Auto Racing Commentary

Things have changed immensely for Formula 1 teams. Up until the early 70s, Formula 1 teams were basically forced to build cars for other formulas, racing them as works teams or selling them to customers. The  extra income  was necessary, until commercial sponsorship matured in the mid 70s, and Bernie Ecclestone expanded the Formula 1 concept into a more viable proposition. Lotus, for instance, built Formula 3 and Formula 2 cars, selling them to customers in the early part of the decade. Lotus F3 cars were very common in 1970/71, rare by 1973, when Lotus had built the last non-Formula 1 car, the Formula 2 that became known as Texaco Star. There was some talk of a Formula Indy Lotus in the early 80's, but it never materialized. Brabham was a major race  car  builder, in fact the cars were very common in F2, F3, Formula Atlantic, and even in Formula 5000. The Brabham BT40 was the last formula 2/formula 3 from that constructor, in 1973, and a Brabham BT43 Formul...

I was reading an excellent blog posting on the supposed McLaren M23 owned by Antonio Carlos Avallone. In fact, the M23 was not an M23, but rather the only McLaren M25 ever built, designed by McLaren in 1973 specifically to house a Chevrolet engine, to be used in Formula 5000. It was tested by Howden Ganley, and purchased by Avallone at the beginning of 1974. The M25 was based and very similar to the M23, and it was also similar to the wedge shaped McLaren Formula Indy of the day. The story is real, and there is a twist. There were legal proceedings in England against Avallone, filed by David Hepworth, not by BRM or Louis Stanley as reported elsewhere, concerning a BRM P154 that had burned in a fire in a ship on the way to the Avallone promoted Copa Brasil series 1972. For a long time a fancy story circulated, saying the ship was full of European cars that were going to take part in the Copa Brasil, seemingly an excuse for a weak grid that was fielded at the end of the day. ...

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...

The pay driver "situation" in Formula 1 is being pictured escathologically as a disaster of the era, the end of the category as we know it. Even Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren chief who should know better, seems to be blowing the thing out of proportion. First of all, paying drivers always existed in Formula 1, and always will exist, in one fashion or another. Years ago, they came mostly in the form of privateers, drivers who bought and run their own cars on real shoestring budgets, because they did not attract the attention of works teams. Then, when commercial sponsorship came into full force in the 70s (which, by the way, killed the privateers) the teams down the ladder continued to rent seats in their cars to anyone who could bring a few thousand dollars. As a matter of fact, a large number of drivers who raced in Formula 1 in the 70s were paying drivers of one sort or another, and I could list dozens. Nelson Piquet and Niki Lauda began their F1 careers renting drives. E...

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...

  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 o...