Here are two of mine. They made engines sing and they made cars do things that couldn’t be done.
The first is Sir Stirling Moss who has the distinction of being the greatest driver never to win the World Championship.
The second is none other than Juan Manuel Fangio a driver who dominated automobile-racing competition in the 1950s, winning the world driving championship in 1951, 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1957. He had won 24 world-championship Grand Prix races when he retired from racing in 1958.
A good friend of mine and I have a long time standing joke between us that began when he told me of his uncle who was proud to have shook Juan Fangio’s hand. So one day while I was telling yet another legendary driver, Phil Hill, about my friend’s uncle being proud of shaking Fangio’s hand, Phil autographed his book and had me send it to my friend. In his inscription he wrote something like, I raced against Juan Fangio and I had the pleasure of shaking his hand too. Phil Hill.
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Oh…so many observations to make here.
First off…check out the curbs, maybe we should go back to those! Then we would really see who had control of their F1 car!
Secondly, watch Fangio’s hands on the wheel, vs Moss’s hands. Watching Moss is like watching Carlos Sainz sawing at the wheel. Fangio is more like Colin McRae, soft and slow on the wheel. Even when the car is at a 45 degree angle to the road, there is just a gentle half turn of the wheel. Once.
It always amazes me to see how very different driving styles can work equally well for the individuals that use them.
It’s funny that you should say that. I have been told many times that I am a boring driver with regards to in-car footage. One producer asked me, “How do you make it around the track… Your hands never move?”
Even funnier is the difference between drivers on my team. When we watch them run in the same car on the same track on any given day some of them are wildly steering the wheel and getting tail-happy, down shifting, up shifting, drifting and the whole none yards. Whereas the others appear to just be putting around the corners and saving the car for something special. What hilarious is they all turn identical lap times. LOL.
Gary(s)
Fangio & Moss; they were the masters of their art.
Thin tyres, rough track, absolute control … amazing!
I actually have to check my tendency to want to more of my art on them, because there is so much other aspects of racing to cover. But they both left such a bold individual mark on motorsport.
I even designed a paper model of Fangio in his Nurburgring winning Maserati 250F, with him at the wheel!
I’ll forward it along, with some illustrations.
Cheers!
Paul
I was surprised and thrilled when I opened a package from Gary Faules back in 2004. It contained a poster from Bank of the West Wine Country Classic at Infineon where Gary co-hosted a hospitality tent with Phil Hill. I had seen Phil Hill win the 12-Hours of Sebring in 1959. The poster is signed by both Gary and Phil, and I had it framed. Gary wrote: “Men are a lot like handshakes. We always remember the good ones.” Phil Hill wrote, “Your uncle was lucky to shake Juan’s hand and so was I.”
As for my autographed copy of Phil Hill: Yankee Champion by William F. Nolan: Gary may have had a hand in that also. I don’t remember the details.
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