Auto Racing Commentary

Written by Carlos de Paula, translator, writer and historian based in Miami   Born 3/16/1942, Bloemendaal, Holland Starts:8 Points: 2 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0   It all started to come good for Van Lennep in 1970. After a few years driving various Porsches and even the DAF Formula 3 device, Gijs rose to some prominence in 1970 driving for the AAW team, in the World Championship of Makes. In the same year when he won the Le Mans 24 Hour race for the first time, 1971, Gijs got a sponsored drive at Surtees, debuting in the Dutch GP. He qualified 21st and finished 8th, in a very wet race. He also practiced for the USA GP, but Sam Posey ended up driving the car. After a year away from Formula 1, Van Lennep was one of several drivers to drive for Frank William’s Iso Marlboro in 1973, initially in the Dutch Grand Prix. He did very well, finished 6th and was the first driver to score points with a Williams designed and produced car, the recalcitrant Iso Ma

  7/11/1943, Siegen, Germany Deceased Riverside, USA 4/24/1983 Starts: 54 Points: 14 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0   Rarely is a driver’s first Formula 1 season his absolute best, especially when a driver hasa long GP career, as was Stommelen’s case. A sports car driver by excellence, who was drafted into the Porsche team after some useful hill climbing performances, Stommelen got a crack in the Formula 1 circus in the F2 section of the German Grand Prix, in 1969. He was 8th in the race and 9th in class, driving a Lotus for Roy Winkelmann. His Formula 1 debut proper took place in the South Africa GP of 1970. Aided by sponsorship from the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, Rolf was retained by Brabham to run alongside team boss Jack. Rolf normally qualified poorly, save for a 7th place in Belgium, but ended up scoring points in four occasions. The first time was in Belgium, where he finished 5th. He placed 5th in Germany as well, and then had an

  1/1/1951, Grainau, near Garmish Partenkirchen (Germany) Starts: 72 Points: 29 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0   The 30’s seemed to be so far away when young Stuck appeared on the scene. These were the days of German drivers such as Rosemeyer, Caraciolla, Lang, Von Brauchtisch and another man with a familiar name, Hans Stuck. The latter was, of course, Hans Jr.’s father, one of the most effective drivers of Auto Union cars, who raced well into his 60’s. So there was some expectation that Stuck might revive the German flag in GP racing, when he was hired by March for the 1974 season. The first couple of races were rather normal, typical learning curves for a young debutant. By South Africa though, Stuck had qualified a wonderful seventh place and finished 5th, earning his first points. In Spain he finished 4th, so right at the start of the year he had accumulated 5 points, more than the highly rated Jody Scheckter. The rest of the season did not go as

  9/26/1943, Sydney, Australia Starts: 34 Points: 7 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0 Judging from the press Schenken got in 1968, one would expect him to be world champion by the early 70’s. In fact, Tim had swept every one before him in F-Ford and Formula 3, winning in one year more races than most people win in a career. Things started to get tougher in F-2 though. Needless to say, F-1 was no piece of cake either. Tim got his first break driving the De Tomaso for Frank Williams, replacing Brian Redman. To his credit he managed to qualify the car all four times he appeared, a better performance than Redman’s. This was sufficiently good to attract the Brabham team, which signed Tim to replace Jack Brabham. The early part of the year was a bit tough, but in Britain Schenken qualified 7th. This was followed by three other top ten starts, plus a good helping of points from 6th in Germany and a swell 3rd place and podium in Austria. By the end of the year

F-1 BIOGRAPHY BY CARLOS DE PAULA Born 12/6/1948, Stockholm, Sweden (Finnish Nationality) Starts:114 Points: 159.5 Wins:5 Poles:5 Fastest Laps:3 Sometimes Formula 1 feels like a soap opera. Such is the case of Keke Rosberg’s career, so full of anticlimaxes, ups and downs and sudden changes. One would consider the man finished in 1981, after a terrible season driving for Fittipaldi, and no one would expect the scoreless driver to be world champion the next year. Anticlimax or not, Rosberg was very talented, in fact his statistics don’t show half of it. They don’t show his acrobatic style and sheer speed as well. Rosberg rose to prominence driving Super Vees in Europe, eventually reaching Formula 2 in 1976, driving for Jopr Obermoser’s TOJ. He did the best he could with the novice team, and caught the attention of American Fred Opert, who ran Chevrons. In these cars, Rosberg won a few Formula 2 races, although he never challenged for the championship. This w

F-1 BIOGRAPHY BY CARLOS DE PAULA   Born 6/2/1956, Zandvoort Starts:23 Points: 0 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0 Dutch drivers never quite excelled in Formula 1, but there were quite a few Dutch drivers in the Formula 3 scene around 1978, including Rothengatter, Bleekemolen and Lammers who seemed to be destined for bigger things. Of the bunch, Lammers appeared the most apt, in fact, he won the 1978 European Formula 3 championship. This gave him enough clout to be hired by Shadow in 1979, to partner Elio de Angelis in the team. Jan’s time at Shadow was unsuccessful, the car was not fast, and the best he did was 14th in qualifying and 9th in a race. There were no points, so he was lured to join ATS for 1980. He failed to qualify for the first three races of the season, then astounded the Grand prix world by qualifying fourth in Long Beach. Unfortunately, he lasted one lap in the race, and the car never again showed any pace in races or qualifying. He was lu

  11/3/1948, Vienna Deceased 10/6/1974, Watkins Glen, USA Starts:2 Points: 0 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0 A few Austrian drivers have been successful in Formula 1, such as Lauda, Rindt and Berger, but for some reason, drivers from that nationality have a high share of misfortune as well. Rindt died before being crowned champion, Lauda was almost burnt alive at the Nurburgring, Ratzenberger died in Imola, Helmut Marko’s eye was damaged beyond repair in Clermont Ferrand. Helmut Koinigg was mostly known for his success in Formula Super Vee, but eventually made it to the Ford Touring car works team and the Porsche works team, driving the Turbo Carrera. He proved fast, and was entered in the Finotto Brabham for the Austrian GP of 1974, failing to qualify. However, he was hired by Surtees to race in the final two Grands Prix of the season, and did really well to qualify the unloved TS16 in 22nd place in Canada, finishing a worthy 10th. For Watkins Glen

  Born 11/13/1945, Tokyo, Japan 1 Start 1 Fastest Lap The Japanese Grand Prix was included in the F1 calendar in 1976. Japan was beginning to become a global economic powerhouse and its car industry was making headways against the American and European competition. Early Japanese forays in F1 had been limited to the mildly successful Honda entries of the 60’s and the disastrous Maki in the 70s. So when it was announced that Kojima would enter the debut Japanese race, with a Dunlop shod car at that, not many people wagered their bets on a competitive entry. However, Masahiro Hasemi did manage to qualify the car tenth, and in the race was credited with fastest lap, a claim that many dismiss as fictitious to this day. This turned out to be Hasemi’s single F1 start, so he stands as the only single race participant to post fastest lap. In Japan Masahiro won a multitude of titles, in single seaters and tin tops. He also competed outside of his country, in Le Mans

  Born 10/31/1941, Pinner, Middlesex, England Starts:9 Points: 1 Wins:0 Poles:0 Fastest Laps:0 Bell had been around Formula 2 for sometime when he was hired by Ferrari as a Formula 2 driver in 1968. Eventually he got the chance of a lifetime, debuting in F-1 with the Prancing Horse’s cars. He qualified well (for a rookie) in Italy (8th), but retired, while the going was even tougher in USA (qualified 15th, retired as well). He got no further offers to drive Ferraris in F-1, but was hired to handle the four wheel drive McLaren in the 1969 British GP, an outing that ended in retirement as well. In 1970, Bell finished as runner up in the European Formula 2 championship, and debuted in Sports cars. His F-2 entrant, Tom Wheatcroft, put together a deal for Bell to drive a Brabham in the Belgian GP, where Bell retired. John Surtees also gave Bell a chance in the US GP, where Derek got his single Formula 1 point, finishing 6th. Surtees would give Bell other

WHAT MAKES A FORMULA 1 DRIVER A CHAMPION? Carlos de Paula   With Michael Schumacher’s retirement, I am almost positive that we will have a new Formula 1 champion in 2007. Although I do like Fernando Alonso, and believe he is the most complete Formula 1 driver of the current era, after MS’ departure, I was not at all impressed with McLaren’s 2006 performance, so I am betting on a red car winning the title. See my preview on the site’s home page .   Michael’s retirement also brought about the search for the “new Michael”, just like there was a search for a “new Fangio”, “new Clark” and “new Senna”, in the past. You know, that driver you just knew was going to win the championship one day, sooner or later.   After 57 editions of the Formula 1 championship, one reaches the conclusion that there is no such a thing as a sure bet. The current crop of serious candidate for “certain champions” includes Robert Kubica, Lewis Hamilton, H

By Carlos de Paula   Japanese Masahiro Hasemi goes down in history as the single GP driver with a 100% fastest lap performance. It is true that he raced a single time, in the Japanese Grand Prix of 1976, driving the Kojima , and some have disputed the accuracy of this fastest lap. Notwithstanding, Kojima has a 50% fastest lap performance, as the manufacturer only raced twice, in the Japanese Grand Prix of 1976 and 1977.   Few GP drivers end their careers with fourth place, most closing the book with retirements. However, three very prominent drivers did so. Juan Manuel Fangio drove to fourth place after a very strong drive at the French Grand Prix of 1958. Forty-eight years later, the man who shattered Fagio’s 5-championship record that at once seemed impossible to surpass, Michael Schumacher , also ended his F-1 career driving to a superb fourth place in the 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix. Curiously, the man Schumacher replaced as Benetton’s nu

Ok, I myself have a little trouble saying that a guy was unlucky in racing, having raced for many years, winning dozens upon dozens of races, championships, and even earning the accolade of "brilliant". However, I felt very sorry for Bob Wollek's earliest forays in the DRM, in the 70's. I for one thought that Wollek deserved a chance in F1. Many a lesser men (and a few women) drove in the category in the mid-seventies, when Wollek was one of the main Formula 2 drivers. Yet, I suppose team managers either unfairly did not think much of him, or thought there were too many Frenchmen in the category. Be that as it may, Wollek ended up driving GTs, and eventually, sports cars of all descriptions, having already proven to be good in the category, while driving for Matra-Simca at Le Mans, and Chevrons elsewhere. Bob found a nice home at the Kremer brothers team, which was already one of the top Porsche teams. There stood a stone in Wollek's foot, the GELO Team. T

By Carlos De Paula   In hindsight it is always easy to criticize decisions that went wrong. On the surface, everything was fine with the World Championship of Makes in the configuration it had in 1971, yet, FISA decided to outlaw the 5-liter Group 5 monster machines, and run the championship exclusively with 3-liter prototypes, which would be essentially Grand Prix racers with prototype bodies. While it is true that only a couple of manufacturers, Porsche and Ferrari, had built new generation 5 liter Group 5s, and these would eventually become old, one gets the feeling that the decision was indeed hasty. Perhaps the 5 liters could contest the championship for a couple more years, ably backed up by 3-liter prototypes as had been the case hitherto. By 1971 the prototypes were no longer grid fillers. Alfa Romeo had won three races on merit, Ferrari was often the fastest car (even faster than the 917 and 512s), and even updated Porsche 908s sprang surprises here and

By Carlos Paula During the 50’s, Interlagos continued to be Brazil’s single race track, so most racing activity did take place in São Paulo. There was racing in other areas of Brazil, most notably in the State of Rio Grande do Sul. The southern racing was, however, more influenced by Argentinean style than the racing in the other areas of Brazil, by that meaning Carreteras – more on that below. Rio continued to host races, including the Gavea race, until 1954. By and large, however, international racing disappeared from Brazil, and the last high level races were held in 1957, in Sao Paulo and Rio, with Fangio winning both. In the early part of the decade, most São Paulo racing was done with pure breed sports cars, mixed with Brazilian racing specials, and the Mecanica Nacional category, which was basically a mixture of old GP cars, left over from the 30’s, equipped with American engines, and Brazilian specials – basically chassis from old cars or built in Brazil, with American e