CLARK VS SURTEES

My blog feature “Fangio and Moss”, posted 9 May 2011 and comparing the two drivers’ratings, exposed the fact that Moss was actually faster than Fangio in the Argentinian’s last three seasons. My Ratings System now reveals a similar mis-perception of the sixties era when the media and posterity claimed Clark’s unrivalled superiority.

Jim Clark’s career is well-known and has been well-documented. He has received all the accolades his talent deserved. The first to score more wins than Fangio, his winning seemed almost effortless. But was he superior to all his peers?

What of Clark’s1960 debut season’s Lotus team-mate, John Surtees? John merits hardly a mention in commentaries or discussions on the ‘greatest drivers’. In six starts Clark managed phenomenal third, fifth and sixth places. In that same 1960 season, Surtees’ four starts yielded a second place in the British GP in his second appearance! John started his third race, the Portuguese GP, from pole and was leading for half the distance until he slid on tramlines and crashed out. The field included the experienced Moss and Ireland and fellow rookie Clark, all in identical Lotus-Climax 18s.

John Surtees was just as unlucky as Moss, concerning his cars and teams. Consequently he always was and remains under-rated. Bare race results do not necessarily tell the whole story, as is obvious from Moss’ career.

Consequently in the years 1962 to 1968, grand prix racing was denied the intense battles between two great, equally-matched drivers, Surtees and Clark, as were seen between Prost and Senna.

How Surtees rates against Clark, car-neutral, is shown in the Driver Ratings table. The figure 100.0 represents the ultimate, fastest speed; increments of 0.1 being slower. 100.0 can be a factor, a percentage or a lap time of 100.0 seconds, for easier reference:

Season	Year	Surtees Rating	Clark Rating
One	1960	100.7	102.2
Two	1961	100.0	100.5
Three	1962	100.0	100.2
Four	1963	100.0	100.0
Five	1964	100.0	100.0
Six	1965	100.1	100.0
Seven	1966	100.2	100.0
Eight	1967	100.3	100.0
Nine	1968	100.4	100.0
Ten	1969	100.5	-
Eleven	1970	100.6	-
Twelve	1971	101.0	-
Thirteen	1972	101.5	-

A multiple Champion on motorcycles, Surtees transferred to cars at age 25 in 1960. Due to his continuing motorcycling commitments, John raced in just four of the season’s nine events, driving for Colin Chapman’s Team Lotus. He finished second in his second race, the British GP! For his third outing in Portugal, he took the pole and led half the race! The field included identical Lotus-Climax 18s driven by Moss and team-mates Clark and Ireland, and Title holder Brabham in his Cooper-Climax. Unfortunately Surtees crashed; conflicting reports claim fuel leaked onto the pedals, his foot slipped and/or the car slid on tramlines and he over-corrected. To outshine Clark to this extent? Certainly one of the best debuts of all time.

Fate then intervened to adversely affect Surtees’career. An offer by Colin Chapman, which would have meant Innes Ireland being dropped from Team Lotus, led to Surtees turning down the Lotus drive for 1961. John would happily, have partnered Jim Clark, with whom he got on well. What a team they’d have made? Surtees-Clark would surely have rivalled prost-SEnna of 1988-9, Nuvolari-Varzi of 1930, Chiron-Varzi of 1931-2, Nuvolari-Caracciola of 1932 as one of the strongest pairings of all time.

John moved to a privately-funded team, being promised the latest Cooper-Climax. Coopers refused to sell their latest models, so Surtees had to make do and struggled throughout 1961 in a year-old Cooper-Climax, which was 1.8 seconds-a-lap off-pace driver-neutral! For 1962 John headed the new Lola-Climax team and managed two second places. But there were chassis problems and the Lola was, on season’s average, 1.5 seconds per lap off-pace. No matter how good the driver, such a car deficiency is impossible to overcome.

Admiring his talent, skill and technical abilities, Enzo Ferrari signed Surtees for 1963, where he remained until early 1966. Despite popular perception, the Ferraris of the mid-sixties were down on power! Irrespective of their use of V6, V8 and horizontally- opposed 12 cylinder engines 1963-1965, the Climax and BRM V8s were just too good. As Surtees once said: “I used to watch in frustration when coming out of corners, the BRMs and Climaxes just pulled away.” The best Ferrari of these years Rated at 100.6. Maranello grand prix cars suffered lack of development until after the Le Mans race every June, whereby Ferrari made his money to fund his F1 racing. Surtees managed just three wins in these three seasons. With his car giving away 0.6 seconds per lap to such opposition as Clark in the Lotus-Climax, Gurney in the Brabham-Climax and Graham Hill and Stewart in the BRMs, John could do little.

The first year of the 3-litre formula in 1966 gave Surtees his best chance. For the first time since 1961 Ferrari had the fastest car: the V12-engined Tipo 312. But there were political problems at Maranello: some personnel wanted the Surtees out: one wanted his F1 drive, the team manager disliked him! For the season-opener at Monaco, John wanted to drive the more wieldy 2.4 litre Tasman Ferrari V6. The team manager refused, giving the smaller car to team-mate Bandini, who finished second! Clark’s wieldy 2-litre Lotus-Climax was on pole, but Surtees led from the start in the big 312 until the rear axle failed after 13 of 100 laps. To prove the point about the smaller cars at Monaco, Stewart won in a 2-litre BRM. This was a win Surtees would undoubtedly have managed.

Three weeks later at a rain-soaked Spa, John won in the 3-litre Ferrari. He was promptly sacked on politico-commercial grounds! What a loss for Ferrari and for Surtees.

Surtees joined the Cooper-Maserati team. His outstanding technical abilities in car developmentand set-up improved the big, heavy machines, to claim a second and a third place, with fastest laps each time, before winning the 1966 season finale in Mexico City.

For 1967 and 1968 Surtees drove for the Honda Team, but the cars were over a second a lap too slow. He managed to win once at Monza, but as he shouldered more and more of the development and design decisions, his energy and driver rating levels diminished. A year with BRM in 1969 yielded a best finish of third place. For 1970 John purchased and raced an old McLaren-Cosworth that was 1.5 secs/lap slow. Launching his own Surtees-Cosworth car, for 1970 and 1971 the Surtees-Cosworths were also about 1.5 secs off-pace. John never finished higher than fifth. In 1972 the new Surtees model was far faster, but JS only raced once and retired in the race and for good.

Surtees was faster than Clark for the first three seasons! This has to be down to sheer talent, but also to John’s superior, race-hardened experience. Albeit at World Championship motorcycling level. This must have counted. In addition, John became known for his abilities at setting-up cars which could already have benefitted him.. Surtees and Clark started in F1 in 1960 at ages 26 and 25. Clark was very cautious, rating at 102.2, about the same as Nigel Mansell’s first part-season. For 1960 and in same-cars Moss raced at the ultimate 100.0, team-mates Ireland and Surtees at 100.7. Jim overcame his ‘hesitance’ and got to ultimate pace within four years. Surtees managed this in his second season! He did however start slipping slightly from 1965, due to the unhappy atmosphere at Maranello. In contrast Clark enjoyed his entire eight-year career in harmony and great friendship with Lotus team patron, Colin Chapman. Due to increasing team responsibilities and poor cars, by 1969 Surtees’ Driver Rating had dropped to 100.6, which was enough for Jack Brabham and Phil Hill in top-rated cars, to win their driver titles.

Good driver-manager relationships have always produced outstanding results: Nuvolari with Alfa Romeo’s Vittorio Jano 1930-1936, Caracciola with Alfred Neubauer at Mercedes- Benz 1926-1939; Stewart with Ken Tyrrell 1969-1973, Prost with Ron Dennis of McLaren 1984-1989, followed by Hakkinen 1993-2001, Michael Schumacher with Ferrari’s Jean Todt 1996-2006 and Alonso with Benetton’s Flavio Briatore 2003-2006.. Surtees seldom had the benefits of such good, personal intra-team relationships for long. When he did, as with Lola’s Eric Broadley in 1962, the car was off-pace.

Given good enough machinery, there is no doubt John Surtees would have remained the greatest threat to Clark until the Scot’s untimely fatal crash early in 1968. Surtees’ sheer driver talent and technical abilities were outstanding. His two great wins at that real driver’s circuit, the old Nurburgring, in underpowered-Ferraris in 1963 and 1964 and an outstanding second place in the more off-pace Lola-Climax in 1962 were glimpses of what might have been. John’s meagre six wins compared with Clark’s then-record of twenty-five is in no way a reflection of their relative abilities. What a difference the cars make! Surtees, the most under-rated great driver of all?

© Patrick O’Brien. Nothing from this page can be used without the permission of the author, Patrick E. O’Brien.

PIQUET VS MANSELL

Nelson Piquet career 1978-1991

Nelson Piquet started his Formula One career at age 26 near the end of the 1978 season with three drives for McLaren, achieving one ninth place finish in the old M23 model. Bernie Ecclestone then signed him for the Brabham team for the year’s last race in Canada, joining Lauda and Watson. He replaced Watson for 1979. Nelson could not have had a better formative start to F1 racing:, experienced team-leader Niki Lauda and he got on well. Based on season average, Lauda rated at 100.4; Piquet at a very creditable 100.7. After Lauda’s sudden retirement late in 1979, Piquet went on to lead the Bernie Ecclestone-owned team for eight seasons. From 1980 to 1984, he remained a leading contender and race winner. His best season was 1983 when he won the Drivers’ Championship and set a record ten poles in the beautiful, powerful Brabham-BMW turbo. Until 1987, Nelson remained a talented, shrewd race-winner, with great feel for the car and for race tactics.

Nigel Mansell career 1980-1995

Nigel Mansell also debuted at age 26 when he was taken on by Colin Chapman for Lotus for two races near the end of 1980. He retired in both. Chapman continued to believe in Nigel’s potential until his own untimely death in 1982. Overcoming this loss and several other difficulties, Mansell persevered. He started benefitting and displaying his talents after joining Williams in 1985. Thanks to his phenomenal winning record, sheer speed and fighting spirit, Nigel continues to have numerous fans and has garnered respect as one of the great drivers. Contrary to popular perception, Nigel was physically very sensitive, had superb feel and a delicate touch in the car. Much like a gifted musician. This is one of the reasons he was so good in wet conditions, and in an era when many drivers were not.

Despite their outstanding records, talent, abilities and long careers, neither Piquet nor Mansell seem to be mentioned in the same breath as Fangio, Moss, Clark, Stewart, Prost, Senna or Schumacher. This was certainly not due to any deficiencies in natural talent, which both had in abundance. Nigel’s phenomenal pole -setting lap at Silverstone in 1992 and Nelson’s speed and relish with the awesomely-powerful, turbocharged Brabham-BMWs of the mid-eighties, are just some of many examples of both drivers’ naturalness in the cockpit.

Piquet was perhaps too comfortable during his last six Brabham years. His team-mates were much slower, and never threatened or extended him. Perhaps this prevented him from overcoming the fastest team-mate he ever had: Nigel Mansell in 1986? . Thereafter, he crashed at high speed in practice at Imola in 1987; the consequent concussion definitely affected his speed. Mansell’s only weakness was in not being as politically-astute as some other great drivers in the out-of-cockpit internal team politics.

The table below compares their driver ratings (car neutral). Ultimate pace is 100.0, with ascending decimals being slower; each 0.1 being, say, 0.1 second in a 100.0 second lap. Bear in mind that, scored by this same Rating System, the peak ratings of Graham and Damon Hill and Emerson Fittipaldi were 100.5 when they won WDCs and that Hunt’s best rating was 100.3, Ronnie Peterson’s 100.2.

 

Season
1	1978	Piquet	101.8	1980	Mansell	102.0
2	1979	Piquet	100.7	1981	Mansell	100.7
3	1980	Piquet	100.5	1982	Mansell	100.6
4	1981	Piquet	100.3	1983	Mansell	100.6
5	1982	Piquet	100.1	1984	Mansell	100.5
6	1983	Piquet	100.0	1985	Mansell	100.8
7	1984	Piquet	100.2	1986	Mansell	100.4
8	1985	Piquet	100.3	1987	Mansell	100.3
9	1986	Piquet	100.3	1988	Mansell	100.2
10	1987	Piquet	100.5	1989	Mansell	100.4
11	1988	Piquet	100.7	1990	Mansell	100.4
12	1989	Piquet	100.9	1991	Mansell	100.3
13	1990	Piquet	100.8	1992	Mansell	100.4
14	1991	Piquet	101.0	1994	Mansell	100.8
15	-			1995	Mansell	101.4

Both drivers started off virtually equal-matched at 101.8 (Piquet) and 102.0 (Mansell), these ratings being within then-norms. Their real talent showed when teach rated 100.7 in their first full, second seasons! Stewart and Schumacher debuted at 100.8 and 100.7. Piquet continued a typical great driver’s climb to reach ultimate pace by his sixth season in 1983. By contrast, Mansell hardly improved after Colin Chapman’s death in 1982. The reasons were probably inter-team politics. Nelson was so comfortable with the Brabham team and designer-team-manager, Gordon Murray. Nigel did not have the support of new Lotus team manager Peter Warr, nor of many in the racing media, who did not rate his ability highly. In addition, he was competing with a very fast, naturally-talented team-mate, Elio de Angelis. Piquet had no team-mate threats at Brabham after Lauda retired, but he had had a season to learn from an experienced master; the two got on well and Lauda was very helpful.

The 1985 season was crucial to each driver’s career. Nelson was becoming de-motivated with his relatively low pay, and was looking around. Mansell left Lotus and joined 1982 Champion Keke Rosberg at Williams-Honda for 1985. Rosberg was very fast, and over the whole season shaded Nigel’s best times. In addition, Nigel was having to rebuild his own confidence and adapt to the new team and car with its powerful Honda turbo engine. By season’s end, Mansell had gained enough confidence to win at Kyalami. This when leader-from-the-start Keke slid on oil, Nigel took his chance and drove magnificently to his first win. This was a huge boost to his self-belief, which he was to retain until 1990. Piquet dropped from his peak to a still very fast 100.3 in 1985.

For 1986, Mansell was joined at Williams by Piquet after Rosberg moved to McLaren-Porsche. The Williams team were at the top, with unmatched Honda engines and two very competitive, virtually equal-rated drivers. Here lay the trouble: Piquet thought he would have little trouble from his team-mate who had never been highly-rated by many in the pit lane and the media. Nelson was in for a shock. Mansell won five times, he only four times in the season’s fastest car. Piquet’s response was to start out-of-cockpit tactics: very personal verbal warfare against Nigel.

At Imola early in 1987, Piquet crashed in practice and received concussion which slowed him by 0.2 secs per 100.0 sec lap for his rest-of- season average. Nelson related how he had suffered from headaches and tiredness for months afterwards. Nigel went on to six fine wins; Nelson admirably managed three.

Piquet left Williams for Lotus the next season - taking Honda engines with him - but his pace dropped to 100.7 and 100.9 for the two Lotus seasons 1988-89. Nigel stayed with Frank Williams and improved his ratings to peak at 100.2, despite Williams having lost Honda engines and having to make do with the small-budget and unreliable Judd engine. Nigel managed two fine seconds in the outclassed car. Riccardo Patrese joined Williams for 1988 and was to have such a beneficial affect on Mansell’s career later.

Piquet was lured to Benetton for his last two seasons 1990-91, where he raced at uninspired pace before retiring from F1. He first had as team-mate the fast but inexperienced ex-rally champion Nannini and then Moreno who equalled Nelson’s speed rating. Piquet’s race craft and experience nevertheless enabled him to take advantage of others’ troubles to score two more wins at the end of 1990. The first, thanks to the infamous Senna-Prost crash and Mansell’s Ferrari retirement in Japan, Piquet ‘inherited’ the win. He then scored another in Australia after leader Senna crashed. In 1991 Piquet managed one more win, in Canada, racing at a reduced season average of 101.0. The last five races of Nelson’s last season saw a link forged with the start of another era. The22 year-old Michael Schumacher became his team-mate and was immediately faster at 100.7 rating! Piquet’s experience, shrewd racing brain, car set-up skills and mechanical sensitivity were still there, however, as he just outscored the young German with a 4^th , a 5^th, a 6^th and a 7^th against a 5^th , two 6^ths and two retirements. This ended a great career of 23 wins.

 For 1989, Mansell accepted a good offer from Ferrari to join Gerhard Berger. The two chargers were close-matched for speed, but Mansell came out on top with two wins to Berger’s one in the unreliable-experimental, auto-gearbox Ferrari. Mansell was dubbed Il Leone by the Tifosi for his fighting performances and has remained a favourite in Italy.

For 1990, Mansell welcomed Alain Prost as team-mate at Maranello. Prost’s all-round diligence, political skills, technical competence and sheer speed shocked Nigel. He slowed to 100.4, even though Alain had dropped slightly from ultimate pace to 100.1. The wins went five-to-one in Prost’s favour in his great battles to try and beat Senna’s McLaren-Honda.

Mansell left Maranello at season’s end to rejoin Williams for 1991, now with advanced, pneumatic-valved, high-revving Renault engines. This proved a great move. Team-mate Patrese had done and continued to do most of the testing and development of the advanced Williams-Renaults. Consequently Riccardo became chief engineer Patrick Head’s favourite driver for his hard work and ability in testing, and for the fact that he would hop on a plane to test at a freezing Silverstone at any time. His more famed team-mate was not so inclined. The two got on well, mainly because Nigel was not threatened as he had been by Piquet and Prost. Mansell and Patrese scored five and two wins respectively in 1991. It must be mentioned that in the early races, the loyal Patrese virtually matched Nigel until his win in Mexico; hereafter he was told that ‘it was Nigel who must do the winning’!  In 1992 the Williams-Renault Team hit the jackpot. So did Mansell, who scored a record nine wins.

When he heard that Prost would be joining Williams for 1993, Mansell left to do Indycar racing. He returned to F1 for 1994 and some one-off drives for Williams-Renault in the wake of Senna’s death, and just about matched full-timer Damon Hill for speed. He scored a fine last win at the season-ending Australian GP. This after the infamous Schumacher-Damon Hill collision. Nigel’s last two F1 races in 1995 for McLaren-Ilmor-Mercedes failed: the car’s cockpit was too small! This saw the end of a great career at age that yielded 31 wins.

Purely coincidentally these two great drivers Piquet and Mansell debuted at age 26 and retired at 39 and 41 respectively. Piquet reached his ultimate, peak pace within six years, thereafter remained high rated for a further four seasons. . Mansell took eight years to reach his peak but he too remained at a high speed rating for another four seasons. Interestingly, even when each had slowed to 100.8 rating at 38 and 40 years old, they managed wins, albeit after faster packages retired!

In bare, historical stats, Piquet’s 23 wins places him up with Fangio, Nuvolari and Caracciola, while Mansell’s 31 puts him fourth of all time behind Schumacher’s 91, Prost’s 51 and Senna’s 41. One cannot read too much here into these stats nor make too close comparisons, but Nelson and Nigel really were in exceptional company.

© Patrick O’Brien. Nothing from this page can be used without the permission of Patrick E. O’Brien.