24th of February – Today is Alain Prost’s birthday, pictured above with his fellow team-mate Niki Lauda, who actually comemorated his 60th birthday just two days ago. Now you may want to explain what the heck these two are doing back then, getting out of their cars on plain start-finish-line. Do you remember what led to this odd picture?
24/2/1955, Clemente Biondetti dies.
A pre-war Maserati factory driver, Biondetti’s debut in Formula 1 came in the 1950 Italian Grand Prix at Monza with a bizarre, not very competitive Jaguar-powered Ferrari 166. He insisted to develop the car in 1951 but it was a still born project. By then he accepted an offer from Enzo Ferrari, with whom he had shared great success in sports car races, especially the Targa Florio and winning more Mille Miglias than other driver. In F1 he drove for the Scuderia in 1952 and Lancia in 1953, returning to Ferrari in 1954. Battling with cancer for some time, Biondetti passed away in February 1955.
Born: 18th of August 1898 in Budussò, Italy.
Died: 24th of February 1955 in Florence, Italy, 56 years
24/2/1971, Pedro Martinez de la Rosa is born in Barcelona, Spain.
The 1997 Formula Nippon champion, put a foot in the F1 door in 1998 as a test driver for Jordan and then secured a seat with Arrows for 1999 and 2000. Despite a contract for 2001 he was sacked and a couple of months later he’d replace Luciano Burti at Jaguar Racing where he stayed until the end of 2002. Instead insisting in uncompetive drives, in 2003 he opted to work as a reserve and test driver for McLaren, a job he’s doing till today. He subbed 2005 for Montoya in Bahrain, finishing fifth, and jumped in during the second half of the 2006 season after Montoya split from McLaren.
24/2/1936, Lance Haugwitz-Reventlow is born in London, UK
The son of Danish nobleman Count Court Haugwitz-Reventlow and American heiress Barbara Hutton and grandson to Frank Winfield Woolworth, founder of the Woolworth store chain, Lance Reventlow wasn’t short of cash at all. After a stint Europe, renting a factory Cooper Formula 2 to participate in various races in Britain, he became inspired to build his own machine, the Scarab sportscar. In the late 1950s Reventlow Automobile Inc embarked an ambitious, but poorly timed front-engined Formula 1 project. Rear-engined cars revolutionized F1 racing at the time and the Scarab was out-dated from the outset, failing to qualify. For the 1960 British GP Reventlow rented a factory Cooper and made a further attempt with the Scarab in early 1961. After a crash destroyed the Scarab, Reventlow lost interest. Being a step-son of Cary Grant, it wasnät surprising to see him dating a variety of actresses in the years that followed. He was killed in an airplane crash in the Rocky Mountains in 1972.
Born: 24th of February 1936 in London, UK;
Died: 24th of July 1972 in the Rocky Mountains, USA, aged 36.
24/2/1943, Jean François Jacques Albert Mazet is born in Paris.
François Mazet was a well known figure in Formula 3 and Formula 2 circles and a socially well connected wheeler-dealer who managed to get a drive with Jo Siffert’s private March 701 fully financed for the 1971 French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard, finishing his sole F1 race in 13th place. He was often seen thereafter in F1 paddocks around the World, but is mostly remembered as managing in the early 1980s the sponsorship deal between the Monaco-based Petroleum company Essex and the Lotus team. Nowadays he lives as a lemon farmer on the French Riviera.
24/2/1968, Emanuele Naspetti is born in Ancona, Italy.
As the 1988 Italian F3 champion, in only his second year of car racing, Naspetti lost too much time in Formula 3000 before he got a shot at F1. Subbing for Paul Belmondo in the March F1 team in the middle of the 1992 season was hardly the equipment to perform well with and he was quickly branded as a pay-driver. As such a one-off drive for Jordan in the 1993 Italian Grand Prix was all that materialised, before he decided it would be wiser to earn some money as a professional in touring car racing, GTs and the ALMS series. Nowadays Emanuele organizes corporate racing events and also acts as driver-manager and instructor, other businesses aside.
24/2/1955, Alain Marie Pascal Prost is born in Lorette, France.
Four World Championship titles and a record-breaking total of 51 Grands Prix wins was Alain Prost’s score when he retired unbeaten at the end of the 1993 season as the most successful Formula 1 driver of his day. He then decided to go into team ownership, bought the Ligier F1 team in February 1997 and announced a three-year deal with Peugeot to run from 1998-2000. Prost as a team owner was not in the same league as Prost the driver and the 2000 season ended as a complete disaster as the Prost-Peugeot relationship broke down and the team struggled to survive. In the end Prost had to sell a shareholding in the team to the Diniz Family with the team chosing customer Ferrari engines but the cars were not a great success. The team went out of business at the start of 2002. In recent years Prost has enjoyed himself in the French ice racing scene, winning a couple of championships, as well occasionally driving in the French GT championship with his son Nicolas, who’s career he’s looking after.
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I believe it was the 1984 British Grand Prix held at Brands Hatch. On lap 11, Jonathan Palmer heavily crashed his RAM-Hart and the race was interrupted. I guess they both stopped on the start/finish straight. I can’t find anymore info but since it’s two 1984 cars, the grid photo is unmistakably the Brands Hatch one and, given that race results, it should be it.
Yep, that’s correct. All the other were swift enough to enter the pitlane and change tyres, but McLaren’s burocratic way of dealing with it made them miss that opportunity. So Prost and Lauda ended up alone on the grid when the race was stopped.