#Blinds in Brabham

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The Petrolhead Corner – Busted! Caught Cheating at Racing – Part 1

Bending the rules is considered somewhat acceptable, breaking them really isn’t and there’s a fine line between the two. And yes, also in a strongly-regulated sport like motor racing, there are examples of people, constructors and racing teams caught red-handed at cheating. People deliberately crashed, stole technical documents, payed-off officials to turn a blind eye, found ‘ingenious’ ways to make a car competitive or simply shunted someone off track. This is the first in a two-part coverage of stories from the racing world where cheaters got caught.

Formula 1 is the top-tier category in racing for years now, and a multi-billion dollar industry. Each race, each championship, there is so much at stake that it every so often leads to someone trying to get an unfair edge over competitors. I think this is part of human nature basically, and always will be, but when it leads to breaking the rules everyone agreed to comply to, you have a bit of a problem. And it’s not something that happens in F1 only, there are multiple examples out there.

Formula 1 – turbo-power versus weight-saving

During the late seventies and eighties, Formula 1 was all about turbo-power. It was introduced in 1977 but was plagued by reliability during the early years. The French constructor Renault were the ones to first use it but the cars often failed to reach the chequered flag. Over the years, more and more teams and constructors developed turbocharged engine, with power increasing and reliability improving year by year. The peak of performance during the turbo-era in Formula 1 was just before the technology was banned, with engines producing around 1.500bhp during qualifying trim, when the boost was turned all the way up. At that time there was no restriction on the number of engines per season so a blown engine was simply replaced without consequence. 

In the first half of the eighties though, not all teams had access to turbo-technology or managed to partner with an engine-supplier that offered a reliable package. This lead to a controversy in 1982 with multiple teams seeking a way to beat the teams that did run turbo-engines. The turbo-cars needed a lot more fuel, while non-turbo cars could be built far lighter than the required minimum weight determined by the FISA (now FIA). Nothing out of the ordinary so far since the use of ballast to weigh cars down to meet regulations was quite common. It even resulted in better balanced cars as the ballast could be distributed freely throughout the chassis.

Stefan Johansson of Sweden drives the #4 Tyrrell Racing Organisation Tyrrell 012 Ford Cosworth DFY V8 during the Brazilian Grand Prix on 7 April 1985 at the Autodromo Internacional Nelson Piquet Jacarepagua circuit near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Mike King/Getty Images)

But, as this is a Petrolhead Corner episode about cheating, in 1982 at least two teams came up with the idea to add an auxiliary water tank, allegedly used to cool the brakes. If it was actually used for cooling the brakes there wouldn’t have been a problem. However, shortly after the start, the driver could dump the water and thus lose weight and instantaneously make their cars more competitive. Rules stated that the teams could top up the tanks before the cars were weighed again as it was intended to cool the brakes and thus wasn’t considered a breach. The act of dumping the water to gain an advantage in handling and performance was though.

After discovering this, both Nelson Piquet (Brabham) and Keke Rosberg (Williams) were excluded from the championship. They finished first and second in the 1982 Brazilian Grand Prix, but were disqualified for the breach of regulations. Subsequently, Alain Prost won the race for Renault, followed by John Watson in the McLaren-Ford. 1982 was a season full of turmoil, with strikes, disqualifications, the loss of two drivers (Gilles Villeneuve & Ricardo Paletti) and a champion who won only 1 race in the entire season; Keke Rosberg.

The system in question, here on a Williams FW08

Only two years later, controversy struck again when F1 constructor Tyrrell was caught trying to get an unfair advantage over their competitors. Again things revolved around turbo-power and weight. Tyrrell was the only one to run without turbo engines and between them, the FISA/FIA and the other teams there was a huge debate on rules and regulations. Refuelling was banned and fuel capacity was maxed at 220 litres for the entire race, both favouring the more fuel-efficient non-turbo runners. A common practice is to use a water-injection system, cooling the intake trumpets, reducing temperatures and increasing power output. The British team deliberately ran their Tyrrell 012 cars underweight, only to top up the tanks for the water injection system at the end of the race. The breach of regulations was that along with topping up on water, which was fine, they added up to 140lbs (about 60 to 65 kilo’s) of lead-shot to the tanks too. Tyrrell was caught when they topped up their tanks, and some lead-shot escaped in the process, exposing what they did.

They argued that the lead-shot functioned as ballast and “fixed” in the tanks, just as the rulebook stated since it wasn’t removable without taking apart the car. The FIA wanted nothing of it, deemed the move illegal and banned them from the final races of the season and disqualifying them for the previous races.

These stories are sourced on various blogs, including Jalopnik and Motorsport Magazine.

Rally Championship – Toyota innovates extremely, but also illegally 

Nowadays we have the World Rally Championship, or WRC, as the foremost category of rallying but this wasn’t always the case. Before it was grouped into an official, global championship in 1973, rallying was done under various popular international championships. The first FIA sanctioned championship on a global stage was held in 1973 and evolved from cars like the Lancia Stratos and Renault-Alpine A110 to Group B, Group A and eventually WRC stipulations.

Group B cars are some of the fastest and most extreme rally cars ever built, at least in an FIA sanctioned championship. Events like Dakar or the Pike’s Peak Hillclimb have seen even more extreme cars but that’s not the focus of this article. Following the cancellation of Group B, after a horrific accident killed three spectators and injured thirty more at the 1986 Portugal Rally, Group A took over as the top-tier category. Where Group B brought us legendary cars like the Peugeot 205 T16, the Lancia Delta S4, the Ford RS200 and of course the Audi Quattro S1, Group A was responsible for equally legendary cars running into the nineties.  

Just think of the blue-and-gold Subaru Impreza 555, the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo’s, the whale-tailed Ford Escort RS Cosworth or the Castrol Oil liveried Toyota’s. Cars that were piloted by the likes of Carlos Sainz (father of current F1-star Carlos Sainz Jr.), the late Colin McRae, Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Makinen or Didier Auriol. 

Toyota was on top of their game in the early nineties when it came to rallying. Their Celica GT-Four was the 1990 World Champion, with Carlos Sainz behind the wheel. A year later they were trumped by the Lancia Delta Integrale but in 1992, 1993 and 1994 they were king of the mountain again. This winning mood meant Toyota was firmly in the spotlight with a lead role for their Celica. In 1995 the FIA sanctioned a restriction on turbo-capacity by issuing the mandatory use of a restrictor plate, limiting the amount of air being forced into the engine by the turbo. A restriction on air means a restriction on the combustible mix (fuel and air) which in turn means a restriction in power output. 

Toyota ingeniously bypassed this restriction plate with a series of springs and clips which were specially engineered. When the engine wasn’t running like when under scrutineering by judges and technicians, the plate would remain perfectly in place. When the car was running, the system Toyota developed moved the restrictor plate out of the way which gave them a power-bump of about 50bhp. This doesn’t seem like much but when the rest of the field is capped at 300bhp, a 50bhp jump is quite substantial!

On the outside of the turbo, nothing seemed off or tampered with. Toyota even machined and polished the springs inside hoses to interfere with airflow as little as possible. It even required special tools to work on the system and to pry the restrictor plate off when stationary. For all details of the tech that went into this cheat, I strongly suggest reading the article on Jalopnik, as they do a far better job of explaining it than I can ever do.

Even the FIA-president at the time, Max Mosley (later to be charged with a whole different scandal) was impressed by the clever system, calling it the most sophisticated and ingenious device he ever saw in over 30 years of racing. After being caught the FIA banned Toyota from the championship for 1995 and 1996. They didn’t return to winning form until 1998, winning two stages with their Toyota Corolla WRC. A year later they clinched the constructor’s title.

Henry ‘Smokey’ Yunik – USA’s genius cheater

If you are a motorsport-nut like me, or a NASCAR fan for that matter, the name Henry ‘Smokey’ Yunick probably rings a bell or two. This man is perhaps the biggest pain in the butt for rule-writers and governing bodies to date. He is credited with a number of, let’s say questionable innovations bypassing implemented rules and regulations. A few of these ‘cheats’ are hilarious and ingenious at the same time.

The 1964 Hurst Floor Shifter Special, one of the most bizarre open-wheel racers of all time, developed by henry ‘Smokey’ Yunick

The man is a legend in stock-car racing in America, one of the most popular forms of racing in the US. Henry ‘Smokey’ Yunick was a mechanic and race car builder with huge talent and a knack for bending, and sometimes breaking the rules. In all fairness, if the rulebook leaves room for interpretation, it isn’t exactly cheating is it? Well, according to history, some of his shenanigans seeking an advantage over the competition lead to rules being rewritten and even stricter regulations in some areas.

Some of his most noticeable cheats revolve around fuel regulations. At one point he installed an oversized fuel tank into a car, one that would hold far more fuel than the imposed limit. He hid an inflated basketball, and yes you’ve read that correctly, into the tank. When filled up under scrutineering, it would comply with the regulations regarding fuel limits and the car would pass inspection. The basketball would then be deflated and removed, increasing the capacity of the fuel tank, giving the car an advantage in the race. More fuel onboard means fewer pit-stops and thus less time wasted refuelling!

The second example of his rebellious nature also has to do with fuel regulations, specifically fuel tank capacity. This time he fitted a regulation-size fuel tank (no basketball this time) but would also install a huge fuel line to it. Being about 5 centimetres in diameter, and around 3 meters long, it would hold an additional 20 litres of fuel, effectively increasing the cars fuel capacity. 

Finally, and to be honest, this one initially was the most baffling to me, he modified a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle to run in NASCAR competition. This car is known as the 7/8’s car, as legend has it, it was a perfectly downsized replica of a full-bodied Chevrolet Chevelle. As Drivetribe explains, a shrunken car would easily stand out against a field of full-size bodied stock cars. The reality is that the body was reworked in such a way it would increase its aerodynamic efficiency substantially. Flush mounted fenders, shaved door handles and indicators, headers and exhaust pipes tucked into tunnels in the floor. It even had a custom chassis which allowed to mount the body further back, improving the balance of the car. Upon inspection, a number of changes needed to be made to be deemed legal, an impossible amount of work, which meant it was never run in competition.  

These examples aren’t technically considered cheating since there was nothing in the rulebook at the time that stated it was illegal to do these things. It was just a matter of knowing what was in the rulebook while at the same time knowing full well what was not in the rulebook. Allowing for different interpretations within the rules gave Henry ‘Smokey’ Yunick the edge. It is a colourful story so I felt it deserved a mention.

The post The Petrolhead Corner – Busted! Caught Cheating at Racing – Part 1 appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

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Niki Lauda 1949-2019: A battler who defied death for so long

Niki Lauda, ​​who defied death for so long in a life that pleased him to be a motorsport legend, has finally succumbed to the

The Austrian, who won world titles in 1975, 1977 and 1984, died at the age of 70, eight months after the lung transplant operation that was late

It was at Nurburgring that Lauda broke off the track, hit the quay and got stuck in his car that had been turned into a fireball. I have lost the tip of his left ear and his eyelids and inhaled the toxic fumes that eventually did his fighting spirit on Monday.

Niki Lauda died at the age of 70, eight months after a lung transplant operation 70 years after eight months after a lung transplant operation "

Niki Lauda passed away after the age of 70, eight months after a lung transplant operation

The operation was a late consequence of a crash in 1976 in which his Ferrari went up in flames <img id = "i-2dfb802d00b7b124" src = "https: / /i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/05/21/08/13751082-7052601-image-a-33_1558422934703.jpg "height =" 434 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i -2dfb802d00b7b124 "src =" https://dailym.ai/2wbA7Uw "height =" 434 "width =" 634 " alt = "<img id =" i-2dfb802d00b7b124 "src =" https://i.dailymail.co .uk / 1s / 2019/05/21/08 / 13751082-7052601-image-a-33_1558422934703.jpg "height =" 434 "width =" 634 "alt =" The operation was a late result of a crash in 1976 in which his Ferrari caught fire "class =" blkBorder img-share "in 1976 in which his Ferrari caught fire

<img id =" i-7002eadebfe3a528 "src =" https: // i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/05/21/08/13751092-7052601-image-a-36_1558423081178.jpg "height =" 464 "width =" 634 "alt =" The Austrian, somewhat incredible,

<img id = "i-7002eadebfe3a528" src = "https://dailym.ai/2QaYM4A "height =" 464 "width =" 634 "alt =" The Austrian, somewhat unbelievably, added two more world titles after the gripping incident "class =" blkBorder img

In the intervening years, Lauda wore the scars on a face partially restored by remove the skin from his thighs and apply it to his scalp. The rest of the damage was hidden under a ubiquitous red cap on which he sold advertising space for a million pounds.

But a heaving cough that occasionally disrupted his rapid flow of direct, never-wasted word conversations told of the problem that even the cosmetic surgeons could not solve.

He intended to be back at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix circuit at the end of November last year, but that target proved too ambitious for even such a Lauda fighter. He was good enough to post a video of himself, a little brother of the voice, but with a reassuring message for fans: I'm doing well.

<img id = "i-3be8ae05cfe0fd69" src = "https://dailym.ai/2wcughA -7052601-image-a-37_1558423109478.jpg "height =" 462 "width =" 634 "alt =" Lauda, ​​pictured with his wife Birgit, wore a ubiquitous red hood to cover the scars "his wife Birgit wore a ubiquitous red cap to cover the scars "

Lauda, ​​pictured with his wife Birgit, wore a ubiquitous red cap to cover the scars Lauda (R) depicted in 1975, the year after he his first driver's championship won

Lauda (R) pictured in 1975, the year after he won his first driver's championship

Lauda (R) pictured in 1975, the year after he his first driver's championship won

<img id = "i-39d076b620e21ad5" src = "https://dailym.ai/2Qf68nZ 13751042 -7052601-image-a-45_1558423642763.jpg "height =" 426 "width =" 634 "alt =" Lauda depicted during the Argentinean Grand Prix in Buenos Aires in 1975 "class =" blkBorder img-

Lauda depicted during the Argentine photo of the Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires in 1975 Grand Prix in Buenos Aires in 1975

<img id = "i-63212e056fec9590" src = "https://dailym.ai/2wcp3Xf" height = "438" width = "634" alt = "Only a few weeks after his horrific crash in 1976, Lauda was behind the wheel of his Ferrari "class =" blkBorder img-

The former driver of the crash of his near-fatal crash during a press conference "

<img id = "i-a53521009150960f" src = "https://dailym.ai/2QgSr7N" height = "446" width = "634" alt = " The former driver sports the scars of his near-fatal crash during a press

<img id = "i-8f2c31dbb4f7870f" src = "https://dailym.ai/2wh6H7f .jpg "height =" 417 "width =" 634 "alt =" It took Lauda a lot of will and courage to get behind the wheel behind the wheel "

And, so he was affected by the flu during a Christmas holiday in Ibiza. He was brought back to the hospital.

It is almost impossible to think of those giant reports, it is almost impossible to think of that giant who has been defeated. After all, less than six weeks after reading the last rites after his burning in Germany, I returned for the Italian Grand Prix.

His great friend James Hunt continued the title and raced on blinding haze in the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix. Lauda lashed out muttering that & # 39; madness & # 39; was to race on.

The following year, Lauda won the second of three world championships, he could not blink – the fire had to see that. They were both for Ferrari. His last title came for McLaren, nine years after his first and next two seasons away.

[ThefollowingyearwonLauda'ssecondworldthreeworldchampionships"class="blkBorderimg-share"three-worldchampionships"

The following year, Lauda won the second of three world championships <img id = "i-cf63c6b67e0ba969" src = "https://dailym.ai/2V7xoKx 21/08 / 13751322-7052601-image-m-42_1558423445769.jpg "height =" 455 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-cf63c6b67e0ba969" src = "https://i.dailymail.co .uk / 1s / 2019/05/21/08 / 13751322-7052601-image-m-42_1558423445769.jpg "height =" 455 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-cf63c6b67e0ba969" src = " https://dailym.ai/2QggsMd "height =" 455 "width =" 634 "alt =" Lauda introduced herself in 2013 for together with his former Brabham boss and good friend Bernie Ecclestone "

2013

In the meantime I had started his story as an airline, Lauda Air, one of the many entrepreneurial forays in business.

As a friend of hi

Lauda & # 39; s family made a statement and said: & # 39; With deep sorrow, we announce that our beloved Niki is peaceful with his family died on Monday

& We remember his unique achievements as an athlete and entrepreneur … and his tireless action, his sincerity and his courage.

& # 39; A role model and a benchmark for all of us, he was a loving and caring husband, father and grandfather away from the public eye, and he will be missed. & # 39;

Lauda also entered the aviation industry and started his own company, Lauda Air his own company, Lauda Air "

Lauda went Lauda Air

Lauda was born in Vienna in 1949 and started racing against the wishes of his family, taking out personal loans to make his dreams come true, making his debut in 1971 with March , later with BRM, Ferrari, Brabham and McLaren.

He participated in 171 races and won 25. An exceptional driver, he calculated in style, after Geoffrey Boycott instead of Brian Lara.

After the race, he briefly performed the Jaguar F1

His certainty, experience and direct talk were immeasurably important.

His certainty, experience and genuine talk were incomparably important. Mercedes in the bar open years, namely five pilots and five constructor titles and counting. He was a man without malice.

<img id = "i-945b3000ce055b91" src = "https://dailym.ai/2wdjXK9 image-a-47_1558423763219.jpg "height =" 429 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-945b3000ce055b91" src = "https://dailym.ai/2J2OwKp /21/08/13751040-7052601-image-a-47_1558423763219.jpg "height =" 429 "width =" 634 "alt =" Lauda also continued to race and took on the role of non-executive chairman at Mercedes "and took on the role of non-executive chairman at Mercedes to

Lauda also continued to race and took on the non-executive chairman role at Mercedes

<img id = "i-2bc33bdb1fb80845" src = "https://dailym.ai/2QgGwqt /13751038-7052601-image-a-48_1558423793918.jpg "height =" 396 "width =" 634 "alt =" He played an important role in the signing of Lewis Hamilton, who closed the deal in a hote l in Singapore, in 2012 <img id = "i-2bc33bdb1fb80845" src = "https://dailym.ai/2wa266T. jpg "height =" 396 "width =" 634 "alt =" <img id = "i-2bc33bdb1fb80845" src = "https://dailym.ai/2QfmvR6 -7052601-image-a-48_1558423793918.jpg "height =" 396 "width =" 634 "alt =" He was instrumental in signing Lewis Hamilton, clinching the deal in a hotel in Singapore, in 2012

Lauda won a revival of wider global fame by Daniel Bruhl & # 39; s portrait of hi

& # 39; When I heard that James had died of a heart attack, I was not surprised, & # 39; said Lauda of the big-earning Englishman who was 45 years old in 1993. & # 39; I was just sad. & # 39;

Giants both. And even if we are not completely surprised by the news about the death of Lauda after the deteriorating medical reports of the past few months, we are sad. Sport has lost a greater character than it can afford.

James Hunt, who was just 45, in 1993. Both were giants of sport "class =" blkBorder img-share "/>

] Lauda lost his good friend James Hunt, who was just 45, in 1993. Both were giants of the sport "class =" blkBorder img-share "/>

who was only 45, in 1993. Both were giants of the sport

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[formula1racing]

On Bernie… So Bernie has been nudged (as gently as possible) into a role with a long title. Chairman emeritus is, nonetheless, fitting. The word emeritus comes from Latin verb “to earn” and is usually conferred upon retired professors and clergymen, although it is also used in business as a mark of distinguished service. The word “merit” comes from the same root. Love him or loath him, Mr E, merits the title – not that such a thing will appeal to him at all. Given his character, one could not really expect a more graceful changeover of power, but it was clearly something that Liberty Media felt was essential in order to start the process of change in Formula 1. The fact that they recognised this need is a good thing. It has been very clear from the start that Liberty wanted a different style of management for the sport, which is so used to being in conflict with itself that some find it hard to imagine it can operate with everyone working together. NASCAR shows this is possible. Not everyone may agree with the France family or with how they do business, but they all understand it is best to work together and keep their disagreements out of the spotlight. People think that Bernie Ecclestone was a greedy man, but I don’t think this is the truth at all. Money was not the important thing. It was merely a way by which Bernie kept score. Money is only important when you don’t have it and I doubt he can a remember a day when he wasn’t rich. He has been a wealthy man for probably 65 of his 86 years. What was important for Bernie was the power to do the deal and the buzz he got from winning and getting people to agree to do things that they did not want to do. Once he had control of the sport he knew that he had something that people wanted and so it could be monetised and the score could be kept. Many people think that he did not love the sport, but I don’t think this is right either. I think he loved the gladiators, the men who drove the cars. There was always affection and admiration for what they did. He had tried it himself, remember, with a Connaught in 1958 and he knew that racing drivers were different and special people. In his early years he lost two drivers with whom he was close: Stuart Lewis-Evans in 1958 and Jochen Rindt in 1970. Later he would also lose one of his Brabham drivers, José Carlos Pace, in a plane crash, and another, Elio de Angelis, in a testing accident. I don’t think Bernie ever lost his passion for the drivers, or for some of those with whom he had dealings. He liked the mavericks: Enzo Ferrari, Max Mosley, Colin Chapman, Teddy Mayer, Ken Tyrrell, Frank Williams, Ron Dennis and Eddie Jordan. They were men who made things happen. He liked some of the race promoters as well, particularly Melbourne’s Ron Walker. He was never a big fan of men in blazers, although one sensed that he had a grudging respect for the late Jean Marie Balestre, the FIA President who fought him to a draw in the FISA-FOCA war of 1980-1982. What he did for Formula 1 over the years was mightily impressive, but how he won control of it and some of his dealings thereafter were less impressive. There was a famous occasion when Bernie informed his fellow FOCA members that he had juggled companies and contracts and had taken over control of all the important deals and that they were henceforth working for him. Ken Tyrrell had to be stopped from strangling him. They fought him a little, but he had the power. He was the paymaster. Over time, the teams clawed back more and more of the money and chipped away at his power, but it was only in recent years that he felt his hands were tied – and he did not like it. If he made one error, it was in agreeing to sell an option for 25 percent of the shares in the business to Thomas Haffa, a German TV mogul, who had already secured 50 percent of the business. Haffa soon ran into trouble and his empire was gobbled up by KirchBeteiligung, the holding company of a bigger German TV company. In March 2001, Leo Kirch, the boss of KirchBeteiligung, agreed to take over Haffa’s option and borrowed money from the Bavarian state bank – BayernLB – to pay for it. KirchBeteiligung became the controlling shareholder in Formula One. The problem was that Kirch had also borrowed too much money and it began to fail in 2002. BayernLB claimed the Formula One shares, as they had a right to do. That summer Ecclestone and his family’s Bambino Trust snatched control of the primary Formula One operating companies by appointing more directors than they were allowed to. This meant that they had management control of the business. BayernLB and other banks initiated legal action to win back control and after much delaying the first case came to court in December 2004. It was an embarrassing defeat with Mr Justice Park giving a summary judgment in favour of the banks, making it clear that Bambino had no case at all. He rejected one of Bambino’s arguments as “bordering on the hopeless”. He even refused the right to appeal. By 2005 Bernie agreed to settle the other fight with the banks. They could have removed him from that point onwards, but BayernLB representative Dr Gerhard Gribkowsky argued that Bernie was the key to F1’s success. This led to the famous sale of the banks shares to CVC Capital Partners, which gave Bernie control of the business once again. CVC did not care what he did, as long as it was able to extract the maximum in profit from the business. That suited Mr E fine. The media never really bothered him and he would happily give the newspapers the headlines they wanted, even if a lot of the stories never came true. He was just playing, keeping F1 in the papers. He had an impressive ability to neuter those who opposed him by sucking them in and making them dependent on him. He could wrap naive journalists around his little finger by tickling their ego, making them feel he was their best buddy. He was a genius at spotting people’s weaknesses and using them to his advantage. He understood greed and ambition and recognised people who might be dangerous to him. It was the old car dealer in action. He was funny, charming and yet utterly ruthless. I remember once, years ago, when I found myself in conflict with him, having worked for his Formula 1 magazine. He had done something which could have been challenged in court. Naive as I was, I said “You can’t do that.” Bernie looked at me with infinite coldness and replied: “I can do whatever I like”. He was right, of course, power overrules rights and wrongs. What was I going to do about it? I couldn’t afford to battle with him as the banks had done – and he knew it. To be fair, he made sure that I was paid all that was owed to me. Those who do not like him perhaps do not understand that there is a good side to him as well, as there is with almost all human beings. He didn’t want people to see too much of that, and one felt that he saw being kind and caring as some sort of weakness. When it came to the business, he didn’t see the value of anything that didn’t pay up front, as they say in England “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. If you wanted something you had to pay for it and you had to pay big. There was rarely investment and when there was it often didn’t work. Early attempts at digital TV and his escapade into publishing both lost a lot of money, although these were nothing compared to the $100 million he had to pay to stop the celebrated trial in Germany. Bernie’s attention to detail was extraordinary, even back in the days of Brabham when he and McLaren’s Ron Dennis raised the bar every year in terms of professionalism and dragged the sport from its muddy paddocks to the glistening autodromes of the modern era. He took the sport global, but was never comfortable with Americans, who felt that race promoters should be allowed to make money as well. It was a blind spot that made no sense at all. F1 was a consumer business which was barely present in the world’s biggest consumer market. It was all driven by money which is why F1 lost some of its key traditional races, exchanging them for hopeless adventures into the Turkish countryside, Korean marshes and Indian building sites. CVC’s fixation on profits hurt the sport and, in the end, one sensed that Bernie realised this, but he did’t want to change anything. He wanted to go on doing deals as he had always done deals. He probably stayed on longer than was wise. But it was his train set. And then one day, it wasn’t.