The House of Tyrrell - a Formula One TL

Good updates archibald so far, do not know much about the F1 history beyond the days of Schumacher.

September 11, 1985

Bernie Ecclestone misfortunes


Meanwhile Nelson Piquet is leaving the Brabham ship for Williams.




De Angelis has been with Lotus since 1980 and, as long as his team mate was Nigel Mansell, he was the natural leader - although the two went along very well considering their markedly opposite backgrounds.


So De Angelis will be Brabham number 1 pilot... yet so far he has no team mate.

And this bring us to the fate of top italian pilots in Formula 1.

There are four of them currently ranking high: De Angelis, Michele Alboreto, Riccardo Patrese and Andrea de Cesaris.

Alboreto challenge to Prost was remarquable, but also highlighted some weaknesses of the man.


It was hoped that De Cesaris (bizarre if not absurd) victory in Monaco, 1982, would help him to mature a little, to be more secure. This did not happened and that victory looks more and more like a twist of fate.

De Cesaris... crashed lots and lots of Ligiers until Austria, where he went a step too far, demolishing his car in a spectacular cartwheel. Ligier had more than enough and sacked him.

De Cesaris, undaunted, went to Ecclestone and told him his powerful sponsors were very much like Brabham's. He claimed Surer's seat !


HESNAULT AND SURER MISFORTUNES RIPPLES ON BRABHAM – AND BEYOND.



LAUDA, DE ANGELIS, PIQUET IN A DEADLOCK AT BRABHAM.

«Considering the sum that Piquet asked (hint: a lot), and what Bernie is willing to spend to get Lauda (hint: a lot more), I told myself – Elio, how much do you want ?

[Laughing nervously].

Admittedly, I haven't two or three championships under my belt like these two. Still I'm no rookie anymore – third in 84' and even leading at some point in 85', despite Senna arrival.

So I decided to put some pressure on Bernie.


Hesnault first, then poor Marc Surer. And now – on a lighter tone, I'd say he is trapped with Andrea de Cesaris, and somewhat already fed up with the man, as was Guy Ligier in July [laugh again, frankly].

Of course there is Patrese, but this is only one pilot, if Bernie wants to get ride of De Cesaris, then he will need a second one. And I'm not really sure Brabham is attractive enough, except for somebody desperate by Senna, as I am.

But make no mistake - I'm not that desperate !

I would rather endure Ayrton another year rather than running for Brabham, I mean, on too low a salary.

In the end I have not much to lose: whatever happens, I piss-off either Senna and Ecclestone, and get a better salary.

Maybe I should speak to Warwick to encourage him in pressuring, either Brabham or Lotus. I recently realized that Warwick is a very nice fellow; we discovered we have a lot in common. For a start, we have some grudge against Nigel Mansell...[laugh]

So before 2002 it was the drivers that counted, after that it became more who has the better car and driver.

There are some nice What if Senna had lived and many see him getting 5 championships in total, that would break the Shumacher period a bit i guess.

What If Ayrton Senna Had Lived

What the late, great Senna's career could have been

What if Ayrton Senna had survived?

And What Would Have Happened If... Ayrton Senna Had Survived His Imola Crash In May 1994

Watching this clips and other, the time that Senna raced with Schumacher was already nice to watch.

Was this restriction of F1 drivers not allowed to compete in any other motorsport something that really happened ore what you toughed of.

New update

Note: the OTL race is here, through Google translation.

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ADELAIDE -1985

You know that a F1 race is bound to be chaotic when Andrea de Cesaris makes a good qualificating run.


Whatever, this day De Cesaris was exuberant as usual. Things went down the drain when in the morning the usually flamboyant Ayrton Senna awoke in full Gilles Villeneuve mode – his combativeness riding sky-high. So there were not two, but three elements of chaos standing close on the starting grid that sunday.

The starting grid stood like this

First line: Senna, Mansell

Second line: Rosberg, Prost

Third line: De Cesaris, Alboreto

And right from the start, it went down the drain.

Mansell passed Senna, Senna countered at the wrong place and both cars ended in the grass. The difference being that Mansell car was dead when Senna was not, to the furor of the British driver. Not only Rosberg but de Cesaris took their chance and passed Senna, which imediately started chasing them. Unbestknown to the talented Brazilian, De Cesaris, too, was in a good day – back to his glory era of 1982, he was having the race of his lifetime.

The battle between the two was an epic one, all the more since Senna had tyres problems that made de Cesaris resistance easier – hence they were pretty heavenly matched. And since the two were hot heads...

Meanwhile, ahead of them Rosberg did not managed to escape. The Senna / De Cesaris clash went on for the next 40 laps, and the two high voltage drivers managed to catch Rosberg. Meanwhile Prost McLaren engine went up in flames, his first mechanical breakdown of the season – on the very last race !

On lap 40 Boutsen sadly concluded what would be the last race in Arrows history when his engine broke down and spewed huge amount of oil into the track.

And then the proverbial shit hit the fan when Rosberg slipped in the oil, and De Cesaris and Senna finally catched him at least. De Cesaris was now into Rosberg gearbox when the flying Finn swung brutally to enter the pits and change his tyres. Quite inevitably de Cesaris nerves betrayed him and he crashed his car into Rosberg, surprising a much pissed-off Senna that had been enraged by 40 laps behind the Italian driver.

The end result was a memorable high speed wreck of cars, with tyres and carbon fiber wings flying all over the place. Rosberg, De Cesaris and Senna were now out for good, and the race was decapitated.

Or was it ?

The winner of all this carnage was... Lauda, in his last race ! Excepts his brakes decided otherwise, and he spinned out of the race, down for the count.

So the led fell on Alboreto, the unfortunate italian that had already lost the title to Prost despite a valiant challenge. Once again however, he was betrayed by an unreliable Ferrari: his gear shift went as dead as Lauda brakes, and he was out.

Since Piquet's Brabham was long dead, only Stefan Johansson Ferrari was left among the top teams ! Hence in a remarquable twist of fate, the race now belong to second rates teams.

And the leaders were now... veteran Jacques Laffitte and his team mate, the very young Philippe Streiff. For the first time since 1980 at least, the duo of Ligier was leading a race !

And their competitors, bar Johansson lone Ferrari, were all the other underdogs of F1 : Minardi, Tyrrell, Arrows... notably Gerhard Berger and Stefan Bellof.

The talented German actually found himself third, ahead of Johansson, who had no serious issue containing Berger's Arrows, the austrian being all too happy about a sixth place, after all the misery he had to endure along his first season. He is already confirmed at Toleman-Benetton the next year. It also happens that Bellof will replace Johansson at Ferrari. Which, conversely, affected both men morale.

Bellof was in very high mood and his Tyrrell at least had a Renault turbo engine. So he went chasing the Ligiers, making the last part of the race even more epic. Even more since the young Streiff was made to believe Ligier team orders could make him the winner of the race. Laffitte however thought otherwise... and the mercurial Guy Ligier was praying his two pilots would not screw the pooch and deprive him of a very miraculous doublé !

The battle between Streiff and Bellof was a memorable one, both were equally talented. As a side effet, Streiff instead of containing Bellof and preserve his team miraculous result, actually brought back Bellof, on his heels, toward Laffite – as Bellof pushed him toward the edge. In the end Bellof overtook Streiff and without any qualms started chasing Laffite.

Jacques Laffite, aged 40, has more than a decade of experience in F1 – and it was only this experience that allowed him to survive the young german onslaught. With only two laps left and with only five second behind Laffitte, in his chase Bellof made a mistake that allowed Streiff to catch him up, and the battle resumed, as Streiff, in turn, pushed Bellof and both gained ground on Laffite again.

On the last lap the two talented drivers where wheels to wheels, catching up on Laffitte who actually controlled the end of the race. The race ended in that order – Laffitte 1, Bellof 2 - only three seconds behind, with Streiff on his gearbox. Johansson ended fourth, Berger fifth, Huub Rothengatter scoring a miraculous point with the much maligned Osella.

Adelaide was a huge popular success, a tremendous race concluding a good season, and the revenge of all the underdogs.