History: 101 Formula One stories: part 1

By: Bas Naafs

Quite a few of the most amazing stories from the Formula One paddock are not worth writing long stories about, simply because they are more enjoyable when told as anecdotes. Next to the already existing long-reads, we now introduce the 101 Formula One stories: a collection of short stories on interesting Formula One topics. This week we will start with part one, in which we will take a look a four little stories. We will find out that teargas isn't the way to go in London traffic, tire strategy was as important in the 1950's as it is now days, how Hans Heyer managed to award himself with an unusual triple crown, and how Jacques Laffite managed to painfully remind himself exactly why he was wearing contact lenses.

Jacques Laffite

The flamboyant French driver (see picture: taking a lift on Jean-Pierre Jarrier's Shadow in 1975) was driving for Williams when the F1 circus reached Watkins Glen for the 1975 U.S. Grand Prix. Officially, Williams was still named Frank Williams Racing, but we are talking about the same team anyway. The U.S. Grand Prix was the season's final race and saw Niki Lauda winning the race as well as his first world title. McLaren drivers Fittipaldi and Mass came in second and third. Jacques Laffite was not having such a great day. Laffite qualified 21st in the Cosworth powered Williams FW04, with his female colleague Lella Lombardi -the only female driver to get a top ten finish (Spain, 1975) - qualifying 24th, not really to Frank Williams' liking. Things went from bad to worse when Laffite was preparing himself on the start grid. Laffite wore contact lenses, and watered his eyes with some lens fluid before putting on his helmet. Together with using lens fluid, Laffite also prepared himself by thoroughly cleaning his helmet visor with an aggressive cleaning fluid. Was it the tension, the nerves? Or was he in a hurry? Whatever it was, the unthinkable happened with Laffite mistook the cleaning product meant for his visor, and dropped it in his eyes. Laffite couldn’t believe what he was seeing, mostly because he couldn’t see at all and was therefore forced to abandon withdraw from the Grand Prix. Slightly comforting was the fact that Lella Lombardi also had to withdraw from the race, as the transmission in her car was malfunctioning in the warm-up. For Frank Williams a weekend to quickly forget.

A little bit of magic from Stirling Moss

The Argentinian Grand Prix of 1958. Ferrari drivers Mike Hawthorn and Peter Collins present the Formula One crowds with one of F1 history's greatest rivalries. The Grand Prix was then driven on the 19th of January. Which is weird as the following Grand Prix would start a few months later in May. Anyway, Stirling Moss was driving for Vanwell racing that year, but entered the Argentinian Grand Prix in a rear-engined Cooper Climax T33. Rear-enigined Formula One cars were at that time still in an experimental fase, and was - especially by Ferrari - still frowned upon by traditional constructors. The race was driven over 400 kilometres. Due to the immense heat, the drivers were forced to make a pit-stop halfway through the race. This was in Moss' disadvantage as his Cooper-Climax had a wheel-nut system that would give his competitors a two lap advantage when stopping. However, the race was shortened to 313 kilometres and Moss devised a plan to not stop at all. Giving his competitors the impression that he was going to stop anyway, Moss easily got to the lead of the race after everyone stopped. But as the race proceeded, the Italian teams of Ferrari and Maserati began to frown their eyebrows more and more when they realized Moss was not going to stop. The Ferrari's running in place two and three suddenly started to pick up the pace to overtake Moss. Meanwhile, Moss was driving the last few laps on the canvas of his tires, cooling them down by running over the grass. You don't see that anymore these days. Moss crossed the finish-line 2,7 seconds in front of chasing Ferrari driver Luigi Musso. It was the first victory for a rear-engined Formula One car.

Hans Heyer's three day F1 adventure

A short story, fitting for a short adventure. German driver Hans Heyer enjoyed an excellent career in GT-racing, winning the Sebring 12-hours along the way in 1984. Heyer accepted the challenge to try his luck in Formula One, while only having driven two times in a single seater. The American Penske Racing stopped its F1 adventure at the end of 1976 and sold its chassis' to the German ATS team. Heyer entered the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheim track with one of these Penske chassis’. He wasn't exactly the quickest of drivers, naturally. And so, on Saturday he wasn’t able to qualify for the race. However, Heyer had a long history of racing on the Hockenheimring and made quite some friends among the local marshal’s, and they made no issue about looking the other way when Heyer pushed his ATS on the start grid on Sunday, to everyone's surprise. Race Control found out about this only after the race hat already started and they made sure Heyer was disqualified from the race, but not before Heyer himself had to retire from the race by parking his ATS due to transmission failure. Hans Heyer made quite a performance though. Up until today, and that might not be something to be extremely proud of mind you, Heyer is the only driver to have scored a DNQ, DNF and a DSQ in a single race. Amazing. Hans Heyer never took part in a single-seater race again.

Bertrand Gachot

French-Belgian driver Bertrand Gachot was a well-respected Formula One driver in the 1990's and the winner of the 1991 24-hour of Le Mans in the Mazda 787B. Gachot was Jordan's first driver. Eddie Jordan made his Formula One debut as a constructor in 1991, and with success. Jordan had a fabulous 191 chassis which was powered by the capable Ford HB-V8, and enjoyed firm financial backing by 7-Up. The car proved to be good enough for consistent top-10 classifications. However, after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Eddie Jordan was confronted with a problem that needed fixing before the upcoming Belgian Grand Prix. He was suddenly stripped from his star driver, Bertrand Gachot, and had to find a replacement. What happened to Gachot? While driving through London, Gachot had an encounter with a London taxi-driver. The communication became quite violent when Gachot reached out for a small teargas canister with which he assaulted the cab driver. Gachot was arrested and put behind bars for two months. In the meantime, Jordan got an interesting offer from Mercedes. The German manufacturer was looking for a way to put its name in the sport, and offered Jordan to pay $150.000 for their protégé Michael Schumacher to take a seat in Gachot's Jordan. Schumacher tested for Jordan at Silverstone and was allowed to race at Spa. The rest is history. Gachot re-entered that same season, in the last race at Albert Park, Australia.