1970-1979 Formula 2 Point Scorers who did not make it to Formula 1

Formula 2 was conceived in the 40s as a steppingstone category to Grand Prix, replacing the 30’s voiturettes. In the 60’s, after some seasons in which only Formula 1 and Formula Junior existed as single seaters category in European racing, F2 came back in 1966 and an European Championship was created in 1967. This championship ran non-stop until 1984, when it was replaced by Formula 3000. Current Formula 2 only shares the name with the old 2.0 liter cars (the engine size from 1972 to 1984, before that, 1.6 liter), and have much larger engine capacities and power. Additionally, while a large number of Formula 2 participants, championship winners and point scorers, and even some non-point scorers, made it to Formula 1 in the above mentioned period, the same cannot be said of GP2 (which was recently renamed Formula 2) drivers. Making to Formula 2 at present is not really a guarantee you will ever drive a F-1 car in the world championship. In fact, generally two, tops three Formula 2 graduates find rides in Formula 1 every year, while many Formula 2 drivers got the chance to drive at least once in F1 (such as Jose Dolhem, Gerard Larrousse, Francois Mazet, etc).

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Jean-Pierre Jaussaud in 1971

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Winds of change from the East

These days, we are quite accostumed with the idea of GP drivers from the old Iron Curtain. After all, drivers from Poland, Russia, Czech Republic and Hungary have all driven in Formula 1, and the Pole actually won a race before a rally accident ruined what looked like a great career.

However, in the 70's, we still lived under the Cold War, and the Eastern Block was basically shrouded by mystery. Russia every once announced even more mysterious GP level cars, touring car races were held in Brno, Czechoslovakia, as well as Budapest and Belgrade in the 60s, and East Germany also had a fairly active racing scene. However, dreaming of  an Iron Curtain GP driver in Formula 1 in the 70s was as far fetched as an imagination could go.

Not that the Eastern Block did not have a representative in F1, for Edgar Barth, Jurgen's father, did drive in the category while still East German. And later as West German.

Allow me some poetic liberty. As Formula 2 was, at least in theory, the step category before Formula 1, the driver pictured below almost became the first modern Eastern Block driver to reach Formula 1 in the 70s. Allow me a lot of poetic liberty.

Ok, there was Count Adam Potocki, born in Poland, who raced briefly in F2 in the late 60s, early 70s, however, by that time he had French citizenship. The guy below was the real deal.

The car is a Surtees TS16-Ford, and the driver, Yugoslav Francy Jerancic.

The "lot of poetic liberty" stems from the fact that Francy, who apparently had lots of bourgeois sponsorship in his car, never even came close to qualifying in any of the Championship F2 races he showed up for in 1975. That, of course, meant GP teams were not really lined up to hire the slow Titoland driver, and perhaps bring Vesna sponsorship to F1. Elsewhere, Francy did not steal any headlines either.

Notwithstanding, Jerancic makes a nice conversation piece about "almosts", of which there are so many in car racing.


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

The cycles of life or nothing new under the Sun

The Bible's Book of Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the Sun, hinting that new happenings are nothing more than revamped versions of yesterday's occurrences. For those who do not believe the Scriptures, consider the macroeconomic books, that suggest there are Economic cycles of prosperity and scarcity, caused by a number of external factors, such as supply and demand imbalances, climatic factors, extreme speculation. This tells us that continuous prosperity on a macro level is a fallacy.

Let us talk about another book, Autocourse. I was reading an annual from the early 70s, and the writer forecast problems ahead for the world of racing; He simply said there are too many categories in European racing, and the market could not support it.

In the late 60's,  there was F1, European F2, British, French and Italian F3, World Makes Championship and the European and British Touring Car Championships. Then, with the advent of commercial sponsorship, beginning of TV coverage and greater general prosperity, the number of categories all over Europe mushroomed. Formula Ford consolidated in several countries, Formulas 5000 and Atlantic appeared, so did Formula Super Vee, Formula Renault and Formula Italia. A new European Championship for 2 liter prototypes was created, in addition to an European GT Championship, the Interserie, the German Racing Championship (DRM) to name a few.

All it would take was a severe jolt from outside to create havoc in this wide expanse of racing series. It did come in the form of the 1973 Middle Eastern crisis, that resulted in the prolonged economic travails of 1974 to 1976. In a short period of time, a lot of these series disappeared or metamorphosed into oblivion. Euro GT, 2 Liters, Formula Atlantic disappeared, the Interserie, the European Hill Climb and Formula 5000 became a joke.

Talk about cycles, it is happening all over again, and one of the series that almost disappeared in 1974 is in danger again.

In a nutshell, in the mid sixties, a budding GP driver began in F3, then progressed to F2, then F1. A very few chose sports cars, after starting in the little screamers. A few others bypassed F3, and managed to reach F1 through sports cars alone.

Then, a number of support categories sprouted all over Europe, and many other paths were created. To worsen F3's situation, the regulations were changed. The 1 liter screamers of 1970 became 1.6 liter cars in 1971 and 2 liter cars in 1974. All of a sudden, F3 cars had the same capacity as F2, and some folks got the wrong notion that they could start at F2, bypassing F3.

The first year of the 2 liter F3 in Britain was dreadful. Many races had grids with less than 10 cars, the level of competition was not all that strong, and at one point it seemed Atlantic would get the better of F3.

So now British F3 has the same situation. The once proud series, which in the old days had as many as 100 entrants in races, requiring many qualifying heats, has trouble putting together a grid, thus the calendar is reduced to a mere 4-event double headers.

The reasons for British F3's situation is similar to the 70's for the same reasons. There are way too many entry level categories in Europe, which seem to serve no purpose besides creating a large number of champions that would never amount to much if they were racing in a single, strong F3 championship. Sure, now there are drivers from over 50 nationalities with pockets full of money seeking a spot under the sun in Europe, which was not the case in 1973. However, there has been very little reason for A1GP, Super League and F2, all of which have ceased to exist.

The fact is that British F3 has produced a great number of excellent GP drivers, including a few world champions, and it would be a shame to see it wither away.

I do hope that something is done, although the odds stack against it at the time.