FORMULA 1 - 2014

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Jenson Button says F1 his sole focus amid McLaren 2015 stalemate

Jenson Button says he has no interest in racing in any other categories outside Formula 1, despite his ongoing contractual stalemate with McLaren.

The 2009 F1 world champion has repeatedly expressed his desire to stay with McLaren after his current deal expires at the end of this season, but the team has remained non-committal on whether it will retain Button and rookie team-mate Kevin Magnussen next season.

The lack of progress on a new deal for Button has prompted questions over whether he might pursue a career outside F1 in 2015, but the Brit says he has no desire to be anywhere else.

"Right now, my interest is to race in F1," Button said.

"You have a tough day and it hurts like hell because you want to be competitive and fighting, but then you have a reasonable qualifying and you are back on track.

"You want to race forever. In F1 the emotions are all over the place - it is highs, it is lows.

"I have lived my life like that for a long time and I want to continue my life like that.

"I am young and fast and enjoy what I do for a living, and I don't want that to change."

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier told AUTOSPORT the Woking-based team was "happy with its driver line-up at the moment".

"Jenson knows the important thing is to score as many points as he can," Boullier added.

"He doesn't have to prove anything as he is a world champion and has won many races for McLaren.

"I think we need to be realistic as well, because in one, two, three years we may need to refresh our driver line-up and obviously we will be seeking the best drivers at that moment in time."

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ALONSO SENDS FUZZY SIGNALS ABOUT F1 FUTURE

Ferrari driver Fernando Alonso has taken time out of his summer vacation to deny speculation about his future, but rather than put an end to speculation his words may well prompt further speculation.

Currently on a cycling tour in the Italian Dolomites, the Spaniard has obviously read reports about his potential switch to McLaren, or perhaps his demands for $50 million a year to sign a new Ferrari contract.

Without referring specifically to either of the reports, Alonso told his more than two million Twitter followers: “A thing that’s not true, even if is copied a thousand times, will remain false. Always helpful to remember this.”

Another report floating about during the August break and Formula 1 team factory shutdown period is that Honda, McLaren’s returning works engine supplier for 2015, may be eyeing a Japanese driver for the foray.

Naoki Yamamoto, the 26-year-old currently carrying the number 1 for the Honda-linked Mugen team in Japan’s premier open wheel Super Formula series, told Japanese TV it is “not impossible” he will play a role.

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Szafnauer hails 'brilliant' line-up

As Force India take to the fight to Formula 1's traditional powerhouses, Otmar Szafnauer has applauded the brilliance of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez.

Ahead of this year's Championship Force India changed their entire driver line-up.

The team brought back Nico Hulkenberg, who had spent a season with Sauber, and signed Mexican racer Sergio Perez from McLaren.

The duo have worked well together with Force India holding down fifth place in the Championship. The team lost out to Williams ahead of the summer break but remain in front of McLaren in the standings.

"Brilliant. Just brilliant," Szafnauer, Force India's chief operating officer, said of his driver pairing.

"We have a very good relationship, a long-standing one, with Nico. He is very intelligent, has good feedback and helps us develop the car.

"Sergio has fitted in very well in his first year. He is a very quick racing driver, especially in the races. He finished on the podium and Nico has scored in every race (bar one), so they've both done a very good job."

Asked by the official F1 website whether he was 'surprised with how well' Perez had gone compared to the highly-rated Hulkenberg, he said: "Well, if you look at his past history, he did well at Sauber before McLaren took him, and he was against Kobayashi who is no slouch.

"And in the second half of 2013, he kind of took it to Button, especially in the races. But he also out-qualified Button, 10-9 over the year - and Sergio is typically stronger in the races than he is in qualifying.

"Nico has been consistent and outscored Sergio, but Sergio has been unlucky, like contact with Massa and when he couldn't get out of the garage to start in Malaysia.

"Am I surprised at his form? Not really. He is focused, wants to do well and is a good driver. I think we've got a good combination, and they're both brilliant at driving the team on."

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Daniel Ricciardo: Carlos Sainz Jr would benefit from early F1 debut

Double grand prix winner Daniel Ricciardo reckons Red Bull stablemate Carlos Sainz Jr would benefit from making his Formula 1 debut with a backmarker team.

Sainz has held talks with Caterham since the squad's takeover by a group of Middle Eastern and Swiss investors advised by ex-HRT boss Colin Kolles, though Red Bull has told the Spaniard to focus on winning Formula Renault 3.5 this season.

Red Bull ace Ricciardo made his F1 debut with HRT in 2011, before stepping up to Red Bull's Toro Rosso squad in 2012, and the Australian said he benefited from an introductory part-season with a small team.

"I think it helps in a lot of ways," Ricciardo said.

"It helped me get into F1, settle down with all the nerves, not really in a spotlight, so it eased me into the sport a little bit.

"It also makes you more grateful for what you have.

"When I signed for Toro Rosso I was the happiest man in the world knowing that I could maybe fight for points.

"You really work hard for those extra last little bits.

"Signing for Red Bull made me more grateful to get the better things so I am sure we will see it with other drivers coming through.

"Jules [bianchi] is obviously doing really well at Marussia, there is talk [about Sainz].

"It didn't harm me. As a driver you want to be in the best team as soon as possible, but it definitely helped me learn in the right way."

Sainz told AUTOSPORT last month that any F1 experience "is going to be a good thing" but that his priority for this year is to become the first Red Bull driver to win the FR3.5 title.

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Pirelli not against an expanded 20+ race calendar

Pirelli would be open to a Formula 1 calendar with more than 20 races according to Paul Hembery, but he warns the venues must be sustainable.

With news that Mexico will join the 2015 calendar, then Azerbaijan in 2016 and quite possibly the on/off New Jersey race, the calendar is set to surpass the 20 race limit.

Whilst the teams have some concerns, Hembery says these can be overcome and with the benefit of additional exposure, additional races would be welcomed by Pirelli.

"It's [the problem] purely logistics," he said.

"At the end of the day the more races you have the more value you create – ultimately – because you get more visibility. So we're not against doing more races, it just creates for everybody a practical human problem because people struggle with their natural lives so you might have to double up in some areas and create a duplication of roles, but you live with it.

"We're not against doing more races, that's for sure," Crash.net quote him as saying. Hembery is however keen to see new races located where fans are guaranteed in order to avoid scenarios like Korea and India where a lack of support has seen the races dropped after just a few years.

"Personally I think if you have a doubt whether the fans will come then you have to go very close to the city centres or use street circuits because then they can't avoid you; you have to watch it because it's going to ruin your drive to work!

"We need to look very carefully at how these new events are going to be sustainable going forward because I don't think it benefits anyone coming along for a couple of years and then disappearing. You need to build up some momentum and understand why if maybe the public isn't interested what needs to change to get them interested."

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FLASHBACK: THE DECLINE OF BRABHAM TEAM IN F1

Nelson Piquet was reigning F1 world champion for Brabham in 1982

The early 1980s were something of a purple patch for Brabham – between 1980 and 1985 the team picked up 14 race wins and twin world championships for Nelson Piquet. The good times were not to last however, and by 1992 the team was extinct.

After a slightly less competitive season in 1985, Gordon Murray and Brabham came out of the gates with a revolutionary new design for ‘86. The Brabham BT55 was built around a specially designed BMW motor which was effectively placed on its side. This was done to allow for tighter packaging at the back of the car, to lower the centre of gravity and allow smoother air-flow to the rear-wing. With the talented Elio de Angelis joining Riccardo Patrese, it should have been a good year.

It was not. It was a disastor. While the design did achieve the desired effects, the negative by-products were abundant. The aerodynamic package delivered far too much drag, while Murray later commented that the complicated engine setup had “incurable oil surge and drain problems”. Reliability was poor, and a pair of sixth places were all the team had to show for their efforts. But worst of all, poor de Angelis was killed in a testing accident mid-season.

Nelson Piquet with Gordon Murray

At the end of 1986 Gordon Murray had departed for greener pastures at McLaren, leaving David North, John Baldwin and Sergio Rinland to design to the BT56. BMW had wanted to pull out of Formula 1, but Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone made them fulfill their contractual obligations and supply factory motors for 1987. BMW did hang around, but they would only supply the unsuccessful lay-down engine from the previous year, rather then the classic upright units.

The result was another underwhelming season. Perhaps the most telling statistic is that of 32 starts, the team notched up 25 DNFs. The news off the track was not good either, for Ecclestone was starting to lose interest and money was starting to become a problem.

With BMW withdrawing for good, and no engine deal on the table, Brabham did not lodge an entry for the 1988 championship. Ecclestone elected to sell the team, which was purchased by Swiss businessman, Joachim Luhti.

The Luhti-owned Brabham returned to Formula 1 in 1989, with a tidy little car designed by Sergio Rinland and driven by Martin Brundle and Stefano Modena. The performance of the car was inconsistent, and while Brundle finished third at Monaco, on two occasions he did not make it past pre-qualifying.

Elio de Angelis in the Brabham BT55 during the 1986 Monaco Grand Prix

There was high drama when Luhti was arrested half way through the year for fraud. An attempted sale to Mike Earle and Joe Chamberlain was vetoed by Peter Windsor (who had been part of the original Luhti bid), and the team fell into the hands of the Japanese engineering firm, Middlebridge Group.

Really, it was never going to a success. The Middlebridge Group had borrowed heavily from Landhurst Leasing to fund their take-over, and with hardly any sponsorship, the debt was always going to catch up. By 1990 Brabham were almost failing to qualify more often then not, and a solitary fifth place for Modena was the only points-paying result of the year. With Yamaha engines in place, 1991 was a bit better, but scoring three points was not going to arrest their demise.

The team could not afford to build a new car for 1992, and so Brabham wheeled out the old BT60 again, fitted with Judd engines (Yamaha had left to power Jordan). Eric van de Poele and lady-racer Giovanni Amati were hired to do the driving. Amati was clearly not there for her talent. Her Formula 3000 performances had been miserable and it was obvious she was only there to attract sponsorship and help pay the bills.

The 1992 was the Brabham team’s last race in F1 with Damon Hill at the wheel

However, her sponsors never paid up, and after failing to qualify three times in a row, there was no reason to keep her and she was replaced by Damon Hill. Van de Poele and Hill were both talented drivers, but they fared little better, only making the grid three times.

However, while all this was going on, the director of Landhurst, Ted Ball, had been taking corrupt cash payments from the Middlebridge Group to keep the money flowing in and keep Brabham afloat. To raise the money required, Ball and David Ashworth, Landhurst’s finance director, doctored the company accounts and defrauded banks into lending money.

In August, the Arthur Andersen accounting firm uncovered the corruption – there was a $75m black hole in the accounts. Landhurst went into receivership, and Brabham closed their doors forever. The Serious Fraud Office investigated the collapse, and in 1997 Ball and Ashworth were jailed on corruption charges.

Brabham’s last race was the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix. Damon Hill came home in 11th, four laps down. Less then a decade before they had been world champions.

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VETTEL BUYS A FERRARI CALIFORNIA FOR FATHER NORBERT

Quadruple Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel has bought his father a Ferrari.

La Gazzetta dello Sport, publishing a paparazzi photo of Red Bull‘s reigning quadruple world champion during the transaction, said the German picked a Ferrari California and a personalised number plate.

At grands prix, 27-year-old Vettel commutes to and from the circuits in a road car supplied by Red Bull’s title sponsor Infiniti.

But for a gift to his father Norbert, Vettel chose the iconic colour red and the personalised number plate HP N1 – HP representing his birthplace Heppenheim, and ‘N1′ for Norbert.

“A sign of a future at Maranello? Who knows!” read the Gazzetta report. “In 1995, Michael Schumacher was seen roaming the streets of Monaco at the wheel of a F355. And we know how that turned out.”

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Merc 'happy to maintain a good gap'

Technical boss Paddy Lowe believes Mercedes' excellent development programme is one of the main reasons why their rivals haven't been able to catch up.

The Brackley-based squad started the 2014 season with six consecutive victories and many believed - or maybe hoped - it would be just a matter of time before the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari reduced the gap at the front.

Although Red Bull have managed to edge closer, Merc remains well clear of the pack and Lowe says that is down to the constant upgrades they are making to the F1 W05

"A lot of the deficit has been on the power unit side, and you wonder how much of that is fundamental and how much is short-term issues they need to learn to manage," he told Autosport.

"I would have expected more would have been short-term and been overcome.

"It's difficult to know because we're pushing in so many different areas and you don't know which areas they're pushing in.

"We've been concentrating on our own programme and we keep pushing hard to improve the car race by race - what turns out, turns out, but I'm happy we're managing to maintain a good gap."

There have also been suggestions that the only reason why Mercedes are so powerful this season is because of the engine advantage they have over the Renault and Ferrari-powered teams.

However, Lowe was quick to point out that they have an excellent car all-round.

"These cars are about system performance, not individual elements," he said.

"It's about how you put it all together. It's the power unit, the efficiency of the power unit, the aerodynamics, and the manner in which they're all put together.

"It's the collective efficiency of that package from a power, aero and suspension point of view, as well as a weight point of view.

"Our car is very quick. There are other cars running that power unit that aren't as quick, so it's a whole system."

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Raikkonen: F14T not a disaster

Kimi Raikkonen insists the Ferrari F14T will give the team a solid base to work from next season, but concedes they have a lot of areas they need to improve on.

Sweeping changes were introduced at the start of the 2014 season with the biggest one being the move from V8 to V6 turbocharged engines. Ferrari, though, haven't exactly set the world alight with this year's challenger.

Raikkonen has struggled to come to grips with the car, but his team-mate Fernando Alonso has proved that it is not all doom and gloom with two podiums.

With only tweaks made to next year's regulations, Raikkonen believes they have something to work from.

"It's not a disaster, that's for sure," he is quoted as saying by crash.net. "Otherwise there would not be the results that the team has achieved so far. Obviously we know the areas where we have to work and it's a bit everywhere; we are not really bad anywhere but we are not fantastic either anywhere.

"So it's kind of a bit everywhere. It's a reliable car, in some places it works better and in some conditions it's better but we have a lot of places where we know that if we can improve those then it can make a big, big difference and improve the whole thing a lot."

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Luca denies quit reports

Luca di Montezemolo has dismissed speculation that he could quit his post as Ferrari president.

The 66-year-old has been charge the famous marque since 1991, but he was linked with a move to Italian national airline Alitalia last week following a buyout from Abu Dhabi's Etihad.

The Italian was reportedly being lined up to take over as chairman, but he has turned down the position with El Mundo Deportivo quoting him as saying "after my family there is nothing more important than Ferrari".

However, he may still take on the role a non-executive chairman on the board as long as it "does not interfere with his responsibilities to the Prancing Horse".

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No plans for Red Bull F1 technical director after Newey move

The Red Bull Formula 1 team does not need to appoint a technical director to work under Adrian Newey, according to team principal Christian Horner.

Newey agreed a new long-term deal to stay at Red Bull earlier this season but as part of that agreement his involvement in the F1 team will be reduced.

He will continue to work as chief technical officer, with the existing department heads forming the strata below him in Red Bull's structure negating the need for a day-to- day technical director.

"We are not going to appoint a technical director, we don't need one," Horner told AUTOSPORT.

"Adrian is still going to be very much involved in helping to set a direction. "But it's an opportunity where people beneath Adrian are going to step up and take more responsibility.

"With [chief designer] Rob Marshall, [head of aerodynamics] Dan Fallows and [chief engineer] Paul Monaghan, we have got a very strong technical group."

Newey has previously stressed the desire to ensure that Red Bull continued to operate at a high level whenever he did take a step back or even leave the team.

Horner believes that the 55-year-old's move into a modified role, which will take effect at the end of the season, has been prepared for.

"Adrian has never made any secret of the fact that at some point he was going to step back a bit," said Horner.

"He's reached that point now and we have put a structure in place to accommodate that, yet still benefit from his involvement. So it is the best situation for everyone.

"We have a great situation where Adrian is not going to disappear completely and a percentage of his time will still be involved in F1.

"But it's a great chance for the strength of depth we have in the team beneath Adrian to stand up."

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Force India F1 boss calls Valtteri Bottas star of the season

Force India boss Vijay Mallya has hailed Williams driver Valtteri Bottas "the star of the season" in Formula 1.

Bottas scored three consecutive podium finishes in the Austrian, British and German Grands Prix and lies fifth in the world championship, 55 points clear of new Williams team-mate Felipe Massa after 11 races.

Mallya, who plans to retain his current drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez for next season, reckons Bottas has "shocked everybody" with his consistently strong showings for the much-improved Williams team.

"There can be no two opinions that Bottas has been the star of the season so far," Mallya told AUTOSPORT.

"Here you have the great Massa, and here you have a guy who's come out of GP3, and the first thing that comes to your mind is that he's going to be half a second behind.

"He's shocked everybody and is doing a fantastic job under pressure.

"Not only does he have the killer instinct but also the maturity not to get flustered."

Mallya also reserved praise for Daniel Ricciardo, who has out-performed his four-time world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel and won two races since stepping up from Toro Rosso to Red Bull this year.

"Daniel Ricciardo [has also been] very impressive," he added.

"I think even Red Bull are wondering what's going on."

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Sauber F1 boss says team needs to show "more courage"

Sauber boss Monisha Kaltenborn says her Formula 1 team needs to be more courageous if it wants to avoid this season becoming the worst in its history.

The Swiss squad has yet to register a point in 11 races this year, its longest scoring drought in F1.

If the team fails to score over the final eight grands prix it will be Sauber's first season without a point since it entered the sport in 1993.

Kaltenborn has already declared Sauber's current 10th place in the constructors' standings "unacceptable" and she has called for a more aggressive approach from her team to turn its fortunes around.

"In the development we did, maybe we have to change certain ways of thinking and get more aggressive," Kaltenborn said.

"Maybe [we need to] have more courage to go in different ways.

"I think there is potential in this car, which we have to unlock by understanding the data better, and understanding our car.

"We clearly have the tools, we have to work on our resources and when that's in place we need more courage to go out and do something else."

MORE TECHNICAL HELP NEEDED

Kaltenborn suggested Sauber had also been caught out by trying to produce too many of its own components and not making more of its technical partnership with Ferrari.

"I think what's different here that maybe puts us more into a role that Williams has historically seen, is that we've always done a lot of things on our own," Kaltenborn explained.

"We don't depend that much on working together with other teams; we do things ourselves.

"And this time we've not taken the right way.

"That's where we have to maybe change our ways of thinking more, because they are historical.

"Maybe with all of the demands and complexities on the car it can make sense to, here and there, co-operate with another team.

"But that's not the most important thing. In our own thinking we have to get more aggressive, towards our car and development.

"That's where we need to have a bit more courage."

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VERSTAPPEN: HONOURED TO BE PART OF THE RED BULL JUNIOR TEAM

Highly rated Dutch driver Max Verstappen has been signed up by the Red Bull Junior Team, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

The 16-year-old, who is the son of former Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen, is regarded as one of the most promising young drivers in Europe having taken seven wins in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship this year, his first season in car racing.

By linking up with Red Bull, Verstappen follows in the footsteps of the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Riccairdo, Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat, all of whom graduated to Formula 1 racing via the world champion team’s development squad.

Max Verstappen will drive for Red Bull Junior Team with immediate effect

“It goes without saying that I’m very happy and I feel honoured to be part of the Red Bull Junior Team, which has successfully brought and guided many drivers into Formula One,” said Verstappen.

“I will take this opportunity with both hands in order to develop and maximise my career with Red Bull. I want to thank Dr. Helmut Marko for his involvement in making this partnership possible and I want to thank Red Bull for putting their trust in me.”

Red Bull have confirmed that Verstappen will continue his FIA Formula 3 European Championship campaign before competing in the prestigious Macau Grand Prix in November.

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HORNER: VETTEL LOST PART OF HIS FEELING FOR THE CAR

Sebastian Vettel’s problem in 2014 may be that he is worn out after four years of relentless success in Formula 1 but his struggle to adapt to the a new driving style brought about by the V6 trubo technology is also playing a big role, according to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.

Having utterly dominated the sport, culminating in his four consecutive drivers’ titles between 2010 and last year, the 27-year-old German has struggled for form this season.

Some think that following Mark Webber’s departure, his new Australian teammate Daniel Ricciardo is simply putting Vettel in the shade.

Ricciardo, having graduated from the junior team Toro Rosso, is 6-5 up Vettel in qualifying, and with a clear 9-2 lead in the grands prix after 11 races — including two wins compared to Vettel’s none.

Horner says not only Red Bull but the entire world of Formula 1 has been surprised by Ricciardo’s form.

“I genuinely want to see if I have what it takes, if I am the best in the world,” 25-year-old Ricciardo told CNN. “And I’ve got the best guy to measure myself to.”

But Horner insists that, as ever in Formula 1, the real story is somewhat more complicated than Ricciardo bursting onto the scene and showing he is a better driver than Vettel.

“It is a combination of several things,” the Briton told Auto Bild Motorsport. “First, when you have fought for the title for five years, it does wear you out a little bit, but that is not the fundamental problem.”

“The way Vettel brought out those extra tenths from the car in recent years was quite unique,” Horner explained. “He is very sensitive to the behaviour of the car, especially when braking.”

So the new, mandatory ‘brake-by-wire’ systems this year mean Vettel has “lost part of his feeling for the car”, Horner said.

And “the driveability was really bad, so Seb could not look after the tyres in the way that he always has done,” he added.

Horner said Vettel used to drive a bit “like a ballerina, dancing on the throttle and the brakes”, which was not initially possible in 2014.

But Red Bull and Renault have been working hard on the package, with Horner saying Vettel’s pace in Hungary shows he is “getting the feeling for the car back again”.

Horner continued: “We also can’t forget how many mechanical problems Sebastian has had, many of them just little things that have disrupted his flow. So he has had less time to adapt his driving style.”

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FLASHBACK: AUGUST IS THE CRUELLEST MONTH

Scene of Didier Pironi’s devastating crash

As the scarlet racing car hurtled through the air on a dark, soulless morning, its driver, startled to glimpse the tops of pine trees which abounded around the race track, knew in an instant that he was in very grave danger, those few seconds would be etched deep into the pilot’s mind for the rest of his days. A red missile, the car speared into the skies at over 170 mph. The pilot closed his eyes and waited for the end.

On a grim German morning in August 1982 and Formula One World Championship leader Didier Pironi was putting his Ferrari through its paces, one of only a few cars to venture out of the pits that morning. Most drivers had taken one look at the circuit and scurried off to the sanctuary of garages and team motor homes.

Not so Pironi. The Ferrari pilot steered his mount out onto the treacherous circuit without so much as a moment’s hesitation. The skies around Hockenheim darkened.

The car felt good on the slippery circuit, very good. Soon the Ferrari was four, five seconds faster than anyone else. The wet Goodyear tyres bonded the car to the track. Didier opened the throttle. The whine of the Ferrari’s 650 bhp V6 turbocharged engine reverberated around the circuit, breaking through the eerie stillness of the morning.

Didier Pironi in the Ferrari 126C2

The French driver was reveling in the feedback from the Harvey Postlethwaite-designed 126C2 as he skimmed around the sodden circuit. Didier felt good, invincible almost. The Ferrari, now invisible amid a thick curtain of spray, headed confidently out into Hockenheim’s forest section, a fast, sweeping, ghostly couple of miles which snake away through dense pine forests.

Didier flicked the car into the south straight. Ahead was a huge ball of spray containing the Williams car driven by Derek Daly. Approaching 170 mph Pironi was instantly upon the Wiliams, its Irish driver duly moving off the racing line to allow the Ferrari past. At least that’s how the situation looked from inside the Ferrari cockpit.

But there was another car out there hidden in that ball of spray, unseen by Didier. Directly in front of Daly’s car was the Renault of Alain Prost. The Williams moved off the racing line. Trusting in himself and his God and without even the slightest lift off the throttle, Didier disappeared into the spray…

Rewind to summer 1982 when everything was coming together for Didier, professionally at least. The angelic looking Frenchman was riding a crest of a wave having recently assumed leadership of both the Ferrari team and the world championship. Didier’s ambition to become France’s first F1 World Champion was tantalisingly within reach.

Nelson Piquet arrives on the scene

Yes, conditions out on the Hockenheim track were atrocious – rain in this part of the world can reach biblical proportions; and yes, Didier had taken pole position the previous day with a scorching lap of 1:47.947 – almost a second faster than his nearest challenger. The race victory seemed a formality.

Why take such risks? Pironi they muttered, was crazy, one or two even suggested he had a death wish. Indeed colleagues and people who knew the French driver would readily attest to a level of bravery which bordered on the abnormal. “Didier had very big… huge balls,” said former team-mate Jacques Laffite choosing his words very carefully. “He was a very good guy.”

The impact was as sudden as it was violent. In the cockpit of his yellow and black Renault, Alain Prost, caught between concern for his colleague and the desire for self-preservation, watched in horror as the Ferrari catapulted over his own cockpit.

“Pironi’s car went straight on into the air, almost thirty metres up. I prayed I would stop, because I had no brakes,” recalled Prost, who had been tiptoeing around the circuit minding his own business when the Ferrari had ploughed into the back of his car.

Didier Pironi and Gilles Villeneuve on the Imola podium

The events of that day would haunt Alain throughout his career, “Every time I drive on a wet track, I look in my rear view mirror and see the Ferrari of Didier flying.”

“All you could see of cars ahead were great balls of spray,” said a shaken Derek Daly later. It had all been a tragic misunderstanding, an accident waiting to happen. Hidden within that ball of spray, Prost’s Renault had materialised out of nowhere like a ghostly spectre. Didier had not stood a chance.

Pironi? A cold fish! A calculating, unemotional man they said, determined to do whatever it took to become world champion, even cheat his own team-mate of a race victory.

At least that’s how the largely pro-Villeneuve press lead by the French Canadian’s cheerleader in chief Nigel Roebuck had reported events at the San Marino Grand Prix back in April. Not since Judas Iscariot had a man been so vilified. Didier shrugged off the criticism. As far as he was concerned he’d been in a race.

Yet the anti-Pironi press were baying for blood. Significantly, in the aftermath of the affair and with huge pressure to cast Didier out, Ferrari management remained equivocal. Villeneuve meanwhile raged and ranted. Il Commendatore – the great Enzo Ferrari himself though ostensibly sympathising with Gilles, pointedly refused to castigate his French team-mate. But the damage had been done. Didier became public enemy number one.

Gilles Villeneuve with Didier Pironi

Far from the ice cold machine perpetuated by certain factions of the media, other people would remember Didier as a softly spoken young man of impeccable manners and behaviour. Yes, there was family money and Didier carried with him an almost palpable air of Parisien sophistication and style, but those who knew him well would talk fondly of a shy, sensitive man. His personal life would also provide endless speculation for the gossip columns right until the very end.

Back to that fateful day at Hockenhem, like a tumbling Olympic gymnast, the Ferrari flipped over several times, leaving a trail of mechanical debris in its wake. The car finally came to rest two hundred metres down the road with one final, sickening smash onto its nose cone. The front end disintegrated on impact. It could have been made of paper machier for the protection it afforded the luckless Pironi.

“An electric chair,” said Nelson Piquet in a less than subtle reference to the 126C2’s structural frailties. Ferrari didn’t like that. But Nelson had been the first on the scene, leaping out from the cockpit of his Brabham to go to the aid of his stricken colleague.

Didier Pironi in the Ferrari

“Get me out of here! Get me out!” Aghast Nelson Piquet surveyed the carnage before him. “Get me out!” Didier’s shrill cries pierced the gloom. Where to even begin?

On removing Didier’s helmet the reigning world champion almost passed out. The Frenchman’s face was unrecognisable, bloodied and contorted with agony. On seeing the state of his legs the Brazilian promptly vomited and had to be escorted away by track marshalls.

Even the elements themselves seemed indifferent to the Frenchman’s plight, whose life now lay dangling by a thread. The rain intensified, bucketing down from a steely grey sky.

Thankfully the emergency services were quickly on the scene. “Don’t let them take my legs off!” screamed Didier to F1 doctor Professor Sid Watkins as he drifted in and out of consciousness. At this stage there was a real risk of amputation.

Didier’s legs had both been broken, smashed to pieces, his arm was broken and his ankle was as good as crushed. “I give you my word, they won’t touch your legs,” shouted the professor having stabilised the hysterical driver.

While sedating Pironi, Watkins quickly surveyed the damage. It didn’t look good. But true to his word, The Prof. ensured the circuit doctors did not carry out their threat of immediate amputation. It would take thirty agonising minutes to free the driver.

Didier Pironi in the Le Mans winning Renault

Didier’s once promising Formula 1 career ended right there and then in the mangled remains of his Ferrari on that hateful August day.

As a fledgling F1 driver Didier had spectacularly announced himself as a man with a future following a heroic victory in the 1978 Le Mans 24 hour-race. It had been boys’ own stuff. He’d almost won the race single-handedly when his co-driver – veteran Jean-Pierre Jassaud – suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, had been unable to take over the car for the final stint.

Didier, also suffering from exhaustion, had been obliged to soldier on, in effect putting in a double shift while fending off determined attacks from the mighty Porsche team. Exhausted and dehydrated, at race end Pironi had to be lifted from the cockpit of the triumphant Renault Alpine by a couple of gendarmes. There then followed some anxious minutes as the medical team administered oxygen. Didier eventually stumbled onto the victory podium.

Huge crowds lined the Champs Elysees as the victors returned back to Paris. President Giscard D’Estaing was there to greet Pironi and Jassaud with all the pomp and ceremony reserved for war heroes. Only a few days later France’s latest sporting hero would have his driving licence suspended for 15 days. The offence? Speeding… His attentions now turned to the F1 world crown.

Didier Pironi in his Ferrari office

Didier would later relive every second of the horrific Hockenheim crash over and over again. He would remember launching over the Renault, remember the pine trees and the foreboding sense of dread. He would remember too how his legs started to “seriously” hurt once in the emergency helicopter en route to hospital in nearby Heidelberg. It just so happened the hospital was Germany’s leading centre for road traffic accidents. It was a small piece of fortune on an otherwise hellish day.

Rewind a few years: the blue and white Ligier was charging through the field at Brands Hatch, smashing the lap record over and over again. From behind a trademark pair of black sunglasses, the old man snorted his approval. Here was a driver with panache, a driver with swagger and an air of self-assurance that reminded the old man of champions past. Enzo Ferrari was watching the 1980 F1 season as usual on the small portable television in his office. He turned to his assistants: “I want Pironi!” And what Mr Ferrari wanted he invariably got.

The aftermath of Hockenheim were a nightmarish two weeks, a never-ending cycle of anaesthetics, operations and assessments. The Heidelberg medical team performed miracles, painstakingly rebuilding his shattered legs in a series of epic operations that would last for as much as six hours at a time.

Didier Pironi made his F1 debut driving a Tyrrell 008 at the 1978 Argentine Grand Prix

Eventually Didier would be transferred to Paris under the care of Dr Letournel, the same surgeon who had dealt with the aftermath of the Jabouille and Depaillier accidents, both of whom had suffered serious leg injuries. Over the years another forty operations would follow for Didier.

There would be long, seemingly endless weeks, months spent lying in his hospital bed. Sometimes he would dream of returning to Grand Prix racing. Enzo Ferrari’s promise that a Ferrari berth would be his upon his return would cheer him up during intense periods of despair.

Every day he would wake to see a small trophy on his bedside table, a small token which had been inscribed and sent by Mr Ferrari himself: Didier Pironi – the true 1982 World Champion.

One year after his accident he re-appeared, hobbling unsteadily on crutches, 12 months of agony were deeply etched into his face despite his efforts to play down his suffering. The circuit he chose to make his return as an F1 spectator? Hockenheim…

The real obstacle to a return to racing, as Didier would explain to the many people who enquired, was a right ankle that could not possibly withstand the rigours of a two hour Grand Prix race. And over time he gradually came to accept that perhaps his Formula One career – at least as a frontrunner – was over.

Patrick Depailler with Tyrrell team mate Didier Pironi in 1978

As a teenager he had roared around the southern Paris suburbs risking life and limb on a series of motorbikes and then cars. His brief stint in Formula 1 – where he made 72 starts and won three times – had provided even greater thrills as well as fame and fortune. Didier looked around for a new way to get his kicks. And then Colibri came into his life.

“He was a very talented driver with lots of ambition. I think he felt after the Hockenheim accident powerboating was the next best thing,” said Guy Ligier founder of the team that took his name.

Boats had always been a part of Didier’s life and therefore it was perhaps inevitable that his attention would turn to the physically less demanding, though just as thrilling and potentially even more dangerous sport of powerboat racing.

“Didier loved the atmosphere, the environment, the thrill, the excitement,” remembered friend and former Ferrari team-mate Patrick Tambay. “He loved the danger, the stress, the feeling of being able to control the anxieties that come with high-level competition.”

Colibri or ‘Humming bird’ was a 40 foot beast of a boat. A ground-breaking carbon fibre vessel designed for an assault on the 1987 Offshore World Powerboat Championship. Four cracked ribs from an accident in Spain though would testify to Didier just how dangerous this new sport could be.

Didier Pironi is extracted from the wrecked Ferrari

Nevertheless along with his two man crew – Claude Guenard and Bernard Giroux, Didier took victory in Norway and was genuinely touched to receive a congratulatory message from his old boss Enzo Ferrari. He hadn’t been totally forgotten by F1. Thus he headed towards the next round at The Isle of Wight in the UK brimming with confidence.

There had been occasional forays back into an F1 cockpit. During 1986 with the strength returning to his lower body, Didier had undertaken a serious of ‘secret’ tests for the AGS team and for his old friends at Ligier, where he had got close to Rene Arnoux’s benchmark times. There was also an intriguing though distant prospect of a seat at Mclaren in 1987 alongside Prost. His fellow countryman though was rumoured not to be keen on the idea…

As Didier prepared for the Isle of Wight race on yet another gloomy August weekend, he had in fact been about to finalise a deal for an F1 return in 1988 with the Larousse team run by his old friend ex-Renault chief Gerard Larousse. And with his partner Catherine pregnant with twins, there was plenty for Didier to look forward to that summer and beyond.

Sunday 23rd August was a dull, lifeless day on the English Channel. Like that fateful day at Hockenheim five years earlier the skies were overcast. And like ’82, summer seemed to have deserted. Preparing for the race at Poole harbour Bernard Guenard had felt uneasy. Although he couldn’t explain why, the ex-Ligier mechanic didn’t feel right about the race and told friends as much. There was something in the air, something ominous.

Didier Pironi’s Colibri powerboat

But the show had to go on. Two laps into the 178 mile race around the island, Colibri was challenging the Italian boat for the lead. It just so happened that making its way from Southampton to Belfast that afternoon was a 100 metre long oil tanker, the Esso Avon.

Fate had decreed that the tanker would be in the English Channel that particular day at that precise hour. Two hundred yards off the Needles Lighthouse while challenging for the lead at a turning point, Colibri initially skated over the wash sent out from the nearby tanker. Didier’s fellow crew members swallowed hard. The boat was travelling at around 100mph and what is more Didier showed no sign of throttling back as the boat was faced with yet more wash from the tanker.

Witnesses said the boat corkscrewed high into the air, slamming upside down into the icy waters which would have effectively acted like concrete at such high speeds. RAF rescue teams were immediately despatched from the mainland, but in truth nobody held out much hope for the occupants of the boat such had been the violence of the crash.

“It comes down to luck,” said a Solent coastguard, “The others in the race got across the wake, but Didier’s boat hit it square on.”

The three men were mercifully killed instantly. Didier’s cause of death was officially recorded as ‘drowning following a serious head injury.’ France wept for a sporting hero. “I join the world in mourning these sportsmen,” said French president Jacques Chirac.

Didier Pironi gone but not forgotten

Only days before the tragedy at The Isle of Wight, Catherine had informed Didier that after three years of trying and failure upon failure of IVF treatment, he was finally going to become a father.

Didier was delighted. He would rest his head upon Catherine’s stomach, and addressing the unborn twins, whisper gently “How are my babies today?”

Twin boys would enter the world just months after their father’s untimely exit.

Didier Pironi’s life had been brief yet intense. Old age it seemed had never had the slightest intention of adding him to its ranks. August, the holiday month, a time for enjoyment, relaxation and rejuvenation a time for picnics on beaches and a time for new plans. Not so for Didier, for whom August truly was the cruellest of months.

[MIKA27]

Grosjean: Lotus will step up next year

Romain Grosjean is confident Lotus will be in much better shape in 2015, saying they can take a leaf out of Jenson Button's book.

Having impressed during the 2013 campaign, this year has been a difficult one for Grosjean and Lotus with the Frenchman scoring only eight points during the 11 races to date.

Many believe that most of the Enstone squad's struggles are down to the Renault engine and Grosjean feels they can all learn a thing or two from Button, who experienced similar problems during the 2008 season with Honda. However, once the Brackley-based squad, which went under the Brawn GP guise in 2009, switched to Mercedes engines, they won the Championship.

There have been reports that Lotus could swap Renault for Mercedes next year and Grosjean believes a better power unit will help the team.

"I am 99.99% confident that the team is going to be better next year, not even speaking about the engine, just because it has been a transition year," Grosjean said. "It has been difficult and we were starting on the back foot and next year everything's going to be in a better shape. So even removing any power unit questions it's going to be better.

"If you look at Jenson [button] in 2008 he was very much struggling with Honda and then changed to Brawn, which was the same team with a different name, and he was World Champion. It's the same for [Fernando] Alonso, he had very good years and he had difficult years, and it's part of your career, you have to accept that and not get too frustrated.

"Sometimes it's hard because you are a competitor and you want to win races, fight at the front and you want things to go better. Sometimes they don't go better but you accept that it is going to be tough and go from there."

[MIKA27]

Ricciardo expecting fun day at Spa

Spa-Francorchamps is rated as one of the best tracks on the F1 calendar and it is no surprise to see that Daniel Ricciardo can't wait to return to the circuit.

Formula One's annual summer break is nearly something of the past and teams will be heading to Spa next week for the Belgian Grand Prix.

Red Bull driver Ricciardo in particular can't wait to get going again following his victory last time out at Hungary, and he is expecting a good weekend out due to the nature of the circuit.

"Spa is a fun track. I think it is the longest on the calendar so it's... you feel like, in a way, you get a little bit lost out there," he told CNN's 'The Circuit. "It's, I think, over seven km long. You know there is parts right down the back of the track which are surrounded by trees and you feel like you are driving a little bit in the forest rather than these modern day circuits...

"But I think most of all it is fun. It is a flowing track. It's really high speed on a lot of places and, you know, up and down, left rights - it keeps us busy and it is also good for racing."

Red Bull have won two of the last three races at Spa with Sebastian Vettel claiming success last season and in 2012. Ricciardo, though, admits the team will have their work cut out to produce a perfect lap.

"I think it is going to be interesting. I mean there is... Spa is pretty even across the lap," he said.

"There are some very long straights, which will unfortunately give a little bit of lap time away. But then there are some fast and flowing parts - particularly in the second sector should be a stand out sector for us as a team. Whether that is enough then to catch back what we have lost on the straight we don't know. We will see... Maybe some rain will help things out."

[OZCUBAN]

FLASHBACK: AUGUST IS THE CRUELLEST MONTH

Scene of Didier Pironi’s devastating crash

As the scarlet racing car hurtled through the air on a dark, soulless morning, its driver, startled to glimpse the tops of pine trees which abounded around the race track, knew in an instant that he was in very grave danger, those few seconds would be etched deep into the pilot’s mind for the rest of his days. A red missile, the car speared into the skies at over 170 mph. The pilot closed his eyes and waited for the end.

On a grim German morning in August 1982 and Formula One World Championship leader Didier Pironi was putting his Ferrari through its paces, one of only a few cars to venture out of the pits that morning. Most drivers had taken one look at the circuit and scurried off to the sanctuary of garages and team motor homes.

Not so Pironi. The Ferrari pilot steered his mount out onto the treacherous circuit without so much as a moment’s hesitation. The skies around Hockenheim darkened.

The car felt good on the slippery circuit, very good. Soon the Ferrari was four, five seconds faster than anyone else. The wet Goodyear tyres bonded the car to the track. Didier opened the throttle. The whine of the Ferrari’s 650 bhp V6 turbocharged engine reverberated around the circuit, breaking through the eerie stillness of the morning.

Didier Pironi in the Ferrari 126C2

The French driver was reveling in the feedback from the Harvey Postlethwaite-designed 126C2 as he skimmed around the sodden circuit. Didier felt good, invincible almost. The Ferrari, now invisible amid a thick curtain of spray, headed confidently out into Hockenheim’s forest section, a fast, sweeping, ghostly couple of miles which snake away through dense pine forests.

Didier flicked the car into the south straight. Ahead was a huge ball of spray containing the Williams car driven by Derek Daly. Approaching 170 mph Pironi was instantly upon the Wiliams, its Irish driver duly moving off the racing line to allow the Ferrari past. At least that’s how the situation looked from inside the Ferrari cockpit.

But there was another car out there hidden in that ball of spray, unseen by Didier. Directly in front of Daly’s car was the Renault of Alain Prost. The Williams moved off the racing line. Trusting in himself and his God and without even the slightest lift off the throttle, Didier disappeared into the spray…

Rewind to summer 1982 when everything was coming together for Didier, professionally at least. The angelic looking Frenchman was riding a crest of a wave having recently assumed leadership of both the Ferrari team and the world championship. Didier’s ambition to become France’s first F1 World Champion was tantalisingly within reach.

Nelson Piquet arrives on the scene

Yes, conditions out on the Hockenheim track were atrocious – rain in this part of the world can reach biblical proportions; and yes, Didier had taken pole position the previous day with a scorching lap of 1:47.947 – almost a second faster than his nearest challenger. The race victory seemed a formality.

Why take such risks? Pironi they muttered, was crazy, one or two even suggested he had a death wish. Indeed colleagues and people who knew the French driver would readily attest to a level of bravery which bordered on the abnormal. “Didier had very big… huge balls,” said former team-mate Jacques Laffite choosing his words very carefully. “He was a very good guy.”

The impact was as sudden as it was violent. In the cockpit of his yellow and black Renault, Alain Prost, caught between concern for his colleague and the desire for self-preservation, watched in horror as the Ferrari catapulted over his own cockpit.

“Pironi’s car went straight on into the air, almost thirty metres up. I prayed I would stop, because I had no brakes,” recalled Prost, who had been tiptoeing around the circuit minding his own business when the Ferrari had ploughed into the back of his car.

Didier Pironi and Gilles Villeneuve on the Imola podium

The events of that day would haunt Alain throughout his career, “Every time I drive on a wet track, I look in my rear view mirror and see the Ferrari of Didier flying.”

“All you could see of cars ahead were great balls of spray,” said a shaken Derek Daly later. It had all been a tragic misunderstanding, an accident waiting to happen. Hidden within that ball of spray, Prost’s Renault had materialised out of nowhere like a ghostly spectre. Didier had not stood a chance.

Pironi? A cold fish! A calculating, unemotional man they said, determined to do whatever it took to become world champion, even cheat his own team-mate of a race victory.

At least that’s how the largely pro-Villeneuve press lead by the French Canadian’s cheerleader in chief Nigel Roebuck had reported events at the San Marino Grand Prix back in April. Not since Judas Iscariot had a man been so vilified. Didier shrugged off the criticism. As far as he was concerned he’d been in a race.

Yet the anti-Pironi press were baying for blood. Significantly, in the aftermath of the affair and with huge pressure to cast Didier out, Ferrari management remained equivocal. Villeneuve meanwhile raged and ranted. Il Commendatore – the great Enzo Ferrari himself though ostensibly sympathising with Gilles, pointedly refused to castigate his French team-mate. But the damage had been done. Didier became public enemy number one.

Gilles Villeneuve with Didier Pironi

Far from the ice cold machine perpetuated by certain factions of the media, other people would remember Didier as a softly spoken young man of impeccable manners and behaviour. Yes, there was family money and Didier carried with him an almost palpable air of Parisien sophistication and style, but those who knew him well would talk fondly of a shy, sensitive man. His personal life would also provide endless speculation for the gossip columns right until the very end.

Back to that fateful day at Hockenhem, like a tumbling Olympic gymnast, the Ferrari flipped over several times, leaving a trail of mechanical debris in its wake. The car finally came to rest two hundred metres down the road with one final, sickening smash onto its nose cone. The front end disintegrated on impact. It could have been made of paper machier for the protection it afforded the luckless Pironi.

“An electric chair,” said Nelson Piquet in a less than subtle reference to the 126C2’s structural frailties. Ferrari didn’t like that. But Nelson had been the first on the scene, leaping out from the cockpit of his Brabham to go to the aid of his stricken colleague.

Didier Pironi in the Ferrari

“Get me out of here! Get me out!” Aghast Nelson Piquet surveyed the carnage before him. “Get me out!” Didier’s shrill cries pierced the gloom. Where to even begin?

On removing Didier’s helmet the reigning world champion almost passed out. The Frenchman’s face was unrecognisable, bloodied and contorted with agony. On seeing the state of his legs the Brazilian promptly vomited and had to be escorted away by track marshalls.

Even the elements themselves seemed indifferent to the Frenchman’s plight, whose life now lay dangling by a thread. The rain intensified, bucketing down from a steely grey sky.

Thankfully the emergency services were quickly on the scene. “Don’t let them take my legs off!” screamed Didier to F1 doctor Professor Sid Watkins as he drifted in and out of consciousness. At this stage there was a real risk of amputation.

Didier’s legs had both been broken, smashed to pieces, his arm was broken and his ankle was as good as crushed. “I give you my word, they won’t touch your legs,” shouted the professor having stabilised the hysterical driver.

While sedating Pironi, Watkins quickly surveyed the damage. It didn’t look good. But true to his word, The Prof. ensured the circuit doctors did not carry out their threat of immediate amputation. It would take thirty agonising minutes to free the driver.

Didier Pironi in the Le Mans winning Renault

Didier’s once promising Formula 1 career ended right there and then in the mangled remains of his Ferrari on that hateful August day.

As a fledgling F1 driver Didier had spectacularly announced himself as a man with a future following a heroic victory in the 1978 Le Mans 24 hour-race. It had been boys’ own stuff. He’d almost won the race single-handedly when his co-driver – veteran Jean-Pierre Jassaud – suffering from exhaustion and dehydration, had been unable to take over the car for the final stint.

Didier, also suffering from exhaustion, had been obliged to soldier on, in effect putting in a double shift while fending off determined attacks from the mighty Porsche team. Exhausted and dehydrated, at race end Pironi had to be lifted from the cockpit of the triumphant Renault Alpine by a couple of gendarmes. There then followed some anxious minutes as the medical team administered oxygen. Didier eventually stumbled onto the victory podium.

Huge crowds lined the Champs Elysees as the victors returned back to Paris. President Giscard D’Estaing was there to greet Pironi and Jassaud with all the pomp and ceremony reserved for war heroes. Only a few days later France’s latest sporting hero would have his driving licence suspended for 15 days. The offence? Speeding… His attentions now turned to the F1 world crown.

Didier Pironi in his Ferrari office

Didier would later relive every second of the horrific Hockenheim crash over and over again. He would remember launching over the Renault, remember the pine trees and the foreboding sense of dread. He would remember too how his legs started to “seriously” hurt once in the emergency helicopter en route to hospital in nearby Heidelberg. It just so happened the hospital was Germany’s leading centre for road traffic accidents. It was a small piece of fortune on an otherwise hellish day.

Rewind a few years: the blue and white Ligier was charging through the field at Brands Hatch, smashing the lap record over and over again. From behind a trademark pair of black sunglasses, the old man snorted his approval. Here was a driver with panache, a driver with swagger and an air of self-assurance that reminded the old man of champions past. Enzo Ferrari was watching the 1980 F1 season as usual on the small portable television in his office. He turned to his assistants: “I want Pironi!” And what Mr Ferrari wanted he invariably got.

The aftermath of Hockenheim were a nightmarish two weeks, a never-ending cycle of anaesthetics, operations and assessments. The Heidelberg medical team performed miracles, painstakingly rebuilding his shattered legs in a series of epic operations that would last for as much as six hours at a time.

Didier Pironi made his F1 debut driving a Tyrrell 008 at the 1978 Argentine Grand Prix

Eventually Didier would be transferred to Paris under the care of Dr Letournel, the same surgeon who had dealt with the aftermath of the Jabouille and Depaillier accidents, both of whom had suffered serious leg injuries. Over the years another forty operations would follow for Didier.

There would be long, seemingly endless weeks, months spent lying in his hospital bed. Sometimes he would dream of returning to Grand Prix racing. Enzo Ferrari’s promise that a Ferrari berth would be his upon his return would cheer him up during intense periods of despair.

Every day he would wake to see a small trophy on his bedside table, a small token which had been inscribed and sent by Mr Ferrari himself: Didier Pironi – the true 1982 World Champion.

One year after his accident he re-appeared, hobbling unsteadily on crutches, 12 months of agony were deeply etched into his face despite his efforts to play down his suffering. The circuit he chose to make his return as an F1 spectator? Hockenheim…

The real obstacle to a return to racing, as Didier would explain to the many people who enquired, was a right ankle that could not possibly withstand the rigours of a two hour Grand Prix race. And over time he gradually came to accept that perhaps his Formula One career – at least as a frontrunner – was over.

Patrick Depailler with Tyrrell team mate Didier Pironi in 1978

As a teenager he had roared around the southern Paris suburbs risking life and limb on a series of motorbikes and then cars. His brief stint in Formula 1 – where he made 72 starts and won three times – had provided even greater thrills as well as fame and fortune. Didier looked around for a new way to get his kicks. And then Colibri came into his life.

“He was a very talented driver with lots of ambition. I think he felt after the Hockenheim accident powerboating was the next best thing,” said Guy Ligier founder of the team that took his name.

Boats had always been a part of Didier’s life and therefore it was perhaps inevitable that his attention would turn to the physically less demanding, though just as thrilling and potentially even more dangerous sport of powerboat racing.

“Didier loved the atmosphere, the environment, the thrill, the excitement,” remembered friend and former Ferrari team-mate Patrick Tambay. “He loved the danger, the stress, the feeling of being able to control the anxieties that come with high-level competition.”

Colibri or ‘Humming bird’ was a 40 foot beast of a boat. A ground-breaking carbon fibre vessel designed for an assault on the 1987 Offshore World Powerboat Championship. Four cracked ribs from an accident in Spain though would testify to Didier just how dangerous this new sport could be.

Didier Pironi is extracted from the wrecked Ferrari

Nevertheless along with his two man crew – Claude Guenard and Bernard Giroux, Didier took victory in Norway and was genuinely touched to receive a congratulatory message from his old boss Enzo Ferrari. He hadn’t been totally forgotten by F1. Thus he headed towards the next round at The Isle of Wight in the UK brimming with confidence.

There had been occasional forays back into an F1 cockpit. During 1986 with the strength returning to his lower body, Didier had undertaken a serious of ‘secret’ tests for the AGS team and for his old friends at Ligier, where he had got close to Rene Arnoux’s benchmark times. There was also an intriguing though distant prospect of a seat at Mclaren in 1987 alongside Prost. His fellow countryman though was rumoured not to be keen on the idea…

As Didier prepared for the Isle of Wight race on yet another gloomy August weekend, he had in fact been about to finalise a deal for an F1 return in 1988 with the Larousse team run by his old friend ex-Renault chief Gerard Larousse. And with his partner Catherine pregnant with twins, there was plenty for Didier to look forward to that summer and beyond.

Sunday 23rd August was a dull, lifeless day on the English Channel. Like that fateful day at Hockenheim five years earlier the skies were overcast. And like ’82, summer seemed to have deserted. Preparing for the race at Poole harbour Bernard Guenard had felt uneasy. Although he couldn’t explain why, the ex-Ligier mechanic didn’t feel right about the race and told friends as much. There was something in the air, something ominous.

Didier Pironi’s Colibri powerboat

But the show had to go on. Two laps into the 178 mile race around the island, Colibri was challenging the Italian boat for the lead. It just so happened that making its way from Southampton to Belfast that afternoon was a 100 metre long oil tanker, the Esso Avon.

Fate had decreed that the tanker would be in the English Channel that particular day at that precise hour. Two hundred yards off the Needles Lighthouse while challenging for the lead at a turning point, Colibri initially skated over the wash sent out from the nearby tanker. Didier’s fellow crew members swallowed hard. The boat was travelling at around 100mph and what is more Didier showed no sign of throttling back as the boat was faced with yet more wash from the tanker.

Witnesses said the boat corkscrewed high into the air, slamming upside down into the icy waters which would have effectively acted like concrete at such high speeds. RAF rescue teams were immediately despatched from the mainland, but in truth nobody held out much hope for the occupants of the boat such had been the violence of the crash.

“It comes down to luck,” said a Solent coastguard, “The others in the race got across the wake, but Didier’s boat hit it square on.”

The three men were mercifully killed instantly. Didier’s cause of death was officially recorded as ‘drowning following a serious head injury.’ France wept for a sporting hero. “I join the world in mourning these sportsmen,” said French president Jacques Chirac.

Didier Pironi gone but not forgotten

Only days before the tragedy at The Isle of Wight, Catherine had informed Didier that after three years of trying and failure upon failure of IVF treatment, he was finally going to become a father.

Didier was delighted. He would rest his head upon Catherine’s stomach, and addressing the unborn twins, whisper gently “How are my babies today?”

Twin boys would enter the world just months after their father’s untimely exit.

Didier Pironi’s life had been brief yet intense. Old age it seemed had never had the slightest intention of adding him to its ranks. August, the holiday month, a time for enjoyment, relaxation and rejuvenation a time for picnics on beaches and a time for new plans. Not so for Didier, for whom August truly was the cruellest of months.

What a fantastic article Michael once again thanks for this great and long time informative thread cheers

[MIKA27]

THE DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES FOR LOTUS AND WILLIAMS

Even amid his frustrating and pointless first half-season with Lotus, Pastor Maldonado has signed up with the Enstone team for 2015, having left Williams who this year are enjoying a renaissance, targeting podiums and even victories.

In his third consecutive campaign with Williams last year, the Grove team hit rock-bottom and Maldonado decided to take his substantial PDVSA sponsorship to Lotus.

It was precisely at that moment that the two teams’ fortunes switched around. However, Venezuelan Maldonado, who picked the number 13 to race with in 2014 and beyond, does not regret the move.

“I feel better here,” said the 29-year-old Lotus driver, whose new teammate Romain Grosjean has scored all of the team’s 8 points so far in 2014.

“It is not that Williams was bad,” Maldonado is quoted by Tuttosport, “I enjoyed the first two years very much, I learned so many things and I also got some good results.

Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa have been among the frontrunners for Williams this season

“But last year I felt the need to change, I wanted new challenges. I saw we had no prospect of development, even though I knew that this year would not be as bad as 2013.”

Maldonado has said repeatedly in 2014 that the big difference at Williams has been the switch from Renault to field-leading Mercedes power.

“In the past,” he explained, “Lotus has built the best cars in Formula 1. This year, things are not going great, even if the car is good. The difference is mainly the engines of Mercedes.”

Even deputy boss Claire Williams, and new technical chief Pat Symonds, do not completely deny that.

“Obviously the Mercedes power unit has helped to drive our competitiveness this year,” said Williams. “It’s absolutely a factor.”

Symonds, speaking to Auto Motor und Sport, agrees: “The Mercedes engine has of course helped us a lot. But you can’t forget that last year, with Renault, we had the same engine as the world champions, and we were ninth.

Pastor Maldonado has been plagued by misfortune in 2014

Now we have the engine of the apparent new world champion again and we are doing much better. We are the second fastest Mercedes team,” Symonds insisted, “and not far away from the factory team.”

He says the biggest change at Williams in 2014 is “confidence”.

“When I arrived,” said the Briton, “there was no confidence. That is why there was all the panic.

“Someone told me last year that it made no sense to practice pitstops because the car was so bad. That (attitude) just leads to nowhere. If you look at our stops today, they are very good on average.

“Everyone believes in themselves again. There is a very different atmosphere in the team,” said Symonds.

At the same time, Maldonado has confidence Lotus can also turn its fortunes around, “Most of the problems have been down to reliability.”

Pastor Maldonado won the 2012 Spanish grand Prix for Williams

“Sometimes we are jumping on the track just thinking about finishing and not thinking about exploring the full performance of the car which is not a great approach. But sometimes you need to maybe do one step back to recover and it’s getting better and better.”

“It’s looking quite good now,” Maldonado added. “It’s always been a great team in the past and for sure will be one of the good ones for the future.”

Lotus’ deputy boss Federico Gastaldi agrees with Maldonado that the Renault engine has been a problem, but he admits it is not the only one.

“I think we’re still having problems understanding the engine,” he said, “but we’re also having problems in Enstone matching chassis, aerodynamics and the engine. We’re trying to improve but it is a very, very slow process.”

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KOBAYASHI SAYS SWEEPING CHANGES SAVED CATERHAM

Kamui Kobayashi has backed the sweeping changes at Caterham which he believes saved the team from folding, even though it has put his Formula 1 future in doubt.

After founder Tony Fernandes’ sudden sale and departure, the Malaysian team entered the hands of mysterious Swiss-Middle Eastern investors and new bosses Colin Kolles and Christijan Albers and almost immediately, 40 staff were controversially axed.

The next possibility is a change in the green-lined cockpits, with Swedish rookie Marcus Ericsson adequately backed but exciting Japanese driver Kobayashi substantially unfunded.

Dutchman Albers admitted recently that he has had talks with the cream of the Red Bull junior programme, Carlos Sainz jr.

When asked about Ericsson and Kobayashi, he said: “I want to see results — that’s very important for every Formula 1 team.”

The former Spyker and Minardi driver said he thinks Caterham’s current duo is doing “a good job”, but he also hinted that a change cannot be ruled out.

“We know we need performance and also of course with a team like Caterham we also always need a little bit of budget,” said Albers.

Although perhaps the most likely driver to make way at Caterham, Kobayashi insists he backs the sweeping changes at the struggling team.

“I think this is what we needed, otherwise I think we couldn’t finish the season,” he said. “It was the right move.”

“As you see in the news I think quite a lot of people left straight away but I think we need to keep motivated. I think if we want to survive we need to change something,” Kobayashi added.

“Of course, it’s the same from my side. I think I need to always drive 100 per cent, which gives motivation. Let’s see what happens.”

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JOHN PLAYER SPECIAL DENY RETURN TO F1 WITH LOTUS

1986 was the last year of JPS involvement in F1 – here Ayrton Senna drives the Lotus 98T

Imperial Tobacco has played down reports it is looking to return to Formula 1 with Lotus in the aftermath of recent reports speculating that a foray back into the sport is on the cards.

Recently, Pastor Maldonado said he would welcome the inspiration of Lotus’ black and gold livery – the iconic John Player Special cigarette brand – back to the sport with Enstone.

Tobacco advertising in Formula 1 is banned, but Ferrari continues to be backed by Philip Morris, whose Marlboro colours resemble the imagery on the Italian team’s cars and logos.

“For sure, a sponsor is welcome,” Venezuelan Maldonado said. “Whoever can join the team, it’s always welcome.”

But John Player Special parent Imperial Tobacco has played down the reports.

“As is well known, sponsorship in Formula 1 with tobacco companies has been prohibited for quite some time,” group press officer Simon Evans told Speed Week. “Our company would never act in a way that amounts to a breach of the law.”

Asked if the company could pursue a partnership along the lines of Ferrari’s with Philip Morris, Evans replied: “I have no knowledge of the details of the agreement between Philip Morris International and Ferrari. I can only repeat that we do not seek a sponsorship agreement with a team.”

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FIA SET TO APPROVE RUSSIAN GP TRACK NEXT WEEK

In just one week, Russia is set to get the final green-light for its inaugural Grand Prix.

Amid construction of the Sochi layout and controversy surrounding the Crimean crisis and the MH17 atrocity, the country has had only a provisional place on the 2014 schedule.

In the meantime, organisers are almost completely ready for the FIA’s final circuit inspection next week.

Russian GP chief Sergei Vorobyov told the Ria Novosti news agency that the FIA delegation will carry out the inspection next Tuesday.

“As you have seen,” he said, “except for the final cosmetic work – painting, cleaning, equipment installation – the circuit is ready for the Grand Prix,” he said.

“On August 19 the FIA will come here to decide on the acceptance of the facility for Formula 1,” Vorobyov added.

The 2014 Russian Grand Prix is scheduled for October 12.

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FITTIPALDI DYNASTY CONTINUES WITH PIETRO ON PATH TO F1

Max Verstappen, the son of Formula 1 podium-sitter Jos who has joined Red Bull‘s famous driver programme, is not the only familiar name treading a path to the Grand Prix grid.

Pietro Fittipaldi, 18, is the Miami-born grandson of Brazil’s double world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, son of Juliana Fittipaldi with Carlos da Cruz.

He recently left the United States, where he competed in the Nascar Late Model feeder series, for Europe to climb the single seater ladder to Formula 1.

“I think in two or three years, Pietro should get to Formula 1,” 67-year-old Fittipaldi, whose brother Wilson and nephew Christian also raced in Formula 1, said in Sao Paulo on Tuesday.

“It is very difficult, but he is well supported and very dedicated,” he added.

“He is doing well this year in British Formula Renault and also went very well in Nascar,” Fittipaldi is quoted by Brazil’s Globo.

The report said Pietro is part of the Telmex-headed Mexican driver programme that has already paved the Formula 1 careers of Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez.

“Pietro is in a very good programme,” confirmed Fittipaldi, “the same as Perez and Gutierrez, which is very structured and will help Pietro to get to Formula 1. He is doing everything right to achieve this great goal.”

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Ferrari target '360 degree' turnaround

Ferrari team principal Marco Mattiacci insists his team can pull off a "360 degree" turnaround and compete at the front of the grid.

The Italian outfit have been well off the pace of Mercedes so far this campaign with Fernando Alonso 87 points behind Championship leader Nico Rosberg with his Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen another 60 points adrift.

The Scuderia, though, have improved in recent races with Alonso finishing second behind Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull in Hungary before the summer break.

Mattiacci admits they still have a "huge amount of work" to do, but is confident they can do it.

"We need to improve the car at 360 degrees," Mattiacci is quoted as saying by Crash.net. "It's not just the power unit, it's not just aerodynamics, it's not just the chassis; it's the team, the car... so it's a huge amount of work that has to be done.

"Am I confident? I'm confident about the team spirit that we're building and the quality of the people that we have - the strength and the plan that we have. That's why I'm confident."