Ask Nigel Roebuck: June 19

Dear James,

You're right, I'm really not that interested in Le Mans these days, although I do always keep abreast of what's happening there, on TV.

In fact, I have been to the race only twice - and not for a very long time. My two visits there were in 1965 and 1967, right after I left school...

Why is my interest in the race not what it was back then? Perhaps some clue may be found in the winners of the races I attended. In '65, it was a North American Racing Team Ferrari 275LM, crewed by Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory, and in '67 it was a 7-litre Ford Mk4, driven by Dan Gurney and A.J, Foyt.

There you have it, really. Until the mid-seventies, or thereabouts, I really loved sports car racing. The major factories were involved, most of the top F1 drivers took part, and I think I saw two classic races.

In '65, when Rindt and Gregory won in the Ferrari, what was remarkable was that they had had a major mechanical problem early on, and then drove absolutely flat out thereafter, figuring either to win or to blow up trying. When the chequered flag came down, that car was literally on its last legs - in fact, Gregory once told me that he doubted it could have done another lap!

As for the 1967 race, all I can tell you is that my friend Jabby Crombac, who has seen virtually every Le Mans since the war, reckons that to have been the best ever. Virtually every world-class driver on earth was in that race, from F1, from Indy cars, even from NASCAR. It was essentially a fight between Ford and Ferrari, with such as Chaparral and Porsche also prominently involved. In the end, victory went to the Ford of Gurney and Foyt, at an average speed of over 135mph...

Consider the 'entry' that drew me to Le Mans in '67. Four factory-entered Ford Mk4s, driven by Gurney/Foyt, Bruce McLaren/Mark Donohue, Mario Andretti/Lucien Bianchi, Denny Hulme/Lloyd Ruby, plus three Mk2s, for Ronnie Bucknum/Paul Hawkins, Frank Gardner/Roger McCluskey, Jo Schlesser/Guy Ligier, and a GT40, for Brian Redman/Mike Salmon. There were two of the extraordinary Chaparral 2Fs, one of them driven by Phil Hill/Mike Spence, and a pair of Lola-Aston Martin T70s, one handled by by John Surtees/David Hobbs.

Deep breath... There were a couple of JW Automotive Mirages, for Jacky Ickx/Brian Muir and David Piper/Dick Thompson. Then we get on to the Ferraris, a trio of the gorgeous P4s, for Chris Amon/Nino Vaccarella, Mike Parkes/Lodovico Scarfiotti, Gunther Klass/Peter Sutcliffe, plus the Equipe Nationale Belge car of Willy Mairesse/'Beurlys', and the P3/4s of Richard Attwood/Piers Courage, Pedro Rodriguez/Giancarlo Baghetti, and Jean Guichet/Herbert Muller.

What next? Oh yes, the factory Porsches, crewed by Jo Siffert/Hans Hermann, Jochen Rindt/Gerhard Mitter, Rolf Stommelen/Jochen Neerpasch, and Vic Elford/Ben Pon. The works Matras were handled by Jean-Pierre Beltoise/Johnny Servoz-Gavin and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud/Henri Pescarolo, and the Alpine by Gerard Larrousse/Patrick Depailler.

I was just out of school, and money was tight. I allowed myself a single 'foreign' trip to a race each year, and thereafter preferred to spend my minimal cash on going to a grand prix somewhere. And when teams like Ferrari turned their back on sports car racing, together with the 'major' drivers, so, I am afraid did I.

All that said, I am well aware that Le Mans - like Indianapolis - is a 'happening', rather than merely a race, and I know, too, that thousands of people go to these races who would never contemplate going to any others. A few years ago, I happened to be in France at the time of the 'twinning' of the Brooklands and Le Mans museums, got an invitation to go, and accepted. I hadn't been to the place for 30 years or so, and was struck by the incredible changes to it - there were no chicanes when I had last attended a race there, remember, and not much in the way of guardrails, for that matter.

For all that, though, I was struck, too, by the ambience of Le Mans, and probably one day - when I've given up travelling to grands prix every fortnight - I'll go again. In fact, if I can find the time, I might well go this September, to the Historic meeting, when my old pal Bobby Rahal is debuting his newly-acquired Porsche 917, to be co-driven by Brian Redman. Now there is my idea of a Le Mans car...



Dear Dale,

As yet, there is no official confirmation that Honda will drop Jordan for 2003, but everyone believes the decision has been taken. I am not privy to the reasons behind that decision, but suspect that the presence at BAR of David Richards probably has something to do with it.

Last year, the first in which Honda supplied both BAR and Jordan, there was nothing to choose in their results - Jordan scored 19 points, BAR 17 - and this year Eddie's team is again ahead, with six points, while BAR is at present the only team yet to score.

Looking to the future, however, one would have to favour the long-term prospects of BAR - or Prodrive, as many expect it to become - over Jordan. Why? For one thing, because although both teams may thus far be considered under-achievers, Jordan has been an under-achiever for a decade, while BAR is still in only its fourth season. In 1999, when Heinz-Harald Frentzen won a couple of races, and got into contention for the world championship; the team, even with a very lacklustre Damon Hill in the other car, scored 61 points, and finished a very comfortable third in the Constructors' Championship, beaten only by Ferrari and McLaren.

We all thought that EJ's team had finally turned the corner, delivered on all that promise, but since then everything has reverted to what it was. Seventeen points in 2000, 19 last year.

Honda, it must be said, has recently contributed very little to the fortunes of either of its teams, supplying them with engines not only way down on power, but also of questionable reliability. That said, the company is desperate to regain its former standing in the sport (not least, one must assume, because of the very impressive Toyota V10), and few believed that it would supply two teams indefinitely.

So why BAR, rather than Jordan? For one thing, the credibility of David Richards is extremely high - Prodrive's achievements in rallying with Subaru will not have gone unnoticed, for example - and if he hasn't so far succeeded in F1, few doubt that ultimately he will. One presumes, too, that BAR is rather better funded than Jordan - of late we have heard much from Eddie about cutting costs, trimming the workforce, and so on.

Richards has a reputation for getting things done. When he took over, at the beginning of this year, he lost no time in trimming the BAR workforce - in the sense that he let go staff members many thought should have been replaced long ago. Geoff Willis, formerly of Williams, is now on board, and one expects to see the results of his influence come through over time.

They may be right, they may be wrong, but Honda - in my estimation, anyway - see BAR/Prodrive as a more stable partner than Jordan, and a more potentially competitive force down the road. Like every other major manufacturer, the company is not in F1 for reasons of altruism or sentiment...



Dear Sophie,

When it comes to the two Eddies, Irvine and Jordan, nothing would surprise me, frankly. That said, I'd be mildly taken aback, for all their history, friendship, and everything else, if they got together professionally again.

Irvine will be 37 later this year, and is now the oldest driver in the F1 paddock. These days that is not an enviable position to be in, as Martin Brundle has pointed out. "When you're the oldest driver, everyone starts talking to you about retirement - as if it's something that's expected, somehow. I remember, when I retired from F1, that Gerhard Berger cursed me - because now that made him the oldest!"

Berger retired at the end of 1997, when he was 38, and last year Jean Alesi - then the oldest - did the same, at 37.

The question really is: for whom could Irvine drive in 2003? It seems fairly clear that Niki Lauda is not intending to keep him at Jaguar, and really one can't be surprised. Since Pedro de la Rosa joined the team, at Barcelona last year, the two have done 21 races together, and Eddie has out-qualified Pedro, 11-10. De la Rosa, with the best will in the world, is a journeyman in F1 terms, and Jaguar may well feel that Irvine's lofty retainer - he is one of the very highest paid drivers - has not been reflected in his results.

It's hardly Eddie's fault that he has been so over-paid, mind you. At the time of his signing, in 1999, Michael Schumacher had recently broken his leg at Silverstone, and Irvine was the Ferrari driver going for the championship. All right, stand-in Mika Salo may have gifted him the German Grand Prix, but he also won the Austrian, just seven days later, and caught the wave of euphoria then prevalent at Ford, who had decided to buy the Stewart team, and re-badge it as 'Jaguar'. Eddie was able to dictate terms, and good luck to him, but I still wonder if Ford were aware that they did not have to seduce him away from Ferrari, that Eddie had already been informed his services would not be required by Maranello in 2000.

The thing is, I can't see where Irvine could get a worthwhile drive for next year, just as Alesi and Berger couldn't - and Gerhard, remember, won a Grand Prix in his last season. Eddie has never made any bones about his primary reason for being an F1 driver - he was, let's not forget, quite prepared to go back to the rich pickings of Japanese F3000 for 1994, should Jordan not meet his financial requirements - and, frankly, I can't see him, at his age, getting an offer sufficient to interest him. In all recent talk of 'who goes where?' for next year, I haven't heard his name mentioned.



Dear Tom,

At the moment everyone is saying not, 'Will there be a shunt at the first corner at the Nurburgring on Sunday?' but rather, 'who will be involved?' Let's hope they're wrong.

On paper, the idea of changing the first corner was to create an overtaking opportunity, and one hopes that proves to be the case. If so, it can only enhance the reputation of a singularly dull, featureless, track.

Any redeeming features? Yes, it lies alongside the Nordschleife, the 'proper' Nurburgring - whose name it should never have been allowed to adopt...



Dear Tony,

We've reached a point now where, unless a driver is very careful, the role of 'test driver' can apparently become permanent. Olivier Panis was only too aware of that when he was at McLaren. Although he loved his year of working with the team, and contributed hugely to its fortunes in 2000, Panis took the job to re-establish himself, and couldn't wait to get back to racing. Ron Dennis made him a mouth-watering offer to continue in his testing role, but Olivier preferred to go racing with BAR.

Alexander Wurz, on the other hand, is already into his second season as McLaren's test driver, and thus far it doesn't seem to be leading anywhere. Same goes for Marc Gene, who is very highly valued by Williams, but whose name I never hear in terms of a return to F1. Likewise, Antonio Pizzonia is doing a good job for Frank's team, but he must know it's not going to lead to his replacing Juan Pablo Montoya or Ralf Schumacher.

What the testing role can do for a driver is enable him to show his pace, in the same car, on the same day, against his team's regular race drivers. This worked, to particularly good effect, for Panis - but it didn't lead to a place in the McLaren team itself.

For me, if there's one test driver who screams out to be in F1, it's Fernando Alonso, who so impressed with Minardi last year, and is now working with Renault. If he's not on the grids in 2003, there's something very wrong somewhere.