Why a lost F1 hope is still in demand aged 65

When the farcical track conditions at the 1985 Belgian Grand Prix caused drivers to abandon practice and call for the event's cancellation, the supporting Formula 3000 teams and drivers were left with a conundrum. Should they too abandon ship, or accept Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone's offer of a live TV slot the following day and hope that the promised fixes to the circuit would materialise?

In the end, Ecclestone got the outcome he wanted and the F3000 race went ahead, with a history-making front row of two brothers leading the field away on a newly-laid surface that Autosport described as "like the wet on slick tyres".

But while poleman Michel Ferte shunted his ORECA March after four laps, elder brother Alain - making only his second outing in the Corbiari March having begun the season in the woefully uncompetitive Lola - kept his cool and held on with the unfavourable Avon tyres to finish second behind Bridgestone-shod Mike Thackwell, the only man in the top five not running the Japanese rubber. "It was like driving on eggs in some corners," was Ferte's witty summary.

But the 1980 French Formula 3 champion - Ferte's coronation was one year after his namesake, four-time world champion Prost - would not reach those heights again in an F3000 career hamstrung by low-budget operations.

F1 test outings for Renault, RAM and Larousse led nowhere, but the Frenchman became a sought-after hand in endurance racing and famously shared Andy Rouse's winning Sierra in the 1988 Tourist Trophy race at Silverstone. Showing his versatility, he finished runner-up in the 1994 Spa 24 Hours for BMW and the same year took pole at the Le Mans 24 Hours for Courage.

Plenty of water has passed under the bridge since then, yet Ferte is still a man in demand. In the year that marks the 40th anniversary of his first Monaco F3 victory - he became the first driver to win the event twice in 1982, a feat matched only by 1993 and 1995 winner Gianantonio Pacchioni - the 65-year-old forms an important part of the GPX Racing Porsche line-up at this weekend's Dubai 24 Hours, alongside two factory-affiliated drivers in Julien Andlauer and Mathieu Jaminet whose combined age is some 18 years younger.

"I don't know exactly if it's a second career or something like that but my passion is driving," Ferte tells Autosport. "I'm 65 - okay - but when you stay with a passion, the pace on the track is okay and the team manager calls you, 'why not!' I'm very happy to be here.

"The pros run more, that's normal. I am there just like a joker and if Fred [Fatien, team owner] needs me maybe one hour, it's okay - I am there" Alain Ferte

"When Julien called me for that, and said GPX is [a team of] nice people, do you say no? No. It's impossible when you have this opportunity. And it's better to be here than to be at home! I love to race."

That passion is self-evident, for a man whose back catalogue includes spells aboard Group C royalty including the Jaguar XJR-9 and, Sauber C11 and Peugeot 905 has in recent years been a regular in the French GT4 championship for near-spec vehicles, finishing a competitive sixth in the points last year. He has also spent several years racing trucks and competed in the amateur-level Fun Cup, where he began a friendship with Andlauer that led to his call-up to GPX.

Describing his role in the Dubai-based team he has been parachuted into for the week, Ferte calls himself a "joker" and that's a fair description. Due to his age, he's classed as a Bronze, and will be a much safer pair of hands than the equivalent-ranking of driver - typically wealthy entrepreneurs racing for fun - that are required by the sporting regulations.

It's a role Ferte has fulfilled before, winning the Dubai 24 at his only previous attempt with the WRT Audi squad in 2016 after a last minute call-up from team boss Vincent Vosse.

"Just one week before, the Thursday before the race, Vincent said 'okay, come'," he recalls. "I took the plane on Tuesday and arrived there, no testing - it was a good opportunity."

With 99 cars on the 3.3-mile track, it was "very busy!" during his two night stints, but Ferte didn't try to be a hero and allowed his team-mates Laurens Vanthoor, Michael Meadows and Stuart Leonard to do the heavy lifting.

He's applying the same approach this weekend, since Bronze-graded drivers are only required to complete two hours in the race and Ferte hasn't had much seat time in the build-up to his first race in a 911 GT3 R. But he is entirely comfortable in his role for the 2019 Spa 24 Hour-winning squad, which also counts time GP2 racer Acxcil Jeffries and team owner Frederic Fatien among its driver line-up.

"The pros run more, that's normal," says Ferte. "I need for sure more laps to learn again, but it's quite okay. I am there just like a joker and if Fred needs me maybe one hour, it's okay - I am there."

Ferte has been around the block enough times to know that there's no good that can come of making predictions (not least given that last year's race was curtailed by a freak rainstorm). But whatever the result come Saturday afternoon, it won't change his outlook on his career. He says he has no regrets about not following Prost to motorsport's top echelon, having been "85-90%" of the way to completing a race deal with Toleman for 1985 until a familiar obstacle blocked his path.

"It's not a regret because when you start to go to Formula 1 and you don't go, you know why," he says. "Because it's generally the money and at that time it was the money."

There were other disappointments along the way too - chief among them losing the wet/dry 1983 European F2 race at Pau, which he had won on the road in a nose-less Maurer with a daring overtake on Jo Gartner's Spirit, only for his car to be thrown out for running 10kg under the weight limit. He also gave up a comfortable Le Mans victory in 1991 when his Mercedes threw a water pump belt two hours from home. But would he do anything differently if he started again?

"Many people have asked which is your best souvenir or something like that - each year since Formula Renault until now, you've got a very good souvenir," he says. "To win the [1979 Formula Renault] championship, to win the first race in F3 [at Nogaro ahead of Jean-Louis Schlesser], I enjoyed all of that.

"I tell you, I have no regrets. If I was young again, I would start the race like I did. I would do the same."

Photos courtesy of Motorsport Images, Stephane Abrantes/Xynamic.com