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When a retired F1 veteran tried Williams' active car

When a driver has been out of F1 for 11 years, and then receives a phonecall asking them if they want try the latest title-winner, they seldom say no. Jochen Mass recalls the time he jumped into Williams' FW15C at a private test at Paul Ricard...

Matt Kew Apr 18, 2020, 3:06 PM

In the first instance, to find Jochen Mass sitting in the cockpit of a Formula 1 car doesn't make for an unusual story. He is, after all, a driver with 104 world championship grand prix starts to his name, including victory in the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix for McLaren.

But as the December of 1993 approached, 11 years had passed since the German's decision to depart F1 after a fiery collision with Mauro Baldi in the 1982 French GP. Except for a 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours cameo, Mass was two years into retirement following his brief stint in the DTM and the more notable Group C sportscar exploits for Sauber Mercedes.

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Author Matt Kew

Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.