Luiz Pereira Bueno, Brazilian F-1 driver

For most Formula 1 fans, Luiz Pereira Bueno, often referred as Luiz Bueno, was just another unknown, wealthy driver from a far away land who managed to buy his way into a single ride in Formula 1 and fulfill a dream. It is true that Bueno had a single Formula 1 start, the Brazilian Grand Prix of 1973, driving an outdated Surtees model and finishing a lowly 12th after starting dead last. However, Bueno was not wealthy and he was definitely not a nobody. He was one of the main drivers of the pre-Fittipaldi generation, for Luiz had been racing since 1957 and rose to prominence as a Willys (Renault) factory driver in the early 60’s. There he raced Gordinis, Interlagos (a Brazilian version of the Alpine), Alpine, Formula Junior and the Bino prototypes. He won many races in the yellow cars, and even after the demise of Willys as a manufacturer, Bueno raced the Bino prototypes for a few more seasons.

One of the best things that happened to Brazilian racing was the closing of the Interlagos race track for renovations during 1968 and 1969! That meant no racing in Sao Paulo, where most of the best drivers and teams were located. It also meant that drivers began looking abroad to continue racing, and Luiz was one of them. He raced for Stirling Moss’ Formula Ford team in 1969, and just like Emerson Fittipaldi, won a few races, in fact six. However, Luiz reckoned he was too old for adventures, being 32, and decided to return to Brazil for good for the 1970 season. He did take part in the International Formula Ford (winning in Rio), Formula Three and Formula Two tournaments held in 1970 and 1971, and soldiered on with the Bino prototype during the 1970 season, winning a few more races.

In 1971, Luiz and Anisio Campos bought two Porsches, a 910 and a 908/2, set up a team called Equipe Z, which eventually got Hollywood cigarette sponsorship. Driving this car Luiz was basically unbeatable in local racing and even won an international race in Argentina. He also raced the car in the 1000 km of Austria of 1972, starting seventh with Tite Catapani (they failed to finish) and ended second in the 500 km of Interlagos of 1972, behind Reinhold Joest (Porsche 908-3).

By then Bueno had his first try in Formula 1, driving an older March 711 in the non-championship Brazilian GP of 1972. He did well to finish 6th, 2 laps behind the winner, Reutemann. 

As for his single World Championship outing, there isn’t much to say. Bueno’s car was a Surtees 

TS9B, and he was obviously forewarned by Big John to avoid crashing or over revving the engine. 

He ran a very conservative race, with the aim to finish, and that he did (this was a big deal at the time, you must remember). Dreaming of a 6th place that time would be impossible, for while the 1972 race was poorly supported, and the 1973 race had a full entry.

Luiz spent his last three seasons driving other Hollywood sponsored cars in Brazil. The Porsche 908-2 had been outlawed for 1973, so Luiz drove Chevrolet Opala and Ford Maverick saloons in sprints and long distance races, sat out 1974, and had a powerful Berta prepared Maverick and a Berta-Hollywood prototype for the 1975 season, winning six races.  He officially retired, but raced a few more times, once in a touring car race in 1978, unsuccessfully racing in the Brazilian Stockcar championship in 1982 and in the 1984 1000 km of Brasilia, retiring for good.  

Bueno was actually the only local Brazilian driver do manage getting a one-off ride for the Brazilian Grand Prix. At the time it was usual for local drivers to hire extra GP cars and participate in their local race. There were rumors that Antonio Castro Prado, Francisco Lameirão and Eduardo Celidoneo were getting rides for the local race, but these came to naught and maybe highly speculative. Part of the reason is that privateers usually did not take cars to the South American rounds, and most of these one-off happened in more humble teams. Works teams usually took as little equipment as possible.

Much more information about racing in the 70's can be found in my book MOTOR RACING IN THE 70'S - PIVOTING FROM ROMANTIC TO ORGANIZED. It is a 472-page book about racing in the period,  with 242 photos, covering Formula 1, Formula 2, Formula 3, Formula 5000, other lower formulae, Formula Indy, NASCAR, Touring Cars, Sports Cars, Can Am, Trans Am, IMSA, DRM, local racing scenes, main driver profiles, plus long lists of makes that raced in the period, main drivers and racing venues from 85 countries, year highlights, performance and financial analysis of the sport. It can be bought at Amazon shops in the USA, UK, Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Canada, Australia, Japan, 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732674426

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 would hire two relatively inexperienced drivers for 1974, but that is what he did, after Chris Amon failed to strike Ken's fancy.

Surprisingly, the explosive Jody became a very sedate driver, in fact, he was not that fast in the early 1974 races, the 006 model known as a difficult to drive car. Only after the new 007 came onboard the results appeared, and by the end of the year he became quite the opposite of the 1973 Jody, a reliable driver who was expected to score points. The transformation was amazing, but quite a lot of the speed was gone - forever.

A couple of years more with Tyrrell proved inconclusive, then he was surprisingly hired by Wolf, for 1977, and more surprisingly still, won the first time out. A third surprise, he continued on the pace for the rest of the year, becoming runner up to Niki Lauda.

Then another surprise in 1978. He continued at Wolf, and all that pace and reliability disappeared. At the end of the year he was hired by Ferrari.

At Ferrari, he picked up the pace again, although he had a very tough internal battle, as his teammate was the extremely talented and fast Gilles Villeneuve. On the strength of reliability, a favorable scoring system and some luck (Williams did not debut its new challenger FW07 before), Jody finally became world champion, although not a dominating one.

Then good ole Jody sprung yet another surprise in 1980. All the fire was gone, his performance was pathetic, although, admittedly, that year's Ferrari was no piece of cake. By the end of the season he failed to qualify for a race, ending up with the worst year-after performance by a current world champion. Not surprisingly, Jody retired, although he claimed he still had plenty of offers.

He retired before reaching 30 years of age, never racing again.

The HRT sale and a crazy irony

Let us be honest. The last two North American Formula 1 endeavors were resounding failures, to wit, the USF1 race team and Craig Pollock's PURE engine. I find that both projects were very naive from the onset, thus their failure.

In USF1's case, I followed the project closely. I could tell it was ultimately doomed when the team announced its driver would be Argentine Jose Maria Lopez. Nothing against Argentines or Lopez, whom I rate highly. It seemed, though, that such a patriotically named team would only be successful with American sponsors and drivers. The fact it was turning to Argentine driver and funding augured poor for its future.

So, I see the current purchase of HRT by American-Canadian Scorpion Racing concern with a pinch of salt. I understand that what they are really doing is buying a slot, no more no less. They are certainly not buying HRT's race car designs, at least I hope not. In the time HRT was in F1, it just got worse and worse, in spite of drivers`  and management's optimistic comments.

If the buyer were Penske, Andretti or Ganassi, for instance, I would be expecting great things. Such is not the case.

It they are buying the existing structure, such as designs and technology, then it is really worrisome, for they are buying the dudest of duds.

Thus, call me a pessimist, if you must, I think this is not going to progress very far. And I hope talented drivers Alexander Rossi and Robert Wickens are not in any fashion involved. Cosworth powered Formula 1 cars, until second notice, are a thing of the past in F1.

Then I recalled something.

Nowadays, we are used to race series where entrant lists are pretty much unchanged from race to race. This was not so, in the 70s. In the World Championship of Makes, for instance, some races had tons of cars on the grid, while others, few. Back in 1973, for example, the Targa Florio had 76 cars starting while the race with less starters had a mere 18. Entry lists consisted of giants in the world of motor racing, such as Ferrari, Alfa-Romeo and Matra-Simca, and cars that were literally put together and maintained at the simplest of garages, and enthusiastically, but poorly driven by inexperienced and slow unknown drivers.

The race with so few starters that year was the 1000 km of Oesterreichring, in Austria. There were a couple of reasons for that. Number one, no GTs or Group 2 cars were accepted, only prototypes. Number two, it was late in the season, and many a budget had been spent by that time.

It was thus a great opportunity for a small, garage team to participate.

One of the entries that year was a car entered by a team called Promoto. Car 26 was to be driven by Ed McDonough and John Blanckley. The 2-liter Cosworth powered race was called, believe it or not, the Scorpion JB-4. No relation to Scorpion Racing, of course.

The Scorpion JB-4 was the most consistent car that weekend. It was always the slowest car in qualifying, always raced in the back while on the track, and in fact, it was disqualified after 40 laps, being too slow and deemed too dangerous for other machines.

The Scorpion JB-4 is such a rarity, that I found no picture of it on the Internet. I have also not seen the car entered in any other race, so this might have been its only outing.

The irony is that almost 40 years down the line, another Scorpion attempts to make a crack in F1. I do hope it is not as unsuccessful as the number 26 machine. It would be quite ironic.

Carlos de Paula is a translator, writer and auto racing historian living in Miami