Masters Degree: Hans Stuck

It's a familiar tale. A driver is given a chance in Formula One and then proves his worth. He competes in several seasons of Grand Prix racing and shows flashes of brilliance and potential that continually persuade team bosses and drivers to sign him, in the hope that he could turn into their next race winner.

He comes close to that elusive win a handful of times, but he never does. In hindsight, he blames his inability to ever win a Formula One race on a mixture of bad luck, stupid team decisions and other factors generally outside of his control.

But not Hans Joachim Stuck.

"If you are asking me if I had the talent to win a race, I'd say no," Stuck, perhaps incredibly, admits. Not many other drivers can look back at an F1 career that spanned 72 races and are then comfortable to say that. But Stuck is a modest man.

"How can I say I had the talent to win a Grand Prix when I never actually won a Grand Prix? I was in a good car, like in the Brabham, and I was leading once before the clutch broke, but I don't think I had the ability to beat a James Hunt or an Emerson Fittipaldi, to be honest.

"Maybe a fight with them, but to win a race, I don't think so. It would be big headed of me to say so."

Stuck, the son of ace hill-climber Hans Stuck, competed in F1 for six years in the Seventies. He made his GP debut in 1974 for March after impressing for the team in Formula Two.

Hans Joachim Stuck © LAT

He made a promising start with March with points in his third and fourth races, but the results that followed in his debut year never matched his early promise. He was dropped for '75, before he earned a recall to the team to replace the out-of-favour Lella Lombardi. He stayed with the team for '76 and occasionally scored points, but his big break came the following year when he had again started the year with March.

"My best season of course was with Bernie at Brabham in '77," Stuck recalls. "I came in there because Carlos Pace had died in a plane crash and I was told to call Bernie because it was understood that he was interested in me.

"And then the next day I was in Bernie's office to sort out a deal. He asks me how much do I want to earn and I reply that when I was driving for March I was earning 60 to 70,000 US dollars a year and earning more with championship points. I point out to him that I was hoping that he would at least match the offer.

"Then the phone rings. And Bernie has this conversation on the phone. 'Hello. Ah, Arturo Merzario. How are you? Yes, we are looking for a driver. How much do you want to earn? Ah, $30,000? Well, I call you later'. That was Merzario on the phone, Hans. He is a good fast guy and he will drive for me for 30,000 dollars.'

"So what was I supposed to do? I took the deal because I didn't want Merzario in the car. Then a couple of weeks later I sat down for dinner in Monte Carlo and Bernie said that he had to tell me some thing: 'Remember my conversation in the office with Merzario? That was my secretary'."

Stuck lets out a raucous laugh as he remembers how he was carefully tricked out of a higher salary by Bernie Ecclestone.

"I made up for it in points money. But of all these Formula One guys I worked with he was the one who paid on time and he is still a good friend. It was worth doing."

In his year at Brabham he scored two podium finishes, at the German and Austrian Grands Prix, and eventually finished a career-best 11th in the championship thanks to his 12 points. But perhaps Stuck's most memorable race was the 1977 United States Grand Prix East at Watkins Glen, the penultimate race of the season. He had shown brilliance at the track a year earlier by finishing fifth, despite dropping from his starting position of sixth to 23rd on the first lap. But this year he qualified an impressive second and led early on, before spinning out of the lead and probably his best chance of victory.

"Bernie had said to me that if you win this race you will get a contract for two years because Parmalat was coming in to sponsor the team and they needed a race-winning driver.

"But almost as soon as I started, the clutch clip broke. I knew from the moment I had started I had lost the race because, I wasn't going to be able to leave the pits.

Hans Stuck (Brabham Alfa Romeo BT45B) 1977 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen

"I then had to shift without the clutch, which ruined the transmission. Three laps before I wanted to come in I spun and I couldn't restart it. I didn't win that race and then Bernie had to look for another driver."

Stuck moved over to Shadow for '78 but it was an unsuccessful season which he puts down to Jackie Oliver separating from the team and forming Arrows. Yet, Stuck made a poor decision for the following season that is the biggest reason of them all as to why he never scored that elusive victory.

"Frank Williams came to me and said we are doing this team. We have a fixed driver in Alan Jones but for the second driver we are interested in you.

"But because it is a single-car team you have to pre-qualify for every European Grand Prix and we have no spare car and no money. We will pay your expenses but nothing else.

"Well, 'you're shitting me' I thought. Williams were good but no-one knew they would become that good. I was also offered a good deal from the ATS team to have 300,000 Deutschmark a year, which was a fantastic amount of money. I said I'd rather take the ATS deal please.

"It was wrong in the end, but how do you know that at the time? Loads of people can say similar things. It's not black and white. Going into Formula One is more transparent now.

"When I did my last race for ATS in 1979 finishing fifth in Watkins Glen I had nothing for the year after. I could have stayed at ATS but I didn't. I went back to Touring Cars and Sportscars. I knew I would get first class gear although it was a step down, and my wish was to drive racing cars as fast as possible. That was the right decision."

Stuck had a hugely successful career post-Formula One, winning the Le Mans 24 hours twice, and the World Endurance Championship sportscar crown in 1986 and '87 with Derek Bell. He was also a race winner in the DTM in the Nineties.

But that win just never came in Formula One.

"In my early days in Formula One I wasn't ready. I won in Formula Two and did well in the European championship but to be honest, in Formula One I didn't have the experience.

"I had guys like Ronnie Peterson with me and I couldn't do anything against them. Then I was together with John Watson and he was the team leader and there wasn't much room for me.

"That wasn't an excuse. If I had the same will and wish that Niki Lauda had then maybe I would have won races but we were different. Niki was Niki. I was myself. Maybe I wasn't going enough for it."

Such modest recollections of his time at the pinnacle of motor racing are refreshing.