Tom Walkinshaw passes away

[Robinho]

he was unquestionabley an astute and "hard" businessman, but he acheved a hell of a lot and took no crap, i had a lot of respect for him and the way he went about it in the face of the establishment sometime. There was a bit of a shadow over some of his dealing, but nothing like as murky as some who are still in and around the sport and you cannot argue with the level of success he acheived in everything he did.

The sport is worse of for his passing and he'll be missed

[Josti]

I remember how unfair he was to drop Verstappen just before the 2002 season started, while Jos had a contract.

On the other hand he led the fabulous Jaguar team which gave Jan Lammers his triumph at Le Mans.

RIP.

[Retro Formula 1]

As a man that had a quite a 'robust' sense of humour, I wonder if he would have chosen "Don't you forget about me" or "Alive and Kicking" for the funeral

[BDunnell]

He is going to be a difficult one for people to, to not coin a phrase, obituarise. A man of great motorsport achievements as driver and team owner, certainly, but also someone who was the subject of some extremely damning court judgements.

[Daniel]

He is going to be a difficult one for people to, to not coin a phrase, obituarise. A man of great motorsport achievements as driver and team owner, certainly, but also someone who was the subject of some extremely damning court judgements.

It is good that the forum police are allowing forum members post stuff like this without getting all precious like in the Bernie thread

[odykas]

Very sad news.
RIP

[wedge]

It is good that the forum police are allowing forum members post stuff like this without getting all precious like in the Bernie thread

Its great to see this thread has remained respectful and people have respected the fact this is a tribute thread. The mods on three other forums to my knowledge have had a hell of a time cleaning up threads where posters have used it as an excuse to tarnish Tom's legacy by arguing about the shadier side of Tom's business ethics... This forum rules guys..

I find it rather sad.

Yes it is sad to hear about the death of a person but I would rather hear all types of stories that made that particular person a human being and not a one dimensional portrait. After all TW was a divisive figure and his reputation in F1 was ruined after Arrows went into administration and declared 'unfit'.

Yes he was fantastic for motorsport as whole with some marvellous stories but we mustn't forget there were also ugly stories too that would be of interest.

As an example of what I'm on about, an article from Marshall Pruett via SpeedTV.com on the TWR/Jaguar/IMSA GTP era:

http://auto-racing.speedtv.com/artic...a-fighter//P2/

Some would regard TW as a bully but associates have said this approach brought the best of them.

[wedge]

Double post

[Daniel]

I find it rather sad.

I more or less agree. At the end of the day someone has died and it is of course sad but people have to be realistic about things and not attempt to whitewash history just because someone has died.

[Jag_Warrior]

His death shocked me because Tom allowed me to spend 2 weeks at his team and learn abit about how an F1 team works and I was grateful for him for that.

Lucky guy!