I have to say, without any doubt however, that my greatest racing car was one of those nutty, little Austin A35s, again a great crowd pleaser—especially at the Goodwood Revival. Typically, people would look at the car in the paddock and make comments about it prior to qualifying. After qualifying, they’d come back and take a second glance, as they couldn’t believe the agility and speed the car was capable of on track—it was a kind of disbelief that the car in front of them could put in such a performance. You could probably say the same about the Austin A40, but the car just doesn’t have the looks, or the fun element of the A35. When talking about the A35, I’m referring to the Speedwell class car. The Speedwell cars are quite powerful, well balanced and only susceptible to turning over if, like any other racing car—including Formula One cars—they are hit in the wrong place while racing.

I’ve had some great drivers in my A35, including Martin Brundle. When you consider he’s driven top F1 cars, he won Le Mans in the Group C Silk Cut Jaguar and has driven numerous notable racing cars, the little A35 still put a big grin on his face. He was a bit skeptical at first—understandably so, as he’s a quite cautious bloke—but once he’d got stuck into it on the track, he thought it was great. In the race, he got bumped, which cost him the victory, but his Goodwood lap record stood for a number of years in the car.

It’s great when professional drivers race historic cars, its an opportunity for them to “let their hair down,” shall we say, without the pressure of the team, sponsors or any other outside pressure on them to win. I’ve just prepared a car for BTCC and GT driver, Tom Onslow-Cole; he can’t wait to get behind the wheel and have a go. He’d probably come up against some of his BTCC competitors, like Andrew Jordan or Matt Neal, but in a very different environment of racing. I’d like to think our car will be very competitive against such a grid. Naturally, being BTCC guys, I’m sure door handles will be rubbed and other shenanigans typical of touring car racing—at it at full steam, you could say. Realistically, although these types of historic touring cars are fast, they’re nothing, speed-wise, compared with the modern day, hi-tech cars they’re used to driving week in and week out. The drivers are all well in their comfort zone, not frightened at all and, as I’ve already said, no outside pressures, commercial or otherwise. I’ve been very fortunate to run a good number of top professional drivers in my team, other than Martin Brundle, including Rob Huff, Nicolas Minassian and Emanuele Pirro—all superb drivers, and long may it continue—particularly in the A35!

As told to Mike Jiggle

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Since that day, I went on to carve out my motor racing career, where I have been fortunate enough to experience some wonderful moments, like winning important races and a string of titles and awards between 1990 and 1996, such as the McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year, Formula Ford 1600 champion, the Formula Opel Lotus Euroseries champion, the Marlboro Masters F3 winner and British Formula Two champion to mention a few. Of course, driving on fantastic circuits such as the old Zeltweg and Spa were truly thrilling too. My early successes led to the various Formula One tests for McLaren, and along the way I have been very fortunate to meet and work with some of the great names and personalities in motorsport.

The year 1996 was a great one for me, I drove the Reynard 95D-Cosworth for the Super Nova team run by David Sears, the son of the late, great Jack Sears. It was the year I won the British F2 Championship, which around that time was also known as the UKF3000 Championship—it was a time when the series was suffering a severe identity crisis. All cars in the championship were F3000 Reynards, it was a one make championship, so it pitted driver against driver rather than car against car. I won six races and clinched the title at Silverstone with two rounds to go. I started the season very well, winning the first five races—emulating Nigel Mansell’s feat in the 1992 F1 World Championship—but I lost out in a couple of races to my teammate, Luis Garcia Jr., from Brazil. In the championship, Gonzalo Rodriguez was the runner-up, sadly he lost his life just three years later driving an Indycar at Monterey. For me, the best race of that season was at Oulton Park, a favorite circuit of mine, where I took the outright lap record—my lap time was 1m24.68. The Reynard 95D-Cosworth Formula 3000 was one of the greatest racing cars I’ve ever driven. Racing is about car and driver working in perfect harmony, and I can tell you that was just the way it worked out for me that year—I dominated the series and won the championship. There were a number of memorable drivers in the championship that year including Christian Horner, now boss of Red Bull Racing, Perry McCarthy and Gonzalo Rodriguez—as I’ve already mentioned.

Going forward, I entered the International F3000 Championship the following year with Durango, and in 1998 with Den Blå Avis. Although I scored a few good results I was unable to continue mainly due to lack of finance. So, unfortunately, sponsorship, or the lack of it, summoned a premature end to my motor racing career, but I’m not the first person to endure that—I’m sure!

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I truly believe a good car does not have to do only with good performances, but also its opportunities to be right on the money, even if you go sometimes a little away from the good changes.

Of course, the big secret to any good car is the people who build it, and the people who look for the “car’s heart” while working on it every day. The people who shoot together for a common purpose—not just for a boss or somebody else—are those who make a car special. The MkIII had all those elements together, and it produced a perfect interaction.

With John Ward as the designer, Hiro Fujimori as the aerodynamic engineer and Jim Hamilton as the race engineer, it was a fantastic combination, simple as that. In our team, nobody worked for anybody in particular, instead everybody worked for everybody, and for themselves. Our team’s only concern was to improve the car to make it quicker, to make it safe, to make it reliable, and to win races.

I will never forget one night in 1992. We were fighting for the championship, and that night in a restaurant, I didn’t see one of our guys with us. When I asked for him, a couple of the team members told me: “He went back to the track.” I asked why, and they said, “Because he wanted to double check something he was not 100 percent sure was done fine.” That day I understood the championship was ours.

Of all the other things I may say about the MkIII in the next lines, the essence of the car, the secret itself, I have no doubt, is in the lines above.

The other thing to consider in evaluating a good car is how stable the car’s performance is in different scenarios. That was another great achievement of the MkIII. Road course, street course, slippery or bumpy tracks, the car was always there, like a good racehorse. We just had to interpret its requirements to make it better. Jim had perfect communication with the car, and with our guys. They were the best to execute the changes, and to read things when they understood it had to be changed to be better.

The MkIII was also very sensitive to its tires. We have to understand that the car’s performance starts and finishes with the tires, and you need a very good car balance to feel the differences between the different compounds, constructions, shapes, etc. Chassis, engine and track, all three have to match together through the tires, and only a good car can put all these elements together.

I remember one of the games we played with PJ and the team was to beat the ideal lap of the simulation computer, and more than once we were able to achieve it. This can be done only with a delicious car.

Also with PJ, we used to work on the setup with both cars going around the track at a certain lap time, and at that moment, it looked like the fastest we were able to go. When it was time for qualifying, however, almost always we were able to take out of the bag another two seconds. Everybody thought we had a special qualifying engine, but we just had our minds 100 percent focused, with only the worry of putting together the best lap possible. You can only do that when you are able to transfer what you have in mind straight to the wheels, and for that, all you need is the best car, the best team, and a great inspiration. For us, that inspiration had a name, and that name was Dan Gurney. My thanks to all you guys!

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Unloading the car, everything piled up with all the engines, spares and tires. I couldn’t wait to get in the car, but it was two hours later before I was assisted by my mechanic, Peter Bracewell, to get out. I was stuck, from about two seconds after I got in it. I realized from that point on I was never ever going to drive a modern single-seater. So, I knew I’d have to get one of my racing friends to drive it.

The team prepared the car in the usual maroon livery of my Antique Automobiles business. I had entered it for the 1969 International Trophy race at Silverstone, at the end of March. Vic Elford drove the car. He had a great reputation for driving Grand Prix cars, sports cars and rally cars too. He’d competed in the Monte Carlo Rally at the beginning of 1969. He qualified 13th and finished 12th. Not a bad run for a first time out. We were up against modern machinery with DFV engines, apart from BRM who had their own engine. Ours was the very complicated V12 Maserati engine.

The next event, just a couple of weeks later in April, was the Madrid Grand Prix at Jarama. It was another non-championship race. Previously, Jarama had been the home of the Spanish GP, but the 1969 Grand Prix was moved to Barcelona. Jarama tried to drum up interest in a race for F1 and F5000 cars. It offered good start money and good prize money too. My old friend Neil Corner drove the car and finished a very creditable 5th, he’d struggled with the gearbox in the latter stages of the race. We were paid in Spanish Pesetas, a sack full of Pesetas, worth around £1,500—so the car was half paid for. It was great fun and I wondered what to do next.

I received a letter from the organizers of the Monaco GP, the ACM, asking if I’d like to enter the 1969 Grand Prix in May. The requirement was to have an F1-accredited driver with an appropriate license to drive for me in the race. Again, I knew Vic Elford would be the ideal candidate for the race. He agreed. We did some testing at Silverstone prior to the race to get the car working as well as we could. It was quick, but not quick enough to compete on a par with the latest DFV power. We had a wonderful engine man, Pat Norris, who had come from ERA. He had previously worked at Norton on two-stroke engines, a marvellous man who did his best to fettle the Maserati engine, in a effort to reduce the performance deficit. The DFVs were getting around 410 hp, whereas we were only at 380 hp. The beginning of the race weekend was thrown into turmoil as the high wings were banned from this race onward. These changes didn’t affect us. Despite being seriously underpowered, and qualifying in last place, 16th on the grid, we came 7th in the race. It was a great start, so I just had to go on.

— As told to Mike Jiggle

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By now the Reynard factory was closed, so I parked my car and slept in it until the next morning. I kept the engine running for some time to keep me warm—after all it was winter. The next morning, as the factory opened I asked to use the Reynard toilets and washroom, I had a “cat bath” and cleaned my teeth. Once refreshed, I went to see the sales manager and told him I wanted to buy a F3000 racing car. He looked very happy. After carefully working out the price he showed me and asked, “How do you want to pay?” I was anxious to see his face when I answered, “At the end of the year, of course.” As the words left my mouth, I saw his face drop lower and lower. He dragged words out of his mouth, “You mean to say, I’ve wasted over an hour of my time for you to tell me you have no money?” Our conversation continued around the possibility of me finding a guarantor to allow me to pay for the car at a later date. It’s at times like this when it is good to have real friends in and around the sport. I made a phone call and explained the whole scenario to my friend, the sales manager took the phone, spent one minute on the phone to my friend and then said to me, “Okay, you can have the car.”

My friend was Nelson Piquet, I made a promise with him—if I didn’t win the championship I’d work for him for nothing until the debt was paid in full. I was about to leave the sales manager’s office, when I said to him, “Just one more thing. If I win the championship can I bring the car back and I’ll owe you nothing. Can we have a deal at that?” Nearly picking himself off the floor he said, “Roberto, Roberto, you’re a son of a bitch.” He paused, before holding his hand out saying, “You’ve got yourself a deal.” I’d got a car, but no engine. Fortunately, I had raced Formula Atlantic cars in Australia with Nicholson McLaren engines. Due to my success, John Nicholson was able to make a number of engine sales. John agreed to supply the team with engines. At last, we were all set to go racing. The car was transported to Bromley Motorsport where it was prepared for racing the first three races of the championship.

The third race was at Pau; my highest finish to that point was a 4th at the previous race at Vallelunga. Things went very well at Pau, I won the race and $5,000. The owner agreed to let me run in the fourth race, at Silverstone, and then on a race-by-race basis. I won at Silverstone, and then the next race at Monza too! I became the first driver to win a hat-trick of wins in the championship. I completed my F3000 championship season, becoming champion, and began a testing program for Ferrari. I was also back racing in Formula One with Coloni. Oh yes, the Reynard deal, I went back to the factory and spoke to Adrian he was pleased for me and agreed I owed him no money. The Reynard 88D-Cosworth was a great car that got me back into top-flight motor racing.

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In the race I had qualified reasonably well, I’m not sure of my grid position— possibly halfway, but, I hadn’t disgraced myself. The other chap was a couple of places behind me. John Hogan, a real hero of mine who’d raced at the Isle of Man TT on a BSA he built himself, was a spectator at the first corner. As the flag dropped, we all sped off from the grid to the first righthander— Riches Corner—as I was about to turn, CRASH!! My teammate had Tboned me. I walked back to the pits and told the team what had happened. Ron accepted what I had said. The other chap said I’d hit him, John had seen what had happened and told Ron. I was asked to wait for a phone call, which I got a few weeks later when I learned I had a full-time drive in the Ron Harris Team for the 1962 season.

After I got the call, you can’t believe how I felt. Previously, I was scratching around, with Father, trying to get the money and bits and pieces here and there; now I was just driving for a man who to me, had more money than God. He was paying for my pleasure. One of the first races of the 1962 season was at Oulton Park. John (Gee-Turner) and I were racing. During the race, John was driving down Cascades, he was a tall man, 6’ 2” or 3” and he sat very proud of the cockpit, as he came through the curves the car flipped and landed up-side-down. John was very fortunate to get away with minor injuries, it really frightened him. His wife was petrified, she told him he was not to race again…ever. So, that was the end of my teammate. For the rest of the season, I had the complete luxury of having two great cars prepared for me at each meeting. I had landed on my feet, with two Lotus 20s at my disposal. The only downside was they had Renault Dauphine gearboxes, but we got over that by running 13-inch wheels on short circuits and 15s on the longer circuits. Purely by sheer luck we had two of the fastest engines on the grid; all my life I’d been scratching trying to draft people in a straight line, now I had the power to ease by them. We had gone from a 1000-cc, 80-mm hole, to an 85-mm hole. I’m not sure what this bore did to the two blocks, but it was fantastic, it gave 105-hp—everyone else had 101-hp. For the first time I was able to compete on the same level. The main thing I recall was being able to be there or thereabouts at the end of a race and continually being able to compete on a more even basis than I’d been able to do before. It was terrific.

As told to Mike Jiggle

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The Jaguar XJR-14 was a strikingly good-looking car resplendent in its purple livery. It was powered by the Ford HB engine, which was basically a Formula One engine. It also had an incredible amount of down force. Driving the car was a great experience as it seemed to stick to any surface, even a wet track on slick tires – it had an incredible amount of grip. I must regard this as my greatest racecar.

The Silk Cut Jaguar team manager, Tom Walkinshaw, had been very instrumental in my racing career. I remember writing to him when I was a teenager telling him how I wanted to be a top racing driver and asking for a drive in the BMW County Championship to represent Norfolk. Although he didn’t know me from Adam, he gave me the opportunity to race the Norfolk BMW car at the Norfolk round at Snetterton. There was stiff opposition, with drivers such as Andy Rouse and a lot of other famous names. He went on to support me in F3, when I was up against Ayrton Senna.

I had been with Jaguar at the time of the first Tony Southgate designed XJR-6 and, pretty amazingly led the first of the car’s first race at Mosport, Canada in 1985. The Porsche 956 was the car to beat, and I drove through the middle to the front two and took the lead. I led a number of the initial laps, but then I think Porsche turned the boost up on their cars and that was it for us. An impressive start nonetheless, with a podium finish. It was a very sad race, though, as it claimed the life of Manfred Winkelhock. He crashed at Turn 2, colliding with the concrete safety barrier.

Ross Brawn had taken over from Tony Southgate as the designer at TWR Jaguar. I don’t think it was the fact that the former designer had run out of steam at that point, I think it was just Tom Walkinshaw had his eye on Formula One and Ross was the man to have. Just as Tony had in the early days of the Walkinshaw era with Jaguar, Ross was given a clean sheet at the outset of the design stage of the XJR-14.

I remember racing the XJR-14 at Silverstone in the 6-Hour World Sportscar race, in 1991. I drove it single-handed, flat-out for the entire race distance. Although tiring, I was pleased with my podium place, 3rd. I felt I could have probably gone on to win the race, but I had a ten-minute pit stop that put me at a significant disadvantage. The sister car driven by Teo Fabi and Derek Warwick went on to take the honors beating the Sauber Mercedes of Karl Wendlinger and Michael Schumacher. Funnily enough, that drive with the Jaguar team, so impressed both Tom Walkinshaw and Ross Brawn that it got me the Benetton drive in Formula One the following year, as teammate to Michael Schumacher.

The Benetton B192 was the best Formula One car I ever drove. I would describe it as a very straight car, very benign. It had a normal H-pattern shift gearbox and normal suspension. It was simply a great car that could be driven flat out – and a race winner too. It took Michael Schumacher to his first win at Spa, and my best finish, 2nd in the Italian GP at Monza.

As told to Mike Jiggle

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My career started far away from the race circuits of the world, I was a merchant seaman and went on to become a mechanic for Frank Williams. He’d headhunted me to join him as a mechanic, and I built my own Formula Ford car up from a wrecked Formula Three Brabham chassis; I raced the car for two seasons, 1968 and 1969. Frank was buying wrecked Formula Three chassis from the continent, we would strip the cars back to the chassis and rebuild them, using brand-new parts, and sell them for less than two-thirds of the cost of a new one. It was the era when you could update a car for several years. I shared a flat with Frank and we worked from a “lock-up” garage at the back—much to the detriment of the people who shared the block, in Pinner, Middlesex. We moved, after a while, to a proper leasehold property in Slough. Things were starting to look up a bit from then on.

With a little support from Frank, I took on two Formula Ford championships in 1969, which was a little bit silly. I came 2nd in both championships, because I had to miss rounds of both, missing one championship by only half a point. Fellow competitors at that time would be Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Gerry Birrell and other good English drivers who somehow fell by the way. I feel I became known by more people doing both events and that led to Formula Three people looking at me. Indeed, in 1970, I gave up working and raced full time, although Frank really wanted me to stay with him, he said we would be “going places,” when you look back now, he was starting to build the empire that is now very evident. I joined a small private Formula Three team in 1970 and that’s how I got my drive in the Brabham BT28.

In 1971, I got my dream drive in Formula One, but as reserve driver for Lotus. Chapman said, “Let’s get you in an F1 car.” So I was entered in a Lotus 49 at the 1971 Race of Champions that lasted until Druids when the fuel pump belt broke so I had no power. I always remember that race. The car was late for qualifying so I was at the back of the grid, I remember asking Colin, “And how do you get one of these things off of the grid? I’ve never started with an F1 car before.” He just put his arms around me and said, “You’re the driver boy, not me!” Being a Brands specialist in other formulae, I thought I would use the same tactics; I was on the inside of the back row and when the flag fell everybody got off. I went down the inside all the way to 5th place, but that’s when the bloody fuel pump belt broke and that was that. In a strange way, it may have been the best thing that happened. I did feel a little out of my league being 5th so soon with all the others hounding me. Formula Three cars at that time were about 105-110 bhp and Formula One was about 500 bhp, so the change was just awesome. The braking wasn’t a problem as it was more or less the same across the board; it was just the sheer power difference. The big kick in the back with the Cosworth power behind you was terrific. Motor racing has given me a great life over the years, I feel I made the right decisions given the circumstances, just unfortunate though to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

As told to Mike Jiggle

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Looking back, the rally that gave me the most personal satisfaction was the Spa-Sofia-Liege Rally in 1964, when I was paired with Tony Ambrose. I was driving what I believe to be one of the great cars of all time, an Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII. The rally was run in very difficult circumstances, the weather was hot, the roads were little better than hostile and the pace was brutal for four days and nights of the most intensive high-speed competition in the world. It took us from Belgium through to the Black Sea and back. There was just the one rest halt and that was in Sofia, for just one hour. It was a pure road race on dirt. We won it by a rather big margin and, despite problems, the Austin-Healey 3000 never missed a beat. Along the way there was a jump—an unexpected jump—we took off and landed with a great jolt. It was so bad, I lost all my fog lamps fixed to the front of the car, so it was lights out almost immediately. The bottom of the Healey took a bashing too, so much so that we couldn’t operate the doors properly anymore. I stopped at a special stage, cut some fence wire from a nearby field and tied the doors up so they wouldn’t flap open.

En-route we entered Yugoslavia on our way out from Spa. It was a real tough section, some 165 kilometers long. After 160 of the 165 kilometers, we had a flat rear tire, then one kilometer later the other rear tire burst. I was revving the Healey up to 6,000 rpm prior to the tires bursting, then I changed policy and just revved to 4,000 rpm to help the tires. When we got to the service, the wheel spokes were all broken, so we were just running on the discs. We didn’t stop as we didn’t want to give away any time. Had we done so we would have had to let the car behind us pass and we’d end up in his dust. After that service point, I continued to drive at 4,000 rpm as I didn’t want anymore tire problems. Despite the heavy crash landing and the problems with the tires the car kept going until we returned to Belgium and the finishing point. It was a really hard rally, the win was so satisfying.

Another memorable rally that comes to mind was the Round Australia Rally in a Holden. We were three in the car, the idea was for one to sleep and the other two to work. I remember I was driving, Barry Lake was navigating and Shekar Mehta was supposed to be asleep, but with such long stages there wasn’t a chance, as he had to do all the “office work” and get the paperwork we needed ready for us. We were on a long stage, somewhere west of Adelaide, a particularly rocky section. It reminded me of a salt lake, one minute all flat, the next very rocky. We managed to get our third puncture during this section and, of course, we only had two spare wheels. I was nominated to change the tube, as I had proved to be the fastest at changing tubes. That didn’t include pumping the tire up, I left Barry to do that with a hand pump—poor guy had to work flat-out to get the tire inflated quickly, he was so tired and really sweating, I really felt so sorry for him. The minutes were running away from us, and Peter Brock was extending his lead. We ended up finishing 3rd, but I always remember Barry Lake’s face—it was a picture of pain and agony after inflating the tire. In those days we earned every penny we got from our sport, today it’s much calmer, shorter and, of course, the drivers are paid much more.

As told to Mike Jiggle

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These were big things, it was a big effort to try and get your racecar the fastest and most reliable to cross the finish line first. By all means use everything available to assist your development, but ultimately it has to work on the circuit, so at Porsche we used a lot of time circuit testing. With circuit testing you also get the opinion of the driver, this is really essential to racing, you get a more stable and realistic meaning. Yes, at Porsche, we had our own test track where we could go at a minute’s notice. But, the truth of any positive work on the dyno or wind tunnel has to be on the road.

I’m asked many times for my greatest race and racecar, this is an easy question for me. It was the 1982 victory with the 956, Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell. Yes, the first Le Mans victory for Porsche in 1970 was special, it’s not very often, even these days, a driver says, “We’ll win next year.” However, Hans Herrmann did exactly what he said he would do. When you looked at the starting position he had on the grid you knew his words were a little frail, he was not the favorite. The race was very difficult, because it was raining almost all of the time and they just had to make changes from wet to intermediate tires, and so on. I don’t think they ever had a session with slicks on the car. I think it was a combination of the experience Hans Herrmann had and Richard Attwood’s abilities, which made them successful. The second car was a long-tailed, which was much faster, but had problems. Porsche had the first three on the podium that year. Herrmann, I suppose lucky to be the winner.

Personally, the 1982 win and the 956 ares my favorites not only because it was the first victory for the 956, but also because it was a surprise. We had done just two endurance tests. To finish 1-2-3 was pretty remarkable. It was a car that we started with a clean sheet of paper; everything was new, the monocoque, aerodynamics—which included ground effects designed completely different to that of a Formula One car—the gearbox, indeed, everything except the engine which had proved to be very reliable and no need to change it. In those days too, we had the best combination of driver with Jacky and Derek.

Drivers were paramount in those days as we had very restricted data logging devices, but nothing like they have today. Electronic devices were big and heavy in those days and not able to be run on the car. We ran data logging equipment on test days at our test circuit, but it was primitive and heavy compared to today, although it did give us a basic idea of how to set up the car. The driver, though, was very pivotal in the way we went. I look back on these years of the 956/962 with very special memories.

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Believe it or not the greatest racing car for me is something that anyone could drive, the Formula Two March 782. For 1978, Renault opted out of the F2 Championship, opening up an opportunity for March to step in as a major force. Most drivers had a March that year; the only other serious challenge came from Chevron. The 782 was not only a works car, but also an excellent customer car anyone could win with straight off the shelf. Not just any races mind you, I’m talking about international Formula Two races. Today, that may be very difficult to believe, and certainly now, I would think, impossible to do. The car was supremely and very finely balanced, very simple to operate. Changing the roll bars to tune it to the track and my driving style allowed me to challenge well in races. This car will never go down in the annals of history as the world’s greatest racing car, but I don’t think it could be beaten. Robin Herd and Max Mosley and the guys at March were extremely good at this sort of thing, I’m sure they too would agree that the 782 was far and away their best customer car. Ron Dennis ran 782s for his Project Four team that year for Eddie Cheever and Ingo Hoffman.

My car was powered by one of Brian Harts’ engines, which gave about 300 bhp; and on a very low budget, we managed some excellent results. BMW engines powered the works cars and most of the others on the grid, indeed Bruno Giacomelli won the 1978 championship, winning 8 of the 12 races. Significantly, he won the F2 race at Hockenheim for March’s 50th victory. The cars in 2nd to 5th places were also March 782s. One of my best races, in the now Toleman Group-backed car, was the 1979 Eifelrennen, at Nürburgring, where I finished 2nd behind Marc Surer who was in the latest March 792-BMW. The race was all about tires. Nürburgring, the full old circuit I mean, is 14 miles long; making a wrong choice is not just a couple of miles and back to the pits, you have to think 14 miles. Marc chose to race in damp conditions on slicks. I had a couple of pit stops to change tires and was, at one time, as low as 12th, but I fought back to 2nd, a well-earned podium place.

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I have certain fond memories of the first single-seater racing car I drove, which was a Vanwall. Tony Vandervell gave me a wonderful opportunity of driving it at Goodwood. There are a number of single-seater racing cars that I would have liked to have driven, throughout my career. It could be that I didn’t necessarily put enough attention into making certain I sat in the best car at the best time. My championship-winning Ferrari 158 was a good basic car, but not a special one. The “special one” was the car fitted with a flat-12 engine. I drove this only on one occasion at Monza 1965. In this guise, I really had the opportunity of “playing” with the opposition, and this was the only Ferrari I ever drove that was capable of doing that. The little 1.5-liter V8 was a good, sound car, capable of being driven hard, but we were always playing “catch up”—it wasn’t a Lotus! The direct injection caused a lot of finicky problems.  Coventry Climax had an engine that was far more advanced than ours. It is true to say that the F1 side of Ferrari always suffered at the expense of the Le Mans program.

A sports car I was particularly proud of racing, although I had an enormous accident in one due to parts breaking, was the Lola T70. It was wonderful to be part of its creation and development, it gave me great satisfaction—it was a really good motor car.  Another along that line, which was a superb example of a car “built for the job,” was the 300SLR Mercedes, the type that Stirling Moss drove. It is well-balanced, but at the same time a Jekyll and Hyde car. I, again, have had the privilege of driving it.  You can make it so well behaved all the time, but also having the advantage of really pushing it and it responding in a way that many other Mercedes cars never did. The others were a bit “tip-toe.” The 300SLR is such a forgiving car, ideal for races such as the Mille Miglia.

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Racing Honda cars in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) is pretty special to me. I’ve won three BTCC titles and countless races with them. Of course, I hold my first British Touring Car Championship win quite close to my heart. It was at the wheel of the 2005 Integra Type R.

As Team Dynamics, we launched the car at the beginning of the 2005 season and I won two of the first three opening rounds of the BTCC series at Donington. I was rarely off of the podium during that championship-winning season. It was just a super fast car straight out of the box, and its reliability continued to give more as the season progressed. It’s some achievement for me to have been placed in a point-scoring position for every race that year and a confirmation of the consistency of the car.

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The 24 Hours of Le Mans was always good for me. Of the 12 times I raced, I finished six times—not a bad ratio in the world’s most enduring of races. My best result was in 1987, we finished a fantastic 2nd to the works Rothmans Porsche 962C of Derek Bell, Hans Stuck, and Al Holber—perhaps my greatest achievement? My teammates were Jurgen Lassig and Pierre Yver. We were in the privately entered Primagaz Porsche 962C and beat so many other factory and works teams. Every so often Le Mans has a David and Goliath battle, and I was pleased to be part of one of them. Without any doubt it was the pinnacle of my career. It would be easy to say that my greatest racecar should be the Porsche 962C, and indeed it is a tremendous car.

However, as a Belgian, the Spa 24 Hours is a very special race. For me, the 1987 race was something to remember. I was driving a BMW M3 entered by Garage du Bac and co-driven with Fabian Giroix and Pascal Fabre. A very troubled first practice left us in 27th position. In final practice, we knew we had to get places back. Fabian was really charged and we ended up 8th quickest. For the race, it was damp then drying and then damp again; typical Spa weather conditions. After the first two hours, we were lying 5th. Brake trouble dropped us back to 13th, but by 8 a.m. we had fought back to 5th again. We continued up the order to 3rd by lunchtime and finished on the podium. The BMW M3 was simply a great car and has become an icon over the years. I think it’s the simplicity of the chassis, the power of the BMW engine and the pure drivability of the car that makes it many drivers’ favorite. It certainly worked well for us that day.

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Being a driver for Scuderia Ferrari, I must say, is the most amazing job any driver can have. The opportunity to pull on the famous red overalls of Ferrari and climb into one of the team’s beautiful red cars is something I will never get bored of. It is an amazing experience, and I must admit I feel very privileged to do it.

My career started in karts and progressed through Formula Three, F3000, Super Formula and Formula Nissan, which led to me graduating to F1 with Minardi for the 1999 season. I scored my first FIA F1 World Championship point in the German Grand Prix, and I enjoyed two happy seasons with that small team. I joined Williams for 2001 and became their test and reserve driver, clocking up thousands of kilometers on an annual basis. At that time, I was the F1 driver covering the largest number of laps in the world on an annual basis! I raced for Williams three times, deputizing for Ralf Schumacher, scoring points in a memorable race at Monza in 2003.

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Having a father interested in motorsport, and him taking me to watch Tazio Nuvolari race at the 1938 Donington Grand Prix, directly led to my lifetime of involvement in the sport. Nuvolari really left an indelible impression on me. Initially, as a young boy, I emulated Nuvolari in my mind, even putting pieces of cardboard on the front forks of my bike, so when the wheel went ’round they caught in the spokes and made a sound like the great man’s car. Well, I believed it to be so. My serious racing career started later in life driving a Turner owned by John Handley, but this was entered in speed events and hillclimbs rather than circuit racing. After some success in those events, I ended up at the Midland Racing Partnership driving their Formula Junior car. As a young driver the aim, certainly in my day, was to be spotted by a team manager as a potential race winner. I was lucky enough to be picked out by Ken Tyrrell, but sadly he had already got Tony Maggs and John Love racing for him. Then Bob Gerrard came along and I raced his Formula One Coopers in Formula Libre events. I got a “Driver of the Day” award at Bob’s local circuit Mallory Park, and was one of the last recipients of the Goodwood Trophy—just before the circuit closed. Emulating my hero, Tazio Nuvolari, Bob entered me in the 1965 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The three big names of the sport took the first three places; Jim Clark won in the Lotus, Graham Hill was 2nd in the BRM and John Surtees completed the podium in his Ferrari. I managed 38 laps before retiring with ignition problems. Although I was in tremendous company, I didn’t feel out of my depth at all, even though I qualified last on the grid.

Having said all the above, the car I became synonymous with was the Mini Cooper, a simply great racing car. I got the drive after talking to John Cooper and pleading with him to let me “have a go” in the same car Maggs and Love were driving. It was a very strange feeling at first, the power and handling of the Mini Cooper S were a lifetime away from the Formula One car I’d been driving for Bob Gerrard. The one thing I really remember was the car didn’t brake very well, so I ended up sliding it through the corners in a complete drift. Dunlop hated this style of driving, but it worked for me and entertained the crowd—“Smokey Rhodes” they called me due to the amount of fog coming from the squealing rubber of my Mini Cooper S. I always felt at home driving the Mini, it is always a great feeling when car and driver become one—that was the feeling I got with my car. My driving style allowed me to keep up with cars that had far more muscle and grunt in the engine department than I had. They could pull away on long straights, but I could catch them in the twisty bits and the corners; much to their displeasure. Success came too; I won the 1300-cc class of the British Saloon Car Championship in 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968. At the back of your mind, you always know someone will come along and take your crown. After so many successful years. I called it a day and hung up my helmet in 1973. It was great while it lasted, and the Mini was just a fantastic car to drive.

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Mercedes W 196

Car: Mercedes W196 / Engine: 8-Cylinder In-line / Maker: Mercedes-Benz / Bore X Stroke: 76 mm X 68.8 mm  / Year: 1954 / Capacity: 2,496 cc / Class: Formula 1 / Power: 257 bhp at 8,200 rpm / Wheelbase: 2350, 2210 and 2150 (Monaco) mm / Track: 1330 mm in front, 1358 mm rear / Weight: 650 kg (monoposto), 750 kg (streamline) / Tires: Tires were 6.00 x 16 front and 7.00 x 16 rear.

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Ralt RT4s were really good cars, and they were a good car for a long time. I think they helped keep Formula Atlantic staggering along when it was in pretty bad shape. They were such good cars that anybody could go pretty well in one. They were easy to maintain, strong and pretty simple—other than all the fiberglass that went with them. They were also readily updatable.

The Spice GTP and GTP Lights cars were also real nice cars. The Pontiac-engined one I drove for Joe Huffaker had a bit of a tractor motor, you couldn’t rev it, you had to let it grunt, but it could do that quite well. The Acura I drove for Comptech had a much narrower power band. You didn’t want to over-rev it, but you had to rev it. Spice kept trying to sell new aero packages that the wind tunnel said had this much more downforce and this much less drag, but a little bit of ride height change or a little bit of rake change and all that wind tunnel downforce went somewhere else; it wasn’t under the car, that’s for sure. I think the English frequently made the mistake of thinking that the racetracks over here were billiard tables. I’ve never been to England, but I’ll bet the tracks over there are a lot smoother than here. All in all, those were really good cars, strong, and simple.

The Spice was certainly the privateer car. I think if IMSA had given the Chevy stock block privateer guys a couple more little things, maybe a little less weight, it may have made life a little easier for them. They probably wouldn’t have won anyway, but that’s not as important as having the idea, the belief, that if things fall your way you can win, and after a while it got pretty difficult for a guy with a Chevy-Spice to convince himself that he could do that.

The Spice brings me to the other cars I really liked: anything that Joe Huffaker had a hand in. I don’t know what it is that he knows, but it’s a lot! That guy’s my hero. It seems like he can make anything from an Indycar to a Sprite work well—better than the sum of its parts.

My real favorite, however, is Kathy and Phil Reilly’s Brabham BT44 that I drove with HGP. It’s really cool. While it doesn’t have the level of grip of a later, ground-effect car, the trade-off is that it’s lighter on its feet—the kind of car you can drive with your fingertips. It’s narrow and it’s short, which can make it a little twitchy, but properly set up it can be pitched around pretty well. You can’t drive it really sideways, but within limits it’ll put up with a surprising amount of that cowboy stuff. And that DFV really is a great engine.

The Brabham feels like an Atlantic car with two good engines! So, while it may not, in contemporary terms, be the quickest thing around the track, it has spirit and manners. It’s about what it feels like in your hands and on your backside, as opposed to what the stopwatch (remember stopwatches?) says; a cooperative little car. I have a Lotus Elan, and I think Gordon Murray may own or have owned one—maybe we both like the same kind of minimalist cars.

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From there I was able to purchase a McLaren M23, a car I raced both in the ShellSport series and at my home Grand Prix. The car was originally raced in the USA as an F5000 M25, but had been converted back to an M23, Alistair Caldwell sold it to me. I got the car very cheap as it had been damaged in transit when seawater got into the cargo bay of the ship. After the M23, I ran a Lotus 78 in the Aurora AFX British F1 Championship. The results weren’t too bad, but my greatest results came with my greatest racecar, a Williams FW07. The car was just the best, I purchased it directly from Frank Williams, and it gave me six pole positions and nine podium places, including five wins, and I became the 1980 Aurora AFX British Formula One champion. Obviously, I was pleased with all my victories that year, two at Mallory Park, one at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, but the win at Monza—the only time the championship ran away from the UK—was special, with all the history surrounding the circuit. Yes, a very special moment. I also raced the car at the Spanish GP that year, starting from 17th on the grid. Unfortunately, just under half distance I crashed out, but Alan Jones won the race in a factory run FW07—he became World Champion that year. I think the Williams FW07, designed by Patrick Head, is one of the all-time great racing cars.

After my championship year, I joined Guy Edwards in the World Endurance Championship driving a Lola T600. I found it very interesting watching and comparing driving styles. Our season wasn’t the best, although we had two victories, one at Brands Hatch and the other at Enna. Driving sports cars is a world away from Formula One, it’s much more fun and the guys I raced with were a very friendly bunch. Looking back, it’s a shame the British F1 series folded—it was great racing, which gave me some memorable races and, of course, the British F1 Championship.

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After a couple of years, I went to McLaren and worked on the McLaren M23—maybe one of the most successful Grand Prix cars of all time. Despite winning two World Championships, I’d yet to design my greatest racecar—the Chaparral 2K Indycar. Yes, I was also very pleased with the successful 1984 McLaren turbo car, which was fast straight out of the box. However, I look upon the Chaparral as the “greatest” in the terms of it being done at such low cost and meager means, yet winning the 1980 Indy 500—America’s most prestigious motor race. For me, it certainly didn’t come any better than that. I started from the proverbial blank piece of paper and my “office” was simply a drawing board in my dad’s front room, as I’d returned to the UK from the U.S. upon the birth of our first child. Gordon Kimball came over to assist me, we’d worked together at Vel’s Parnelli Jones team, following my move from McLaren. At VPJ, I’d also become immersed in ground effects by adding pieces of plastic to the sides of the car and continued those ideas I’d learned when joining Jim Hall. We built three 2K cars in Luton, England and had them shipped out to Midland, Texas—a real shoestring operation, but successful. One thing that did surprise me about Jim Hall was the lack of his input, he was literally team owner. In terms of design there was no involvement, but in terms of the team there was the finance and his name that brought along companies like Pennzoil and that was it. I remember when the first car went over there he got the mechanics to check it over. He checked the rear bump steer and said, “I don’t know about this rear bump steer.” I asked what the problem was as he seemed to be moving it right out of the range where it would work. It was the things he did and didn’t do, which raised questions about him in my mind. Johnny Rutherford did the business in the race by gaining pole position, leading for around 120 laps and taking the yellow Pennzoil-sponsored car to the flag. It was such a defining moment in my career.

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In the 1960s, the Mini was the car to have and my parents had given me one as a present for my 21st birthday. I’d been dragged along to a motor race at Brands Hatch as a spectator, but I must admit I found the whole thing incredibly boring, the smell of burning rubber when the tires squealed and the aroma of burning oil was quite unpleasant. Although it was so boring for me to watch, it looked rather fun to do.

In those days, you could pay something like £5 and you could drive around Silverstone. On the day I went, Jack Sears was testing the BMC Abingdon Healey with BMC Competitions manager Marcus Chambers. Marcus was quite surprised with the way I drove my car, I impressed him with my consistent lap times. Toward the end of the day he asked if I’d like Jack to show me around the circuit, the different lines to take, all of which which would help me improve. I found it an incredibly useful exercise.

In my first proper race, I found something I hadn’t come across before—understeer. I couldn’t understand why when I turned the wheel of my car it went straight on. The club circuit at Silverstone, at that time, was an airfield—just three corners and three straights. So, instead of taking the corner I ended up in the straw bales. I didn’t get my license signed for that race. I hadn’t any real knowledge of how a car handles, I was extremely annoyed, but soon learned. I try, as far as possible, in anything I do “to get it right.” In motor racing I always tried to be in the right gear, at the right revs, on the right line both on the straights and especially in the corners. Sometimes that was impossible, either when surrounded by other cars or trying to pass on a different line.

Steve McQueen was a good friend of John Whitmore, and wanted to race in England, so John loaned Steve his Mini for a meeting at Brands Hatch. In the race, there were five of us in Minis dicing and changing places all the time, Vic Elford, Steve, Mick Clare, another competitor and me. Vic Elford took the lead at the end and won, but I managed 2nd in front of Steve, it was tremendous. We all stood on the podium together, we were all thrilled and it was such a great race.

If there was one circuit I really enjoyed it was the Nürburgring. It was much more demanding and far more challenging. I mean the circuits I’d driven on prior to this were a few straights and a few corners driven at a “hell for leather” pace for ten laps. There was a certain art in getting the best out of the Nürburgring. One could really appreciate the track and it was so fulfilling to know you had linked certain sections and found the correct lines. In 1962, I was invited to drive a Mini with Peter Galliford and we finished 2nd in class, but in 1963 with my uncle, Christopher McLaren, came victory! Thanks to Don Moore’s care in preparing the Mini, we won our class. It was a wonderfully proud experience to stand on the podium and have “God Save the Queen” played in honor of our win with victory garlands around our necks.

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Mercedes-Benz carried on racing until they had a message from officials at their HQ to stop. While Mercedes withdrew from the race, I have always thought that it was totally disrespectful for them to leave the circuit prior to seeing and meeting the race officials. Apparently, the Le Mans race officials visited the Mercedes team hotel at around 5 o’clock on the Sunday morning, only to be told that the team had left…lock, stock and barrel. I’ve always asked myself what was that? Why did Mercedes run away? Those questions have never been properly answered. To me, Mercedes’ disappearance was far more disloyal to the situation than ever Jaguar was accused of. Many too, have tried to lay the blame and use Mike Hawthorn as a scapegoat for the accident occurring—especially the late John Fitch. He says he saw what happened, but how could he? He was in the pits a long way from the start of the accident and having his view well and truly obscured by the pits and grandstand buildings—it was impossible for him to see anything at all from his viewpoint. It most certainly wasn’t Mike Hawthorn’s fault, and if you care to see the film The Deadliest Crash, you will appreciate what I’m saying is right—no matter how John Fitch likes to think about it. I’ve been asked if Hawthorn was affected by the incident? My honest reply is, “No!” He was as affected as most of us were by the terrible loss of life through motor racing, but he was not the cause and shouldn’t have had to endure the finger pointing that followed.

Today, I’m an ambassador for Jaguar and still have the opportunity of driving some of the best vehicles they’ve produced. Nevertheless, and as I initially said, nothing compares to the 1955 Jaguar D-Type—my greatest racecar.

As told to Mike Jiggle

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This was the first time we had built a monocoque car and we had to learn fast, we had to learn how aerodynamics and ground effects worked on a sports car. Yes, Formula One was already doing it in those days, but that was entirely different to what we wanted to do—we knew because we tried to copy what they had done and it didn’t work. So, since there was no point in talking to Formula One people, we had to talk to aerospace people in Germany. In no more than two hours our meeting was complete, and work started on the new car immediately. Time was our enemy too, we had little time to waste, it was a great pressure, but only when looking back. I think we were all so involved in the design process we just got on with the job and did our best. The first race we had with the new car was at Silverstone, just nine months after we had first begun working on the car.

In these days too, we had the best combination of driver with Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, who went on to win the 1982 24 Hours of Le Mans. Drivers were paramount in those days as we had very restricted data-logging devices, but nothing they have today. Electronic devices were big and heavy in those days and not able to be run on the car. We ran data-logging equipment on test days at our test circuit, but it was primitive and heavy compared to today, although it did give us a basic idea of how to set up the car. The driver, though, was very pivotal in the way we went.

Pre-season testing at Paul Ricard ran faultlessly, so we were ready to race. Our first competitive run with the 956 was at the 1982 Silverstone Six Hour race (the second round of the Manufacturers Championship). It was just a test session for us. In qualifying we were much faster than the Lancias, but in the race we simply cruised around in fifth gear, gradually increasing speed as the race went on. As I said, this was just a test in preparation for the Le Mans 24 hours. Our car finished overall 2nd, at Silverstone, and 1st in class —very respectable, without giving too much away to the opposition.

At Le Mans, as always, there were a few problems. The first was early on in the race with a misfire, which was caused by fuel mixture. We also had a puncture and lost a few laps. Both of these were early on in the race. After this, we remained in the lead and went on to win the race. This first win with the 956 in 1982 stands out above all the Le Mans victories I’ve been involved with. As I said, everything was new, except the engine. It was a great win and a great car.

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Derek Gardner, designer of the Tyrrell P34, had been instrumental in my winning the 1994 Euro Historic F2 Championship, and it was his wish for us to race the Tyrrell 005 in the 1995 FIA Thoroughbred Grand Prix Championship, which we won. I drove, Simon Bull was the patron and Derek the brains. A “B” spec Tyrrell P34—chassis 006—became available, so Simon purchased the car. The plan was to compete the car in the FIA TGP Championship, for Simon and me it was the challenge, however, for Derek Gardner it was a case of unfinished business.

Our aim was to set the record straight and remind the dissenters just what the car was really all about. The biggest problem and issue was the rotational value of the four small wheels and the deformity of the tires. We had to look at the construction of the tires to compensate for this. Goodyear, the original manufacturer, lacked capacity to continue with the development of the original tires and this became the car’s Achilles Heel. While the rear tires were developed the front tire development remained static. Over a very short period of time the imbalance showed and the car became unstable. So, the downfall of Project 34 was purely down to lack of tire development, rather than aerodynamics or mechanics. FIA TGP tire supplier Avon had a look at the construction with Derek. One of their senior men had been at Goodyear for the original project, which helped enormously. Once we had the new rubber the car was great, and within three laps I forgot I had two extra wheels, the car gave great confidence.

The earlier Tyrrell 005 had suffered understeer, I hate understeer, and the car was also aerodynamically limited at the front, but not the six-wheeler. Despite other criticisms, Jody Scheckter told me the car had great steering qualities—it would go exactly where he wanted it to go. Sadly, by the time I got the P34 both Ronnie Peterson and Patrick Depailler had been lost to us, so Jody Scheckter was my only reference, as far as driving competitively was concerned. Of course, Derek gave me some great input and we had several conversations along the way, but Ken Tyrrell made the comment, “You’ll never win with that.”

First time out, at Paul Ricard, I had just five laps of testing due to a small problem with the brake calipers. I just missed pole and came 2nd in the race—despite having only five brakes. In Monaco, it was a little fraught in the wet, but overall it was a great well-balanced car that I was able to attack with. It was very responsive to my driving style and gave me huge confidence to race with. One other quality I found was with the front-end grip, many cars lose grip when in traffic, but the P34 didn’t, purely due to the design characteristics of the front of the car. We did the whole season of the FIA Thoroughbred series in 1999 and I came 2nd, although I won the class, but in 2000 I won the championship outright—even by taking the class structure out—that was a great feeling. Winning at Monza was the highlight of the season, with the great legacy, history and emotion the circuit has it’s great to win there. It was great to be presented with the Championship rose bowl at the FIA Awards Dinner that year. Rightfully, I let Derek keep the bowl, but following his passing I now have it back. That dinner, in Monte Carlo, was a great social event. I took Derek and his wife Margaret, and Simon and his wife Kate with me. It was good to see Derek chatting with the likes of Bernie Ecclestone and Max Mosley. Derek’s wry smile spoke volumes of the satisfaction he had about my success with the car. Of course, I couldn’t have done it without his help, or indeed Simon’s too. The car will forever have a special place in my mind, it was simply a great racing car, especially the three victories at Monaco where on a clear lap it is THE BEST…just the thought puts a grin on my face and the pulse rises!

As told to Mike Jiggle

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Having a great car is one thing, having the team behind you is another. Alan McKechnie Racing (AMR) was such a great, close-knit team, just four or five of us, based at the McKechnie Farm. Such a team would be laughed upon these days with so few staff, but we gelled well and enjoyed our successes. I’d been with Alan following a bad crash I had while testing at Castle Combe, midway through the 1971 season. Following my recovery, he rented an F3 March for me to drive at the Brands Hatch Christmas meeting. We did a gruelling season of F3 together for 1972 and, although it was a treadmill of a season racing week in week out, it’s where we all got to know each other very well. The Rothmans F5000 European Championship was a big step up in the new Trojan 101, like most embryonic cars initially it was hard work, things went against us, but by the end we had some great results. After the success of winning the 1974 F5000 European Championship it was time to make a break for the big time, Formula One. However, while on paper it looked right, history shows I was with the wrong teams at the wrong time, BRM, Lotus and RAM Racing all the same, but it was chasing a dream. It could all have been so different. Looking back, my greatest days were with AMR and winning the championship with the F5000 Lola T332 was the icing on the cake.

As told to Mike Jiggle

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As a boy, my motor racing hero was Alfonso de Portago, a true legend in Spain. He was killed at the wheel of his Ferrari 335S along with his teammate, Edmund Nelson, and a number of spectators while competing in the 1957 Mille Miglia. The accident was caused by a tire failure, nothing to do with the way he was driving. This all happened three years before I was born, yet from a very early age I looked at him as a gentleman driver and he became my inspiration to become involved in motor racing—I wanted to race, I wanted to drive in the Spanish GP.

The 1987 Spanish GP was held at Jerez in southern Spain, it was the 13th round of the World Championship and my lucky race. My confidence was very low, continuing to drive for a team that didn’t have the possibility of finishing a race, but I knew I would have many supporters. I was the only Spaniard on the grid and very proud to represent Spain. I had qualified at the back of the grid in 24th place out of 26. The weather was sunny and very hot. The usual drivers were at the front, Mansell, Prost, Piquet and Senna. I really wanted to finish the race, so rather than trying to race, my strategy was to drive for a finish. At the start, my engineer told me it would be difficult for the car to complete the race. I can tell you it is more difficult to drive a Formula One racing car slowly than fast, but I wanted to demonstrate I was capable of finishing races.

As the race progressed, various people retired in front of me, others slowed due to engine problems in the intense heat. My teammate, Alessandro Nannini, retired with turbo problems and I thought my engine would have problems too, but I managed to finish in 14th position, in front of Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari and Thierry Boutsen’s Benetton. Fourteenth isn’t the greatest finishing position, the leaders overtook me three times in the race, I was quite slow and at the end I was four laps down, but I did finish in front of my home fans. Halfway through the next season I retired from Formula One, so it was the only time I ever drove in my home Grand Prix—that’s why I have great memories of the Minardi M187 on that September day.

As told to Mike Jiggle

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