28 replies to this topic

[m.tanney]

  There was a time when I closely followed the careers of many of the up-and-coming British drivers. There have been threads about the "lost generation" of Williamson, Brise and Pryce, all great drivers. One of my favourites of that era was Brian Henton - a man whose career was, if not lost, somewhat misplaced along the way.
  In 1973, Henton won both of the British F3 championships - against, IIRC, very competitive fields. I think he raced in FAtlantic in '74. In 1975, there was a good showing in a converted Wheatcroft at the Silverstone F2 race and some unfortunate appearances in the aged Lotus 72. 1976 saw him in the uncompetitive Wheatcroft-Abarth in F2. In 1977, he had a good start in F2 with Brian Lewis' Boxer, winning at Truxton before the money ran out. There was another unfortunate attempt at F1 that year with a March and the Boro Ensign. There were F2 races in '78 and '79, with a win at Misano in the latter. In 1980, Henton took Stephen South's place on the Toleman team, winning three races and the F2 title. The following year, Toleman moved up to F1 with a dreadful car that brought Henton and Derek Warwick a string of DNQs. After DNQing an Arrows in the first two races of 1982, Henton got a ride with Tyrrell. Although it was a competitive car (Alboreto scored 25 points and one win), Henton could do no better than a 7th and a fastest lap (at Brands Hatch). Henton turned 36 that year. There were no more F1 offers.
  Was Henton a potential GP winner who just didn't get the right break until it was too late? Or did he reach the limit of his potential in the lesser formulae?

[Ruairidh]

Personally I'll venture that Henton was the equivalent of a Baseball 4AAA player. In Baseball parlence there are the Major Leagues and the Minor Leagues. The highest minor league is Triple A (or 3AAA for these purposes). Players who show they are the class of the field in TripleA but fail to make a lasting impression (because they lack the extra whatever to succeed in the Majors) are referred to as 4AAA players.

That said......

At the time I thought Henton's head was bigger than his talent - that British Racing Team program for example and his too cocksure attitude at Lotus in '75 but, to be honest, that was before Lotus perserved with someone I thought was Henton Mark 2 (AKA our "Nige").

And therein lies my non-answer to your question for IMHO, if Colin and then Sir Frank hadn't seen something in Mansell that precious few (if any) others did in 1979/80 and 1984/5 then I think you might have been asking this question about Mansell.

And so I now wonder what would have happened had someone given Henton a shot in a competitive F1 drive?

[ian senior]

Ah.....another "what if" question.

I rated Henton, after all anyone that did so well in F2 should have been able to conduct an F1 car effectively. In theory, the 1982 Tyrrell gave him the opportunity to do exactly that. The fact that he didn't do too well is a puzzler,unless the No. 2 seat at Tyrrell that year was akin to the equivalent berth at Lotus in years gone by.

I'm not sure about his F3 year, I thought 1973 was a bit of a flat year for the Formula in the UK with everyone turning to Formula Atlantic. But was Henton the only ex-Formula Vee driver to make it to F1?

[BRG]

Originally posted by ian senior
But was Henton the only ex-Formula Vee driver to make it to F1?

No. Rosberg was a F. Vee champion. Doubtless there were others too.

[ian senior]

Originally posted by BRG
No. Rosberg was a F. Vee champion. Doubtless there were others too.

Yes, of course. How could I forget? But there can't have been many British F1 drivers that took the Vee route!

[conjohn]

Originally posted by ian senior


Yes, of course. How could I forget? But there can't have been many British F1 drivers that took the Vee route!

Tom Pryce did Super Vee in 1972.

Non-British drivers has been, and this is not a complete list, Helmut Koinigg, Jochen Mass, Gunnar Nilsson, Harald Ertl, Bertil Roos, Mikko Kozarowitsky.

Jochen Mass and Gunnar Nilsson (soon a 25th 'anniversary' ) had successful F1 careers, Koinigg may well have had one , the others part of the necessary 'make-up-the-grid'ers.

[ensign14]

Surely Niki Lauda somersaulted a Formula V? And Piquet drove in Super V?

[ghinzani]

wasnt he f3 champ in 74 not 73?

[Cirrus]

I'm not sure about his F3 year, I thought 1973 was a bit of a flat year for the Formula in the UK

This is totally from memory, but I thought that 1973 was quite a good year for F3, many drivers started the year with GRD's the dominant car in '72, but then changed to '73's flavour of the year, the March 733. I think it was '74 that was the flat year. It was the first year of the 2 litre Formula Three, and the Toyota Novamotor took a bit of time to achieve the dominance it later enjoyed. Superhen won the championship with a Ford Pinto engine that was universally recognised as being as bent as a nine bob note.

After that one bad year, 1975 was a classic.

[paulSenna]

1973 was a classic year in F3 in the UK. Tony Brise, Alan Jones and Russell Wood were the ones to watch, while Jacques Lafitte crossed the channel occasionally to try to dislodge the brits from the top. Brian Henton won his 2 F3 championships the following year in the works March, which was a 'flat' year. As with so many other drivers who went on to win the European F2/F3000 title his huge promise didn't materialise in F1 wins. He wasn't called 'Superhen' for nothing though !

[m.tanney]

My apologies. As has been noted, it was not 1973, but 1974 in which Henton won his F3 titles. 1973 was a great year in British F3, with Tony Brise winning the Lombard and John Player series and Ian Taylor winning the Forward Trust. Perhaps 1974 was an off year. Higham shows Henton driving both Ford and Toyota powered March 743s that year. 1975 was, of course, the year of Gunnar Nilsson.

[Ruairidh]

IIRC "SuperHen" was a self-styled nickname.

Brian "Who" was DSJ's reaction to his JPTL debut (see this from another thread - thanks Vitesse)

http://members.atlas...ctures/bgp3.jpg

[Mallory Dan]

- always rated Henton, he was good in F2 in 75 with no money, and well thought of by March at the time the main F2 force. In '77 that Thruxton F2 win was superb by any standards, small team, little money, against the F2 big guns, March, Martini, Project 4, Chevron etc. In '78 he was again superb against strong teams/drivers, as usual with little resource.

When he did get into a good team with good car in 79 and 80, he was often unbeatable. By then though I guess he'd been around too long, and wasn't the bright young thing anymore.

If I recall the seond 1982 Tyrrell was very much the second car, almost a different chassis to Alboreto's, not that I think Henton was as good as Michele.

[ian senior]

Originally posted by Cirrus


This is totally from memory, but I thought that 1973 was quite a good year for F3, many drivers started the year with GRD's the dominant car in '72, but then changed to '73's flavour of the year, the March 733. I think it was '74 that was the flat year. It was the first year of the 2 litre Formula Three, and the Toyota Novamotor took a bit of time to achieve the dominance it later enjoyed. Superhen won the championship with a Ford Pinto engine that was universally recognised as being as bent as a nine bob note.

After that one bad year, 1975 was a classic.

Absolutely right. My memory was at fault. '74 was the flat year, for the reasons given above.

[Lec CRP1]

There really should be something 'big' written about early 70s F3, if only because the major front runners are no longer with us...

[MCS]

I thought he was very good.

From Formula Vee to Formula One (and with very little outside assistance if I recall - and, no, March weren't that helpful before anybody starts...)

One of his first "helpers" was Mo Nunn, who allowed him to race the works F3 Ensign towards the very end of his first F3 season in 1973...and he stuck it on pole (first time out?) at Oulton Park - against arguably one of the best fields of the season.

But, as usual, luck intervened and he non-started after some trivial problem on the warm-up lap.

[renzo_zorzi]

Originally posted by conjohn


Tom Pryce did Super Vee in 1972.

Non-British drivers has been, and this is not a complete list, Helmut Koinigg, Jochen Mass, Gunnar Nilsson, Harald Ertl, Bertil Roos, Mikko Kozarowitsky.

Jochen Mass and Gunnar Nilsson (soon a 25th 'anniversary' ) had successful F1 careers, Koinigg may well have had one , the others part of the necessary 'make-up-the-grid'ers.

in fact virtually all german and austrian drivers that had f1-drives late60ies and 70ies were to be found behind the steereing wheel of a formula Vee. in the german speaking world formula vee was the equivalent of formula ford in Great Britain since Volkswagen was and still is the most popular carmaker there.

Keke Rosberg even was european champion in 1974 as mentioned above with the austrian team/car Kaimann.

Jochen Rindt even raced formula vee in the bahamas speed week in 1966 (or 67 ?). other austrians were single-GP man dieter Quester, Niki Lauda before fetting into F3, todays Red bull f1-manager Helmut Marko (drove for BRM 1971/72). last austrian formula vee man making it into f1 was designer-then-driver Jo Gartner (osella 1984, sadly died in LeMans 1986) who started to drive self-designed F-vee cars in 1977.

[philippe charuest]

Originally posted by conjohn


Tom Pryce did Super Vee in 1972.

Non-British drivers has been, and this is not a complete list, Helmut Koinigg, Jochen Mass, Gunnar Nilsson, Harald Ertl, Bertil Roos, Mikko Kozarowitsky.

Jochen Mass and Gunnar Nilsson (soon a 25th 'anniversary' ) had successful F1 careers, Koinigg may well have had one , the others part of the necessary 'make-up-the-grid'ers.

Bertil Roos a swede was very good . he did most of his carreer in north america and did many season of formula atlantic here in canada and in the usa and imo it was one the best driver of the series in the seventies . a very spectacular driver like rosberg and villeneuve(gilles). i thinq he open a racing school somewhere in california after that

[Paul Parker]

I believe that Brian Henton was at least as good as most of the period F1 grid but like so many Brits before and after he never got his hands on a properly competitive F1 car. This was in those days a marketing and image problem and Brits, with rare exception, were not a viable commercial prospect for the mainly continental and Latin American sponsors, most of whom were inclined to favour their nationals in stark contrast to British companies.

[David M. Kane]

His mistake was being in the #2 seat at Lotus. That car was always a bucket for a lot of drivers, i.e. Peter Arundell, Reine Wisell, Taylor, Miles, etc., etc. He did pretty good in the Toleman.

[SEdward]

I never really rated Henton.

In national competitions, he was up against Brise, who was "touched by the hand of God".

When he moved up to F2, his route was barred by people like Patrese, Giacomelli, Pironi, Arnoux, Rosberg and so on, who were far superior.

The win at Thruckers in 1977 was a fluke. Everyone else broke down.

Ciao.
Eduardo

[petefenelon]

Originally posted by David M. Kane


His mistake was being in the #2 seat at Lotus. That car was always a bucket for a lot of drivers, i.e. Peter Arundell, Reine Wisell, Taylor, Miles, etc., etc. He did pretty good in the Toleman.

Of course, had Brian been in the #3 Lotus he would've done OK. Jim Clark, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Emerson Fittipaldi all took what amounted to #3 drives at Lotus and became World Champions.... (blame Mike Lawrence for pointing that one out!)

[MCS]

Great statistic - I'd never thought of that one before

Mark

[renzo_zorzi]

he was soooo good, they had to keep him out of formula1 for roughly ten years to keep the races exciting. max&bernie were so clever to allow him only drives with toleman and tyrell, otherwise he would have won at least five championships in a row.

[David Beard]

Originally posted by SEdward
I never really rated Henton.

I thought he was best known for talking a good drive....

[Mallory Dan]

Originally posted by SEdward
I never really rated Henton.

In national competitions, he was up against Brise, who was "touched by the hand of God".

When he moved up to F2, his route was barred by people like Patrese, Giacomelli, Pironi, Arnoux, Rosberg and so on, who were far superior.

The win at Thruckers in 1977 was a fluke. Everyone else broke down.

Ciao.
Eduardo

Ed, I think thats pretty harsh on Henton. See my earlier post, re quality of the opposition he faced at 'Thruckers', and his low-budget effort the next year. When he got in a decent F2 in 79-80, he blew most of the young-guns away.

[MCS]

Originally posted by SEdward
I never really rated Henton.

In national competitions, he was up against Brise, who was "touched by the hand of God".

Don't understand this comment about Brise, Edward.

In any case, Henton only raced against him in 1973...

Mark

[Paul Parker]

Obviously my opinion of Henton's abilities are my own and not definitive.

However it does not alter the fact that BH never got his hands on a decent F1 car, just like so many talented others during the 1970s. He cannot be judged by the stuff he drove in F1 and I well remember a British TV programme during 1977 that featured his travails driving for March and then running his own team.

No driver, even the so called stars could/can overcome inadequate budgets, wooden tyres, second rate engines, lack of testing, inferior chassis etc., etc. No driver certainly during the last 30 years plus has made it to the top in a third rate car.

[Verhage]

Who can help me with the pictures of old F1 driver Brian Henton?
I search pictures of his Griffin helmet in close-up from 1975 and 1977.
He rode into then in Lotus (1975) and March (1977) and Boro (1977).
I want paint my Griffin helmet in replica.
Thanks in advance, Adriaan.

www.freewebs.com/helmetsnl