John Smailes - Formula One: The Australian and New Zealand Story

Since 1950, fifteen Australians and nine New Zealanders have raced in world championship Formula One, the pinnacle of motor racing. ThreeJack Brabham, Denny Hulme and Alan Joneshave won the world title.

Two have died in the attempt without ever facing the world championship starters lights.

So few drivers make it to Formula One. Even fewer succeed in the fastest and most challenging fourwheeled sport of all.

Now John Smailes, author of the bestselling Climbing the Mountain, Race Across the World, Mount Panorama and Speed Kings, gives us the definitive story of our involvement with Formula One, from the pioneer days in the aftermath of World War II, to the championship glory of Brabham, Hulme and Jones, the grit and determination of Mark Webber, and Australias current Formula One star, the irrepressible Daniel Ricciardo, all the way to potential champions of the future like Oscar Piastri.

With over 150 stunning photographs, and interviews with drivers past and present, as well as the engineers, managers and team owners behind the scenes, this is the must-have book for every Australian and New Zealand fan of Formula One.

This book is dedicated to all those who gave Formula One a red-hot go and didnt make it. Formula One is motor racings Mount Everestand not everyone gets to summit. My old friend Jim Sullivan, arguably Australias first Driver to Europe scheme recipient (long after New Zealand initiated its program), heads a list of at least twenty Down Under aspirants who gave it everything they had in Europe, but never ultimately put their pedal to F1 metal. Theyve earned a lifetime of boasting rights.

And, as always, to JJS.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

ITS AN HONOUR TO BE ASKED TO WRITE AN INTRODUCTION to this book, although as the last Australasian world champion left standing, the choice of those to do it was somewhat limited. After 40 years, Im impatient to be joined by others on the small podium of Australian world title holders. There were occasions in the last decade when I thought a couple of blokes might make it happen until their boyish enthusiasm got in the way of their steadfast application of talent. Who knows? Maybe in the next five years.

For all the dedication and the self-belief that people throw at it, Formula One remains a game of chance. Its true that you make your own luck, but in F1 the house holds more of the cards than any casino, and the wide-eyed newcomer, pumped up with ambition, is along for the rideat least until he gathers enough smarts to be able to sense the next move coming (and I dont necessarily mean on the track).

Thats what makes this book so intriguing. Its the first time anyone has put together the story of 70 years of Down Under aspiration. With just one exceptionTony Gaze, who did it for the sportwe all started from the same base with the same goal. No one goes F1 racing just to participate. We all want to be world champion. Its an eye-opener to be reminded of how the path to that goal has changed over the years: from Jack Brabham turning up at the Cooper Car Company and building his own car to win his first two world titles, then leaving Cooper to become the only constructordriver in history to win the world championship; through to me catching the wave of new-style team owners who said theyd build their team around their driver; to the current day, when the multibillion-dollar business of F1 is running its own universities to churn out Bachelors of Formula One, like so many accountancy graduates.

Throughout, the common denominatorthe only way to get to the topis gut-wrenching, single-minded, totally focused determination. Show ponies dont win world titles. Which is why I get frustrated when I see young blokes in the sportthe next generationwasting their energy on the peripheries of the business. Its as if theyre out to win a popularity contest as well as a world title. Formula Three drivers dont need people to carry their helmets. Or am I getting old?

Its only natural that I think of my time in F1 as the golden era. In 1980, tactics and strategiesthe hallmarks of contemporary racingwere thin on the ground. We raced wheel-to-wheel without pit stops for 300 kilometres on one set of tyres and on one load of fuel. Power steering didnt exist, and Id reach down to a five-speed gated gearbox from a perfectly rounded steering wheel that had just one control on itan engine kill switch. With great relief, I couldnt speak to the pits and they couldnt interfere with me.

Modern-day commentators say F1 has become a technical and complex story of competition on so many levels. They say those of my era were just warriors trading blows. And yet I looked recently at a documentary Id fronted back in the day, in which I expressed doubt that the 1980s were nearly as much fun as the 1950s and 60s, when times were far simpler. The more things change...

I first met author John Smailes at the Monaco GP in 1976 when I was driving for Surtees and on a rickety rung of the ladder that was still a long way from the top. John sensed my frustration, and the opportunities that F1 offered a young journalist, but chose to base himself in Australia where he built a good career and a reputation to match. No doubt he still wonderswhat if? At least I was never going to die wondering.

My old man (Stanwinner of the 1959 Australian Grand Prix) was similarly afflicted. He was a red-hot racing driver and, on his day, he could drive Brabham into the weeds. But he had a young son and a business that was going well, so he turned down offers to drive in Europe.

Formula One is for the very few. You dont wish for it. You dont hope for it. You just do it with every fibre of your body. I decided if I turned out not to succeed, I could still look at myself in the mirror and say Id given it a good go and gathered some stories to live on. This book is full of such stories.

Alan Jones MBE
1980 World F1 Champion

Oscar Piastris first on-track experience of F1 six-pot carbon brakes, biased to the front, at Sakhir. Drivers use power steering, but power assist brakes are banned so its their own pedal pressureup to 150 kilogramsthat actuates and modulates braking. The violent move forward under immense braking loads helps the driver to reach that level of intensity.

FORMULA ONE FUTURESTHE NEXT GENERATION

Oscar Piastri

AT THE START OF ITS 2021 SEASON JUST 33 DRIVERS HAD won the Formula One world championship. Two, Sir Jack Brabham and Alan Jones, are Australian. One, Denny Hulme, is a New Zealander. By 2021 four Australians had won 42 world championship grands prix (from the 1035 held since the start of Formula One) and that had elevated Australia to a status well above its presumed potential. Of the 39 nationalities that have contested Formula One, Australia is ranked seventhjust one win behind Italy. New Zealand, with twelve grand prix wins shared by two of its drivers, is thirteenth.