F1 Legends: Throwback Tuesdays & Thursdays

Notice in those March races at Kyalami how invariably half the field failed to finish. Yesterday in Bahrain, ALL the cars finished!

 

When I started following F1 races (Grands Prix) in the late 1960s I recall a race with four finishers.

 

That happened as recently as 1996, when Olivier Panis won a Monaco Grand Prix that also had only four finishers. Of course, that's Monaco, and it was raining, so the result might not seem so surprising.

(On the other hand, in the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix, not only did all the cars finish, but no one made any pit stops whatsoever! So strange things can happen.)

 

I was so glad they got rid of the wings. They had as many wings on the grid as von Richtofen's Flying Circus!

 

Young Fernando at his debut GP, 23 years ago!

 

Jody Scheckter in the Ferrari 312T4. The eventual champion of 1979. Then it was 21 years 'til Schumacher won in 2000.

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Here's a photo, albeit terribly out of focus, that I took of Jody leading Gilles at the 1979 Monaco race just before Gilles broke his gearbox with 25 laps to go. Jody won from pole and Gilles had qualified second. That night at the banquet hosted for the teams by Prince Rainer and Princess Grace at the Monte Carlo Sporting Club, after dinner and dancing around midnight the roof opened and Jody's winning 312T4 Ferrari was slowly lowered from the starlit sky to a platform on the dance floor. It was really cool. A few days ago I found the menu for the banquet…brought back lots of memories.
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…and a year later at Monaco in 1980, after winning the 1979 championship, Jody's Ferrari now sported the #1. Still a crummy photo, and only slightly better than my 1979 image above.
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IMO he really wimped-out in the 1980 season. The flat 12 engine compromised the T4 aero and the Williams FW 07 ruled. It looked like Jody just quit trying while Gilles was "never say die".

 

Six people:

• Nine F1 Championships
• Six Indy car titles
• Seven Motorcyle championships
• Three Indy 500 wins
• One photo

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What had been a technical advantage for a few seasons at Ferrari (low centre of gravity with the flat-12), turned to become a serious inconvenience once the ground effect came along (need for large uncluttered tunnels).
Jody Schecker realised that the game was up and any resistance was futile. He retired at the end of a horrible year.
Typically Gilles Villeneuve didn't, and continued to entertain.

 

Fantastic!

 

I agree, Jody and Gilles had totally different personalities, and without a dominant car Jody scored only 2 points in 1980 and then abruptly retired. I distinctly recall a meeting I had with Jody at the 1979 Argentine Grand Prix, his first race for Ferrari. We agreed that I would stop by his room at the Sheraton (that's where everybody stayed in Buenos Aires) after qualification. My immediate impression was that this guy has a hard edge and is really quite full of himself. Totally different personality than Gilles. I don't know if Jody's personality changed after his promotion to Ferrari. As Argentina was the first race of the season all of the teams arrived early in the week, and every day after the track all of the drivers, team managers, etc. hung out at the hotel pool. It was like a big family. The only drivers missing were Carlos (understandably) and Jody. The race itself was inauspicious for Jody. He crashed and took out 6 cars in the first lap.