11 replies to this topic

[Dennis David]

Marcel - Lauda was not looked at any better than Dinitz and when he started comparing himself to Peterson that really put some people off including myself. So now I am less likely to trash the new guys because it is very much a being in the right place at the right time kind of thing. I remember reading that he had to drive differently when he was starting out. That he had to take chances that would bring attention to himself and if he did not seriously hurt himself he would work his way into a better team.

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Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[Marcel Schot]

DD - It's absolutely a matter of being at the right place at the right time. With some people you might have severe doubts about their talent (guys like Rosset), but obviously every single one of the guys in Formula One at any stage in time do have some talent.
I myself only drive go-karts every once in a while on recreational basis, but I'm sure I would have the biggest possible difficulty in driving a Formula One car around for as much as 1 lap without spinning. In that respect even Rosset is a talented guy.
Lauda ofcourse had talent to match his money, although I'm not 100% sure it showed rightaway since I wasn't around at the time (well, not able to watch F1..born in december 1972, so I was kinda "around" when Lauda made his debut). The big problem is these days success doesn't depend as much on driver's talent as on the car's ability. This and politics seem to determine who gets a good shot at success and who doesn't. At least that can be said of Jos Verstappen, who in the lower classes showed a significant amount of talent. He was at the wrong place at the wrong time when he had to fill in for JJ Lehto at Benetton, having to drive a car that was barely handleable and then being moved out of the way in an attempt to secure the Constructor's Title with the more experienced Johnny Herbert. Since then he barely had a fair chance, driving all crap cars. Ofcourse Jos and his manager have made the mistake of going into talks with Jos' potential as reference and not Jos' performance, but I think it all could have been much better for him. And no, I'm absolutely not a Verstappen fan.
But to return to the point where we started : Lauda just had the luck of being in the right spot at the right time, otherwise we wouldn't have seen much of him, Emerson Fittipaldi might have won 2 succesive titles, Scheckter could well have given Wolf a title, Williams would have been named Wolf now, Prost would have easily won another championship and whatelse might have happened Come to think of it, this seemingly rather unimportant point in Formula One history had one hell of an impact on its future.

[Don Capps]

Ah, my dear Mister Schot, you now understand why historians muse over these points and look at the world differently.

I remember very well when Herr Nikolas Lauda pounced on the scene. His year at March built few fans since the cars were so bad at first. By the time the 721G was fielded the damage was done and the team in a dither. Not until the latter part of 1973 did Lauda start to pick up anything like a following. But, in 1974 many of us were Believers.

Lauda did what it took to get to the front of the grid and after his time in the 721X, truly one of the worst GP cars ever dumped on the track, he earned the right to be there.
Hey, Jochen Rindt didn't set the world on fire for awhile either....

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Semper Gumbi: If this was easy, we’d have the solution already…

[Joe Fan]

Dennis, not only should you and Don write articles for MotorSport but apparently myself as well. I just seen and bought this January issue and BINGO, on the front cover "The future of Formula One" with a Gordon Murray design of a closed wheel, enclosed cockpit F1 car. Ha Ha Ha! I was one month ahead of the print media. There is no need for anyone to buy MotorSport now, just visit the Nostalgia forum.

[Dennis David]

Joe - As soon as I saw that picture I thought of you. I had the same thingwhen I drew this race car and the next picture I saw was the Lotus 72 which I kid you not was a direct copy of my car including the wedge shape and the side mounted radiators.

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Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[ensign14]

Digging this from the archives...Bill Boddy's July 2003 Motor Sport review of Hilton's book on Nuvolari mentions Col Capps and comments on the fact that the event had often been 'odd and grossly misreported'. Can we consider this a correction to the article, 3 and a half years on?

Also has a review for David McKinney's Maser book, Doug's vol 2 and Motorfilms Quarterly vol 5, all positive of course.

[Vitesse2]

Actually, I think WB is blowing his own trumpet from behind a veil of modesty ....

[oldtimer]

Originally posted by Vitesse2
Actually, I think WB is blowing his own trumpet from behind a veil of modesty ....

Surprise, surprise.

[Don Capps]

Well, at least MotorSport usually spells my name correctly.....

[D-Type]

Originally posted by Roger Clark


It was 1969. I am sure that if he was still in control there would be no need for the magazine to correct itself.

In fairness to WB:
If I remember correctly when he was in control Motor Sport did admit its errors and correct them. One of the reasons the magazine was so universally respected.

[Ray Bell]

Absolutely... though they were quick to put the knife into erroneous material in other magazines, they stepped up to the block for their own mistakes.

And the corrections weren't hidden, either...

[Doug Nye]

In contrast to....

DCN