Welcome to F1 People - Series 2. This is the omnibus edition of the series, which was seven short shows originally released over seven consecutive days. Now they are all gathered up in one place for easy listening.
This is the first omnibus edition we've tried, the idea came from a suggestion on Facebook by Dave Monks. I'd love to have your feedback - is it useful to have the information presented this way, or is it just clogging up your feeds with the same shows twice? Also if you missed a mini series, do you think this would be a good way to catch up or are the seven separate shows easier?
This is the last in the second series of F1 People, seven short shows brought to you by Sidepodcast. We’ve looked at a few important names from the world of Formula 1 this series, and now it’s time for our final VIP. Today we’ll look at Juan Manuel Fangio.
Juan Manuel Fangio was born on the 24th June 1911 in Argentina, although his parents were Italian. He completed his military service and opened a garage to begin racing in Argentina during his 20s, and he became National Champion in 1940 and 41. The government then funded his career move to Europe, where he joined Formula 1. Fangio entered the sport aged 37, and although this was a time pre-world championships, where the emphasis was less on youth and fitness, Fangio was still sometimes the oldest driver taking part. His first race was in 1948, at the French Grand Prix, in which he retired, and that was his only race that year. The next year he won five out of seven races, and thus went into 1950 as a clear favourite to win the brand new Formula One World Driver’s Championship.
The 1950 championship saw a clear split in competitiveness, with the pre-war Alfetta car showing well, and the post-war Alfa Romeo struggling. Fangio was in the latter, but still managed to win three championship races and four non-championship battles. His team mate Farina, however, was even better in the car and took the title that year. In 1951, Fangio came back even more determined, and he finished consistently enough to get his first World Championship Title, only the second one ever handed out.
1952 was a terrible year for Fangio. He began the year without a drive, as a change to the rules in F1 meant Alfa Romeo couldn’t compete with the cars they had and withdrew from the competition. Fangio found himself a seat in June, for a couple of non championship races, and then signed up to drive for Maserati immediately after the second one. He missed his connecting flight, however, and drove through the night from Paris to Monza, arriving just half an hour before the start. As you would imagine, he was incredibly tired, and started from the back of the grid. On the second lap, he lost control of the Maserati, crashed into a bank at the side of the track and was thrown from the car. He was taken to hospital with a broken neck, and his survival was by no means a sure thing.
However, survive he did and he spent the rest of the year at home in Argentina, recovering from his injuries. Amazingly, he was back racing the following year, 1953, where he joined Maserati again for the championship battle. His main rival was Alberto Ascari in the Ferrari, but Fangio kept finishing second with only one lucky win, and he ended the year second overall.
When Mercedes entered Formula 1 in the middle of 1954, Fangio immediately defected from Maserati to join the more successful team. He finished eight out of twelve races that year, and took the championship, followed again the next year by another successful championship campaign. However, 1955 was also the year of the terrible Le Mans accident where 80 spectators were killed, and Mercedes pulled out of racing at the end of the year.
In 1956, Fangio replaced his former rival Alberto Ascari at Ferrari, and with them he managed to secure his fourth title. He remained at Ferrari for only one year, however, and in 1957, Fangio returned to Maserati, although they were still using the same car that he had been in before leaving them for Mercedes. 1957 saw Fangio’s final win that secured his final championship, but there is nothing like going out in style. At the infamous Nurburgring, a botched pit stop left him 50 seconds behind two leading cars, but Fangio wasn’t put off. He put in fastest lap after fastest lap, broke plenty of lap records along the way, and overtook for the lead on the second to last lap. In the end, he secured the win by over three seconds.
Fangio retired in 1958, having won 24 Championship races from 51 starts, the best winning percentage in F1. In the year of his retirement, he was kidnapped by Cuban rebels, but they released him and he remained good friends with his captors afterwards.
During his retirement, Fangio demonstrated Mercedes-Benz cars in order to sell them, and was then appointed President of Mercedes-Benz Argentina in 1974. He died in 1995, aged 84. Fangio is often called the greatest driver of all time, although it is difficult to compare drivers from the different eras. Fangio’s five world championships record stood until Schumacher broke it in 2003, but even Schumi acknowledged respect for Fangio’s achievements. In Argentina, he is known as one of the greatest sportsmen ever to come out of the country, and there are six statues of him at various points around the world.
That’s all for this episode of F1 People, and all for this series, in fact. I hope you’ve enjoyed listening to this second set of shows, and if you haven’t already, make sure to check out the first series for another seven famous names. As ever, your feedback is welcomed, either in the comments, via voicemail – the number is 0121 28 87225 – or email me Christine at sidepodcast.com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Welcome to the penultimate episode of F1 People, a second series of seven short shows dedicated to profiling the important names in Formula 1. So far this series we’ve looked at both drivers, commentators, and the brains behind the car. Today we return to the latter subject, with Adrian Newey.
Adrian Newey was born on December 26th 1958 in Stratford-Upon-Avon, in the UK. He did not enjoy school, but worked hard enough to attend the University of Southampton. He gained a First Class honours degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics at the age of 22. His final thesis was on ground effects. Newey immediately joined the Fittipaldi Formula 1 team straight out of university and began working in motorsport. In 1981, he joined March and began to design the cars. His first was the March GTP sports car that won the GTP title two years in a row. Then he moved to March’s Indycar team, and worked on the 1984 car. Another successfully designed car took seven victories in its first year, and the title for the next two. Newey worked as both a designer and a race engineer, becoming close friends with his title winning driver Bobby Rahal.
Despite his success in the States, Newey wanted to return to F1, so he joined the FORCE team to try and revive their flagging prospects. The team withdrew at the end of 1986, and Newey returned to March as chief designer for their F1 team. He immediately began to innovate, finding the loopholes in the aerodynamic regulations, and striving for perfection across the car. When the March team became Leyton House, Newey was promoted to technical director, but relations did not stay so good for too long. Questions were asked whether his constant quest for complete aero efficiency was causing problems elsewhere, and whether this was the case or not, the team’s fortunes began to fall. They let Newey go in 1990.
He wasn’t out of work for long, however, as Patrick Head at Williams saw what a talent he was and signed him up. With many more resources available to him, and a like-minded technical partner in Patrick Head, the pairing flourished, and Williams became a success. They took two driver and constructors championships with Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost respectively.
In 1994, things started to go sour. The performance of the Williams dropped off and Benetton took full advantage to take the constructors lead, although they did eventually manage to pull back a third title. When the newly signed Ayrton Senna died that year, and legal investigations took place, the strain began to tell between Newey and his managers. He was ready to move on and be technical lead again, but the strong Williams/Head bond would never be broken. 1995 saw the team lose their consecutive title dominance, and by 1996, Newey was on gardening leave.
He joined McLaren the following year, and revived another old design to bring the team two titles over the next four years. He now had 10 titles from cars he had designed, and although the next few years saw dominance pass to Ferrari, no one questioned Newey’s abilities in the engineering field. In fact, his old friend Bobby Rahal, who was now managing the Jaguar F1 team, tried to persuade Newey to join them and turn around another struggling constructor. Newey was tempted, but ultimately stayed with Ron Dennis and McLaren. The embarrassment for Jaguar meant Rahal left the sport a few months later.
Towards the end of his career with McLaren, speculation mounted year on year over whether he would return to Williams or retire, but Newey signed with Red Bull Racing for 2006 – the team that used to be Jaguar. He remains there now, with the team a competitive mid-field runner.
Not content with being a mastermind in aerodynamics, Newey also likes to get behind the wheel. In 2007, he took part in the 24 Hours Le Mans race, finishing 22nd, but fourth in his class. Could do better, I suppose, but at least he can be happy in the knowledge that he’s one of the best designers in the sport.
Thanks for listening to today’s F1 People. We have only one more VIP to talk about but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out who it is. Join me then for the last in this series of F1 People.
Welcome to the fifth entry in a series of short shows brought to you by Sidepodcast, called F1 People. So far this series we’ve looked at Colin Chapman and Murray Walker, now it’s time to look at Jean Alesi.
Giovanni Alesi was born on June 11th, 1964 to Italian parents in France. His early racing career was in rallying, which he preferred to the single seater style series, but he worked his way to take part in the Renault 5 championship. He took part in French Formula 3, winning a title, and International F3000, again taking the title. His Formula 1 debut was in 1989 at the French Grand Prix with the Tyrrel-Cosworth team. He finished fourth, after running second for a portion of the race, and he decided to drive in both the Formula 1 and F3000 series in the same year. He was successful and claimed another F3000 title.
The next year, 1990, he took up F1 full time, still with Tyrrell. At the US GP that year, he made his name, by leading the race in an underperforming car, and battling with Senna along the way. Eventually, he had to concede the lead to Senna but his popularity soared. Several teams wanted his services and by mid-season, Tyrrell, Williams and Ferrari all claimed that they had signed Alesi for their own for the following season. Williams had also signed Nigel Mansell, and Alesi decided his best bet was to go with Ferrari. They were the dominant force at the time, and teamed with Alain Prost, Alesi assumed he would be learning from the best in the best team. It was also a popular decision with Italian’s, given Alesi’s heritage.
However, 1991 saw a downturn in Ferrari’s fortunes, and it was Williams who took five of the next seven titles. Prost abandoned the team at the end of 1991, replaced by Gerhard Berger. Alesi remained with the team until 1996, by which time he had gained a massive following from the Ferrari fans, but only one win. It was an emotional victory at Canada 1995, on his 31st birthday. Technically, the lead was inherited from other teams unreliability but no one could deny that Alesi had paid his dues. Michael Schumacher even celebrated with Alesi by giving him a lift back to the pit lane, when his car ran out of fuel on the celebration lap.
When Schumacher came to the red team from Benetton, Alesi went the other way, taking Gerhard Berger with him. The relationship between Alesi and Ferrari had deteriorated somewhat, with the driver desperate to win and the team trying their best. In 1996, Benetton were defending the championship, but once again, Alesi made the wrong move. Schumacher made Ferrari a force to be reckoned with, whilst Benetton declined slowly.
He moved on to Sauber, and then joined team Prost, owned by his former Ferrari teammate. With this team, Alesi finished every single race, consistently, but after the British Grand Prix, an argument saw Alesi walk out. His last F1 year was in 2001 with Jordan.
After Formula 1, Jean Alesi tried his hand in DTM, with some moderate success. Over five years he had three wins, but never got higher than fifth in the championship. He took a few years away from racing, but returned to take part in the Far & Middle Eastern Speedcar Series this year, with a few other notable ex-F1 drivers.
He has also been heavily involved in the Direxiv team – a potential F1 outfit that took part in the bidding for the final grid place in 2008. They would have been a McLaren B team, but were beaten by Prodrive. It’s assumed that Direxiv wouldn’t have been able to participate, just as Prodrive couldn’t. Jean Alesi’s career is notable more for its longevity than the results he achieved. Whilst plenty of drivers have beaten his Grand Prix starts record, working for so long with various teams and only achieving one win is a true testament to a driver’s motivation.
That’s all for today, please join me tomorrow when we’ll look at another name in Formula 1. Until then, send me your feedback on the people we have covered so far – let me know your thoughts on the blog at Sidepodcast.com, via Voicemail on 0121 28 87225, or email me Christine at sidepodcast.com. See you tomorrow.
Welcome to F1 People, a mini series of short shows chronicling the lives of important people in the world of Formula 1. Today we’re going to look at Murray Walker, not a traditional F1 People subject, but an important one nonetheless.
Graeme Murray Walker was born on the 10th October 1923 in Birmingham, England. His father raced motorcycles professionally before the war, and was pretty good at it. Murray’s father also became a commentator for the BBC, working with them for 31 years. Walker decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, trying out the motorcycling route but realising he was never going to be as good as he wanted to be. At a particular race in 1949, his father was preparing to do the commentary, but had to step down at the last minute. Walker stepped in, and was overheard by a BBC producer in the crowd. He was invited for a commentating audition ahead of a Goodwood meeting, and got the job instantly.
Walker also took over his father’s role as motorcycle commentating when he died in 1962. Whilst commentating on the race weekends here and there, Walker made ends meet by starting a career in marketing. His creative flair saw him promoted through an advertising agency, and this double life suited him. He worked on occasional F1 commentaries until the late 1970s, and in 1978 he was given the job full time.
In 1980, Walker was teamed up with James Hunt, who had recently retired from Formula 1. Initially, the pairing was awkward, with Hunt being somewhat of a playboy and Walker perhaps slightly disapproving of that. But as the years went by, they became an incredible partnership, the first to really bond a commentator’s art of conversation with a driver’s expertise of the sport.
Walker retired from the advertising industry in 1982, making commentating his full time concern. He began to get a name for himself as having the “commentators curse”. He would discuss the action out on track and often say how well a certain driver was doing, and then moments later, the driver would crash or suffer a mechanical failure and have to retire. It became such a common theme that some drivers actually asked Walker specifically not to mention them during a race, so their luck would hold out.
James Hunt died in 1993, but Walker continued to commentate. The next year saw the death of Ayrton Senna, an event which Walker himself describes as the blackest moment of his career. He found it very tough to talk about the accident during the race, as he didn’t know the outcome, and the pressure of having so many fans awaiting news was incredible. However, Walker got through these and other similar tricky events with aplomb and was therefore top of the list when ITV won the rights to F1 coverage in 1997. He and all the fans switched channels with ease, and Walker was teamed up with the newly retired Martin Brundle. This pairing mimicked the James Hunt success with Brundle providing the insight.
Murray Walker retired from F1 commentating in 2001, at the United States Grand Prix. He was presented with an original brick from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in recognition of his work. This is a rare honour and something Walker treasures to this very day. Despite his retirement, Walker remained a public figure within motor racing. He became the voice of the Grand Prix Masters series in 2006, he commentated on Supercar races, and filled in for a couple of F1 commentators when they weren’t available – in both the UK and Australia. In 2006, Honda signed Walker up as their team ambassador for half of the season, meaning he was a corporate front for the team, welcoming and entertaining VIP guests.
When the announcement came this year that the BBC had won the rights to F1 back from ITV, Murray Walker was the first name that sprung to everyone’s lips when talking about who would fill the commentators role. He’s done plenty of work for Radio 5live since retiring and commentated on the odd race. Whilst Walker said he doesn’t want to return and do a full season, he would be more than happy to do the odd Formula 1 feature.
Walker has been married to the very private Elizabeth for almost 50 years, and himself turns 85 this year. Whilst admitting that he is slowing things down gradually, he’s also very open about the fact that he loves the limelight and the attention.
Finally, if there’s any doubt that Murray Walker is a legend in F1, you just need to know this. When the upcoming Hollywood film about Michael Schumacher was announced, there were rumours that Murray would be played by Bruce Willis. You don’t get a better compliment than that.
That’s all for today’s episode of F1 People. I hope you enjoyed the show and will join me again tomorrow when we look at another VIP in the world of Formula 1.
This is the second episode of the second series of F1 People, a set of shows from Sidepodcast that chronicle the lives of the important people involved in the sport we love. Yesterday we looked at Colin Chapman, and today we’re going to focus on Niki Lauda.
Andreas Nikolaus Lauda was born on 22nd February 1949 in Vienna, Austria. His family were not impressed with his desires to become a racing driver, but despite their disapproval, he took up the career. He started in the very low Formulas, and moved up the ranks to racing Porsche sports cars. Then his career hit a plateau, and to move onwards, Lauda took out a sizeable bank loan to buy an F2 drive with the then-new March team. He drove for them for one year in 1971, was promoted to F1 in 1972, and drove in both formulas that year. Lauda’s skills were heralded by the March team, but they were not very successful at that time within F1. Lauda took out yet another bank loan to get into BRM the next year. Unfortunately, this was another team struggling, but when team mate Clay Regazzoni transferred to Ferrari, he spoke highly enough of Lauda that the red team signed him up as well.
The Ferrari team were on their way back up in 1974, and Lauda fitted in perfectly by taking the second step on the podium on his debut race. His first victory was three races later. 1975 saw his first World Championship, and 1976 appeared to be heading the same way. Lauda had finished either first or second in the first six races, but then it came to the German Grand Prix. The full Nurburgring circuit was used in those days, and on only the second lap of the race, Lauda ran off track, hit an embankment and flew back onto the track into the path of another driver. The Ferrari burst into flames, and Lauda was trapped inside. Four drivers pulled him free from the car, but he had already suffered severe burns and had been inhaling toxic gases. Lauda fell into a coma and even had the last rites read to him.
However, it took Lauda only six weeks to recover from his terrible injuries, and he was back in the car finishing fourth on his return. The championship had closed up by then, and it came down to the last race of the season. In torrential rain, Lauda decided to withdraw from the race after two laps, saying he felt the conditions were too dangerous. He therefore handed the championship to James Hunt.
This decision left his relationship with Ferrari in tatters, and after a troubled season in 1977, Lauda left the team. He raced for Brabham for just over a year, then retired mid season to start up an airline. In 1982, he returned to F1 with McLaren and took his third World Championship in 1984.
He retired again, the next year. The Lauda Air business was taking off, no pun intended, but in 1999 the company was sold to Austrian Airlines. Lauda has kept himself very busy however. When his old friend Luca di Montezemolo took over at Ferrari, he joined them as a consultant. He has also managed the Jaguar Formula 1 team for two years, started a new airline for which he sometimes acts as a pilot, commentated on F1 TV coverage and writes books.
The severe burns Lauda suffered from caused a lot of scarring, and he chose only to have enough surgery to allow his eyelids to function correctly. He has never felt the need to have further reconstructive work done. It makes him a recognisable figure in the world of motorsport, but the respect he commands comes from an entirely different source. He is considered brave, not only for returning to the cockpit so soon after his accident, but for trusting his instincts and withdrawing from a championship-deciding race.
Thanks for listening to today’s F1 People. Share your thoughts in the comments on Sidepodcast.com or leave a voicemail on 0121 28 87225. I’ll be back tomorrow with another VIP in the world of F1.
Welcome to the second series of F1 People, seven short shows brought to you by Sidepodcast, chronicling the lives of important people in the world of F1. Last time round we looked at Michael Schumacher, Enzo Ferrari, Frank Williams and others. Obviously there are more than seven VIPs in F1, and we had several comments last time round suggesting people we may have missed. Thus, F1 People, series 2, is here to expand on our list, starting with Colin Chapman.
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman was born on the 19th May 1928, in London, where he grew up and went to University to study mechanical engineering. While he was a student, he learnt to fly and joined the Royal Air Force when he was 20. He wasn’t there for long, although the experience gave him a taste for aeronautical engineering that transferred to his love of cars. After leaving the RAF, Chapman became a member of the 750 Motor Club, a UK based racing club that specialises in Austin’s.
The first car that Chapman built was based around a 1930 Austin Seven and he named it Lotus. The car was entered into some minor races and was so successful that more versions were built. At this point, Chapman was working at the British Aluminium Company, but his girlfriend lent him the money to start up the Lotus Engineering Company. He partnered with Michael Allen and in 1953, Frank Costin joined the company to help create the Lotus Mk 8. The success of this car allowed Chapman to leave his job and work for Lotus full time. Whilst building and producing road and race cars, Chapman’s expertise was sought by Vanwall and BRM who both used him as a consultant to their racing teams.
In 1956, Chapman combined his experience with building cars, and working with the teams, to build his first single-seater, and two years later, he entered the car in its first Grand Prix at Monaco. Graham Hill and Cliff Allison were the first to drive the Lotus 12s in F1. A couple of iterations later, Chapman switched the engine from the front of the car to the rear, and in 1960, the Lotus 18 won its first race with Stirling Moss at the wheel. Team Lotus, however, didn’t win until the next year, at the US GP.
The 1960s were a dominant period for Lotus. Jim Clark won seven races in 1963 with the Lotus 25 – the first chassis to feature a monocoque. This came from Chapman’s aeronautical engineering background, and helped make the cars lighter and stronger. They were also much better for the driver in the event of a crash. Graham Hill was world champion in 1968 with the Lotus 49 – the first car to feature commercial sponsorship. Chapman’s desire to have commercial backing was a key factor in building the big-business sport that F1 is today.
Also in 1968 came the death of Jim Clark. He and Colin Chapman had become close friends through their many races and wins together. Clark died after his Lotus veered off the road and crashed into some trees. Chapman was very publically devastated, saying he had lost his best friend. He ordered the green and yellow Lotus badge to be replaced on all Lotus cars to a black badge for a month after Clark’s death.
The world championship wins continued into the 70s, and as the successes rolled in, the company began to grow, moving to Norfolk, and building up its sports car infrastructure. In the middle of the 1970s, Lotus began to look at ground-effects, successfully harnessing the innovative technology to help the Lotus 79 win the world championship with Mario Andretti at the wheel. Whilst ground effects were a major advancement in terms of the technology, they were also surrounded by controversy, and eventually banned in the 1980s.
In 1982, Chapman began work on active-suspension technologies, but this was never completed. He died of a heart attack in December that year, aged just 54 years.
After his death, a scandal emerged involving the DeLorean Motor Company. In 1992, Fred Bushell, a close colleague of Chapman’s pleaded guilty to “conspiring with the late Colin Chapman and others to defraud the DeLorean Motor Company.” He went to prison for four years, and it’s assumed that had Chapman been alive, he also would have received sentencing.
None of that takes the edge off the fact that he was one of the great innovators of Formula 1. Without Chapman, and his Lotus team, several of the major stepping stones in F1 technology may never have been made. He remains the engineering mind that all others look up to.
Thanks for listening to this first episode of F1 People (series 2). Don’t forget you can leave your thoughts on Colin Chapman on the blog, you can leave a voicemail on 0121 28 87225, or you can email me on christine @ sidepodcast.com. Join me tomorrow when we’ll take a look at another important name in F1.
