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Formula 1
HOBBS: My Near Misses In The Wet
David Hobbs reminisces about some of his most memorable wet weather incidents, both on the track and in the pit lane....
Hobbs was extremely impressed with the poise of Sebastian Vettel (Getty)
I thought that Sebastian Vettel’s race in China last weekend in similar conditions was absolutely magnificent.
In fact, everybody did a superb job. We saw a few offs and few spins, but poor old Adrian Sutil was the only driver to go off and actually hit the barrier. The lack of incidents and the pace of the frontrunners was awesome.
Of course in my day we didn’t have the luxury of starting behind the safety car. There wasn’t much of a movement to try and make things safer in the wet back then. It has to be pretty bad for things to be stopped. I remember a race I was competing in at Silverstone in 1965 was red flagged, but only a couple of laps after I’d already spun off.
It was a Group 7 race with a whole bunch of Lola T70s and Mclaren MkIs. Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, myself, John Surtees, David Piper and company lined up, and it rained very very heavily, exactly like in China last weekend.
I always fancied myself in the wet, mainly as I discovered early on that this non-racing line tack worked quite well. I was stuck in third gear, which actually turned out to be a help, because after a slowish start, I found myself up in third spot.
Things continued to look good, and I recall passing Graham Hill while tanking down into Stowe on the Hangar Straight. Unfortunately soon after that I joined John Surtees in the ditch at Maggotts and I spun off as did a couple of other people because there was a lot of aquaplaning going on. It started off as a good race for me at least!
Similar conditioned awaited me at a Formula 5000 race at Mugello one year. For some reason I started near the back, and again I reveled in the rain, making to take the lead before half-distance. Soon after, they called the race off with me still at the front, so I was declared the winner.
In those days, you used to hang around the pits to collect your prize money from the organizers, along with your start money, since it was a long trek to Mugello from Leamington Spa in the first place!
The organizers tried to short change me because they said the race was only half as long as it was supposed to be, therefore they would only have to pay me half the money. I got full price in the end, but those tricky buggers were willing to try anything back then!
In fact, everybody did a superb job. We saw a few offs and few spins, but poor old Adrian Sutil was the only driver to go off and actually hit the barrier. The lack of incidents and the pace of the frontrunners was awesome.
Of course in my day we didn’t have the luxury of starting behind the safety car. There wasn’t much of a movement to try and make things safer in the wet back then. It has to be pretty bad for things to be stopped. I remember a race I was competing in at Silverstone in 1965 was red flagged, but only a couple of laps after I’d already spun off.
It was a Group 7 race with a whole bunch of Lola T70s and Mclaren MkIs. Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, myself, John Surtees, David Piper and company lined up, and it rained very very heavily, exactly like in China last weekend.
I always fancied myself in the wet, mainly as I discovered early on that this non-racing line tack worked quite well. I was stuck in third gear, which actually turned out to be a help, because after a slowish start, I found myself up in third spot.
Things continued to look good, and I recall passing Graham Hill while tanking down into Stowe on the Hangar Straight. Unfortunately soon after that I joined John Surtees in the ditch at Maggotts and I spun off as did a couple of other people because there was a lot of aquaplaning going on. It started off as a good race for me at least!
Similar conditioned awaited me at a Formula 5000 race at Mugello one year. For some reason I started near the back, and again I reveled in the rain, making to take the lead before half-distance. Soon after, they called the race off with me still at the front, so I was declared the winner.
In those days, you used to hang around the pits to collect your prize money from the organizers, along with your start money, since it was a long trek to Mugello from Leamington Spa in the first place!
The organizers tried to short change me because they said the race was only half as long as it was supposed to be, therefore they would only have to pay me half the money. I got full price in the end, but those tricky buggers were willing to try anything back then!
Spanish Grand Prix
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