Which person in F1, other than a driver, gets your most respect ?

When'd Charlie quit?


He & Prof Sid fer sure. Add The Old Man, Bernie and, begrudgingly, Mad Max..... I don't think Bernie & The Prof could have forced thru the changes without the Lunatic in the shadows.... From whence he too often escaped in later years, but a true legacy. Even though he's hard to stomach for many..... Me included..

For engineering, Colin.

Cheers,
Ian

 

He was a genius - But as with almost all geniuses he was flawed, and too many drivers paid the price when he got it wrong!

And when he got it wrong, he couldn't accept that he was wrong! - That's always a dangerous thing as I see it!

 

So true.

 

Vittorio Jano,
Gioacchino Colombo - designer of the Alfa Romeo 158/159 and a few other insignificant cars,
Bruce McLaren,
Ron Tauranac

Pete

 

As much as I respect Bruce, McLaren didn't reach greatness in F1 while he headed the team.
CanAm to be sure but not F1.

The category is other than drivers so I assume you mean as team owner.

 

Actually as an engineer. If he had lived longer he would have becomer another Chapman IMO. As for his F1 team, he made mistakes by siding with Ford America correctly thinking that he/F1 needed a large manufacturer ... unfortunately this was a mistake and Ford England was where he should have been looking as Colin did. This held them up and meant that their engine choice was not ideal for many years. Remember he died in 1970, the F1 team only started in 1966 ... we never saw his impact there as we did in CanAm.
Pete

 

I tend to agree but unfortunately he didn't have a chance to achieve that greatness in F1.

 

Since we are on that tangent- Bruce McLaren did acheive greatness, but it was super limited. when he was at Cooper he was a real talent. he was one of those guys who could not keep his hands off the car... and paid the price.

 

brawn and newey. bernie and sir frank too. flavio has some respect from me too. he made renault into a force for a couple of years.

 

I remember well the Bruce and Denny show and the day I heard he had died.
He had great talent and was an intuitive designer. The story is that he figured that high pressure air was causing lift under ther front of the car and should be vented through the body work in front of the driver when a loose piece of body work was rising instead of being pushed down by the airflow over it. A design feature that became universal.

I'm glad that his name lives on but all McLarens should be orange.

 

That would be cool.

 

Strictly speaking its papaya.

 

People forget that he also brought in Teddy Mayer who ran McLaren after Bruce died. Mayer brought in Scheckter, Fittipaldi, Hunt, Tamby, Prost etc.. and gave them great cars to race with.

 

Since we think alike, congratulations on good taste and being a perceptive Formula one enthusiast!

Enzo Ferrari is pre eminent not just because his name is in the title of this site, and a car I own, but he did it all, over his entire life:

Driver,
Team management
constructor
industrialist
markeitng & business
team owner
FIA combatent - and Principal
all round racing nut.

 

Seriously...?

 

You got that right.
Everyone else mentioned in this thread can be replaced easily. Not so with Newey.
Managers? Dime a dozen. Medical personnel? They are just doing their job.
Newey is the creator. The innovator. The inventor.

 

Ross Brawn.

Also really like Martin Whitmarsh. He did a far better job at managing two prima donna drivers than the competition could do managing two or one; though they did lose Hamilton, I think that has more to do with Ron.

 

'Unfortunately', as a brain tumor......

A I said above when I mentioned him, he was the 'legal eagle' behind the scenes without whom Sid and JYS wouldn't have got many safety improvements pushed through. Saw a pretty good interview with him a few months back, and he's (justifiably) proud of the safety measures they managed to get implemented.

Sure, he lost the plot towards the end (JMB come to mind?), but if Bernie made F1 what it is today, he was his right hand man. He's a certifiable lunatic, but any F1 fan, or indeed anyone who drives a race car, owes him some respect.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Giving the devil his due.

 

While I certainly respect what he's done over the years and he's the 'hot' designer right now, I'm not sure he belongs at the top of this list.

One of them, sure. But how about Colin? Gordon? Rory? There's been many come and go over the years, but to say Prof Sid was 'just doing his job' is an insult to the man and his substantial legacy - Strongly advise reading his book (which BigTex is now offering to the next interested reader in the other thread BTW). In his early days the 'medical center' was often a dirty tent with no specialist staffing etc. There was no emergency helicopter, circuits would claim he wasn't needed and so on. He, more or less single handedly, wrote the rules on medical safety & procedures.

As the Viz noted above, 'No one gave more to and took less from the sport.' That's a legacy to be proud of..... Also one of the few who could, and did, tell Bernie to **** off yet always had his support.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Newey, as accomplished as he is, is the flavor of the month. His expertise is suited particularly well to an era where innovation is stifled and nibbling at the margins is what pays.

Hope I'm not offending anyone too much.

 

Not at all..... Not me anyway

I think you'e hit the proverbial nail on the head. (Again). He is the (current) master of all the little 'trick' aero bits that are so important. Plus the floor, diffuser and brake ducting etc of course..... He seems able to balance the drag -v- D/F equation better than anyone else - The Cans are never quick on the straights.

Then these trick bits fall off or get broken in some way and the damn car goes quicker! Must drive him nuts!

Cheers,
Ian

 

I certainly hope so.

 

Flavor of the past few seasons.

But yeah I agree.

 

He's the right man for his time and that shouldn't be dismissed but this thread is about all time greats.