Our columnist recalls the racing legends he’s known during 60 years in the sport
With the racing season now at an end, all the championships decided, we are in to the build and testing seasons for 2018. But it’s also a time to look back. Because, for me, the end of the 2017 season marked a fairly major milestone in my life, as my first race was the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, on 7 December 1957.
Sixty years in racing has brought a huge cast of characters into my life, of the sort one does not usually meet in a conventional existence, racing being a high risk, high intensity sport, and like a circus – after which it is named – also highly mobile.
Racing does give us larger than life people, then. Here I shall speak about those drivers who have gone. Sadly, there are too many in this list, as the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s were dangerous years (speaking about the years I was present, here).
The maestro My list starts with Juan Manuel Fangio, nicknamed El Chueco (the bowlegged one), and my first race. He won, and we would meet several times afterwards when he came to Brazil in the late ’60s, doing some laps with a two-stroke, front-wheel drive DKW saloon racer, decently fast and showing his versatility right up to a last meeting at Vallelunga during an F2 race. We would dine at the local trattoria in the evening. Fangio was a gentle, racing passionate person, with a squeaky voice and the mild demeanour of someone who did not have to prove anything – five world championships with four different manufacturers did all the talking for him.
Esta historia es de la edición February 2018 de Racecar Engineering.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición February 2018 de Racecar Engineering.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Talk the torque
More thoughts on in-wheel motors and their effects on twisting force
Rolling about
An explanation of the limitations of a previous load transfer article, bringing jacking forces into the mix
F1 breaks schedule records
The FIA has confirmed no fewer than 23 races on the 2022 Formula 1 World Championship schedule, the highest number of grands prix ever to be held in a single season, and that has led to criticism from some teams that will be on the road for eight months.
Under pressure
Toyota may have finished first and second at Le Mans this year, but the effort required to overcome a fuel delivery problem and finish with both cars was Herculean
Physics at work
Dutch company, Intrax, offers Racecar Engineering an insight into the technologies it employs to optimise its suspension products
Williams' 2030 ambition
Williams Racing has committed to becoming climate positive by 2030 as part of an all-new sustainability strategy.
Diff'rent strokes
Racecar looks at the different types of mechanical differential, their benefits and limitations
Das Boot
A curious Twitter exchange fired up a unique, hydrogen-powered, cross-country project that will contest the Baja 1000 in November 2022
Air born
Every racecar engineer's dream is a blank sheet of paper design. When Hoonigan and Subaru approached Vermont Sportscars about building the next generation of Gymkhana racer, that's just what the company was given
Remote control
Called variously ‘virtual garages’, ‘mission control’ or ‘race support rooms’ is the future of race engineering sitting in the warm back at HQ?