Lewis’ half century

UNITED STATES GP 200th IT’S ALL

Issue 200 EDITION ABOUT THE
23 October 2016 PASSION
UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX Issue 200
The award-winning Formula 1 e-magazine is brought to you by:
David Tremayne | Joe Saward | Peter Nygaard
With additional material from
Mike Doodson | Lise Nygaard

Leader 3
On The Grid by Joe Saward 4
Snapshots 7
GP+ at 200 19
Lewis Hamilton 26
Nico Hulkenberg at Renault 29
Zak Brown 36
Mario’s First Grand Prix 40
The Hack Looks Back 47
Austin - Qualifying Report 50
Austin - Race Report 67
The Last Lap by David Tremayne 84
Parting Shot 87

© 2016 GrandPrix+. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be
reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of GrandPrix+.
What we think
GOOD JOB AUSTIN
We live in a world in which people have more and more choice about
how to use their leisure time. They want better value for money. Thus,
race promoters - and the sport in general - needs to address the
question of how to give fans a better bang for their buck. Having free
concerts at races is not a new idea. But, they always do things bigger
in Texas and so setting up a Taylor Swift concert in a year when the
country singer has not been touring was a stroke of genius. The result
was that nearly 83,000 fans showed up at the Circuit of the Americas on
Saturday night to watch Swift - and create one of the biggest concerts
she has ever had. And, at the same time, it gave the circuit a big financial
boost. In order to attend the concert, fans had to buy tickets for the F1
race, the cheapest of which was around $150. That meant revenues of
$12.4 million, much of which would not have been generated without
Swift. The good news for F1 is that there will be more of the same in
the future, particularly as Liberty Media controls the Ticketmaster/Live
Nation business...
Who we are
DAVID TREMAYNE
A freelance motorsport writer and former Formula 1 correspondent for The Independent
and The Independent on Sunday, and executive editor of Motoring News and Motor Sport,
he is currently the F1 correspondent for The Straits Times, a veteran of 29 years of Grands
Prix reportage, and the author of more than 45 motorsport books. He will cover his 500th
Grand Prix later this year. He is the only three-time winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’
Timo Makinen and Renault Awards. His writing, on both current and historic issues, is
notable for its soul and passion, together with a deep understanding of the sport and an
encyclopaedic knowledge of its history. David is also acknowledged as the world expert
on the history of land and water speed record breaking and is also passionate about
Unlimited hydroplanes. He is the British representative on the FIA Land Speed Records
Commission. A former rocket car driver, he is the driving force behind the STAY GOLD jetcar
programme which aims to challenge the UK land speed record.
JOE SAWARD
A professional motorsport writer for 34 years, the last 29 of them as a full time F1
correspondent, he will soon celebrate his 500th Grand Prix. Starting out travelling from
race to race with a tent and a typewriter, he then joined Autosport, for which he became
Grand Prix Editor. His wide-ranging travelling led to a commission to write the best-selling
“The World Atlas of Motor Racing”. A freelance for the last 23 years, he pioneered the use
of electronic media in motorsport, launching the award-winning Business of Motorsport
e-newsletter in 1994, followed by the www.grandprix.com website. He moved on to GP+
and his Joe Blogs F1 blog. Trained as an historian, Joe is also an acknowledged expert on
the Special Operations Executive (SOE). His 2007 book “The Grand Prix Saboteurs” won the
Guild of Motoring Writers’ Renault Author of the Year Award. His latest non-F1 book is “The
Man who Caught Crippen”. He is also a Visiting Fellow of Cranfield University.
PETER NYGAARD
A law student at Copenhagen University, when he began taking photographs at Formula
1 races, he established the Grand Prix Photo company after he graduated in 1982 and
has since attended more than 500 Grands Prix. Today he not only takes photographs
but also writes and commentates. The company covers every Grand Prix and, with
contacts all over the world, can supply photos from almost any motor race. In addition
to current photography the Grand Prix Photo archive is one of the biggest in the world,
Nygaard having acquired the work of a number of F1 photographers, notably Italian
photo-journalist Giancarlo Cevenini and France’s Dominique Leroy, plus a portion of
Nigel Snowdon’s collection. Grand Prix Photo has 25,000 photographs on its website and
millions more in its offices, which are decorated with a Tyrrell 021, which Peter acquired
from Ken Tyrrell.
3
 ON THE GRID by Joe Saward
MERCHANDISING, STRATEGIZING AND THE NAMING OF DOGS
On Friday night in Austin, DT and I went out for
a quiet dinner, in a cheap and cheerful place,
not far from our hotel. The rest of the F1 circus
might have been downtown, dancing on tables
(or whatever), but a lot of folk did not have
the energy to anything other than eat - and
then sleep. So, we were not really 100 percent
compos mentis, but we were aware enough to
notice that the waitress seemed rather familiar.
She looked just like the waitress who had served
up the previous evening. So what? You might
think... The problem was that we were in a
completely different restaurant.
In the end DT had to ask: “Do you
have a twin sister who works at the Longhorn
Steakhouse?”
No, she replied. She didn’t have a sister
at all, but she had thought she had recognised
us... because, yes folks, she had two different
jobs and we had somehow managed to eat in
two different restaurants on consecutive nights
and get the same waitress.
How weird is that?
Of course, Austin likes to be weird,
indeed the “Keep Austin Weird” marketing
campaign is so successful that the slogan is now
trademarked and a design company markets
bumper stickers, T-shirts, hats and mugs bearing
this... um... weird message. It’s been such a
successful campaign that rival cities now want
to be weird as well.
There are very few writers who can
make their readers laugh out loud and I have
to admit that I am jealous of a very funny man
by the name of Andy Borowitz, who writes in
The New Yorker. He makes me laugh out loud
with his headlines alone and, in recent months,
he written a string of fabulous ones, including:
“Trump’s bid to become born-again fails as Jesus
turns down friend request”, “British lose right
to claim that Americans are dumber”, “Trump
warns that Clinton will rig debate by using facts”
and “Nation fears drug test would reveal Trump
NOT on drugs”.
I could write and giggle at a dozen
more of these works of pure genius, but he has
also recently written a splendid piece on Austin.
“In a deepening humanitarian crisis,
residents of the city of Austin report that
they are completely surrounded by Texas, a
situation that locals are calling ‘dire’...” Borowitz
went on the explain that the people of Austin
were hoping for US militarily intervention “to
liberate the isolated municipality and transform
it into an independent state, along the lines of
Kurdistan”.
4
 I love the fact that Austin has turned a
slogan into a brand and is making money from
it, something which F1 has singularly failed to
do with its merchandising. Years ago, Bernie
Ecclestone told me he wasn’t interested because
“I am not a teeshirt salesman”, which amazed me
at the time and still does today.
I marvel at the ability of Americans
to sell anything to one another, so I guess it is
not such a surprise that Austin’s weirdness has
become a commercial operation when the M&M
chocolate brand has developed a chain of stores
across the US where they sell sunglasses and
bikinis branded with M&Ms. I live in hope that
Chase Carey and his fellow Americans in the
Liberty empire can do a similar selling job for
Formula 1. The sport is way cooler than sugar-
coated chocolate sweeties and deserves a bit of
marketing after years of occupation by forces
aligned to private equity, who have drained F1
of every shekel.
It is superbly ironic that the liberation
of Formula 1 is being achieved by a group calling
itself Liberty... and I hope that one day soon, all
you ladies out there will be able to buy bikinis,
with the flying F1 logo carefully positioned in
suitable locations (right)...
If this all seems to be a bit of a ramble,
it is because I am becoming increasingly
convinced that those who do all the F1 races
are suffering brain damage from all the shifting
time zones. What we have done in the last seven
weeks is pretty impressive, even for those with
skewed time clocks.
“I feel like a zombie,” said one of the
of the amazing ladies who deal with the F1
paddock hospitality, as we were shooting the
breeze on Friday in Austin (not literally, no guns
were involved). I understood what she meant.
Last week, I discovered that I had booked two
different hotels in Mexico City... because I had it.” It is a culture clash of titanic proportions. I
forgotten doing it the first time. This is par for imagine that the biggest problem by far for the
the course at the moment. newcomers will be knowing who to trust. There
Formula 1 is a weird world, of course, are suddenly hundreds of F1 “experts” crawling
and at the moment there is a strange process out of the woodwork.
going on as the sports movers and shakers meet But who do you believe?
some serious big business people head-on and Who do you trust?
try to figure out how they will all work together I don’t expect much to happen before
in the future. I have no doubt that after some of the start of next season because regulatory
the encounters that those involved - on both clearances are going to take time. And the EU
sides - will leave the room, shake their head and the Americans will not necessarily be the
and say: “Holy cow, these people just don’t get biggest problem. Liberty and the FIA have to
5
figure out how to work together as well and that almost exactly the same in the book. therefore were not functioning properly.”
will take a fair bit of talk. “What became apparent was that In order to fix this Brawn said that he
The strategy of such negotiations will because of the management culture there, simply stepped forward and told chairman Luca
be interesting, I am sure. Business strategies middle and top management were watching Montezemolo that if there was a problem then
are much in the limelight at the moment in F1 their backs the whole time, their whole he (Ross) was to blame.
following the publication of Total Competition, philosophy was to preserve their own position. “I said ‘Luca, it’s me. I’m responsible
Lessons in strategy from Formula 1, a new book This was the biggest challenge. There is a for it all. If you want to blame somebody , you
which is basically a conversation between Ross great workforce, wonderful, passionate and blame me’.” And after that there was no longer a
Brawn and Adam Parr. committed people, who were proud to work problem.
It was a bit high-brow for most fans, for Ferrari; but the middle management were The book also revealed that Brawn has
with detours into the philosophies of Sun Tzu, petrified of putting a step out of line and a poodle called Luca... v
Napoleon and Alexander Svechin, a Russian
strategist who ended up falling victim to Stalin’s
purges, but it is a fascinating read, as it delves
into the adventures of the two men in F1. There
are some interesting insights into Ferrari, for
example, which is interesting given what was
said in recent days by former chief engineer
Luca Baldisserri. His argument was that Ferrari is
no longer a team, but just “a group of frightened
people, afraid that they will lose their jobs”.
One can see how he may have
reached these conclusions - many others in F1
feel the same way - but thus far no-one else
has felt the need to say this out loud. Baldisserri
believes that the team has been drifting since
the departure of James Allison, just before the
summer break. I hear that these remarks have
rocked the boat to such an extent that Ferrari
is taking legal action against Baldisserri, on the
basis that he agree not to be critical of the team
in the settlement when he left Maranello. He is
now working with F1 driver-to-be Lance Stroll,
who will soon be announced as a Williams driver
for 2017. What is fascinating is that Brawn says
6
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Scottish movie star Gerard Butler

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A cardboard Kevin...

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Taylor Swift

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Venus Williams and Lindsey Vonn

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THE 200TH GP+ by Joe Saward

DID WE EVER IMAGINE THAT WE WOULD GET TO 200?

GP+ hits 200 this weekend - and we are still firing on all cylinders. Having fun and producing the fast e-magazine in F1
We launched GP+ magazine in the Spring of picture editors. There were simply unwanted disappeared without trace when software failed
2007, a couple of months before Steve Jobs costs and complications. When you are up and had to be started again, or the time when
unveiled the iPhone - three years before the against it, there is no time for spats and prima coffee was knocked over and my Apple friend its
iPad was launched. At the time the idea of an donnas. We needed people who just did the screen, when the FIA’s head of IT Chris Bentley
e-magazine was designed entirely for computer job and got the magazine out. There was a lot came to the rescue with plugs and advice and
screens, which was key thinking in the decision to learn about electronic publishing and we did the magazine was produced using TV screens,
to adopt the magazine’s landscape format, it by trial and error. And things did go wrong. it one which had to be taken off a wall in the
rather than the more traditional portrait style is best not dwell for long on the magazines that Korean brothel in which we were staying. There
magazines.
The world was still reading books at
that point and JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and
the Deathly Hallows sold more than 11 million
copies in the first 24 hours after it went on sale.
The world was a rather different place
to what it is today, as highlighted by the fact
that Time magazine named Vladimir Putin as its
Person of the Year.
In the Formula 1 world, the field
included drivers such as Takuma Sato and
Anthony Davidson, Christijan Albers and Scott
Speed and cars like the Williams-Toyota and
the Spyker-Ferrari. Jenson Button and Rubens
Barrichello were racing around in Honda F1
cars decked out in Earth liveries. New boy Lewis
Hamilton was teamed with Fernando Alonso at
McLaren and sparks were just beginning to fly.
There was no hint of the spying
scandal which would blow Formula 1 apart with
bad feeling later in the season.
The magazine was designed to fast
and simple. We didn’t want art directors and
19
was drama getting through the Great Firewall of
China, which we did not even know existed, and
in Spain in 2015 we did finally hit a brick wall
when the circuit board of my computer cracked.
The magazine appeared on the Tuesday, which
in itself was a miracle given the travelling and
re-learning of systems that had to be done in
the space of 48 hours. Our record remains two
and a half hours after the chequered flag and to
this day we have no idea how we managed to
achieve that. It was largely because there was a
plane to catch and no margin for error. Today, we
produce the magazine at a more stately pace,
averaging six hours after a race, which allows us
the chance to get out of the Media Centres to
talk to some of the people involved. The basic
idea remains the same: DT and JS both write,
JS lays out the pages and Peter and his helpers
produce the photographs. It all comes together
with practiced ease, but it takes a huge amount
of effort from all concerned.
We still don’t plan too far in advance,
in order to keep the magazine newsworthy
and each edition grows in the course of a race
weekend. We write what we want to write about
but we remain united and driven by our passion
for Formula 1 and sharing that passion with
our readers. We would love to sell more copies F1 cars for several races back in 2014 because he things we did...
of the magazine, but growing the audience liked what we were doing and wanted to help. There is no greater kick in F1 publishing
is not easy in the age of Twitter and a million We’d love Toto Wolff to give us the sidepods on than producing an entire 90-page magazine
websites all giving away their own take on what the two Mercedes, but we fear that Niki Lauda before some of the teams have managed to
is happening in the sport. We have plenty of might complain and ask us for cash. There is still produce a press release.
supporters within the industry and we would a good chance that one day, when we are old So, thanks for your support. We hope
like to mention Colin Kolles at this point, who and grey, one of us will write a screenplay about that you will continue to enjoy the magazine-
gave us space on the rear wing of the Caterham the early days of e-publishing and the crazy and do tell your friends about us... v
20
LEWIS HAMILTON AT LARGE by David Tremayne
HOW TO TRANSCEND YOUR SPORT
Say what you want about him, Lewis Hamilton is the only driver doing a cracking job for F1’s image beyond the confines of a race circuit
Prior to the US Grand prix, Lewis did something
no other F1 driver has ever done when he
appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show, bringing
the sport to a whole new audience. Since its
debut in 2003, more than 2000 episodes have
aired, with an average audience of four million.
“It was fantastic,” he said. “I love being out here
in the States, so this was a good opportunity
for me to reach a completely new audience. I’m
pretty sure that most of the people that were
in the audience for the show, hadn’t heard of
Formula One, so they were all glued to their
seats to learn something new. It’s a weird thing.
I don’t think anyone’s been on the Ellen show, so
I’m pretty proud of it.”
The Call of Duty
He’s also broken more fresh ground recently by
appearing in the Call of Duty game.
“I play that particularly in the winter, so
to have got the call with the opportunity to be
a part of it, I was like, ‘Absolutely!’ I jumped at it.
And I can’t wait for this winter. A friend of mine
that plays with us, he had no idea about this’
Well, he might read about it now but I haven’t
told him yet that I’m in the game, so when I’m
playing him in the winter and he sees me on
there, he’s definitely going to lose it a little bit.”
Working with Unicef
He also talked about his work with Unicef, having
recently posted a message on Facebook about
the trip he made to Haiti two years ago, and the
current need for relief there in the aftermath of
Hurricane Matthew.
“I haven’t another plan to go to Haiti,
but I would love to. The trip that I had there was
life-changing. To go to a country that has so
much beauty but so much poverty was a huge
eye-opener and obviously sad to see. But also to
see the smiles on people who have so much less
than all of us here.
“But knowing and seeing the
devastation there and that they don’t have the
tools or the means to be able to make change
and to recover from the difficult scenario they
are in... That’s why we have an opportunity,
us, as drivers, who have the following that we
have. Not necessarily particularly to encourage
people, but some people perhaps don’t know
where to go to help. They are constantly on their
phones, and if they see that they could just go
online and by the click of a button help change
someone’s life, that’s what I try to do. But I’m
working with Unicef on further plans for the
future. I don’t know if it’s going to be in Haiti, if
there’s a way I can get there and time for me to
get there and help in any way. I don’t know what
I could do, apart from taking a picture for social
media, which is not really that helpful. But my
thoughts and prayers are with all the families
there.”
Social media
Things slid a little when the subject of social
media was raised. To hear everyone in F1 talk
26
these days it’s the new magic bullet, engaging have fans; people who consciously would decide brought to me,” he said. “I don’t actually manage
with the fans, but that rather overlooks the way to follow me and not the dude next to me. We all every single part of my social media. I have a
in which some of them love to turn on celebs, have that, and I think it’s really important that couple of other people that do it. Our general
and the viciousness that can be part and parcel we engage with them, so I do.” approach is that if you see someone generally
of being able to hide behind an alias with no He then snapped a photo. talking smack, then you kind of cut it. I’d flown
sense of responsibility for the things one says. “I just took a picture just now. I waited back from Asia and then I got a message
Lewis was recently in trouble for his Snapchat for everyone to finish their questions and their afterwards… I don’t know who has been blocked
activity during the press conference in Japan. answers. So respect me, I just took a picture. It’s or not… I don’t have any particular feeling for
Now he was asked why he stayed alone on the a good picture, you’re all in it.” it… I don’t have a lot of time to go online and do
drivers’ parades. The slide developed further when that. I don’t think it was just media. It was a lot
“Well, on the drivers’ parade… I have personal communications were raised, and the of people got blocked. I think it was a blocking
respect for every single driver here and at the subject of a journalist blockage on Twitter, and spree. If you look at my phone, I don’t even have
start of my career we’d stand and we’d talk, he admitted that he doesn’t always do his own the app, I don’t really do my tweets.
just generally shootin’, talking about whatever, tweets. “There’s obviously several platforms
and often not noticing that there’s certain “That’s something that’s just been so I’m not consciously doing every single one
individuals in the crowd who have probably
spent all their money to get to a Grand Prix.
So I actually genuinely often stand at the front
of the truck and I often have one ear bud off
so I can generally hear people and I make sure
that I connect with those that have come out
to support me. Sometimes there’s a Grenadian
flag, but there’s often people, whatever country
we’re in, even if it’s not their own nationality
they’ll have a British flag there and they’ll be
waving. And if I’m talking to these guys often,
you’ll miss that.
“If I was in the grandstand having
come to support someone, and I’m waving at
the dude and he’s not even paying attention, I’d
be pretty pissed. So that’s what I try to do. I try
to connect with every single one. If you look at
it, I point out to everyone, let them know that
I recognise them and I appreciate it because
I never in a million years thought I would ever
27
all the time, so I still have a lot of people who
help me because it’s quite a big job. Every single
thing that’s said, I can either send, or if I haven’t
got time to post it or if it’s not the right time, of
course I can write it, send it and one of my team
will post it when it’s the right time.”
Celebrating with Mercedes
On safer ground, he revealed what a blast he and
Nico had had celebrating its third consecutive
World Championship for Constructors after
Japan.
“Honestly, it’s kind of daunting when
you go back to the two factories, because there’s
so many people. I remember joining the team
and having to stand and they were like, ‘We
want to introduce you to everyone,” and having
to stand in front of 800 people at the first place
and then 500 people at the next, and to speak to
them. That’s always a difficult thing.
“But then, after you’ve grown to know
everyone and you’ve gone on the journey that
I have with this team and reached the success,
it’s an incredibly proud moment for us to stand
up there and show our appreciation – because
those guys are not travelling like us but they
are working crazy hours to enable us to get
off the line, to be up the front and win these
championships. And it takes a huge amount of
work for these people to come together and
every single individual to operate at the best
they can possibly do. I remember joining this
team and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the
majority of the people that were in here, said
that it wasn’t the right decision. I had the belief
that this team would really go somewhere and
I’ve been a part of that journey and very proud
of it.
“It was incredible. Everyone was just
so happy – and now they’re turning all of those
energies to next year.”
The sore foot
He also opened up about the sore foot which
prevented him doing Pirelli tyre testing in
Barcelona after Suzuka.
“I’m 100 per cent, yeah, feeling great. I
basically had an injury that I’ve been carrying all
year long, in both feet. Just induced by running.
Unfortunately, the physio said that it just takes a
lot of stretching and it heals over a long time. At
the time I woke up in the morning, I was feeling
quite a lot of pain the day before, and it hadn’t
diminished, so the most important thing was
to be fresh and feeling better for here. This is
actually the first week that it’s felt good.”
Gravitas and grey areas
Away from all the frippery, Lewis has the gravitas
to challenge the status quo and has never been
afraid to speak out, and in Austin on Saturday he
said what it is he doesn’t like about a couple of
grey areas in the sporting regulations, following
the incident he had with Max Verstappen in
Suzuka as he led the call for tightening of the
rules.
That day Charlie Whiting and the FIA
redefined the regulations covering defensive
driving and blue flags, but Lewis suggested that
some areas remain grey.
“I don’t see the rules being an issue,”
he said, “it’s just the rules being very grey.
“We discussed the start of the last race.
The rule has always been we’ve got to be in the
grid spot - you can’t be half a car out, half a car
in. In Suzuka because we had water on our side
of the grid, Daniel Ricciardo [fourth on the grid]
placed his car two wheels out, two wheels in. It
needs to be clear because if that is now allowed,
28
and commonsense is allowed to prevail, all of us
will just do that and you’ll see cars staggered all
down the grid.
“Now it’s never been a rule. If I’d
known in the last race I would have also put the
car there. We had asked and they said no.
“If it’s inconsistent then some people
will exploit it, while some people may get
penalties and may not.
“It’s just about having very, very clear
instructions, consistency.”
The subject of waved double yellows
has been a cause for controversy ever since
Nico Rosberg’s qualifying in Hungary. Drivers
must now lift and abort a lap if they encounter
double waved yellows, rather than have what
amounted to a token lift as they could get away
with in the past.
“It wasn’t very clear, so some people
have got away with some things and other
people have been penalised. It should be the
same all the time, so the clearer you make it, the
easier it is. You won’t try and exploit it. us here, if all things were equal in whatever our “And if I lose the title this year, I’ll try to
“You know if there’s a yellow flag, it’s a scenarios are, there would be a certain result. take it like a man. You can’t win them all. Look at
lift; you know if there’s a double yellow flag, you Obviously this year it’s been a little bit different all the World Champions in the past who’ve won
cannot finish your lap. There’s no lift a little bit in terms of how our performances have been, championships and lost championships, it’s
before it and then accelerating faster through particularly mechanically. And there’s nothing part of the game. I’m in the position right now
the corner where the danger zone is and getting you can do about that. But, out of the 10 times where there are still a lot of points available so
away with it as people have done.” the car has been good - whatever it is - I’ve often I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and still
He also spoke of his fight with Nico, done the job with it, but then there definitely have the belief that anything is possible. But if
and the possibility that he could lose his crown have been a few that, probably in the first few not, then I’ll move on. Once it’s decided and it
to the man he has so often beaten in all the seconds of the race, have not gone that well. But happens, all I can do about it is shape the future,
years they’ve been racing one another. that’s motor racing. which is the next year. So, life will move on, we’ll
“We’ve always been having close “I don’t plan on taking any sabbaticals. go into next season and hopefully come back
races, close battles. I think in all fairness to all of If I stop, I stop, that will be the plan. stronger.” v
29
NICO HULKENBERG by Joe Saward

NICO READY TO STEP UP A GEAR...

Nico Hulkenberg has signed a three-year deal to race for the Renault F1 team. It’s his big chance...
Renault Sport F1 has announced in recent days
that Nico Hülkenberg will join the team for
2017 at the start of “a multi-year deal”, which
is believed to be for two years with an option
for a third season in 2019. There have been
rumours that the deal is worth $18 million to
the German driver, but most F1 deals today
involve bonuses which make it very difficult to
be precise. However, $6 million a year is the kind
of money that Hülkenberg would be earning
with a factory team, given his career to date and
the fact that he was not in a great position to
bargain
The deal came after Force India agreed
to release Nico from his 2017 contract. This was
helpful for the Silverstone team as it needs to
find some more funding for next season and
Hülkenberg was a paid driver, rather than one
who arrived with sponsorship. This means that
the team can now look for someone else who
can help to contribute to its budget. This is
important because the team wants to maintain
its level of performance for as long as possible
as the owners Vijay Mallya and Subrata Roy
need to sell the team in order to help to unravel
the messes that each has in India. Mallya owes
banks at least $1.3 billion and has a number of
cases outstanding against him. He left India in
March and has been in England ever since, but
his passport has been cancelled so he cannot
travel and India’s Enforcement Directorate is
30
working to have him extradited as he has failed is probably Kevin Magnussen, although he says success. He’s an outstanding driver, who has
to respond to all summonses issued by the that he is still hoping to stay at Renault. This will scored more points for this team than anybody
courts in India. depend on what Renault decides to do. It has else. While it’s true we will miss Nico, we respect
Subrata Roy is in similar trouble as he tried to hire Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas, but his decision to explore fresh opportunities and it
owes around $1.5 billion and has spent much of both men are contracted for 2017. would be wrong to stand in his way.”
the last two years in prison. The Supreme Court “Everybody at Sahara Force India Hulkenberg has not had an easy
did allow him parole a few months ago but in wishes Nico well as he embarks upon a different F1 career, since he joined Williams in 2010.
September his lawyers upset the court and he path in Formula 1,” Mallya says. “Having spent He showed considerable promise alongside
was ordered back to prison , although hurried five years with us, Nico has become a great friend Rubens Barrichello (below) and even put his car
apologies resulted in that being avoided and and contributed a huge amount to the team’s on pole position in Brazil, but Williams needed
his parole being extended until October 24.
The court says that it has lost faith in Roy and
he must present a proper repayment scheme
accompanied by an affidavit if he is to remain at
liberty. Whatever the details, the misadventures
of the two Indians is embarrassing for Formula 1
and the sooner they can find a buyer the better.
If they cannot sell, they will have to keep on
funding the team and neither seems to be able
to do that. It is a great shame given the terrific
job that the team has been doing in recent
years. The good news is that if the team does
finish fourth in the Constructors’ Championship,
it will receive additional prize money, while
Sergio Perez’s sponsors are continuing and
there is money from Smirnoff. This means that
the team is not in danger, but it is still useful
to either have more money, or to reduce its
spending. There has been speculation that
Mercedes will agree to reduce the price of its
engine supply if the team takes Pascal Wehrlein,
but for the moment it seems that Force India
wants a bigger reduction than Mercedes is
willing to accept. This means that the man most
likely to go to Force India at the time of writing
31
money for 2011 and he was dropped in favour
of Pastor Maldonado.
This meant that Nico became Force
India’s reserve driver in 2011 with a deal to
become a race driver the following year (below).
He moved to Sauber for a year in 2013 and there
were rumours that Ferrari might be interested.
At the last minute the team signed Kimi
Raikkonen instead.
“You never really know how close you
are,” Hulkenberg said. “You only have the deal
when it’s signed and it wasn’t signed.”
Lotus wanted to sign him as well, but
once again Maldonado’s millions blocked his
career.
“Maybe if I’d stayed at Force India,
that could have been a change to my career,” he
muses. “The 2013 Force India at the beginning of
32
the year was a very good car, and at Sauber, we
were struggling initially but then getting better
in the second half. Every career is different and
decisions were made for good reasons at the
various times. You never have guarantees and
obviously it hasn’t played out perfectly, but on
the other side, I think I’m still a lucky guy—I’m
still in F1, doing what I love.”
Nico returned to Force India in 2014
and a year later the team agreed to let him race
for the factory Porsche team in the Le Mans 24
Hours. Teamed with Nick Tandy and Earl Bamber,
33
he emerged the winner of the endurance classic,
joining a very exclusive club of drivers who won
the race at their first attempt.
“It has always been my dream to work
for a manufacturer team,” Nico explains. “F1’s
new regulations will change the game and give
our team a good opportunity. In the years to
come, Renault will play a challenger role, which
fits my approach to racing 100%. I can’t wait to
become part of the family.
“Renault has always been a big
player in the motorsport world that brings up
incredible memories: in his stint with Renault,
Michael Schumacher not only helped make
Germany an F1 nation, he also sparked my
enthusiasm and fire for racing. As a part of the
Renault family, I want to develop the car and
write new success stories.
34
 “For the remaining races this year, I
will give my best for Force India to reach fourth
place in the constructors’ championship. This
would be a great achievement for the whole
Force India team, the biggest success in its
history and a great end to a fantastic time there.
“I am grateful that Force India has
given me the chance to take up this new
opportunity.”
Renault team boss Frédéric Vasseur
knows Hulkenberg well, having run him in
Formula 3 and GP2. The Hulk first raced for
Vasseur’s ASM team in European Formula 3 in
2007 (below), when he finished third in the
series as a rookie. The following year with the
team rebranded as ART Grand Prix, Nico won
the title and moved up to GP2 in 2009, winning
the title at his first attempt.
“Only three drivers have won GP2
at their first attempt,” Vasseur says. “Nico, Nico
Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton. He has succeeded
in everything in his career to date, including Le
Mans. He is a real leader, who is able to motivate
a team and take the troops with him. He has a lot
of experience and is very fast. From a technical
perspective, an experienced and conscientious podiums. Nico Hülkenberg fulfils this role look back through the history of ART, you see
driver can give precious feedback as well as perfectly and is an excellent complement to that Valtteri won for the team in GP3 in 2011, but
knowing exactly what they want from the car.” what we want to achieve. He is a highly talented, you might also note that Romain Grosjean won
Renault Sport F1 chairman Jérôme dedicated and motivated driver. Nico will enable the European Formula 3 for the team in 2007
Stoll says that next year Renault wants to make us to harness all the hard work completed this and the GP2 Asian title in 2008, while Esteban
significant progress. season and translate it to improved results on Gutiérrez won GP3 in 2010 and Esteban Ocan
“This season has been about putting track in 2017 and beyond.” did the same in 2015. Vasseur rates 2015 GP2
the foundations in place for future success,” It remains to be seen who will be The Champion Stoffel Vandoorne very highly, but
he says. “For our next step we required an Hulk’s team-mate at Renault but it is interesting McLaren has him locked into a contract in the
experienced driver who is still hungry for that Vasseur has been chasing Bottas. When you years ahead. v
35
ZAK BROWN by Joe Saward

A MAN WORTH WATCHING

Zak Brown has made his name, and his fortune, as an F1 marketeer. Now, he is on the move... but where is he going?

The son of a Hollywood musician and time out.

composer, Zak grew up in the San Fernando In 1992 he did a season in the
Valley, California’s celebrated “Valley”. Benelux Open Lotus Series and for the
The family lived in North Hollywood, and next three years he raced in various series,
he attended University High School, an including the Toyota Atlantic Series in
establishment with an impressive list of the US and even in the British Formula 3
alumni. Championship and even tried his hand at
Brown says that his first memories Indy Lights at the end of 1995. In the course of
of the sport were going to watch races at his adventures he broke an arm while testing
the Riverside International Raceway. These a car. In the end he found some sponsorship
included the NASCAR Winston Cup and from the airline TWA but he was never able
sports car events. He also attended drag to put together a really big budget and so
racing events at Pomona and in 1981 he saw always raced old equipment for second rate
his first F1 race at Long Beach. teams.
One of his school friends was a “Eventually I got a deal to race back
nephew of the celebrated off-road racer in the States and so I went to TWA and said
Mickey Thompson and Brown went with ‘Sorry, but I am going to leave’. They then
them to the Long Beach Grand Prix - by then asked me to find someone else for them
a CART race - and was fortunate enough to to sponsor and the deal was passed on to
have dinner with Mario Andretti. He asked the Mansell Madgwick Motorsport British
the racing legend how to get started in racing Formula 3000 team.
and was told to try go-karts. He took that “I realised that I had made more
advice and attended the Jim Hall Kart Racing money doing that deal than I would have
School and then began racing karts. He was made if I had been racing,” Brown admits. “I
15 and he would race karts for the next five continued to race professionally until 2000
seasons, winning 22 races. He graduated in Indy Lights, Toyota Atlantics and then
high school in 1989 and with no desire to sports cars with Porsche. I started doing
go on to college, decided to try to pursue a deals not only for myself but also for others
career in racing and headed to the UK in 1991 and I realised that I had a very good Rolodex,
where he would win a local FF1600 race first because I was always working it. When I
36
started to go back to people and saying: ‘Forget
about me, what if I could take you anywhere in
the sport whether that is Nigel Mansell or Jeff
Gordon’, all of a sudden deals started to come in.
“Everyone started telling me that I
should stop racing and do this sponsorship
thing. Your ego does not want to hear that. I was
trying to do F1 or Indycars, but I finally got to
grips with the fact that I was not going to go
any further than I had gone. I had what I would
consider to have been flashes of brilliance and
I would say ‘I can do it, because I beat that guy’,
but then there were other occasions when I
thought: ‘That was a bad result’. I came to the
conclusion that I was better than average but
not good enough for Formula 1. It was a constant
struggle and it got to the point at which I was no
longer having fun racing, so I wanted to stop.
“At that point I had a Porsche contract
in sports cars and they would not let me stop
and I think doing that one extra year - which
was miserable - helped me to decide that I was
done.”
He had founded Just Marketing back
in 1995, after the TWA deal.
“I had a staff of eight or nine but as
soon as I stopped racing the business took,” he
recalls. “It had taken off in a small way between
1995 and 1999 but in 2000 it really started to
become something. We were doing seven figure
deals.”
His big breakthrough was a deal in
NASCAR for the drinks company Diageo to
use its Crown Royal brand, bringing to an end
a 56-year self-imposed NASCAR ban on liquor
37
sponsorships. That involved some serious
lobbying but the shift in policy opened the
way for new revenues and Crown Royal even
became the official whisky of NASCAR
This was a breakthrough for JMI and
it quickly transformed itself into a multi-million
dollar agency, employing 70 people, with clients
such as Subway, Ford, UPS, Verizon and Henkel.
Lenovo, BMW, Hilton International,
Irwin Industrial Tools, Remington Products, Eli
Lilly, STP and DeWalt would all follow and the
agency would expand operations from NASCAR
and F1 into Indycars, GrandAm, the World Rally
Championship and most recently Formula E.
The first F1 sponsorship was in 2005
when JMI landed the Diageo brand Johnnie
Walker and three years later brokered the official
partership deal between LG Electronics and
Formula One. This was followed by a UBS deal in
2010, and other significant sponsorships deals
including Unilever and GSK. The agency grew to
have 140 employees and revenues over $80m.
In 2008 Spire Capital bought control of
JMI, keeping Brown on as CEO. After five years it
sold the business to CSM Sport & Entertainment,
a division of Chime Communications PLC, for
$76 million. Brown took over control of CSM
and began expanding the company into the
US. Chime would be taken over in 2015 by the
advertising giant WPP and Providence Equity
Partners, a New York-based global private
equity firm. Brown has eased off a little in recent
years with a strong of other projects. He has
38
been running United Autosports in league with
former racer Richard Dean in recent years and
the team has just won the European Le Mans
Series LMP3 Teams’ title while Alex Brundle,
Christian England and Mike Guasch have
secured the Driver’s championship. He still
races himself whenever he can and is a serious
collector of historic racing cars. He was a partner
with Eddie Cheever in Coyote Cars and launched
an historic racing series Bobby Rahal.
He is also a non-executive director of
Cosworth and on the board of Mark Blundell’s
MB Partners.
More recently, he became the non-
executive chairman of the Motorsport Network
media company, which owns and operates
motorsport.com. This has just announced that it
is acquiring all the motorsport titles belonging
to Haymarket Publishing, including Autosport.
It may not be a role that Brown will
hold for long. His name has been linked with
a marketing role in the new Formula One
company, once Liberty Media completes its
takeover of the existing group. Brown will not
confirm or deny his plans but it is significant that
he has recently resigned his post as CEO of CSM
and will depart at the end of the year.
We will have to see what happens
next, but it will be worth watching for Zak Brown
in the months ahead... v
39
MARIO’S EARLY DAYS IN F1 by David Tremayne The heritage of racing, brought to you by

WHEN MARIO ANDRETTI ARRIVED IN F1

The Fonz’s road to the Big League actually began at Indy, as early as 1965…
It was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the race “I had a nice opportunity of telling much less of a perceived gap between the two
won by Jim Clark and Lotus, that the Scot first Mario that years later, after Jimmy died, and you genres, which were more similar than they are
really came to appreciate the Italo-American’s should have seen his face. I think he gave me a today. But it would not be until 1968, after Clark’s
talents and drew them to the attention of Colin big hug, because it meant so much to him.” death, that Andretti’s various circumstances
Chapman. Both soon became firm fans of the At Indy, Chapman had been so aligned.
wiry little guy who had emigrated to the US impressed that he promised to let him try an F1 “It was something that was waiting
with his twin brother Aldo. While waiting as car if he ever felt the need. Back then there was for me because Colin had promised me back
boys in a displaced persons camp in Trieste,
both had imagined themselves as racers. Mario
in particular lionised Alberto Ascari.
“In my eyes he was the big idol. He
was the catalyst that made me decide what I
wanted to do. I’ve been influenced so much
by him. There were moments when I’d say,
‘I wonder what Ascari would do under these
circumstances?’ Yeah, he meant a lot to me.”
Via the bullrings of US motorsport,
in midgets and sprintcars standing on the gas
through the likes of Langhorne’s Puke Hollow,
or in open-wheelers on the smooth road
courses and ovals of the USAC Championship,
Andretti learned his trade and became the
National Points champion ahead of A.J. Foyt,
Jim McElreath and Don Branson in 1965. He was
such a standout at Indianapolis that season that
Clark developed immediate respect for him.
“Jimmy really rated Mario,” the Scot’s
former girlfriend Sally Swart recalled. “He was
really impressed with his driving, and had
admired it since day one when Mario went to
Indy.
40
at Indianapolis in 1965, in my rookie year, that
if I ever wanted to get into a Formula One car,
I just had to call him when I was ready. Typical
Colin. And I called him in ’68 and he didn’t blink
an eye.”
That year Chapman was running
Graham Hill and Jackie Oliver, but immediately
told Andretti: “We’ll do the last two races.” In fact,
they ended up seeking to do the Italian GP at
Monza and the US GP at Watkins Glen, running a
third Lotus 49.
The plan was to test at Monza prior to
the first race, and that was where politics raised
their ugly head and made his transition a bitter-
sweet experience.
“Before I went to Watkins Glen in ’68,
Monza in September was supposed to be my
debut,” Mario recalled. “And we tested there and
we ran very quick.” Unofficial timing caught him
at 1m 27.0s, fastest of them all.
“It was my first time ever in a Formula
One car. I’d thought about it so much, and the
Lotus 49 was a very competitive car.”
He still talks about that moment in
soft, reverent tones, like a man speaking many
years later of a lost love. “It was worth waiting
for. It didn’t disappoint. Just the opposite… It the traditional Hoosier 100 Champcar race at event – they usually had the championship races
was exactly what I’d expected: taut, precise, a the Indiana State Fairgrounds Speedway in on a Sunday- but the unlucky part was that it
little underpowered compared with what I was Indianapolis on the Saturday, before hot-footing was within the 24-hour rule, falling technically
used to in USAC. But it was a very sincere car, it it back to Italy for the Grand Prix. within the period during which you couldn’t do
gave you something for nothing.” “At Monza it felt so good right away. Of another race before a Grand Prix.
There was a problem, however. course, the rest is history. We qualified the car “It’s not that we went into it blind,
Andretti and his pal Bobby Unser, who was and they wouldn’t let us run in the race because however. The organisers at Monza had a lot of
to drive a BRM (seen above testing), were of the Hoosier 100, which we’d done the day political pull with the CSI [forerunner of today’s
also scheduled to fly back to the States to run before. The lucky thing was that it was a Saturday FIA] at the time, and also Count Giovanni Lurani
41
was an influential speaker in Italy, and they
promised that they would waive the rule so
we could do both races. They only overlapped
the rule by two hours. Well, what happened is
that we were running good, and it’s a matter
of record that in testing I ran quicker than the
Ferraris had tested previously.
“I ran the first 20 minutes of practice
on the Friday, and of course I had to really get
on with it. I picked up a couple of tows because
at that time it was very important to pick one up.
Matter of fact, who gave me the tow was Bobby
with the BRM. He was my pal and I’d brought him
over and got Louis Stanley to give him a drive. It
was not a good car, but it was good enough for a
tow, I can tell you that. In fact, I tried to tow him,
but he couldn’t keep up!
“So we could only do the first 20
minutes of practice, and I was quickest then,
and we left for the airport.” He had lapped in
1m 27.2s. Subsequently that was bettered that
day by John Surtees, Graham Hill, Denny Hulme,
Jacky Ickx, Chris Amon, Jo Siffert and Derek Bell,
but it stood up for 10th quickest of the weekend
even though there was another practice session
on the Saturday, and would have left him 10th
on the grid. Bobby’s 20th fastest 1m 30.6s would
have put him in last place on the back row.
The whole deal had been laid on by finished second to Foyt in the Hoosier 100, but but I think it was Ferrari. I never knew. So they
tyre giant Firestone, who had a private Learjet when he got back to Italy, disappointment lay in wouldn’t let me or Bobby run, but they held
on hand to run Andretti and Unser back and wait. the car on the grid to make it look like I never
forth. “In fact they’d laid on two cots – Formula “So what happens is that we are arrived, so I’m the one that looked bad.”
One, first class! – for us to sleep in on our way helicoptered to the track and when we arrive Thoroughly angered, he and Bobby
back. It was fantastic. I got enough sleep.” there all of a sudden nobody’s talking to us. headed for Malpensa airport in their hire cars.
Mario had started from pole and Apparently there was a protest. You don’t know, Remember that scene from Days of Thunder,
42
when Tom Cruise as Cole Trickle and Michael
Rooker as Rowdy Burns, trashed theirs? That day
when Mario and Bobby beat up their rentals was
the inspiration for it.
“I was so pissed off we took it out on
our hire cars,” Mario laughed, like a naughty
teenager. “Bobby and I just destroyed those
cars!”
The Monza fiasco left a nasty taste
in Andretti’s mouth, and meant that his long
awaited debut was perforce postponed until his
home race at Watkins Glen in October. But it was
worth waiting for, as he stood F1 on its ear in the
third works 49.
“For me it was a very happy time. There
was no time to test beforehand, and honestly I’d
never seen the track. Everyone thought it was
my home track, but I’d never been up there
at that time. In all fairness, however, the Glen
was a fairly simply layout, which helped for a
first-timer, and the car was good. That’s when
I worked very closely for the first time with
designer Maurice Philippe, because he was on
the third car. And he actually got his hands dirty,
just to help out, because it looked like we had a
shot at really doing well.”
Jackie Stewart had been fastest in
Friday’s first practice session, with 1m 04.27s
in Ken Tyrrell’s Matra-Ford. With 10 minutes
remaining of Saturday’s second session Graham
Hill was the Scot’s closest challenger with 1m
04.28s in the number one works Lotus, with
Chris Amon next for Ferrari on 1m 04.37s. But
then Mario got a tow from Surtees’ Honda and
banged in a lap of 1m 04.20s…
“We were up with the times and we
just got on pole. Squeaked it past Stewart by
seven-hundredths. It was very close, but a
43
satisfying feeling, you know?”
Indeed it was. He was on pole for
his first F1 race, something that only Carlos
Reutemann and Jacques Villeneuve have since
emulated.
Further back, Bobby put his unloved
BRM 19th on the 20-car grid.
Sadly, Mario’s race fell apart quickly.
He led off the line, but Jackie slipped by at the
end of the straight to lead the first lap. Mario
kept hold of second from Chris and Graham, but
then the underside of the Lotus’s nose began to
work loose. He continued like that for a while,
but pitted on the 14th lap to have it taped up,
leaving Hill in the sister car to pursue the Matra
to the chequered flag. Resuming in 12th place,
Mario climbed up to ninth before his clutch
slipped out of business after 32 of the 108 laps.
Four laps later, Bobby’s engine broke when he
was running 10th.
“The fact it was the third car showed
in the race,” Mario said of his Lotus. “It had a
split nose design and the bottom half which
held the wing collapsed, so it was dragging,
44
but that wasn’t the worst. The clutch started
slipping. In fact, the clutch started slipping like,
right after the start. I led off the line, and as I was
going through the gears it was going eeeyagh,
eeeyagh, you know, just picking up, and Stewart
got me down the straightaway. I held on to him
for three or four laps and then it just got worse
and worse.”
However you sliced it, though, it
was a spectacular debut, which made it all
the more disappointing that he did not join
Chapman fulltime for F1 in 1969. Instead, he
did selected races. In 1970 he drove an STP-
sponsored March 701 in F1 before joining Ferrari
for selected Grands Prix and sportscar races in
1971. He scored his first Grand Prix victory in
South Africa then won the non-championship
Questor GP at the Ontario Motor Speedway, but
his ties to Firestone in the US were so strong
that he needed the financial stability their
agreement delivered. That meant only a handful
of appearances in F1 and sportscar races for
Ferrari in 1972 and nothing in 1973. In 1974 he
had another go, with Parnelli Jones’ new team,
45
and ran a full season in 1975, before the outfit
folded early in 1976. That led him back to Lotus
via a one-off run in Frank Williams’ unloved Wolf-
Williams, and following victory in the Japanese
finale which saw James Hunt win the crown,
that set him on the road to his own eventual
World Championship success with Chapman
with the Lotus 79 after a near miss with the 78 in
1977.
“Looking back, I guess one of my
biggest worries was being the guy not to win
the Championship for Colin,” he admitted.
“So many guys had done it before… Jimmmy,
Graham Hill, Rindt, Emerson… I didn’t want to
be the one to let him down.”
In 1978 Mario lifted that worry off
his own shoulders at Monza – where his F1
adventure had begun so ironically a decade
earlier. In the end he wasn’t the one not to win
the title for the mercurial Lotus chief – but he
was the last. v
46
 THE HACK LOOKS BACK by Mike Doodson

SENDING UP ROCKETS
Sometime towards the end of 1954, Count been behaving petulantly, even rudely. Instead he trusts to safeguard his image. But the fact
Basie took on an almost unknown youngster to of discreetly illuminating his own persona, he that they are on the payroll may instil in them a
sit behind the drum kit and take charge of the persists in sending up rockets. Not all of them reluctance to tell truths to their employer which
irresistible swing for which his splendid 16-piece have landed harmlessly. he might find disobliging. Sixty years ago, the
orchestra had become famous. At 26 years old, I imagine that Lewis has well-paid situation for Sonny Payne was rather different
Percival 'Sonny' Payne, unlike his illustrious advisers somewhere behind the scenes whom because although his extended solos and stick-
predecessors 'Papa' Jo Jones and Gus Johnson,
was not so much a subtle timekeeper as a
spectacular showman. Indeed, some of Basie's
intimates regarded Payne's drumming as flashy,
verging on the vulgar. The renowned jazz critic
Nat Hentoff (still with us at 91, I am happy to
report) elegantly described the Payne style. “He
is inclined to send up rockets when the music
calls for indirect lighting,” Hentoff observed in
'The Jazz Life' (1961).
Looking at the way Lewis Hamilton's
career is going at the moment, I am beginning
to see a parallel with Mr Payne. There is even
a close-ish physical resemblance in their
handsome faces (see photos). But Lewis has
now reached a stage in his life where his
achievements demand respect and his opinions
deserve to be taken seriously. Regrettably,
rather than taking advantage of his hard-earned
status to calm the media maelstrom, he has
47
juggling proved to be a box-office attraction
for all but the most sophisticated audiences,
he had to come down to earth again when the
other musicians returned to the stand. Rhythm
guitarist Freddie Green even kept a long stick
handy with which to poke the drummer when
the beat began to run away.
The long stick solution, I think, would
be too crude in Lewis's case, although Toto Wolff
might have to consider it one day soon. Far
more appropriate, I suggest, would be for Lewis
to study how his hero Ayrton Senna responded
when he, too, found that the popular press was
becoming hysterically over-imaginative and
intrusive.
S
enna had an ambivalent relationship
with us reptiles of the media. He wanted
us to be sympathetic towards him, not
just to make him feel loved but also because it
conveniently lubricated negotiations involving
personal sponsorships. He even went so far as
to have at least two pressmen (that we knew of )
on the payroll. One of them was a commentator
on Brazilian TV, a glaringly outrageous situation
which would surely not have been tolerated by
the BBC, although Senna was of course too proud
to admit it. At times he would even remark that
he paid no mind to what was written about him,
yet it was revealed after his death that in fact
he was so vainglorious about his media image
that he employed an exclusive clipping service
which gathered material in most European
languages and even in Japanese.
I suspect that it was one of those
clippings which caused the sudden chill in
the previously happy relationship which I
had enjoyed with Ayrton until some time in, I
think, 1991. A Japanese magazine had asked
me to write about the effect that his faith as a
professed Christian might be having on his track
behaviour. By chance, this was a subject which
had intrigued me ever since he came under the
influence of his sister Viviane and began both to
invoke the Almighty in public and to consult the
Bible.
My own education had been at
Christian (CofE) schools, and as an immature
15 year-old at Rugby I had been encouraged to
seek Confirmation, which I did. As candidates,
we were taught that the first principle of our
religion, laid down by its founder, was that
all men are equal in the sight of God. I never
forgot it. Writing many years later for a Japanese
readership, I observed that sport is essentially a
selfish activity, and that it is surely contradictory
for any Christian competitor to ask God to favour
him (or her) over his rivals, as Senna seemed to
be doing. To do so, I suggested, would be to blot
out the most important element of one's faith.
To judge from remarks being made
from time to time by Lewis, he too would appear
to be finding comfort in some form of religious
belief. It would be interesting to know what
influence he has drawn from Ayrton Senna in
doing so. I would like to ask him about it in some
future press conference, although I am not at all
sure that I would dare to do so in the current
atmosphere.
I
t is being suggested, though not by me, that
the format of four press conferences held
under the aegis of the FIA over the weekend
of a GP has become so stale and predictable
that it should be replaced or even dispensed
with altogether. It is true that the events are
sometimes poorly attended, although this
overlooks the fact that they are beamed into
the media centre where journalists working to
a deadline can incorporate the relevant quotes
into the stories being composed on their
computer screens.
The culprit responsible for the
devaluation of the F1 press conference, as Joe
48

has revealed, is the FIA itself, which chose, in
yet another cack-handed miscalculation, to
sell the broadcasting rights to Sky television.
Where previously the reporting of comments
by drivers and team personnel was in the hands
of professional journalists (not all of whom are
irresponsible ninnies), now the occasion is open
to every back-bedroom blogger and conspiracy
loon who wishes to embroider whatever has
been said with his own wild imaginings.
As the most newsworthy and (let's
face it) the least predictable figure in the world
of F1 racing, Lewis Hamilton is inevitably the
hardest-hit victim of all the trash talk out there
in GP la-la land. Most unfortunately, he seems
not to understand that by distancing himself
from FIA media encounters and flouncing out
of meet-the-press opportunities laid on by
his employers, he is in fact inviting even more
misguided speculation than he would get if he
gritted his teeth and provided coherent answers
to the questions posed by us hacks.
Again, Lewis could profit by studying
the way Ayrton Senna responded to an unruly
press. The 'enemies' (those who had written
something irresponsible or insulting) would
get a curt response and a dark look. But good
questions would be rewarded with an extensive,
even long-winded, reply. There would also be
regular conclaves for selected journalists from
different language groups. In the period before I
found myself out in the cold, I had been granted
exclusive interviews with him at his homes in
Brazil, England and Monaco. He was always
thoughtful and serious, even argumentative at
times. I like to think that those chats not only
had a profound impression on me but on those
who read his words once I had put them down
on paper.
Lewis Hamilton's 10 years at the top
in Formula 1 will have left him with glorious
memories and valuable experiences. His image
would be greatly enhanced if he would just
make the time to share them with some of the
historians of the sport. Surely he would prefer to
be remembered for his greatness in competition
than for posting childish images on some here-
today-gone-tomorrow website.
A
ll readers of GrandPrix+ will, I am sure,
wish to congratulate my colleagues Joe
Saward and David Tremayne on racking
up 200 editions of this excellent electronic
publication. It really is extraordinary that it
regularly hits pixel before some of the F1 teams
have got around to issuing their press releases.
Quite how my two chums get it written
and assembled in such a short period after each
race is still a mystery to me. They both have the
ability to shut themselves away from everything
that's going on around them and devote their
full attention to the job in hand. Even after half
a century in the writing racket, I was never able
to do that. Here on GP+, bits of punctuation may
go missing, and we would all like to see more
generous captions, but you won't find keener
historians than David or Joe or men with more
eclectic statistics at their fingertips.
It's probably the advancing years
which are responsible, but I genuinely can't
remember how I eventually got involved. What
I can say is that I recognised something special
when I saw it. I seem to have started in 2007
when I sent a column (I was 'A Hack' then, not
yet 'THE Hack') to Joe for his blog. It was not until
2010 that I found myself on the proper comic.
Despite the efforts of a Belgian bag
snatcher back in August, I haven't missed an issue.
I just hope that Joe and David will be able to put up
with me for a while longer. I may even get around
to preaching to them about the importance of
diacritical marks in written Spanish. But then that
would probably provide them with the perfect
excuse for getting rid of me... v
49
QUALIFYING REPORT by Joe Saward

LEWIS LEADS THE CHARGE

Lewis Hamilton needed to win in Texas - and in qualifying, he set things up perfectly for the race on Sunday
It was in the 1830s that pioneers started to hangs out in these parts. The area was chosen Texas Instruments and Dell. Austinites are not
settle along the Colorado River, in the foothills to be the site of a new capital for the Republic like other Texans and they are proud of it. They
of Texas Hill Country. It was a nice area with of Texas and was named after Stephen F. Austin, still like country music, barbecues and big-
plenty of waterways and lakes, although there the Father of Texas. Today it is major financial breasted Amazons, like other Texans, but they
were some pretty nasty critters, such as the centre and home of some major technology vote Democrat, while the rest of the state is a
cottonmouth, a rather venomous snake that firms, such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), sea of Republicanism. These days the Hispanic
50
population is close to 40 percent and along with
other minorities, notably African Americans, this
is what they call a minority-majority state.
All of this is why F1 ended up in Austin:
because Austin wanted to be different and is a
diverse and cosmopolitan place, with plenty of
money kicking around.
In Formula 1 terms, the Circuit of
the Americas is a Hamilton circuit. He has won
three of the four F1 races to be held at the
facility, but he had never been on pole position.
Lewis has a strong following in the US, where
he spends a lot of his free time. Many of the
95,000 fans expected on Sunday are Lewis fans,
although the red flags of Ferrari are still much
in evidence. The circuit usually produces good
racing but if two cars are closely-matched in
terms of performance, overtaking is not easy
and the first corner of the is important. And this
year Hamilton needs to win if he is to keep his
World Championship hopes alive. The problem
he has is that Nico Rosberg can finish second to
him in all the remaining races and still be World
Champion so Lewis is going to need some help
from elsewhere, either in the form of divine
intervention - and Rosberg is overdue some
bad luck on the mechanical front - or from Red
Bull. Ferrari continues to look unconvincing and
no-one else is yet in the ballpark. So we knew
going into the race weekend that Lewis would
51
be on it and he duly beat Rosberg throughout
practice and qualifying, although FP3 was a bit
of a muddle and a Red Bull was fastest because
the Mercedes drivers did not get the runs they
wanted. The two men went through Q2 using
soft compound tyres which will mean that they
can start the race on that rubber, which will
give them the chance to run longer than their
rivals, but with most of the others on the stickier
supersofts, the danger was that the Mercs would
be jumped at the start - as they have been
on a number of occasions in recent months.
Mercedes is a team with few weaknesses, but
this is definitely one of them. The Red Bull
team decided to split its strategies, in an effort
to attack the Mercs in two ways: Dan Ricciardo
would start on supersofts, but Max Verstappen
would be on softs. Their third and fourth grid
52
positions were just a few hundredths apart. The
Q sessions were exciting with the various battles
going on, but it was Lewis who emerged ahead,
by two-tenths
“We’ve been working so hard,” he
said, “and I’m really pleased it all came together
today so I could claim my first pole in the US. I’ve
always been quite bad around the first corner,
finding it hard to get the right line and losing
time at this part of the track, but today I finally
got it right - and it was the right time to do so!
I feel strong this weekend. We’ve done a lot of
work to solidify our starts as well as our long run
pace so I’m looking forward to getting back out
there tomorrow.”
Rosberg was fairly laid back about
the situation, commenting that Lewis had been
quicker but adding that “it’s not always about
where you qualify and I believe I still have a
great chance at winning tomorrow’s race. I’ll
try to catch Lewis as we head towards the first
corner but it’s a track that provides plenty of
opportunities if it doesn’t happen there.”
Ricciardo was happy with qualifying.
“It was pretty much the best we
could do today,” he said. “A good progression
and we got quicker and quicker. We start on
53
the supersofts and the guys around me are on
softs so I hope that works out well for me. We
suspected that would be the case and I was
happy to do it, hopefully it gives me a little bit
off the start and we can challenge the first lap.
The supersofts probably won’t have as much
range as the softs, so you want to try and get at
least a handful of laps out of them, but ideally
it puts me in a better position off the start and
hopefully I can dictate my own pace as opposed
to fighting in traffic.”
Verstappen said the result was “not
bad” for him.
“I was happy to qualify in Q2 on the
soft and that was a good lap, from there on it
was quite difficult. The first run in Q3 was ok, I
was just building up, and then the second run
went well until the last corner where I lost some
time due to oversteer. Mercedes have shown in
qualifying that they are pretty strong and will be
hard to beat.”
54
 Ferrari was fifth and sixth on the grid,
with Kimi Raikkonen again beating Sebastian
Vettel.
“Obviously we cannot be pleased with
where we finished today, looking at the time
difference to the front,” Kimi said. “We did what
we could, but our position on the grid is far from
ideal. This is the reality today.”
It is good that someone is seeing
realities down at Maranello. To be fair, Vettel is
as well and this seems to have knocked him off
his usually calm plateau. There has been a level
of desperation about him for some months now,
as he tries to come to terms with the fact that he
might not have made the right career move two
years ago.
“Qualifying was not so good,” he said.
“We can try and look at different things, learn
from today, go forward, and for sure we are
not pleased with the gap to the cars ahead. It
was not the best session for me: overall it was
55
ok, the car felt fine, but in the end we were not
just quick enough. For sure in Q3 I could have
done a slightly better lap, but at the end of the
day obviously we are missing a bit compared
to the cars in front, so I think tomorrow could
be a different day. Probably in my last lap I was
a bit too aggressive. There remains a bit of a important and could be playing a big role
question mark at this point, at least on why we tomorrow.”
were so competitive in fast corners in Suzuka Renault’s new signing Nico
and here we are missing out; but then again Hulkenberg was next up - in seventh on the
we are missing out across all sectors. It could be grid - and said that he could not have hoped for
an interesting race: tyre degradation is always better in the Force India.
56
 “Once again, we’re the first after
the three big teams, which is where we can
realistically expect to be,” he said. “We knew we
would perform well here, but I am actually quite
surprised by the big margin we have over the
cars behind us. The start and the first lap will be
fundamental for the race, so I will need to keep qualifying, but final practice as well. For some
out of trouble, put my head down and push reason, I’ve been quite a long way off the pace
hard.” and we’ve lost some of the performance we
Team-mate Sergio Perez was had yesterday. This morning we found an issue
struggling to keep up and ended up 11th. with one of the components at the rear of the
“It has been a messy day - not only car, which impacted on my pace. I thought we
57
had solved that going into qualifying, but I
still believe there is an issue because the data
showed it was very difficult for me to match my
teammate in the braking zones. The car also felt
nervous through the high-speed corners.”
Valtteri Bottas was next for Williams,
with Felipe Massa ninth.
“This was a good qualifying for us as a
team. We’re in between the Force Indias for the
start of the race but they had more pace than
us today. We know we can compete against
them with our race pace. The progress we’ve
made since today’s practice with our set-up will
hopefully help us, as it’s going to be a very close
and aggressive battle.”
Felipe Massa was less optimistic than
Bottas.
58
 “The gap to Hulkenberg is bigger than
we would have liked, but our car is feeling better
on long runs.”
Carlos Sainz was next up in 10th place
in his Toro Rosso.
“I can’t be happier!” he said. “After
quite a complicated FP3, where I didn’t get
much track time due to the two punctures,
to suddenly put such a great lap together in
Q2 and get through to Q3 is just amazing. It’s
definitely something that we needed after some
tough race weekends.”
Dani Kvyat was happy to have signed
for 2017 but was less happy with 13th on the
grid.
“The car was a bit difficult for me to
drive today, with some small balance issues...
Nevertheless, it wasn’t a bad lap time. We were
very close to Q3. The midfield is very tight.”
Next in the pecking order was
McLaren, which was a disappointment for the
team, which had expected better.
“We weren’t quick enough to make it
into Q3 today, and we were lacking some rhythm
too,” said Fernando Alonso, who qualified 12th.
“Having said that, getting the car into Q3 in
ninth or tenth but then having to start the race
on used supersoft tyres would be a problem, as
other cars would catch us easily after four or five
laps owing to the degradation. So, let’s say that
11th would have been pole position for us - and
12th is second-best. We’ll start on new tyres and
we’ll be able to attack.”
59
 Jenson Button was 19th, which was
disappointing.
“Our pace was good yesterday and
this morning - eighth and ninth positions - so
there’s definitely something not quite right
there. I went out on the softs to start with and
we thought we’d have enough pace, but it was a
tough lap and I hit a lot of traffic. If we’d judged
it right at the end when we put the supersofts
on, it might have been fine, but it wasn’t. I had
four cars to overtake in the last sector alone.”
Button was not happy with Jolyon
Palmer for having baulked him, but no action
was taken so presumably the stewards did not
see the problem...
The local heroes, Haas, were in some
troubles in the course of practice, with bits of
the car falling off rather too much, but the team
bounced back on Saturday to have Esteban
Gutierrez 14th and Romain Grosjean 17th. This
was pretty disappointing, given that the team
had wanted to get into Q3.
“It hasn’t been an easy weekend for
the team,” Guitierrez said. “We struggled a lot on
60
Friday. Today we focused and gave it everything
we’ve got and this is the best result we could
get. Unfortunately, we lost some parts on Friday
and we’re not using our new front wing, so that’s
a few tenths that could have helped us get into
Q3, which is what we’re looking for.”
Grosjean was less than delighted.
“We’re missing downforce here and
paying a heavy price for it,” he said. “This is a
track that needs a lot of downforce and we just
don’t have enough. Low speed is very difficult
for us. We were struggling here yesterday with
some pieces coming off and we didn’t learn
much on track. We’ve been on the back foot
since the beginning and we just haven’t had
the grip. We’re good with the top speed but,
unfortunately, the pace of the car overall doesn’t
look good for tomorrow.”
Next in the pecking order was Renault,
with Jolyon Palmer 15th and Kevin Magnussen
18th.
“I think I got pretty much the most
out of the car today, it’s my best qualifying for a
while so I’m feeling good,” said Jolyon. “I ended
up doing just one good lap in Q1 and only one
lap in Q2 but they were both pretty decent so
I’m happy with 15th.
Kevin was less happy and admitted to
being pretty frustrated.
“We didn’t qualify where we expected
today so that’s pretty frustrating,” he said.
“Yesterday the car felt pretty good so we didn’t
make any set-up changes, yet the car felt very
different out on track. Where we were strong
yesterday we weren’t today so we definitely
61
need to work out what’s going on. Hopefully
we have decent pace in the race as it’s a circuit
where you can overtake here, it’s not impossible
to still get a reasonable result.”
The team was a little bit more upbeat.
“All is not lost,” said chief race engineer
Alan Permane. “Kevin didn’t get a clean lap in Q1
and P18 is quite a way from where we expected
to be. Jolyon got through into Q2 thanks to his
first flying Q1 lap which was a good effort, and
with a perfect lap, better than P15 could have
been possible.”
Next up was Sauber and that was
good news for the Swiss team, which has been
making quiet progress in recent weeks as the
new engineers arriving are making a difference.
The goal is to score one point (or more), which
will be enough to push Manor back to 11th
place. That is important because it opens the
way to tens of millions of dollars, so this is
important stuff.
Marcus Ericsson was 16th and was
happy with that after a difficult time on Friday.
I was not feeling confident in the car,”
he explained. “We had quite a lot of work to do
overnight to find a better direction for today. We
definitely made steps in the right direction for
FP3 and for qualifying I felt even better in the
car. “

62
 Felipe Nasr was 21st and the Brazilian
was not happy at all.
“I was pretty satisfied with the
balance of the car in both free practice sessions
yesterday,” he said, “but in qualifying there was
something wrong with the car.”
At the back was Manor with Pascal
Wehrlein 20th and Esteban Ocon 22nd.
“I made life very difficult for myself this
morning, spinning and ending up in the gravel
and missing more than half of the session,”
Wehrlein said. “It was a real bonus to get the car
back six minutes from the end of FP3 and the
team did a fantastic job to get me out in time to
do an out-lap, a timed lap, and an in-lap before
the end of the session.
“It’s another new track for me and it’s
one where you really need to get used to the
corners and the circuit features and find a good
rhythm before qualifying. I wasn’t expecting to
63
find that rhythm again in time; There was quite
a lot of pressure and that’s why I’m really happy
with my lap.”
Ocon is still learning and said that he
struggled with the supersoft tyres.
“I came out of the garage quite late as
we had a problem with a sticking wheel nut, so I
had to push on my out lap, which didn’t help,” he
explained. “Overall, it was a difficult qualifying. I
made a small mistake which cost me some time.
It is a tricky circuit. There will be a lot of different
strategies between the teams, some quicker
than others, so it should be interesting.”
Everyone (who cared) headed off to
watch Taylor Swift strutting stuff on Saturday
evening, with nearly 83,000 people there to
watch. They would not all be there on Sunday,
but it’s was all money in the bank. v
64
FRIDAY - FREE PRACTICE 1
1 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.428
2 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:37.743
3 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:39.379
4 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:39.407
5 N Hulkenberg Force India 1:39.712
6 V Bottas Williams 1:39.776
7 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:39.963
8 S Vettel Ferrari 1:39.988
9 D Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:40.131
10 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:40.140
11 F Massa Williams 1:40.191
12 F Nasr Sauber 1:40.287
13 F Alonso McLaren 1:40.362
14 R Grosjean Haas 1:40.826
15 E Gutierrez Haas 1:40.970
16 M Ericsson Sauber 1:41.170
17 A Celio Force India 1:41.422
18 J Button McLaren 1:41.663
19 K Magnussen Renault 1:41.942
20 J King Manor 1:42.012
21 J Palmer Renault 1:42.332
22 E Ocon Manor 1:43.874
FRIDAY - FREE PRACTICE 2
1 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:37.358
2 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:37.552
3 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.649
4 S Vettel Ferrari 1:38.178
5 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:38.258
6 N Hulkenberg Force India 1:38.508
7 S Perez Force India 1:38.568
8 J Button McLaren 1:38.713
9 F Alonso McLaren 1:38.801
10 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:38.865
11 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:38.971
12 K Magnussen Renault 1:39.159
13 F Nasr Sauber 1:39.189
14 V Bottas Williams 1:39.197
15 D Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:39.202
16 F Massa Williams 1:39.281
17 J Palmer Renault 1:39.455
18 R Grosjean Haas 1:39.554
19 E Ocon Manor 1:40.086
20 E Gutierrez Haas 1:40.114
21 M Ericsson Sauber 1:40.219
22 P Wehrlein Manor 1:41.131
SATURDAY - FREE PRACTICE 3
1 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:36.766
2 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:37.032
3 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:37.284
4 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:37.483
5 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:37.784
6 S Vettel Ferrari 1:37.894
7 N Hulkenberg Force India 1:37.948
8 V Bottas Williams 1:38.188
9 J Button McLaren 1:38.212
10 F Alonso McLaren 1:38.452
11 S Perez Force India 1:38.512
12 J Palmer Renault 1:38.528
13 F Massa Williams 1:38.607
14 D Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:38.691
15 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:38.710
16 E Gutierrez Haas 1:38.939
17 R Grosjean Haas 1:39.097
18 K Magnussen Renault 1:39.105
19 M Ericsson Sauber 1:39.239
20 F Nasr Sauber 1:39.509
21 E Ocon Manor 1:37.961
22 P Wehrlein Manor 1:38.089
65
QUALIFYING 1
1 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.296
2 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:36.397
3 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:36.613
4 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:36.759
5 N Hulkenberg Force India 1:36.950
6 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.985
7 S Vettel Ferrari 1:37.151
8 S Perez Force India 1:37.345
9 F Massa Williams 1:37.402
10 V Bottas Williams 1:37.456
11 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:37.744
12 D Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:37.844
13 F Alonso McLaren 1:37.913 13 D Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:37.480
14 M Ericsson Sauber 1:38.040
15 E Gutierrez Haas 1:38.053
16 J Palmer Renault 1:38.084
17 R Grosjean Haas 1:38.308
18 K Magnussen Renault 1:38.317
19 J Button McLaren 1:38.327
20 P Wehrlein Manor 1:38.548
21 F Nasr Sauber 1:38.583
22 E Ocon Manor 1:38.806
Grid positions are indicated in blue
QUALIFYING 2
1 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:36.255
2 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:36.351
3 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:36.450
4 S Vettel Ferrari 1:36.462
5 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.584
6 N Hulkenberg Force India 1:36.626
7 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:36.857
8 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:37.175
9 V Bottas Williams 1:37.202
10 F Massa Williams 1:37.214
11 S Perez Force India 1:37.353
12 F Alonso McLaren 1:37.417
14 E Gutierrez Haas 1:37.773
15 J Palmer Renault 1:37.935
16 M Ericsson Sauber 1:39.356
QUALIFYING 3
1 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:34.999
2 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:35.215
3 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:35.509
4 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:35.747
5 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:36.131
6 S Vettel Ferrari 1:36.358
7 N Hulkenberg Force India 1:36.628
8 V Bottas Williams 1:37.116
9 F Massa Williams 1:37.269
10 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:37.326
66
RACE REPORT by David Tremayne

LEWIS’ 50 SHADES OF GREY

CotA brought the reigning champion his fifth US Grand Prix, the fourth in Texas, and the 50th victory of his career. Not bad for an
afternoon’s work…
This time there were no clutch problems for German found his hands full. Daniel Ricciardo the Mercedes which had started on the soft
either of the Mercedes drivers at the start, and had found the “friendly grip” he was looking compound.
Lewis made the most of his pole to edge ahead for on his supersoft Pirelli tyres and after a bit Behind them, as Sebastian Vettel
of Nico on the run up to Turn One. Then the of tough driving he got the jump on one of turned into the corner the pincer movement
67
obliged Nico Hulkenberg to tighten his line just
as Valtteri Bottas was aiming his Williams don
thee inside of the Force India. They had a pretty
sizeable bump which eft the Hulk with a broken
steering arm, and the Finn with a puncture that
ruined his race.
“It’s really disappointing to have
another first lap retirement,” Nico said. “I just
ran out of space going into Turn One because
I got sandwiched between Valtteri on my left
and Sebastian on the right. Sebastian turned in
quite aggressively, made contact with me, and
that pushed me into Valtteri. I think it could have
been avoided if Sebastian had given us a bit
more space, but it all happened so quickly and
I had nowhere to go. It’s really frustrating when
you have a quick car and your race only lasts
ten seconds. We had done all the hard work on
Friday and Saturday, but all that effort counted
for nothing.”
Valtteri was disappointed, too.
“I went into Turn One on the inside and
had a good line for the corner, but at the apex
Hulkenberg touched me and I got a puncture.
That also damaged the floor of the car and I lost
a lot of downforce for the rest of the race.”
That turned out to be a pretty horrible
lap for Force India, as Daniel Kvyat spun Sergio
Perez in Turn 11, condemning the Mexican to an
afternoon of fighting back. He would eventually
recover to take eighth, the Russian 11th once
a 10s penalty had been applied and Kevin
Magnussen was later penalised too.
“Eighth place was a good recovery
after our race was compromised on lap one,”
Checo said. “I was hit hard from the rear under
braking for Turn 11 by Kvyat, who made a
mistake and came in with no control. All of a
sudden I was effectively in last place and with
a badly damaged car. It was a difficult recovery,
but step by step we got back into the points
and in the end we didn’t get a bad result. We
got all the strategy calls right and this helped
us overcome the damage to the car because we
made up positions in both pit stops.
“To come away with four points and to
move up to seventh in the Drivers’ Championship
is a good result in these circumstances. It’s
important to hold on when you get a difficult
weekend, especially in races with high attrition,
and score every point you can get, but the regret
remains because I think we could have finished
fifth today.”
Daniel kept Lewis honest in the early
68
laps on his softer tyres, but stopped as early
as the eighth lap for softs. Curiously Mercedes
then brought its drivers in on their more durable
softs as soon as the 10th (Rosberg) and 11th
(Hamilton) laps; Nico took mediums, playing the
“long game” according to his crew, Lewis took
more softs.
That momentarily put Sebastian
Vettel’s supersoft-shod Ferrari into the lead as
he ran the longest of all of the top runners on
the red-banded rubber, but when he pitted
for softs on the 14th lap he fell to sixth behind
Lewis, Daniel, Nico, Max Verstappen, and team-
mate Kimi Raikkonen.
The Dutchman looked very racy
against Nico for a while, and endeared himself
to all fans of pure racers by telling his team he
was “not here to finish fourth,” as they tried to
get him to eke out his rubber until the end of
the stint, but he stopped again for fresh tyres on
the 26th lap. It transpired that he had come in by
mistake, believing his team had told him to box,
and discovered they weren’t ready. Daniel had
stopped the previous lap, and his tyre warmers
were still on the pit apron when Max arrived, and
he had to wait while stuff was cleared away and
his own tyres were brought out. The ensuing
delay put him down to seventh, but he quickly
passed Felipe Massa’s Williams and Kimi on his
fresh medium tyres and was running fifth when
he suddenly slowed on the 29th lap. He rolled
along as far as possible before parking well off
track with suspected powertrain problems. but
the Virtual Safety Car was then deployed as the
RB12 had to be craned away.
69
 Mercedes immediately pitted both
Lewis and Nico for mediums on lap 31 under
the VSC, and that ‘free stop’ effectively killed
any chance Red Bull had of challenging for the
win. That was a shame, as he showed plenty of
comparable pace to the Silver Arrows, as had
Max before his dramas.
“It was a very unfortunate way to
end the race, especially as the first part was so
positive,” Max said.
“The start was okay, being on the
harder compound means it is always going to
be tricky but we managed to get away and stay
in front of Seb. I was happy with the pace and I
felt good out there, it was a nice battle with Kimi
who I was glad to pass. I’m sure there was the
ability to race the Mercedes today, but it’s just
very hard to pass them due to the straightline
speed.
“I backed off Nico in the end to save
my tyres and maintain the gap from the Ferrari.
70
The pit stop issue was my misunderstanding,
the team had asked me to push the lap before
so I thought I was going to be coming in. I pitted
and then realised they hadn’t actually made the
call, luckily it didn’t affect the end result. Shortly
after I had come back on track I heard a banging
noise coming from the engine so I pulled the
clutch, they then asked me to release it again
and keep going so they could try and work out
what it was. Unfortunately we couldn’t solve it
and it ended my race.”
Now it was Lewis leading Nico, and
all the reigning champion had to do was work
through the traffic and manage his race, which
he did to perfection to the flag. Nico could have
stroked it, because four seconds places even to
Lewis in the remaining races would still earn
him his first crown. But to his credit he kept the
hammer down, and steadily reduced a 16.6s
deficit from the 32nd lap to 4.5 by the flag.
“I got away really well,” Nico said. “Not
quite enough to give it a go down the inside
as Lewis would just have closed, so no point in
trying that, so I just went round the outside. All
was looking good, actually, but I just struggled
for a bit of grip then out of the corner and Daniel
had that extra grip and that’s it. We knew that
that was going to be a risk with him on the
supersoft. Then flat out after that and it worked
out of course with the VSC.
71
 “I felt really good out there in the car,
we found a great balance and I was feeling really
comfortable, so I was just able to push really
well and so that was a good feeling.”
Daniel wasn’t happy when he learned
of the Mercs’ free stop, and though he kept the
pressure on Nico for a while he had little chance
on tyres that were six laps older. In the end he
backed off in the closing stages but was still way
ahead of Seb’s disappointing Ferrari.
“I think the actual launch itself didn’t
seem that much stronger than the Mercedes
on the soft tyres so I was hoping it would go a
bit better,” Daniel said, “but then Nico opted to
go to the outside so I had some room on the
inside there. So I got one of them at least. I was
obviously hoping to get two but that was better
than nothing.
“I think the first part of the race
everyone just seemed to have similar pace. I
guess Lewis was probably controlling it at the
front but we seemed at that stage to be able to
hold on to second and then out came the Virtual
Safety Car. I think we lost ten seconds, it worked
72
out to be, with Nico. I believe after the pit stops
we would have had about five seconds on him.
And then after that he had close to five seconds
on me so that was frustrating. It just would have
been interesting, even if he caught me at the
end, just to at least have had a fight. I think after
that the race became a bit... not that exciting.
I guess without it, it would have made it a bit
more spicy at the end. But that was that.
“Unfortunately, third was the outcome
but it’s still nice to be on the podium. It’s a cool
place, I’ve always loved it here for everything:
the anthem before the race kind of gives you
goosebumps and then the crowd... obviously
on the podium is pretty cool. It’s been a good
weekend.”
Did it hurt that the thing that lost him a
shot at winning was because of something that
befell his own team-mate. He fell into a passable
Australian-American accent as he joshed on the
podium with Scottish actor Gerard Butler who
did a fine job of asking the questions, before the lap 36. He finished 43s down. points.”
Australian insisted that he drink Red Bull out of “Overall today was a better day than Fifth place was the subject of a huge
his shoe. yesterday, it was a good race,” he conceded. “The battle between Carlos Sainz, Massa and a
“Absolutely sir. When I saw Max out start was not so good and into Turn 1 I was quite charging Fernando Alonso.
there I thought ‘Aw, hell. My boy’s done it again!’ lucky, given that somebody was hitting me, I Felipe had made a strong start,
So anyways, that was a devastational moment think it was Nico Hülkenberg. Luckily nothing running around the outside of the Turn One
but we’ll keep soldiering on. We still got some was broken so I could carry on. Then the pace melee, and had a decent gap to Carlos in the first
points over Ferrari today so I’m pretty pleased was good, we were looking after the tires, so we stint. But later the Virtual Safety Car enabled the
with that.” could go longer than other people. Spaniard to get ahead. Felipe was chasing him,
Don’t you just love it when drivers “The race was a bit different than we waiting for the Toro Rosso’s tyres to degrade,
have character and a sense of humour? expected, we got a present from Max today but when Fernando caught them both.
Seb suffered from rear wing problems unfortunately also Kimi had some problems “I had a really good start and the race
which cost him downforce and caused to have a and had to retire. It could have been a good was going fantastically,” Felipe said. “I avoided
huge wobble in the Esses in Turns 3, 4 and 5 on performance for the team with both cars in the the incidents at corner one and managed to
73
overtake two cars. Our pace was really good
and I managed to open up the gap to the cars
behind. Then I was really unlucky with the Virtual
Safety Car because I was nine seconds ahead
and then Sainz came out in front of me, gaining
a lot of time and points. At the end, Fernando
dived into the corner I was taking, hit my car and
I got a puncture because of it. It destroyed every
opportunity I had to finish the race in sixth, and
potentially fifth.”
Sainz’s result was Toro Rosso’s best
since Spain, and Chilli was stoked.
“Today’s result is a very special one for
myself and the team, it’s a top, top, TOP result!!
What a boost and what a way to motivate the
team and keep our heads up until the end of the
season! I don’t know what this track has, but I
just get such a good feeling every time I race
here! It’s a weekend I will always remember! To
equal my best result in Formula 1 makes me very
happy, but this P6 is a bit more special than the
74
one in Barcelona because here we didn’t think
we really had the car to do so – our simulations
before the race said we would only finish in P11
or P12 and here we were, fighting for P5!
“We were able to make the tyres
last during the first stint, staying close to the
Williams, and then managed to create a good
gap to Fernando on the softs. We also got a
bit lucky with the VSC period, which was great
news for us, as we were suddenly in front of
the Williams. We knew it was going to be very
difficult to get to the end on the soft tyre, but we
committed to that and went to the end on that
set – during the last two laps I had no tyre left
and just had to hold on to it as best I could!
“The battle with Fernando was so
much fun! I knew that he would end up getting
past me but I said to myself, ‘Let’s make it a bit
complicated for him!’ I perfectly know how he
attacks and how to defend against him, as I’ve
been watching him race for the past 12 years…
And I think that to be able to keep him behind
for all those laps until he just opened the DRS
and said ‘Ciao, ciao’ was pretty decent! I’m so
pleased, so happy, you just can’t imagine what’s
going on inside me now, even if I’m not showing
it on the outside, I’m delighted! I will definitely
celebrate with champagne tonight, for me this
feels like a win!”
As he had in Malaysia, Fernando
lucked in to a free pit-stop during the Virtual
Safety Car deployment, and was duly able to
move his way up the field to seventh. His move
on Massa on the 52nd lap was… robust. It gave
him sixth, and then he sliced past Carlos on
75
the penultimate lap. The former champion was
under stewards’ investigation for his move on
Massa, but stewards Paul Gutjahr, Mark Blundell,
Dennis Dean and Silvia Bellot adjudged that no
action need be taken.
“It was good and interesting today, I
enjoyed it, especially the final part of the race,”
Fernando said.
“Carlos was on a different strategy
and different tyres to me and Felipe, which
allowed us to close the gap. Our tyres were in
better condition than the Toro Rosso’s and we
took advantage of that. The last couple of laps
were very intense, as we had some extra speed
so we tried hard to overtake. It was quite easy
to overtake the Toro Rosso as they’re slow on
the straights, so you just need to open the DRS.
I was following Carlos for 45 laps and he drove
very well, very consistently, zero mistakes – so
we had a great battle.
“To get past the Williams today you
76
needed to overtake them in different places, like
tight, slow-speed corners, and quite forcefully,
and it was tough but hopefully enjoyable for the
fans.
“Our result today is nice for motivation,
so I’m happy with fifth, but we gained a couple
of positions because of other people going out,
and our pace hasn’t been great all weekend
here, so we need to understand the reasons for
that.”
As Perez fought back into the points,
Jenson Button had a sensational opening lap
to go from 19th to 11th, but couldn’t keep pace
with his team-mate and had to settle for ninth
ahead of final points scorer Romain Grosjean,
who added to the Haas team’s score on their first
race in front of their home crowd.
“I’m pretty happy to get into the
points after a frustrating day yesterday,” Jenson
said. “The start was a bit of a crazy mess – there
was so much action. Starting 19th makes your
race a little bit more difficult but I had a good
first couple of laps which I really enjoyed. I made
up a lot of places and then fought my way into
the top 10, and then I fluffed up my second pit-
stop a little bit where I lost a place to Checo, but
I think he would have got past me anyway.
“The second half of the race for me
wasn’t as exciting – I was looking after the
tyres, judging the gap behind me, and trying to
save the tyres to the end of the race to attempt
to catch Checo, but I think I was about three
seconds off at the end. I came home ninth
77
which isn’t too bad, and it’s great to get some
good points for the team on both sides of the
garage. Fernando did a fantastic job to get to P5.
He was very quick today, and the Virtual Safety
Car helped him a lot – one day we’ll get that
luck too! I made some strong overtakes – some
good, clean scraps – especially into Turn One,
and I had a lot of fun fighting my way through,
which made it a lot more enjoyable.”
Romain enjoyed himself.
“It didn’t go too badly today. It was
a bit of a messy first lap, but I managed to get
through everything. Then we went with an
aggressive strategy, trying to go for it. That
worked out pretty well, so I’m happy with that.
We were lucky that a few cars retired in front
of us but, in the end, we needed to finish the
race. It’s great to score a point in front of our
home crowd. I’m very pleased with that and for
the guys, as well. It’s been a long time since we
scored. It’s obviously a great thing to be able to
score points at the end of the season.”
Three-stopping Kevin Magnussen had
a heated battle with two-stopping team-mate
78

Jolyon Palmer and eventually finished 11th for
Renault, ahead of Kvyat. But the Dane fell behind
the Russian when he was given a 5s post-race
penalty for passing after gaining advantage by
running off track.
“Quite a tough day for me today,” Dany
said. “I think I had a good start, but we then
had to switch to a one-stop race after getting
a 10-second penalty for my incident with Perez
during the first lap. This compromised our race
and it wasn’t easy to make it work, but we tried
our very best and kept pushing until the end.
“I have to say we did a very long stint
on the medium tyre and the management
was very good. It’s just a shame that we lost
the opportunity to fight for some more points
today.”
“We started with the plan for a one-
FASTEST RACE LAPS
1 S Vettel Ferrari 1:39.877
2 K Raikkonen Ferrari 1:41.841
3 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:41.897
4 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:42.386
5 M Verstappen Red Bull 1:42.424
6 K Magnussen Renault 1:42.475
7 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:42.555
8 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:42.832
9 F Massa Williams 1:43.414
10 F Alonso McLaren 1:43.502
11 E Ocon Manor 1:43.585
12 S Perez Force India 1:43.925
13 F Nasr Sauber 1:44.117
14 R Grosjean Haas 1:44.335
15 J Button McLaren 1:44.468
16 J Palmer Renault 1:44.724
17 D Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:44.730
18 V Bottas Williams 1:44.977
19 M Ericsson Sauber 1:45.140
20 E Gutierrez Haas 1:45.364
21 P Wehrlein Manor 1:45.451
stop strategy but we quickly realised that it
wasn’t the best option so we swapped to a two-
and finally a three-stop strategy,” Kmag revealed.
“It was tougher on tyre wear than we predicted
but that did mean I was able to have some fun
at the end of the race on the supersoft tyres – it
was the most fun I’ve had in the car all season,
being able to push hard to the chequered flag.
It was a pretty decent race considering our
qualifying position. The penalty is frustrating,
but that’s racing sometimes.”
Jolyon was less chirpy, having at one
stage when he was pushing Kevin very hard on
lap 33 demanded of his team: “Is anyone going
79
to help me here?” meaning that he wanted the
Dane to move over.
“I had a slow start and unfortunately
lost a few places that allowed Kevin to pass
me, which then meant I was on his gearbox for
a good two-thirds of the race. We were really
struggling to follow other cars and although
I was quicker, I couldn’t get close enough to
pass which was so frustrating. I could have
tried to lunge but that’s not a clever thing to do
between team-mates. In the end, I overheated
my tyres trying to overtake and fell back a little
bit.”
Behind 13th placed Palmer, Marcus
Ericsson raised Sauber’s hopes of a point as he
ran 12th at one stage before his pit stop, but
had to settle for 14th ahead of team-mate Felipe
Nasr who had a dramatic pass and repass fight
with Bottas at the end. Both suffered at the end
with tyre degradation as Sauber went for single-
stop strategies on both cars in search of that
elusive point.
Behind them, Pascal Wehrlein led
home Manor team-mate Esteban Ocon. The
two-stopping German was quite happy with
his race, but the Frenchman struggled on three
stops after sustaining damage in a brush with
Nasr. That was a shame because he made a
blinding start to jump from 22nnd to 18th.
Besides the Hulk and Max, Kimi, who
had been running fourth ahead of Seb, was
forced out when his Ferrari’s right rear wheel
was still loose as he rejoined after his pit stop on
lap 38. He got as far as the rise towards Turn One
before stopping, then reversed - Reine Wisell
Zandvoort 1971-style - down to the pitlane
to retire. Ferrari was investigated for unsafe
release, and was subsequently fined 5000 euros.
Esteban Gutierrez battled strongly for points
against team-mate Grosjean, before retiring
with brake problems.
Lewis’s may have had to wait for his
50th victory, but it was a sweet one that keeps
his title hopes alive. It puts him only one win
behind Alain Prost for second place in the all-
time list, and makes him only the third man ever
to win a half century of Grands Prix.
“I had completely forgotten that it was going to
be the 50th,” he chuckled. “It’s been a long time
coming. Once again, and I know I’ve mentioned
it before but I’ve been here for 10 years, I’ve
had lots of ups and downs and lots of great
opportunities to work with some incredibly
gifted people who have helped me get here
80
today. Then my family as well, without whom I
wouldn’t be here today. It’s kind of very surreal,
for sure. I can’t believe that there are only three
of us, but hopefully on to bigger and better
things.”
Helpfully, the success wiped seven
points off Nico’s 33-point title lead with three
races to go. Had things with Nico gone the other
way, a 40-point gap with three races left would
surely have been insurmountable.
“I’ve generally been relaxed all
weekend,” he added. “I knew that the start was
going to go well, so that’s the first time in the
whole year that I’ve known that that’s going
to go well. Great work done by the guys and
great work done in the factory last week, and it
worked perfectly today.”
There’s no doubt that the odds favour
Nico this year; he needs only two seconds and a
third even if Lewis wins the final three races. But
both drivers say they aren’t thinking of anything
81
but trying to win each of them.
“Honestly, I just focus on doing the
best job I can,” Lewis insisted. “I felt comfortable
doing the job, I was just the whole race
concerned the car was not going to make it.
I was just in fear of the same thing, the same
feeling, the sound that I heard in Malaysia, so
I was grateful that the car made it across the
line and I have a lot more confidence in Nico’s
reliability. It’s going well for him. I’ve just got to
continue to do my job and hope for the best.
“I don’t really think about anything
else. I just kept focusing on doing my job to
the best of my ability. I can’t control what’s
behind and there’s no point in even hoping for
anything, so I’m just hoping to do the better job
and have more weekends like that. That would
be great.” v
82
UNITED STATES GP, Circuit of the Americas
1 L Hamilton Mercedes 1:38.12.618 - 188.415km/h
2 N Rosberg Mercedes 1:38.17.138 - 4.520
3 D Ricciardo Red Bull 1:38.32.310 - 19.692
4 S Vettel Ferrari 1:38.55.752 - 43.134
5 F Alonso McLaren 1:39.46.571 - 93.953
6 C Sainz Toro Rosso 1:39.48.742 - 96.124
7 F Massa Williams - 55 laps
8 S Perez Force India - 55 laps
9 J Button McLaren - 55 laps
10 R Grosjean Haas - 55 laps
11 D Kvyat Toro Rosso - 55 laps
12 K Magnussen * Renault - 55 laps
13 J Palmer Renault - 55 laps
14 M Ericsson Sauber - 55 laps
15 F Nasr Sauber - 55 laps
16 V Bottas Williams - 55 laps
17 P Wehrlein Manor - 55 laps
18 E Ocon Manor - 54 laps
R K Raikkonen Ferrari Wheel - 38 laps
R M Verstappen Red Bull Engine - 28 laps
R E Gutierrez Haas Brakes - 16 laps
R N Hulkenberg Force India Accident - 1 laps
RACE DISTANCE: 56 laps - 308.405 km
* Magnussen was given a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage
DRIVERS CONSTRUCTORS
1 N Rosberg Mercedes 331 1 Mercedes AMG Petronas 636
2 L Hamilton Mercedes 305 2 Red Bull Racing 400
3 D Ricciardo Red Bull 227 3 Scuderia Ferrari 347
4 S Vettel Ferrari 177 4 Sahara Force India F1 138
5 K Raikkonen Ferrari 170 5 Williams Martini Racing 130
6 M Verstappen Red Bull 165 6 McLaren Honda 74
7 S Perez Force India 84 7 Scuderia Toro Rosso 55
8 V Bottas Williams 81 8 Haas F1 Team 29
9 N Hulkenberg Force India 54 9 Renault Sport F1 8
10 F Alonso McLaren 52 10 Manor Racing Team 1
11 F Massa Williams 49
12 C Sainz Toro Rosso 38
13 R Grosjean Haas 29
14 D Kvyat Toro Rosso 25
15 J Button McLaren 21
16 K Magnussen Renault 7
17 J Palmer Renault 1
18 P Wehrlein Manor Racing 1
19 S Vandoorne McLaren 1
83
 THE LAST LAP by David Tremayne
A LEADER BUT NOT A TOUGH GUY
I witnessed - and sure as hell heard - a very
moving scene at 12.30 at the far end of the CoTA
paddock on Saturday. And, actually, I filmed it
for a friend.
At bang on half of noon, all around the
circuit, including right in front of the medical
centre where I stood watching, every medical
and safety crew started their vehicles’ engines
and sounded their sirens in one minute of noise
to mark the passing a hero of the genre – Lon
Bromley.
I had spoken with a very nice female
medic when I first got there, just to check I was
in the right place.
“You’re going to be making the noise
here, right?”
At first she misunderstood, perhaps
mistaking my pass for some sort of security
badge, and asked me if that would be all right,
because she and her colleagues really wanted
to make this very audible tribute to one of their
own. That was when I first realised that there
was actually opposition to the idea. Just as there
had been some who would have denied the
inestimable Prof Sid Watkins the honour of a
minute’s silence on the grid in Singapore back in
2012, so it seemed that some here did not want
the noise to happen. Later I walked back down
the paddock with Dennis Dean, president of the
FIA Land Speed Records Commission and a man
active in other FIA circles, and regular FIA GP2/
GP3 and some-time F1 steward Silvia Bellot.
Silvia summarised it best as we discussed how it
was all about respect.
“It is important,” she said, “to show that
racing has a human face.”
So who was this Lon Bromley guy?
I met him but once, in Austin, when I
had a message to pass on to him from a friend,
who always spoke so very highly of him and his
late partner Dave Hollander, Safety 1 and Safety
2 on the CART trail prior to 2008. My friend was
not alone; everyone I ever spoke to about the
guy, and so many who eulogised him, had a Lon
Bromley story that was cool.
He had died in a boating accident in
Grants Pass, Oregon the previous Saturday, out
fishing with former Champ Car series medical
director Dr Chris Pinderski and his young son.
Their boat capsized after striking a sandbar, and
only the Pinderskis made it home.
In life, the 70 year-old New Jerseyman
had been one of five key figures in the world
of 2000s racing safety, together with the great
Dr Terry Trammell, Dr Steve Olvey, former racer
Wally Dallenbach, and Hollander.
From 1987 through the series’ close
at Long Beach in April 2008, Bromley was the
head of the Horton/Holmatro Safety Team at
all CART/Champ Car races. He was one of many
84
who played a key role in saving the life of our
friend Alex Zanardi, at Lausitzring that awful day
in September 2001. For that alone he will always
have a place in my heart.
"There was never a better match for a
person and a job," said Olvey, the neurosurgeon
who was CART's medical director and played his
own crucial role that brutal weekend. "He was
never excitable and kept everyone else calm
in volatile situations. He was a leader but not a
tough guy.”
Writing on motorsport.com, the
wonderful Annie Proffit said: “He put together a
team of exemplary fire, safety, medical experts
who helped save and enrich the lives of all
drivers, crew, ancillary community members,
officials and even media. He advanced the
status of on-site rescue at races throughout the
country and the world.
“Plus, Lon Bromley was fun. All
business when he was working; all play when pre-race activities he and his team performed Grand Prix since 2012, COTA is a difficult circuit
he wasn’t. Wherever the safety team parked at every event, how they worked with the local for any safety squad to work, given its 3.4-miles
their rigs during a race weekend, laughter and crews - EMTs, physicians, tow-truck operators, length and few ingress/egress points, outside of
camaraderie took part. Once the work was medical helicopter operators - to train them all tunnels. Lon Bromley took into account all of the
completed it was time for fellowship and fun. to accurately perform the work that was needed. difficulties at COTA and considered them just
“I have many a memory of hanging All the locals he trained admitted the work they another challenge to be overcome. He made
with Lon and his team at various tracks – for that did with Bromley helped them in their daily certain that safety at this circuit was always
fun aspect – but the area that sticks in my mind duties. paramount.
was a mound above pit road at Road America, “A wave, a smile, a hug, courtesy of Lon “That was to be expected of a man
where the safety team held sway. It was close Bromley. That’s all it took for someone having a whose dedication to his craft and his love of the
to pit-out, so the team could activate (or return) bad day at the racetrack to get their attitudes sport always shone through in his daily work. Go
at a moment’s notice, and had a perch where back. That’s just the effect he had. about it with a good attitude and you’ll always
they could survey the pit area and paddock. “Most recently, he served as director be successful, his body language said.
The rolling medical center was close by as well. of safety for the Circuit of The Americas in “These are the kinds of men who make
It was there that Bromley explained to me the Austin. Home of Formula 1’s United States racing such a humane sport. RIP, Lon J. Bromley,
85
the first Safety 1 - your loss is breaking a lot of
hearts.”
Fellow Safety Team member Martyn
Thake said: “Yesterday I lost my best friend, my
brother. Lon and I started working for CART on
the same day, April 2nd, 1987. He showed up late
and came crashing into the room at that crappy
Holiday Inn in downtown Long Beach way after
midnight and the first word he ever said to me
was “F***”… We became friends immediately.
“We roomed together for almost 10
years and travelled all over the world having
more fun than we probably should have. His
friendship made me a better man, a better
father and a better husband.”
Our colleague David Malsher once
described Bromley and Hollander (who died on
January 9th, 2015 of brain cancer) as ‘unlikely-
looking Angels in Waiting,' meaning it as an
absolute compliment.
“In down time,” David wrote on
motorsport.com, “he appeared to have all the
time in the world, walking and talking quite
languidly, yet in practice he was all business,
moving swiftly around an accident scene,
directing and acting with complete authority.
Lon had his team of first-responders so well my hip and he had an amazing sense for why Lon Bromley’s name will forever resonate
drilled, I often thought they worked almost choreographing the scene and also a great with me and why I will always owe him an
silently and telepathically. Not once did I ever sense of timing, both of which really helped in unpayable debt, which need not detain us
see the CART/Champ Car Safety team appear Germany," said Trammell, whose outstanding here. Let’s just say that I’m glad I had that brief
to panic. It’s easy to see why the team members orthopaedic skills helped so many injured meeting with him, and that I thought of that
were universally respected. drivers to walk - and race - race again. "He was debt and gave thanks for it while the sirens
“Lon was a true salt-of-the-earth the best scene commander I've ever worked blared for 60 seconds in tribute to a man who
human being.” with." lived his life so much for others, and made such
"Lon was the calm, quiet voice on There’s another, very personal, reason a significant difference to so many of them. v
86
PARTING SHOT

Forty six years ago on October 23rd, 1970:

Gary Gabelich and The Blue Flame break the
land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats,
at 622.407/630.388 mph for the mile and the
kilometre.

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THE NEXT GP+ WILL BE PUBLISHED
FROM MEXICO CITY ON OCTOBER 30

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