Break In Grand Prix Season

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29909, 24 August 1962, Page 9

Break In Grand Prix Season

LBV

BRUCE McLAREN)

WE are now enjoying a lull in the storm of Grand Prix racing, with the longest spell of the season between the German G.P. and the Italian G.P. at Monza in September. Now there is a chance to plan ahead for activities over the English winter—for teams and drivers to decide whether to race in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, or perhaps whether to rush backwards and forwards to America for the sports car racing. It is a period for sheafs of letters to pass between team managers and race organisers. Spare parts and engines have to be ordered, travel bookings made, shipping arranged for the racing cars and personnel, insurance, and the

thousand and one other things that go to bring order out of chaos for the organised motor racing team.

F. J. Attacked

Motor racing is dangerous —any sensible participant will admit this —and now Stirling Moss has gone to press in an attack on Formula Junior racing. He contends, and I agree with him, that with Formula Junior cars so close in performance and relatively underpowered, it gives more scope to the brave, rather than the skilful driver.

This is one of the things that makes motor racing dangerous probably the same thing that makes moun-

taineering a risky sport. In either of these pursuits, you don’t stand much chance of survival if .you make decisions and actions on your nerve, rather than skill. If you realise that you are “sticking your neck out” in a racing car, you don't go nearly as fast and certainly nowhere near as smoothly as you can when driving in a polished manner and enjoying it I had a funny thing happen to me at Monaco earlier this year. An American reporter asked me in an interview if I considered the most important thing in motor racing was the will to win. I think I shook him when I replied that anyone who set off with a will to win at Monaco would be lucky to last 10 laps, in fact they might be lucky to finish the first one. I told him it was more important to me to drive a racing car to the best of my ability, and in the manner it was designed to be used. I think he must have written me off as a bit of a nut, but I wish I could have seen him after the race. Brabham Car Jack Brabham had his new Formula One car at the Nurburgring for the German G.P, last week-end, but engine

trouble in practice meant that he had little time to sort out the suspension before the race. He was never very high in the field, and retired with a sticking throttle and bottoming suspension halfway through the race. The Formula One Brabham follows conventional practice with a multi-tube chassis frame and wishbone suspension aU round. The general lay-out of the chassis follows fairly closely to Lotus and Lola principles. For those not acquainted with technical jargon, double wishbone suspension set-ups can be found on the front of Jaguars, Humbers, Austins, Chevrolets, and various other family chariots. It is interesting to note that up until three years ago, the Cooper was the only car to have kept to the wish-bones-all-round suspension throughout its development, and it looks as though it will continue to do so for a few more years.

Jack is using a six-speed Italian Colotti gearbox, and outboard disc brakes all round. All in all, it is a fairly conventional modern racing car—a sound approach in this, his first attempt at building a G.P. car. It is painted light green with a gold streak down the centre. The high class of workmanship has drawn praise, and the detail work on the car is very neat. Next Race

The next race for me will be at Oulton Park on September 5 where I will be racing a works Cooper VB, but the next championship event will be at Monza a fortnight later. The widelycondemned banking will not be used this year, but the use of the road circuit means that the race will be longer than usual, and may call for a pit stop for a change of tyres and fuel. With the Cooper’s bolt-on wheels we could really be in trouble in the event of a wheel-change. Lotus, Lola, and a few others would be, too, but B.R.M. and Ferrari would not be complaining. B.R.M. have special alloy knock-on wheels, and Ferrari use knock-on wire wheels.