Equally thin is the number of superstars produced by F1 over the past dozen years. In fact,
Michael Schumacher has established himself as F1’s only real superstar, light years ahead of guys like Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen. World champions both, Villeneuve and Hakkinen have not enjoyed enduringly successful careers although the recent emergence of
Fernando Alonso and to a lesser degree,
Kimi Raikkonen and
Juan Pablo Montoya, has been a breath of fresh air. But in this day and age it doesn’t take much to become an extremely highly-paid and reverently feted member of F1’s inner circle, witness England’s notorious non-winner
Jenson Button.
It’s stunning to reflect in fact, about how many great drivers filled the F1 grid in the sixties in sharp contrast to today. Off the top of my head I can list more than a dozen -
Stirling Moss,
Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Phil Hill, Jack Brabham, Bruce
McLaren, Dan Gurney, John Surtees,
Jackie Stewart, Denny Hulme, Jo Siffert, Jochen Rindt and Pedro Rodriguez - all of them champions of one sort or another as well as winners in many types of racing cars. Today, we have Schumacher, Alonso, and maybe Raikkonen and Montoya who might qualify to fit in the company of the great drivers from forty years ago, although none of today’s men enjoy the same breadth of experience and accomplishment as the greats from the sixties.
Indeed, it’s a Lilliputian world in modern F1, just as it is here in the United States where Jeff Gordon is the only truly great, multiple champion racing today. Compare that to the sixties and seventies when we had names like Richard Petty, David Pearson, Bobby Allison, and Cale Yarborough in NASCAR, A.J. Foyt,
Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, Bobby and Al Unser in USAC, and Mark Donohue and George Follmer in SCCA sports car racing. And too, most of these guys were widely-experienced drivers, regularly racing different types of machinery.
Motor racing’s rich diversity was a key component in inspiring my own and many others’ passion for the sport but this element has been snuffed out by commercialism and politics. Back in the sixties sports car racing was as big, or even bigger, than
F1.
Ferrari, for example, ran a multi-car factory team in all the major sports car races - Le Mans, the Targa Florio, the Nurburgring 1000Ks, the Sebring 12 hours, and the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood - all of which drew massive crowds.
