33 replies to this topic

[simonlewisbooks]

I see the next issue of MOTOR SPORT will carry a story about why Rick Mears, at the peak of his fame, said 'no' to driving for Brabham...

I once heard (seriously) that when the drive was offered and a fee was discussed Bernie said

"Will a million bucks be OK for you Rick?"

The reply was favourable.

"Good" said Bernie, " Can I have the cheque by next week?"


I wonder if thats how the printed version will run?

[jcbc3]

I'm sure it is.

F1's loss, imho.

The story (or derivatives of it) has been touted almost since the day it happened.

[simonlewisbooks]

Originally posted by jcbc3
F1's loss, imho.

Agreed. Rick was, and still is, a class act.

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

I think that RM could have been a definite challenger in F1.

I recall well seeing him at the inaugural CART Molson Indy event in Toronto in 1986. I was spectating about 1/2 round the circuit for the race and was mightily impressed by his drive. More so than anyone else, in fact. He positioned his car with monotonous precision...hitting the same marks, lap after lap after lap. And this was subsequent to his devasting Sanair shunt.

[JacnGille]

Speakin of Rick's precision, didn't one of his Indy qualifyin runs see him do all four laps within 0.01 seconds of each other?

[fines]

I believe that was Rahal, though.

Anyway, I hoped for many years that Rick would end up in F1 - surely the negotiations took longer than that!

Anyway, it's a big shame that the Concorde Agreement virtually killed this and similar deals by not allowing an occasional third entry for a team, so that Rick could "feel" himself in like Mario all those years ago. Having just said that, I do recall Jonathan Palmer in a third Williams, and Franz Hesnault in a third Renault...

[stevewf1]

When Nigel Roebuck was here at autosport.com, he answered one of his "Ask Nigel" questions about Rick Mears' test at Brabham. It was interesting - basically he said Mears tested quicker than Nelson Piquet.

Maybe Roebuck will put that answer here someday... http://www.motorsportmagazine.co.uk/

[simonlewisbooks]

Originally posted by fines
I believe that was Rahal, though.

Anyway, it's a big shame that the Concorde Agreement virtually killed this and similar deals by not allowing an occasional third entry for a team, ... I do recall Jonathan Palmer in a third Williams,

And that was in 1983...and it's Bernie we are talking about. If he had wanted a third car, the would have found a way of getting one somehow.

[Ross Stonefeld]

A million in 1983 seems like an awful lot of money.

[ensign14]

Had Mears invested a million with Brabham, he might have recouped far, far more in the following years, as a multiple American world champ...(wasn't his test 1980? Bernie probably needed the money, he had Rebaque in the car at the time, but I can't imagine Piquet being too pleased...)

[Jerome]

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
A million in 1983 seems like an awful lot of money.

Ofcourse. Either it's a myth, or, if it's true, it's indicative of something unpleasant: that Ecclestone did not want Mears to drive for him.

[simonlewisbooks]

Originally posted by Jerome


Ofcourse. Either it's a myth, or, if it's true, it's indicative of something unpleasant: that Ecclestone did not want Mears to drive for him.

Or Rebaque was paying even more.....

[rl1856]

Maybe it is me (as an American GP fan), but I have long detected an anti-American bias from BE. His price of $1mm may have been his way of telling Mears, without saying so, that he would not get the drive.

Lets speculate however, that Mears did get the Brabham spot.

What assurance would there have been that BE would have provided the best car for Mear's ? Looked at another way, BE could have set Mears up for failure by ensuring that his car was not top notch, therebye "proving" that US drivers are not worthy of F-1.

Mear's made the right decision.

Best,

Ross

[simonlewisbooks]

Originally posted by rl1856
Maybe it is me (as an American GP fan), but I have long detected an anti-American bias from BE. His price of $1mm may have been his way of telling Mears, without saying so, that he would not get the drive.

Lets speculate however, that Mears did get the Brabham spot.

What assurance would there have been that BE would have provided the best car for Mear's ? Looked at another way, BE could have set Mears up for failure by ensuring that his car was not top notch, therebye "proving" that US drivers are not worthy of F-1.

Mear's made the right decision.

Best,

Ross

Bernie, as we know, is nobody's fool. If Mears had signed for the team and been as quick as(or quicker) than Nelson then I can't see Bernie doing anything other than back him to the hilt.
The potential sponsorship draw from the richest economy on earth, should one of their own be successful in F1, remains enormous. But, first you need to crack this 'successful' aspect !
I think Bernie's ambivalence towards America is something of a front ('not bovvered really') to cover the continued failure of F1 to make the best use of a top line American driver and reach the wider US public.

[jcbc3]

What he ^ said

[David M. Kane]

Ross:

I believe F1 budgets in that time frame were in the the $2-$M US range if I remember correctly. A Rent-A-Ride was definitely $1M US. Yes, Hector had all of that Mexican oil money.

[Ross Stonefeld]

Well I guess F1 was more like IndyCar/Formula 2 back then, because its hard to imagine drivers bringing 50% of the budget in F1 or MotoGP today!

[fines]

Originally posted by Jerome


Ofcourse. Either it's a myth, or, if it's true, it's indicative of something unpleasant: that Ecclestone did not want Mears to drive for him.

I guess Jerome is on the money here. If that story is true, then I'm sure Ecclestone had realised that Mears "didn't have it", and tried to tell him off in "a polite way". Bernie's too shrewd to let an opportunity like that pass, and frankly, I'm not so sure Mears had the ability and commitment to be successful in F1. Multiple Champion? Dream on...

[ensign14]

Originally posted by fines
Bernie's too shrewd to let an opportunity like that pass...

Is he really though? Sometimes Bernie let slip a long-term advantage to the benefit of the short-term. Viz the Brabham-Alfas - surely a Brabham-Cosworth would have been a title winning proposition in the mid to late 70s? McLaren won the title with a 4 year old car...

This month's Motor Sport also mentions the point that Brabham were never flush with money, and they never won the Constructors' Title when Bernie was there. After all, you'd think that many drivers would have done a better job in 1981 than Rebaque. When Lauda retired he went for the less than impressive Zunino and other works Brabham drivers included von Opel, Robarts, Hesnault and Perkins, all of whom were not really top drawer and none of whom had looked outstanding in lower formulae. And the Fabi thing which was odd (legacy of Kyalami 1982?).

It is possible that he didn't want to take a risk. I have never seen official times from that test, but the rumour is consistent that Mears was faster than Piquet.

[Dave Ware]

[QUOTE]I'm not so sure Mears had the ability and commitment to be successful in F1[QUOTE]

He was faster than Piquet at Riverside.

[doc540]

And let's not overlook the considerable expense of fitting Mears into a driving suit.

The additional fabric to fit his groin area may have been a prohibitive cost factor.

When qualifying for Indy he had the...uhhh..."determination" to place his left foot over his right foot to prevent an unintentional (though psychologically prudent) "feathering" of the accelerator when entering the turns at 200+mph.

[fines]

Bernie was shrewd enough to realise that it doesn't need a good number two as long as there's a good number one - served him well, for all I remember! And please, don't get hung up on a single test session, Piquet may well have made full tank tests with woodies while Rick was on qualifiers with a damp patch in the fuel pump. I stand by my opinion, if Mears had proved to be a match for Nelson, or even faster, Bernie would've wasted not a single second to sign him. Everything else is wild speculation!

[ensign14]

Like he did with Senna?

Too risky, surely? Bernie knew he had one superstar. Question is why no-one else bothered...

[Jerome]

Originally posted by David M. Kane
Ross:

I believe F1 budgets in that time frame were in the the $2-$M US range if I remember correctly. A Rent-A-Ride was definitely $1M US. Yes, Hector had all of that Mexican oil money.

No, I don't think that is correct. Frank Williams in 1982 had a budget of 15 - 20 million dollars, as far as I remember.

But if anyone wants to correct me, be my guest.

[fines]

Now, well, shouldn't we look somewhere in the middle here? I agree, 2 Mio. USD is way too short, but surely not by that much!?

[Dave Ware]

I also recall reading, at the time, that Rick wasn't too keen on racing outside of the U.S. Something about liking the familiar American landscape, being able to go to 7-Eleven (a U.S. convenience store) and such. I must dig into my old Autoweeks and see if I can find the article.

Or perhaps the Motor Sport article will cover it.

So did Rick not get the ride because Bernie wanted $1 million, or because Rick didn't want to give up his Slurpees?

Dave

Note to self: look in old Autoweeks.

[Dave Ware]

Or maybe Rick and the full tanks and woodies and Nelson had the qualifiers... ;-)

[fines]

Originally posted by Dave Ware
I also recall reading, at the time, that Rick wasn't too keen on racing outside of the U.S. Something about liking the familiar American landscape, being able to go to 7-Eleven (a U.S. convenience store) and such.

That's what I meant by commitment - US drivers were traditionally loath to give up US Racing $$$ for a career (mainly) in Europe, from Parsons over Foyt to Little Al. Even Mario took ten years to understand that he couldn't have both at the same time, wrecking much of his status in the US in the process.

Bernie may have sensed a problem there, and tried to test Rick's commitment on the lines suggested by ensing14 earlier: "Bring me a million bucks now and collect later" Evidently then, he was right!

[fines]

Originally posted by Dave Ware
Or maybe Rick and the full tanks and woodies and Nelson had the qualifiers... ;-)

Possible! And Bernie didn't want F1 to become a Rick Mears one-man show, so to protect his long-term interests he made sure that Rick would never again ask!

[giacomo]

Originally posted by ensign14
Like he did with Senna?

Senna was miles off the Piquet pace in his 83 Brabham test.

[stevewf1]

Originally posted by doc540
And let's not overlook the considerable expense of fitting Mears into a driving suit.

The additional fabric to fit his groin area may have been a prohibitive cost factor.

When qualifying for Indy he had the...uhhh..."determination" to place his left foot over his right foot to prevent an unintentional (though psychologically prudent) "feathering" of the accelerator when entering the turns at 200+mph.

Yes, that's very true... Sometimes I think people "forget" what it took to do that back then. Well over 200 mph and no runoff at all...

Can you do it?

[Updraught]

Ecclestone only had the money from Parmalat to pay for one car in 1980. Therefore, the driver had to pay for the second car. Mears ran competitive lap times at his Riverside test, once he adapted to the car. Mears said at the time that the formula one car had to be driven very hard to get the best from the car, and he did not enjoy that. Piquet got along very well with Mears at that test, as Piquest respected Mears for his Indy 500 win.

[Dave Ware]

That's what I meant by commitment

I think I would call that "lack of interest." I think of commitment as the resolve to do something you have agreed to do. Mikey Andretti didn't have the commitment to F1 in '93. But Mears said that he didn't want to do it. In my mind that's a different thing.

If Mears had wanted to drive in F1, I have no doubt that the commitment and success would have been there.

[Formula Once]

Any one knows what was in fact in the Motorsport article Simon mentioned in the first post? I couldn't get a copy anywhere last summer.