Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Jody Scheckter

Jody Scheckter, a champion full of surprises

Jody Scheckter had a very unusual Formula 1 career, full of surprises. He literally burst into the scene, a very fast, unruly driver in his first outings with McLaren in 1972 and 1973, proving extremely crash prone. He had a famous come together with Emerson Fittipaldi in France, while leading, caused a pile up in the first stages of the race at Silverstone, plus crashed in Canada. His mount was great, a first year McLaren M23, and he could have scored quite a few points. After all, smooth driver Jacky Ickx in fact scored a podium at the Nurburgring in his first try. Then Jody was hired by Tyrrell for 1974. He was obviously not a first pick. Tyrrell was indeed a very conservative type of guy, at the time very much used to constant success. Unfortunately, things went from excellent to bad at the end of 1973. Tyrrell won the driver's title at Monza, then lost both Francois Cevert and Jackie Stewart at Watkins Glen, one dead, the other retired. I find it unusual that Tyrrell woul

EUROPEAN FORMULA 5000

By Carlos de Paula Around 1968, the horsepower difference between 3 liter Formula 1 and 1.6 liter Formula 2 cars was great. There was a place for an intermediate, high horsepower single seater category in Europe, powered by stock blocks. The U.S. Formula A was just such a formula: stock block 5.0 liter single seater cars, theoretically fast and inexpensive to run, that were being ran in the USA since 1967 The formula was thus adopted in Europe for a 1969 championship. Read more about it here  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426 S