The top 10 races of Mexico’s lost F1 great

Two world championship Formula 1 wins, no pole positions and a single Le Mans 24 Hours success do not do justice to Pedro Rodriguez.

The Mexican was a star of the BRM and JW Automotive Engineering Gulf teams, was one of the greatest wet-weather drivers of his era and was almost certainly the finest exponent of the fearsome Porsche 917.

At the time of his death in an Interserie race at the Norisring in July 1971, Rodriguez was at the height of his powers, perhaps behind only Jackie Stewart and Jacky Ickx in international motorsport. Fifty years after his death, Autosport decided to pick out his greatest drives.

For this list, we take the accounts of those who were there, the machinery and opposition involved, and the circumstances surrounding the races.

10. 1967 South African GP, Kyalami

Rodriguez powers to his first F1 victory

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Car: Cooper T81
Started: 4th
Result: 1st

This race is more famous for privateer John Love nearly winning in his Cooper T79, but it was a breakout performance for Rodriguez. It was also only his ninth world championship race, at the start of his first proper Formula 1 season.

Rodriguez qualified fourth – ahead of ‘number one’ Cooper team-mate Jochen Rindt – after slipstreaming with Jim Clark’s Lotus, the duo beaten by the Brabhams of reigning world champion Jack Brabham and Denny Hulme.

Amid tyre concerns in the blistering heat, Rodriguez ran fourth in the early stages. He lost out to a charging Rindt on lap three of 80 but a wild moment for the Austrian soon dropped him behind. Having held off Clark early on, Rodriguez battled third-placed Brabham and Rindt.

He briefly made it into third, only to start suffering from gearbox problems, first losing second gear then fourth. Rodriguez had a couple of moments and began to fall back, dropping as far as seventh, but kept going.

“In the position Pedro was in, Jochen wouldn’t have kept on racing without being able to go at full speed,” team manager Roy Salvadori is quoted as saying in The Brothers Rodriguez by Carlos Eduardo Jalife-Villalon. “But Pedro had to earn a place on the team and persevered.”

Then others started to find trouble. Rindt retired when his Maserati engine failed, Brabham’s engine temporarily cut out and Dan Gurney’s Eagle dropped out with suspension failure.

Rodriguez was now fourth and he soon overtook the struggling Honda of John Surtees. With 23 laps to go the Cooper was a lap behind runaway leader Hulme, but then the Brabham hit brake problems, pitted and fell to fourth.

Rodriguez could not make significant inroads into Love’s advantage and, with 10 laps to go, was 21s behind. A famous win looked on the cards – until Love, despite an additional fuel tank on his 2.8-litre Cooper, had to stop for fuel.

Rodriguez went by, eased his pace to conserve fuel, and took the first world championship F1 victory for a Mexican driver in a race Autosport’s Gregor Grant described as “one of the most exciting GPs for many years”.

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9. 1970 Norisring 200

Pedro Rodriguez, 1970 Le Mans

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Car: Porsche 908/02
Started: 9th
Result: 3rd

With the Porsche 917 he had been scheduled to drive not available due to an engine shortage, Rodriguez switched to Richard Brostrom’s 908 for the first round of the 1970 Interserie. Against cars such as the new 7.6-litre March 707, two 917s and several big-engined Lola T70s, the three-litre 908 was hardly a leading contender.

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Rodriguez qualified ninth (ahead of a young Niki Lauda, who Pedro had helped learn the circuit, in a similar car) but an early rain shower in heat one gave him an opportunity. He sliced ahead of the bigger machines and, when Teddy Pilette’s T70 retired, the 908 briefly led.

Rodriguez fell back as the track dried but was still well clear of the other three-litre cars and engaged in a battle with Richard Attwood’s 5.7-litre Lola. When Attwood’s rear shock absorber broke, Rodriguez was left to take fifth, well clear of Lauda, and beaten only by two 917s, a Ferrari 512S and the 707.

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The second heat was less spectacular but high attrition among the leaders helped Rodriguez rise to third. That was also where he finished overall, behind the two 917s and only a lap down after nearly two hours of racing.

Rodriguez requested the organisers find him a better car for the following year’s event if he was to return. Unfortunately, given what would transpire 12 months later, they were able to…

8. 1971 BRDC International Trophy, Silverstone

Pedro Rodriguez, 1971 Dutch GP

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Car: BRM P160
Started: 10th
Result: 4th

This non-championship, two-heat race is best-known as Graham Hill’s final F1 victory, but there was much more to the event than that. There were no Ferraris, but the field was still strong, with 15 F5000 cars joining 16 F1 machines.

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Rodriguez, Jo Siffert and Henri Pescarolo were dovetailing the event with the Spa 1000Km, which Pedro and Jackie Oliver were to win at a record speed of 154.8mph in a crushing display of Porsche 917 superiority the day after the International Trophy. They therefore had to qualify when conditions were not ideal, Rodriguez doing best but only lining up 10th on the 4-3-4 grid.

Rodriguez started making progress from the start, while poleman Stewart’s Tyrrell set the pace at the front. Rodriguez, lapping faster than everyone except Stewart, caught Hill’s third-placed Brabham and both closed on Jean-Pierre Beltoise’s Matra.

They were soon by, so that, after 10 of the 26 laps, only Stewart was ahead of the battling duo, with Rodriguez “clambering up the back” of the Brabham according to Autosport. Finally, on lap 20, the BRM found a way by: “Rodriguez came rushing up the inside of Hill into Woodcote: they did most of the corner wheel to wheel, but Pedro was through.”

Rodriguez duly finished 11.6s behind the Tyrrell and 1.2s ahead of the Brabham, and started the second heat from the front row. The BRM made a strong getaway and arrived at Copse alongside Stewart, who then crashed as his throttle stuck open.

That gave Rodriguez the lead, making him favourite for overall aggregate honours. But he couldn’t shake off Hill and the Brabham took the lead as Rodriguez suffered a puncture. The BRM dived into the pits, returning just ahead of Hill but almost a lap down.

The two were evenly matched, Hill getting ahead in the closing stages, while Rodriguez climbed to eighth. That was enough for fourth overall but, it had been a missed opportunity.

7. 1968 Le Mans 24 Hours

Pedro Rodriguez, Lucien Bianchi 1968 Le Mans 24 Hours

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Car: Ford GT40
Started: 4th
Result: 1st

The JWA Ford GT40 team’s preparation for its big 1968 title showdown with Porsche had not gone well. Star driver Ickx had joined the injured Brian Redman on the sidelines for the delayed Le Mans 24 Hours that would decide the world sportscar championship after breaking his leg in a practice crash at the previous weekend’s Canadian GP. Team boss John Wyer also wanted Derek Bell, but Ferrari wouldn’t release him.

So it was Rodriguez that was brought in to share the lead car with Lucien Bianchi. Pedro had always been impressive at Le Mans, being a thorn in the side of the works Ferrari team when driving North American Racing Team cars with his brother Ricardo in the early 1960s and qualifying fastest for the 1963 edition.

Luck had never been with him – he had just one seventh-place finish in his first 10 starts – but he’d developed an appreciation of what was required in the days when looking after the machinery was a key factor.

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Rodriguez qualified fourth but was in no rush at the start as the Porsche 908s set the early pace. His GT40, though delayed by an early change from wet to dry tyres after Paul Hawkins suffered chunking rear rubber with his car, nevertheless largely moved forward.

JWA’s hopes were not helped by Brian Muir beaching his car at Mulsanne, which eventually forced its retirement, though the other two GT40s continued to climb back up the order. Porsche also looked vulnerable when transmission failure removed the polesitting Siffert/Hans Herrmann car and, after four hours, the Fords were running first and second, though the order kept changing depending on the pitstops.

The Hawkins/David Hobbs GT40 dropped out of contention thanks to a clutch change and then retired for good when the engine failed in the 10th hour. With the Porsches plagued with alternator trouble during the night, the relentless Rodriguez/Bianchi thus looked increasingly secure at the front.

Bianchi suffered a spin in drizzle, but the sole remaining Gulf GT40 was four laps clear at half distance. Conditions were intermittently appalling (it was one of the wettest contests at Le Mans) and Rodriguez/Bianchi continued to pull away despite looking after the V8 machine and keeping away from using maximum revs.

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Chassis 1075, which would go on to win the 24 Hours again in 1969, ran without major issue, Rodriguez/Bianchi winning by five laps and clinching the title for Ford.

“Pedro and Lucien drove impeccably, handling the car as if it were made of glass, making slow gear changes and letting the clutch in very gently,” said Wyer in his famous book The Certain Sound.

It was not Rodriguez’s hardest race – he described it as “very boring” – but he had done exactly what he needed to and had established an important relationship with one of endurance racing’s great teams.

6. 1968 Race of Champions, Brands Hatch

Rodriguez chases after Stewart, 1968 Race of Champions

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Car: BRM P133
Started: 14th (qualified 7th)
Result: 2nd

Outshone by team-mate Mike Spence (BRM P126) in practice, Rodriguez qualified only seventh for this non-championship event that kicked off the European F1 season. And a plug change on his V12 just before the start consigned him to starting at the back of the field.

That heralded just the sort of charge that would become a Rodriguez trademark. He made it into the top six in the first quarter of the race before closing on the battle for fourth between Chris Amon’s Ferrari and the McLaren of reigning world champion Hulme.

Rodriguez soon overcame both, Paddock Hill Bend being his favoured overtaking spot, while Spence’s retirement elevated the Mexican to third. Bruce McLaren’s new M7A was well clear, but Rodriguez now closed on Stewart’s Matra MS10.

They were together by half-distance of the 50-lapper. The Matra wasn’t entirely healthy and Rodriguez soon swept by approaching Hawthorns. Pedro was unimpressed to be held up by Stewart after the Scot made a pitstop but leader McLaren always looked comfortable.

Rodriguez finished 14.2s down but was well ahead of Hulme as he prevented a McLaren 1-2. Then the BRM ran out of fuel.

5. 1970 Monza 1000Km

Rodriguez outclassed Ferrari on its home turf for famous Monza victory

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Car: Porsche 917K
Started: 5th
Result: 1st

Ahead of round four of the 1970 world sportscar championship it wasn’t yet clear that Porsche had a decisive edge over Ferrari. The Gulf JWA 917s had won at Daytona, failed at Sebring where Ferrari won, and the wet conditions at Brands Hatch had been less about the machinery. And Ferrari entered three factory 512S models for its home race at Monza.

The ferociousness of the battle was underlined by the alternating Porsche-Ferrari top six order on the grid, with Rodriguez only fifth. He immediately jumped into the fight for the lead with team-mate Siffert, Ignazio Giunti’s Ferrari and Vic Elford’s Porsche Salzburg 917, which was running a new 4.9-litre engine turned down by JWA after an oil leak in practice.

Siffert then crashed trying to avoid a backmarker, handing Elford the lead. When Kurt Ahrens Jr took over the lead car, Rodriguez closed despite running the smaller 4.5-litre engine, but it was a tyre failure at high speed that put the white Porsche out of contention.

That left only one 917 in the lead fight, with Leo Kinnunen – who Wyer reckoned was 1.5s per lap slower than co-driver Rodriguez that weekend – ahead but being caught by Giunti. Excellent pitwork kept the Porsche ahead when Rodriguez climbed back aboard. “It was conspicuous how much better Pedro was in the traffic than his adversary,” noted Autosport’s Patrick McNally.

“It was very difficult to keep up with them and because of that it was a very tough race,” said Rodriguez in Gulf’s film on the 1970 season, A Year to Remember.

Amon was put into the Giunti/Nino Vaccarella 512S in an attempt to catch Rodriguez but it was not enough, Ferrari restricted to 2-3-4. Rodriguez had driven for 139 of the 174 laps and won at an average speed of 144.6mph.

“Monza was a very hard race indeed,” recalled Wyer in The Certain Sound. “Ferrari, on his home ground, had sent a very strong team, with all his best drivers. Pedro had to work very hard.”

4. 1971 Dutch GP, Zandvoort

Rodriguez and Ickx enjoyed epic wet-weather scrap between Zandvoort's famous dunes

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Car: BRM P160
Started: 2nd
Result: 2nd

Rodriguez had already shown his wet-weather skills at Zandvoort, finishing third and top non-Dunlop runner in the 1968 Dutch GP, but three years later he was involved in one of the epic rain duels.

Rodriguez, Ickx and Stewart were the rainmasters of their era, and at Zandvoort in 1971 there was the rare sight of two of them battling throughout a GP. Ickx had beaten Rodriguez – “on tremendous form” according to Autosport – to pole in the dry by just 0.04 seconds but the track was wet from the start. And the Firestone tyres on the Ferrari and BRM proved superior to third-placed starter Stewart’s Goodyears.

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The Ferrari held the lead as Ickx and Rodriguez quickly pulled clear of the field. After five laps of 70, Ickx was 18.5s clear of third-placed Clay Regazzoni in the second Ferrari but had Rodriguez just 1s behind.

When the leaders came upon an incident involving Francois Cevert and Nanni Galli at Tarzan on lap nine, the BRM snatched the lead. Rodriguez pulled away over the next few laps, building an advantage of 8.5s after 20 laps.

But, as the track dried, the Ferrari seemed to have more traction out of the slow corners and Ickx started to close back in. The Belgian grabbed the lead on lap 30, Rodriguez took it back in traffic the next time around, and then the Ferrari moved ahead once more on lap 32.

“It was all real Formula 1 racing, and the damp crowed loved it,” reported McNally. “The car control of both was a joy to watch.”

Ickx started to pull away, the BRM not helped with a suspected low-end misfire, though he tended to be more cautious in traffic than Rodriguez, who never gave up the chase.

Although the lead had grown to 15.6s with 11 laps to go, Ickx was more circumspect on oil and the winning margin was just 7.99s after nearly two hours of racing. Rodriguez’s best lap was 2s faster than BRM team-mate Siffert’s.

3. 1970 Belgian GP, Spa

Rodriguez took his second and last F1 win in F1's final visit to the old Spa

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Car: BRM P153
Started: 6th
Result: 1st

Tony Southgate’s P153 was BRM’s best F1 car for some time. Gearbox and engine problems in practice limited Rodriguez to sixth on the grid at the old 8.8-mile Spa, but he was up to fourth by the end of the first lap of 28.

Rodriguez overtook Rindt’s Lotus 49C on lap three and Stewart’s troubled March 701 on the following tour, to chase Amon.

“Pedro’s progress through the field was not to be checked, and he took the lead from Amon on lap five,” reported Autosport. “The BRM was extremely fast and the Mexican was using the V12’s top end performance to excellent purpose.”

But Rodriguez couldn’t shake the chasing March, Amon chasing hard as he searched for his first world championship GP victory. At one point the BRM slid on oil and Amon got alongside, but Rodriguez held on.

Amon put on a late charge, the two leaders taking turns to break the lap record on the fearsome high-speed circuit, with the March eventually taking it by 0.2 seconds and the next-best 2.1s slower.

“Amon quickened his pace and got within a second of the BRM, but Pedro wasn’t to be flustered and continued in full command,” reckoned Autosport.

“Pedro loved Spa for the same reason I did,” Amon said in Nigel Roebuck’s Grand Prix Greats. “Spa was racing a grand prix like we always thought it should be. Driving at full speed in Spa – which we both did from beginning to end ­– left you feeling like you had really achieved something.

“And Pedro’s precision – I knew that I could pass him if only he made a mistake somewhere, and he never did.”

Rodriguez crossed the line 1.1s ahead of the New Zealander to score his second world championship victory – and BRM’s first for four years. He had proved he could absorb pressure as well as fight through the pack.

2. 1971 Osterreichring 1000Km

Richard Attwood and Pedro Rodriguez celebrate victory in the 1971 Osterreichring 1000km

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Car: Porsche 917K
Started: 1st
Results: 1st

“Without question the greatest race he ever drove” was Wyer’s view of Rodriguez’s performance in Austria at the end of June 1971, even if the Mexican was denied the crescendo of a dramatic finish.

His Gulf Porsche led from pole, chased by the rapid Ferrari 312P of Ickx/Regazzoni. Rodriguez pulled quickly away, building a cushion before handing over to Attwood, who had enjoyed little time in the car following his replacement of Oliver.

But before Rodriguez could get to that point a misfire brought him into the pits. By Wyer’s reckoning the team lost 5m32s thanks to a flat battery caused by a slack alternator driving belt.

Rodriguez resumed in seventh, more than two laps down. He now began one of his great charges, helped by rain starting to fall, and even Ickx could not match him. Siffert in the second Gulf 917 was also soon out with clutch failure.

“The situation seemed hopeless but Pedro had quite different ideas,” said Wyer in The Certain Sound. “At the speed at which he was catching the leaders we still had just a chance of winning.”

Attwood only did one brief stint to allow Rodriguez to take his mandatory break, during which the Briton held position, before his team leader climbed back aboard.

Rodriguez's last great drive was arguably one of his very best, topped only by the virtuoso drive for which he is best remembered

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“He drove with a cold implacable fury,” reckoned Wyer and, with about 30 laps to go, Rodriguez moved onto the same lap as Regazzoni’s leading Ferrari. After seeing the Porsche disappear down the road, the Swiss crashed (he pointed to suspension failure), handing Rodriguez victory.

The rain had been intermittent during the race and Rodriguez’s fastest lap was not only quicker than his pole time, it was a second faster than the best time from the previous year’s Austrian GP. He had driven 157 of the 170 laps.

“We reckoned we would have won anyway but it would have been a close thing,” was Wyer’s view, while Pedro felt denied at not being able to prove it: “I was really sorry when I saw Regazzoni off the road. I wanted to pass him once more.”

It was perhaps apt, given it was Rodriguez’s last drive in a 917, that it was the final time the great Porsche won a world sportscar race, before the rules made it obsolete for 1972.

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It was a performance that suggested Rodriguez was reaching his peak, but he had just two weeks left to live.

1. 1970 BOAC 1000Km, Brands Hatch

Rodriguez was totally peerless in the wet at Brands in 1970, a drive that is revered over 50 years on

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Car: Porsche 917K
Started: 7th
Result: 1st

Wyer might have put the Osterreichring race ahead of this entry, but the opposition at Brands Hatch the year before was arguably tougher, Rodriguez required less luck and it is widely regarded as one of the greatest wet-weather performances of all time.

The field included four works 917s, two factory Ferrari 512Ss and entries from Matra and Alfa Romeo, and included drivers of the calibre of Amon (who took pole for Ferrari in the dry), Brabham, Elford, Hulme, Ickx, Oliver, Redman and Siffert.

In atrociously wet conditions and after starting from row three, Rodriguez was brought into the pits for overtaking under yellow flags, which he claimed not to have seen. That led to a severe ticking off from clerk of the course Nick Syrett.

“Nick towered above him, but Pedro simply sat in the car, looking through the windscreen,” recalls former Autosport Editor Simon Taylor, who reported on the race. “He didn’t look up and Nick thumped him on the helmet and said, ‘Don’t do that again’ and slammed the door.”

Rodriguez stormed back into the race almost a lap behind, leaving black lines down the pitlane. “I had to drive very hard, as if the track was dry,” said Rodriguez in A Year to Remember.

He proceeded to pass everyone, including team-mate Siffert, Elford and Amon, consistently lapping at a pace beyond anyone else. Ickx, one of the few who could match the Mexican in such conditions, was hamstrung by window wiper issues with his Ferrari and Rodriguez simply danced away from the opposition.

Despite penalty delay, Rodriguez finished five laps clear

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“I remember the way he came past us all, the things he was doing with that car, it was like sleight of hand,” Amon later told Roebuck.

Aside from a quick spin, Rodriguez’s progress was relentless and he handed co-driver Kinnunen a two-lap lead after three and a half hours. The Finn struggled to maintain the pace and Rodriguez ended up doing all but around 1h15m of the 6h45m contest.

The track eventually started to dry but Rodriguez’s control of the race was never in doubt and he took the flag five laps clear of Elford/Hulme in a Porsche 1-2-3. It was a drive that impressed everyone, including his peers.

Wyer described it as a “virtuoso performance”, while in The Brothers Rodriguez book Attwood said: “I would challenge anyone to drive a car as fast as Pedro did that day on a wet track. Jim Clark, had he been alive, or any other you could name, nobody could have equalled Pedro that day.”

Taylor also believes it was the best Rodriguez drive he ever saw – “he was just horrifying to watch, but so brilliant” – and Oliver says: “He was outstanding, he excelled himself.”

“It was the greatest performance I’ve seen,” added Hobbs.

“Pedro's superb drive at Brands Hatch in the 917K is what he will always be remembered for,” concludes Redman, now 84. “It was a fantastic drive.”

Unsatisfied with Kinnunen's progress, Rodriguez returned to the cockpit after only a brief break and continued his storming pace

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