Even the slow ones are fast
“Even the slow ones are fast.”
So said Denis Jenkinson as we stood watching final practice for the Grand Prix of Monaco in the early summer of 1978, our feet against the barrier between Tabac and the swimming pool.
That’s how close you could get back then. We could, had we been so inclined, have reached out and touched the cars.
It was a privilege for me to watch with Jenks that day on the harbour front in Monte Carlo. The Sage of Crondall was a man I looked up to. Despite his diminutive stature. He was a mentor, an inspiration for those of us new to the business of working at a Grand Prix.
I had travelled to the Principality to make a radio programme about a weekend in the life of the Brabham team, and in particular the fortunes of driver John Watson who lived, not in tax exile, but in the south of England where my radio station was based. His co-conspirator in those gorgeous Brabham Alfa-Romeos was one Niki Lauda who, at breakfast in the Loews hotel one morning, suggested to my (first) wife that she might enjoy a day with him while I was working. Thanks Niki. She declined the offer from the double World Champion.
But I digress. The reason I mention the words of Denis Jenkinson is that we have seen two Grand Prix drivers unceremoniously sacked during the course of the season just past. And, equally importantly, both were replaced by men who appeared to do no better in the same car. First, Sebastien Bourdais was relieved of his duties at Toro Rosso, to be replaced by a very young Spaniard called Jaime Alguersuari. Just weeks later Nelsinho Piquet was fired from the Renault team by none other than his personal manager Flavio Briatore – who also happened to be the team manager. Remember that at this point Briatore was well aware of what had happened in Singapore in 2008, making his decision to sack Piquet Minor completely unfathomable. It was a major strategic error. Sitting in a sulk back home in Brazil young Piquet and his father decided to get their revenge. Briatore must wish he’d kept the lad in a Renault until the end of the year.
Are these two drivers really so inadequate? Even the bad ones are good, even the slow ones are fast. If you don’t believe me, ask Maurice Hamilton what it’s like to be thrown around a Grand Prix circuit by Martin Brundle for a handful of laps. (Or read about it in the new edition of Motor Sport). These cars are hugely demanding on both reflexes and stamina. It could just be that there is such a thing as a bad racing car.
How well did Alonso do in the 2009 Renault? Not very well. And he’s generally acknowledged to be one of the very best there is. How well did Sebastien Buemi do in the Toro Rosso? Better than Bourdais, yes, but nothing to set the world alight. This is not to say that either Piquet or Bourdais deserved to stay on the grid until they collected their pensions. No, I am simply questioning the strategy of sacking sportsmen who don’t deliver immediately. In football there has been a spate of sacking managers who don’t produce the instant results that are somehow expected.
In their early days, racing drivers can disappoint to deceive. Before they got into good Grand Prix cars James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Keke Rosberg, Nigel Mansell and Jenson Button, to name a few, did not display championship potential. I suggest both Renault and Toro Rosso acted too hastily. Mr Briatore might even agree.
Returning to Monaco it was Patrick Depailler who won, beating Lauda into second place while Jody Scheckter pipped Watson for third. But my goodness those Brabhams looked and sounded so good. As we know, none of this mattered. Mario Andretti made them all look silly once he got his hands on the Lotus 79. Even the fast ones looked slow.
Filed under: Blogs, Formula 1, Historic Racing
Rob was brought up on racing, being taken to Goodwood as a small child and devouring his father’s copies of Motor Sport. During a career in newspaper, radio and TV journalism he created the ‘Track Torque’ motorsport show on radio and was Indycar commentator for Eurosport before co-founding the Festival of Speed and Revival events. He was marketing director of the Goodwood Road Racing Company. 
Sniffer:
November 6th, 2009 4:33pm
Some good points there. Patience is certainly not an F1 team principals many virtue is it.
What illustrates this perfectly was Fernando Alonso’s debut season back in 2001. He was in a fairly useless Minardi, with I think Tarso Marques as a team mate. He didn’t score a point all year but still created a massive impression, particularly at Suzuka.
And surely this is the point. Start with a back of the grid team, create an impression and get noticed. Vettel did it in 2007/2008 and I think that to a certain extent Buemi did it this year. Alguesari has potential, that’s for sure. Having never driven an F1 car around a circuit before he did a pretty damn good job I thought. Yes there were shunts and errors (Abu Dhabi pit brain fade) but with so little running I thought he deserved some plaudits.
As for Piquet, quite apart from the whole Singapore shambles (I refuse to use Crashgate!) he showed absolutely nothing to suggest he was going to progress. I well remember him in Formula Three, always looking as if he had lost a tenner and found a fiver, forever moaning about this, that and the other. He has had his chance and he blew it. What is more the way in which he bitched and moaned showed he has even less class than speed!
Pat O'Brien:
November 6th, 2009 6:40pm
I agree with Rob that F1 is quick with the hook but I also agree with Sniffer that Piquet and Bourdais had chances enough to show their form. There aren’t many seats in F1 and there is a long list of drivers who can drive one type of car very well and are slow in another type. The F1 manager has no way to know if a driver will catch on if given another year, all he knows is he is slow this year.
As for Singapore, Nelson Sr told someone (Mosley?) at the time what had happened, he set a contemporaneous mark which later added to the veracity of the allegation. Why wasn’t he afraid of ensnarling Nelson Jr in an affair that would harm him? How did he know that no investigation would take place at the time? This story has enough odd aspects to it to inspire a lot of conspiracy theories and Sr is in the middle of mine.
Santiago Fernández:
November 7th, 2009 12:14am
That’s quite a story involving your wife and Mr. Lauda!
On another unrelated note to the previous comments, I once worked for Pepsi and they got a bit insistant that only company related wallpapers where allowed on computers. Since I didn’t fancy some interchangable pop star in my screen, I tried to find something involving motor racing, but eventually gave up and put a specially liveried Concorde in my screen. Had I seen the pic of Hunt and Lauda then, I would have gone bonkers.
Kenny:
November 7th, 2009 3:39am
Aside from his struggles on the track, Bourdais was (is) a moaner and whiner. Paul Tracy said that even when Seb was winning everything he was a misery. Perhaps the attitude was the clincher in the decision to let him go.
Mario Carneiro Neto:
November 7th, 2009 7:52am
Like Kenny said about Bourdais, Piquet was also a big whiner. It seemed many times that the man wanted the car to drive itself. It’s funny, a while ago I remember reading a test between Nico Rosberg and Nelson Piquet Jr. in a british car mag, saying they were two sons of greats who were destined to greatness. Rosberg is doing fine, while Nelson not really. Ironic when Nelson has had daddy’s help all along, and Keke is not as often seen around the Paddock….
rob widdows:
November 9th, 2009 11:52am
Thanks for all your views – nice to see that the question of attitude has been raised.
I think it has been a big factor – a good Grand Prix team likes a racer, a man who gets on with the job. You would not have found Piquet Jr or Bourdais at Williams, for example. And yes, Piquet Minor never showed any real promise before he got to F1, but I was simply perplexed that Briatore chose that moment to get rid of the guy. It was surely not great timing.
Nelson was always a great one for stirring, for winding up anyone who might rock his boat. Great driver, no question there, but not an easy man to contain within a team. Motor racing ‘daddys’ come in two categories – those who keep quiet and help when asked, and those who feel the need to hover over everything with a cheque book. Keke is not a man to hover.
I always liked Charlie Purley, David’s father, who paid the bills from the proceeds of his refrigerator factory. In those days, of course, they all had Cosworths and old man Purley could never accept that Andretti (for example) was quicker than his boy with the same engine………………..! Motor racing fathers are, by definition, very ambitious for their boys.
My screensaver is my cat, or one of my cats, called Buster. I normally use something from the National Geographic (my second favourite magazine) but this month it’s the cat. Not sure why I’m telling you all this.
Probably you would expect me to have a racing image.
RW
Chris Scholfield:
November 9th, 2009 6:07pm
i remember reading on another motor racing forum in early 2008 that Nelson Piquet Jnr was quoted as saying he was going to wipe the floor with Lewis Hamilton. A touch of the old “schadenfreude” there then?
Nigel Kirkpatrick:
November 10th, 2009 3:51pm
F1 seems like a sport designed to kill careers these days, no small teams to get a break in, learn the tracks and build fitness away from the spotlight before signing for a midfield or top team. No testing to work out the problems you inevitably have and limited track time at weekends to learn circuits and set ups.
Today you have one path, dive straight in to a manufacturer team (locked into a predictably long term contract) and get thrown into a season of total unknowns with zero preparation, massive pressure and a predatorial media feeding frenzy waiting in the wings to pounce on every mistake.
Then again maybe this vertical learning curve is simply a way to weed out drivers that are anything less than stellar?
rob widdows:
November 11th, 2009 12:09pm
I have tried to tackle this very subject in a new blog which should appear on the site later today.
It does seem that sports ’stars’ get younger and younger every day, everybody searching for the next Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel. But they are rare birds indeed.
Or perhaps i am just getting older. Well, I am, obviously.
RW
Mario Carneiro Neto:
November 13th, 2009 6:07am
Ayrton Senna’s father, Milton, was a similar guy to Purley. While Senna was in england, Milton helped out financially but you never saw the man lingering. It was an interesting relationship, widely covered in the excellent biography written by Ernesto Rodrigues in 2004. Sadly it’s only available in portuguese.
rob widdows:
November 13th, 2009 11:44am
Damn it, I wish my Portugese was better than it is. Partly because I’d love to read that book and partly because Portugal is my favourite European country – lovely people, beautiful scenery, sunshine and some great places to go racing. Maybe that’s why I also love going to Brazil.
Somebody wrote about Senna learning how to cope with a wet track. It’s an interesting point, and one that I have discussed with Rubens Barrichello. When they start out in Brazil they don’t get much experience of wet races, so when they come to England to do their Formula Ford and/or Formula 3 they pretty soon have to get to grips with the rain. Both Senna and Barrichello mastered the skills of going very fast on a slippery track and it stood both men in good stead.
The British racing season has many, many dank and rainy days………………..!
RW
Tony Geran:
November 26th, 2009 4:01am
Rob
The bit about Senna learning to drive in the wet was in Christopher Hilton’s book on Senna. He took a kart out and learnt how to drive it in the wet. It stood him in good stead didn’t it at Estoril in 1985? I’ll never forget that drive, I thought he was going to lose it for sure but he kept it all on the island somehow.
rob widdows:
November 27th, 2009 5:30pm
Agreed! It was a wonderful drive, finding new lines away from the worst of the water and somehow, like all the true greats, holding the whole together.
He learnt much of this in Formula Ford and F3 during those English winters when it seemed to rain every weekend!
I’ve been sorting out my office and realised I had so many books about Senna. Hilton’s book is good but I think The Life of Senna by Tom Rubython is a bit more informative. But Hilton’s book ‘Grand Prix Century’ is excellent if you want get a picture of the sport over the decades. It brings back so many great memories.
And what about Senna’s drive at Donington in 1993? That was a great day. Such a tragedy he he was not with us for longer.
RW
Tony Geran:
December 2nd, 2009 4:32am
Rob, according to Mr Roebuck, even Senna himself rated his Estoril drive as superior to his Donington win as he didn’t have traction control and it was with a very much “on or off” Renault turbo. Yes I have Tom Rubython’s book on Senna also but I believe the bit about learning in the wet was in Christopher Hilton’s book. Interestingly Senna reckoned the best driver he ever saw was Terry Fullerton, an English karter who I saw demolish the field in the wet here in Sydney 30 years ago. How time flies.
Carl:
December 26th, 2009 10:36pm
Under the tutelage of Bernie Ecclestone, Formual One, the emphasis on and importance of money has become all important. The sponsorship money a driver can bring to his team makes him, in the warped view of Ecclestone, better than the faster driver he replaces.
Jerry Bruce:
January 19th, 2010 4:51pm
Rob, you are definitely on the right track (no pun intended) when you imply that drivers are sacked prematurely. I recently read an article which focused attention to the recent firings of high school football coaches in southern California. It seems that instant success is the only acceptable result that is tolerable.
I remember my high school coaches stressed that being a good “man” was as important as being a good player. Apparently that is no longer what parents, principals, and alumni are looking for in coaches.