $164m.

According to the list of the richest British F1 drivers Lewis Hamilton has so far earned $94 million and Jenson Button $91m, while the now-retired champions are led by Nigel Mansell with a total wealth of $78m, followed by Jackie Stewart with $66m and Damon Hill at $19m. Eddie Irvine, who was never a champion but is a shrewd investor in property, is now worth $130m.

Several F1 team principals appear on the Rich List. Former McLaren boss Ron Dennis is the wealthiest with $218m, while Frank Williams has $179m and Ross Brawn (who was given control of the Honda team when the Japanese manufacturer left, then sold it to Mercedes) has a total wealth of $156m. Eddie Jordan - a former bank clerk - sometimes struggled to keep his team from financial ruin but managed to wheel and deal his way to solvency then profited from selling Jordan Grand Prix and now has $55m in his bank account.

Three F1 personalities are ranked among the richest people in the United Kingdom. Paddy McNally, who started in the sport as a journalist, retired in 2011, selling his Allsport company that handles trackside advertising at the races and the Paddock Club that caters to VIP guests. McNally’s current wealth is listed as $686m.

Slavica Ecclestone, a former model, profited handsomely from her 2009 divorce. Her settlement, estimated as approximately 1/3 of the family fortune, amounted to $1.2 billion. His divorce was costly but the commercial brain behind the F1 business is still listed as the 26^th richest man in the UK. Bernie Ecclestone, a former car dealer, has a personal wealth of $3,900,000,000.

     

 

AYRTON SENNA

(Ayrton Senna died on 1 May, 1994. The following profile is from my book Grand Prix People, first published in 1990)
 

He is undoubtedly one of the greatest racing drivers in history, and one of the most controversial. Everybody has an opinion about him, invariably a very strong one. Yet the man himself remains an enigma. He's the subject of endless speculation and, it would seem, considerable misunderstanding. This is mainly because he seldom speaks publicly, which is a great pity for Ayrton Senna has a great deal to say. 

 

He is a complex man - intense, introspective, sensitive, private - and very intelligent. He is probably the most intellectual of all the drivers and, if Alain Prost is 'The Professor', Ayrton Senna should be 'The Philosopher.' Noted for his fierce commitment to racing, and his penchant for taking risks, it may really be his intellect that most sets Senna apart from his peers.

 

He is remarkably articulate (even in English, a language far removed from his native Portugese), though talking about any superior talents he might have makes him uncomfortable. "To say that I am better than most drivers is something you have to discuss to see if it is really true. If it is true, it is for me an uncomfortable feeling. It is in a way pleasant, of course, but talking about it publicly, just being open and natural about the subject, is difficult for me. 

 

"I do try very hard to understand everything and anything that happens around me. Not only in the car but in my behaviour as a professional on the circuit, outside, in the garage and so on, and it takes a lot of energy. At the end of every day I feel very tired, because I just give everything I have.  It drains me completely.

 

"Sometimes I think I know some of the reasons why I do the things the way I do in the car. And sometimes I think I don't know why.  There are some moments that seem to be only the natural instinct that is in me.  Whether I have been born with it or whether this feeling has grown in me more than other people, I don't know.  But it is inside me and it takes over with a great amount of space and intensity."

 

Behind the wheel he constantly strives to combine his metaphysical inquiries with his natural instincts to make a supreme effort. But sometimes he finds himself in the grip of an unknown superior force and Senna becomes a passenger on a surreal ride into unexplored nether regions - beyond his normal limits, beyond his understanding. It's an experience that can be frightening.

 

"When I am competing against the watch and against other competitors, the feeling of expectation, of getting it done and doing the best and being the best, gives me a kind of power that, some moments when I am driving, actually detaches me completely from anything else as I am doing it...corner after corner, lap after lap.  I can give you a true example I experienced and can relate it. 

 

"Monte Carlo, '88, the last qualifying session. I was already on pole and I was going faster and faster.  One lap after the other, quicker, and quicker, and quicker. I was at one stage just on pole, then by half a second, and then one second...and I kept going. Suddenly, I was nearly two seconds faster than anybody else, including my team mate with the same car. And I suddenly realized that I was no longer driving the car consciously.

 

"I was kind of driving it by instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel, not only the tunnel under the hotel, but the whole circuit for me was a tunnel. I was just going, going - more, and more, and more, and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more. Then, suddenly, something just kicked me. I kind of woke up and I realized that I was in a different atmosphere than you normally are. Immediately my reaction was to back off, slow down. I drove back slowly to the pits and I didn't want to go out any more that day.

 

"It frightened me because I realized I was well beyond my conscious understanding. It happens rarely, but I keep these experiences very much alive in me because it is something that is important for self-preservation."

 

In that 1988 Monaco Grand Prix Senna was leading his team mate by nearly 50 seconds when he crashed - inexplicably. While Prost went on to win, Senna did not return to the McLaren pit. He walked the short distance to his flat and promptly went to sleep. He later acknowledged that he lost concentration when his pit ordered him to slow down. The accident was a major turning point in his inner life.

 

"I am religious.  I believe in God, through Jesus. I was brought up that way, was maybe drifting away from it, but suddenly turned the other way. Things that have happened in my racing career contributed a lot to my change of direction. It was a buildup of things that reached a peak and then I had a kind of crisis. Monaco was the peak and it made me realize a lot of things.

 

"It is something that is difficult to talk about, very touching for me. But it is something unique in life, something that can hold you, can support you, when you are most vulnerable. It has made me a better man. I am a better human being now than I was before this. I am a better in everything I am and everything I do."

 

There have been other changes in his attitude toward life. Much has been made of Senna's absolute singlemindedness, how he divorced his wife because he was so consumed by his racing passion. He has always been deeply devoted to his family, but now he feels the need for a more balanced life, and to share it with another person.

 

"Time shows us, as we progress, different perspectives of life. And a few years ago I had no time for anybody or anything other than racing.  Today I not only have the time but I need  the time for my family, my friends and particularly for my girlfriend.  And it is something that I fight for and I organize my life in order that I can get the right balance  between the private life, the personal life, and the professional life. Because only that way, having the equilibrium between both sides of myself, can I perform to my best. 

 

"Now, even when I am doing my job, the need for somebody to be by my side is great. It gives me something I don't get in any other activity in life. You know, I think when you love a woman you feel more human. You feel stronger, a better man, more macho, and at the same time you feel inner peace because it fulfils the empty space that you have, that we all have in us, and that only love can fulfill."

 

Little Ayrton Senna was only four years old when he first drove a go kart and as a schoolboy his head was filled with heroic visions of the exploits of Stewart, Lauda, Villeneuve. The highlights of his life were Grand Prix mornings in Sao Paolo when he awoke, trembling with anticipation at the prospect of watching his heroes in action on television. He remembers that just before the start of the race the palms of his hands were wet.

 

"Now, before the start of the race, I have still a lot of expectation - tension - when I am waiting. My hands still perspire a bit, but I have other feelings. Like an empty space in my stomach, a feeling of wanting to sleep...there are several conflicting emotions."

 

Senna admits he brings a high degree of emotional intensity to his racing, but it goes beyond his profession. "I am intense about everything I do. I have an attitude about life that I go deeply into it and concentrate and try to do everything properly. It's part of my personality."

 

His public personality has been called remote, ruthless and arrogant, accusations that began shortly after Ayrton Senna da Silva came to England at the age of 20, following several successful years in kart racing. He soon shortened his name (in the interests of brevity and clarity for journalists) and his reputation for a willingness to sacrifice anything on the altar of motor racing began with his divorce in 1982.

 

When he came into Formula 1, with Toleman in 1984, appreciation of his obviously superlative skills were leavened by those detractors who maintained he was prepared to win at any cost. He was accused of reneging on his Toleman deal (he bought out his contract) to join Lotus where he refused Derek Warwick as a teammate but accepted Johnny Dumfries because, the cynics said, he was worried about Warwick's competition. (Senna's reasoning was that Lotus couldn't field two equally competitive cars).

 

Certain of his peers joined in the disparagement: Mansell attacked him physically after one on-track encounter, Piquet did it verbally, and the word along pit lane was that Senna was dangerous and not to be trusted in close racing situations. More recently there was the trouble with his McLaren teammate Prost which caused Prost to leave the team.

 

These conflicts have contributed to what for Senna is the worst part of his profession. "The most difficult time is when you have to put up with people that you don't really enjoy.  When you have to live with people that you cannot trust, or people who you know by previous experience  are just waiting for a small mistake from you, to beat you.  That is the worst, that is the most difficult time."

 

Here, Senna is not speaking just of those drivers with whom he has had much publicized feuds, but of others within the Formula 1 environment with whom he finds himself at odds. When his public criticism of FISA and Jean-Marie Balestre in late 1989 led to a demand for an apology or the governing body would take away his license, it caused him to come within a phone call of retiring from the sport. He returned out of a sense of loyalty to his team, particularly his mechanics and those at McLaren who depend on Senna to earn their living.

 

"If I had pushed for what I think was right, and what I thought was true, I would have created a major problem with everybody on the team. I practically gave up racing. Then I had to face up to it and give in, not for myself, but in the interest of a whole group of people, particularly those who really work, day after day. They need their work, so I gave in. But for no other reason than the responsibility I felt to those people who gave me the chance to win races. It was the least I could do for them."

 

Though he has never had to work for a living he feels his privileged upbringing in Brazil provides him with a special perspective. "I think I am in a very fortunate position. First of all, I had the opportunity to be in a healthy family environment. It was very positive. I had love at home which is important for later development. I had the opportunity of being well educated. I grew up doing all kinds of activities, sports and intellectual things. So I had what I consider a perfect environment to create the basis for when you are an adult.

 

"On top of that, on the material side, I had anything I wanted. My father is a self-made man who was always able to give me and my sister and my brother whatever we wanted. And I came to racing because it was my desire, my dream. I made it my profession but it was always first my hobby. Money has never been my motivating factor. I don't need racing for any material reason.

 

"I only need Formula 1 for the pleasure it gives me. Once you have that self-confidence, to throw it all away at any time, you are in a much stronger position. I am not the only one, but few have that situation. It is very unique, generally speaking, in terms of drivers, engineers, mechanics, team owners, managers, sponsors. Perhaps that makes me a little bit different in being able to stick to my principles and not compromise them in my profession.

 

"I think Formula 1 is very superficial, generally speaking.  Formula 1 is today a very strong business, a way of promoting names and products...and people. Of course, there are a few special people here, but as much as I try to find those few special people, and to get through to them, I find it very difficult. Because consistently I find problems and troubles that I go through which tend to drive me away from personalities. So it is a very difficult environment to be part of. It is almost impossible.

 

"The competition naturally already makes life difficult for everybody, not only drivers but team managers, press people, sponsors. Anybody that is in here, somehow he is competing, and the nature of this competition means the ego is always being tested.  When you have your ego being tested all the time, it tends to bring out lots of problems in terms of relationships among these people.  And as a direct link to the ego fights, you can naturally find difficulties."

 

When those difficulties are chronicled in the motor racing press Senna feels he is too often made the villain of the piece. After confiding in certain journalists he felt his trust was betrayed, the truth distorted. He became suspicious of interviews and retreated into a shell of silence.

 

"I got hurt badly and the only way I could continue, and remain healthy, was to stay away from interviews. You may pay an expensive price on some occasions by not answering some criticism, not giving your version of factors. Then people write only what they are told. But I am of the opinion that if you have principles in your mind, if you have good character and you have a clean mind, a positive and constructive mind, time will bring things to reality by itself.  On the other hand, it is no good for me just to be nice to people and keep smiling if I don't feel like it. Because if I don't feel like it, I will not do it properly. I must be true to myself, to my beliefs, to be at peace.

 

"So it is very difficult to find someone in this environment with whom you can have a constructive conversation. And that is frustrating in a way because I have always a desire, it is in my nature again, to share with people that I like some of the special feelings I have, that I get from doing what I am doing here. It is the only thing I can give that has some value, at least for me. And I find it frustrating not to be able to share those things with the public in general, with the fans.

 

"After all, the public are interested in the people. OK, they follow the racing and the fighting on the circuit, but the racing and the fighting are done by people: the drivers. They are the ones that by their personality, by their character, by their instinct, end up making the show boring or exciting.  That is what gives the show some shine or some darkness. People are interested all about the driver that is in the car. The way he looks, not only physically, but the way he looks through his eyes, the way he speaks, by his voice being soft, sharp.  The way he makes his answers, the contents of his answers, the enthusiasm he passes on, the instincts of fighting, all those things. 

 

"And we are all different. Therefore what holds people, what gets people and holds them in admiring you, is what you are.  Not just because you win. They are after winners of course, and there are several winners in a season. But there are maybe one or two that really shine and the rest are just winners.  There is a difference between a true champion and just another champion, The true champion who shines is one who people love to see, love to know, love to think about and to be with in their minds."

 

As Senna was speaking his mind during this interview a fan broke through the circle of onlookers which perpetually surrounds him. The man shyly presented the superstar with several gifts, among them a piece of ceramic sculpture with Senna's name on it. Speaking in Portugese, the fan respectfully explained that the Brazilian was his hero. Senna was deeply moved.

 

"I think to have lots of people after you and showing that they admire you and they like you, it is super. I have never seen the guy before and he comes with a piece of art, something that he made himself. And his wife has baked a cake for me. It...it makes me feel embarrassed and humble. It does, because it shows how much you can touch people without knowing, without ever talking to them, just by your behaviour publicly.  What they see on TV, what they hear you saying personally in some interviews, what they read about you.

 

"In many ways we are a dream for people, not a reality. That counts in your mind. It shows how much you can touch people. And as much as you can try to give those people something, it is nothing compared to what they live in their own mind, in their dreams, for you. And that is something really special. Something, really, really special for me."