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One thing often said to be lacking from modern motor racing is the charismatic, extrovert or likeable driver.
Some examples from the 70s:-
Patrick Depailler - a real "boy racer"
Vittorio Brambilla - an enthusiastic, uncomplicated racer
Arturo Merzario - an eccentric figure, with his slim frame and cowboy hat, who sat so low in the car that he could hardly see where he was going.
Clay Regazzoni - the archetypal Grand Prix driver
Who else from the past would fall into this category?
Gilles Villeneuve - THE racing driver
James Hunt - Playboy World Champion
Graham Hill was quite a character. A bit of a ladies' man, a true gent, a great guest and host. No-one ever had a bad word to say about him.
Have you seen the movie 'Grand Prix'? He plays himself and everyone mentions "that's what Graham was like in real life".
If you want character, then James Hunt is the man.
Another view of Graham Hill:
The Earl of March (of Goodwood fame) writes of when he was six or seven years and was seeking autographs of drivers attending a party at Goodwood house:
"There was one time when I went up to a driver whose name I hadn't collected. He said 'You don't want my autograph young man - I'm not famous enough. You want that chap's over there'. And he propelled me over to graham Hill, who was holding forth to a group of guests. I didn't, in fact, want his autograph because I already had it. But graham looked down at this small boy with his plastic autograph book and said, simply 'Bugger off!' ~".
Funnily enough that's what GH said to me at Brands in 1968 when I was 13.
Button seems to be his spiritual successor.
My character: Rene Arnoux , mad as a box of frogs and always racing whether 1st or 21st
Innes Ireland , Harry Schell, Duncan Hamilton.
Not much of an extrovert, but one of my favourite characters from F1 history is Eric Thompson, better known as an Aston sportscar driver. He worked as a stockbroker while not racing, and drove in the 1952 British GP for Connaught. It was his second ever F1 start, and his last, in spite of finishing fifth. When he got back to work on the Monday, there was some interest in this, notably because of a newspaper article about his exploit charmingly headed 'City Gent's Turn of Speed'. Delightful.
Read more about him here — http://www.f1rejects.com/drivers/tho...biography.html
I think that in their own way today's crop of drivers are probably as much of 'characters' as in the past but the world has changed so much.
What the drivers are allowed to say is strictly controlled by the teams and sponsors. I remember Keke Rosberg saying "I am not allowed to tell you what I think of the car, but if I was I would say it is sh*t!" or words to that effect.
The drivers have to come over as 'nice guys' - just look at the criticism that Hakkinen got for replying with one word answers. So they are schooled in PR-speak.
We live in an age of 'instant' information - a race on TV, the televised 'drivers' press conference' immediately afterwards, the reports on the internet on Sunday evening and in the daily newpaper the next day. Pre-internet and pre-TV we relied on what the magazines said. Writers today don't have the time to compose elegant descriptions and we don't have the time to read them as we are too busy watching Big Brother or The Weakest Link on TV.
Magazine writers and editors were out-and-out motor racing enthusiastsenthusiasts - Gregor Grant, Denis Jenkinson, Henry Manney, Jabby Combrac, Alan Henry, Nigel Roebuck etc. Nowadays they are 'trained journalists' who have been through the college of knowledge and are doing their spell as correspondent on Auto*** or F1 *** before progressing to senior correspondent on the Pig Breeders' Quarterly or deputy editor of Needlepoint and Embroidery or other such worthy publicationse. They don't know the sport. They don't get a chance to know the drivers. They are pushed to tell the public what the editors think they want to hear. Just look at the way the British press ignore Jenson Button now they have Lewis Hamilton to eulogise.
I forget which correspondent it was who drove out of Brescia to a small village to file his Mille Miglia report just so he could give it the byline - Gorgonzola. With characters like that writing the reports its inevitable that the drivers were reported as having more personality.
Having said all that, I'll leave my choice of characters from the past for a later posting.
My favorite character from F1's past has got to be Lotus boss Colin Chapman - he was pushing the boundaries like no-one else, sometimes too far and thus represented all of what F1 used to be: Technical innovation and risk taking.
The images of him tossing his cap in the air in celebration of yet another Lotus victory are also legendary.