"I might as well start right at the beginning; 1987,
my first year in F1. '85 and '86, I took part in Formula 3000, and had a few
races in the Japanese Formula Two as well. I managed to win a couple of races,
get some good results, and got to know a few of the guys I'd be racing against over
the next few years. Tell you what - Satoru Nakajima, nicest bloke you'll ever
meet. Think he made his F1 debut in '87 as well, actually…Lotus, I think. My
start wasn't quite that glamorous.
Now, this was back in the era of turbo cars. Right at the
end, sure - '88 was the last year they had them - but still the turbo era. To tell
you the truth, I dunno whether to be pleased or pissed that I never got to race
one. When I was at Ferrari they let me have a go in an old one, and let me tell
you, it was one of the most fucking terrifying things I've ever done. Amazing,
but…utterly fucking terrifying. It's not so much the speed, or the noise, or
the power; I've driven faster cars, and I'm used to the noise. But the turbo
lag on those things was horrendous; you put your foot down, you get the first
couple of hundred horsepower, then two or three seconds later, WHAM!
In comes the whole one-thousand
horsepower in one whack, and if you're not expecting it, you're in the barrier
before you can say "red flag". I imagine in the rain it would've been
even worse. So, uhh, anyway…where was I?"
"I believe you were talking about your debut in
'87," said Saarinen.
"Ah, right, yeah. Well, my break in F1 came towards
the end of '86. With the turbos being phased out, racing in F1 looked more
lucrative, so before long, guys with more money than sense were queuing up to
start their own teams. You had all kinds of failures: Onyx, Coloni, Life,
Andrea Moda…hah! I'll have to tell you guys about some of them, their stories
are bloody hilarious."
"Weren't Andrea Moda the ones who got kicked out for
bringing the sport into disrepute?" asked Brooke.
"Pretty much, yeah," said Conor, trying not to
laugh. "But enough about them. Right now I'm gonna tell you all about
Hildebrand. David F. Hildebrand, their founder, was one of those guys with more
money than he knew what to do with. He'd made his fortune over in America,
selling auto parts, and maybe he thought having his own team would attract more
business or something, I dunno, but anyway, in '86 he set about creating his
own F1 team, and got accepted to the grid for '87. By the time he came to me, around
September, he had the car, the engines, the facilities, the personnel…everything
but the most important bit. Two drivers. 'Coz without two good drivers, doesn't
matter how good your car is, you're gonna do badly.
So anyway, I was at a Japanese F2 race over in Suzuka - came
either third or fourth, can't remember - and when I got back to the pits after
the race there was this guy I didn't recognize chatting to the mechanics. He
was a big guy, David; stocky, I think's the word. Shaved head, white shirt,
wore sunglasses all the time even when it wasn't sunny. Bet he wore 'em in bed
as well. I came over, and the guys introduced me to him; they said, Conor, this
is David Hildebrand, he'd like to talk to you about a potential F1 drive. I
asked him what team; he said his team, Hildebrand, I said I'd never heard of
'em; he said, not yet you haven't, we're a new entry for next year. Didn't
exactly fill me with confidence, but I was willing to hear him out. An F1
seat's an F1 seat.
We discussed it, and I thought about it a little. On the
one hand, it didn't sound too promising. This was a brand new team, with no
pedigree, no heritage. I could be walking into a catastrophe for all I knew. The
car was gonna use naturally-aspirated Ford engines; remember, the turbos were
still around back then. Almost everyone else had 'em. The car wasn't gonna do
very well. But on the other hand, like I said, an F1 seat's an F1 seat. As long
I didn't make a complete tit of myself, I'd get myself noticed, not just by the
teams, but by potential sponsors. I said this already, and I'll keep saying it:
this sport is all about the money. Even now, even if you're the next Ayrton
Senna, if you can't bring money to a team then you can forget about driving for
them."
"That's stupid," said Cervantes.
"Yeah, I know," admitted Conor, "but
that's the way it is, sadly. So anyway, maybe I wasn't gonna be winning races
at Hildebrand, but it was still a good opportunity to get a foothold in the
sport. So I said, look, I'll think it over and get back to you. He gave me his
number, and that was that for a little while.
Over the next month, I consulted with just about everyone
I could think of. My family, my friends, my team, my fellow drivers. Pretty
much every single one of 'em said, go for it. It's a fantastic opportunity, it
might only come once, and all the rest of it. It didn't look like I was gonna
get a better drive anywhere else, so come mid-October, I called Hildebrand up
and asked if he still had the seat free. It's yours if you want it, he said. So
I said, I'm in. And just like that, I had my first F1 drive. A couple of weeks
later I flew over to their factory in Austin - stupid place to base an F1 team,
but whatever - and I had my seat fitted. By the new year, my team-mate had been
decided - Allen Berg, the Canadian, who'd raced for Osella the previous year -
and we'd started testing. I have to admit, I was looking forward to the start
of the season. Formula 1 is the pinnacle of motorsport, the thing I'd been
dreaming about since I was a kid, and I was finally gonna be there, competing. I
think even Saarinen would've been excited."
Conor broke off as he and the others chuckled silently at
the joke. Even Saarinen cracked a little smile. "But anyway, that's how I
got into the sport," said Conor. "Do well next session, and I'll tell
you all how my first season went."
"You mean that's it?" said Dijkstra.
"For now, yeah," said Conor. "It's getting
late. Alright, let's tidy up a bit here and then head home."
While Dijkstra, Cervantes and Saarinen headed off to
change out of their racing overalls, Brooke helped her father put the dust
cover back on the old Ferrari. "You know," said Brooke, "I'm
surprised you haven't told me all these stories before."
"You never asked to hear them," Conor replied,
"so I thought you weren't interested."
"Of course I'm interested," said Brooke.
"I wanna follow in your footsteps, don't I?"
"Well then, you've have to try harder in training,"
said Conor, "and then you can follow in my footsteps and hear my stories. Sound like a good deal?"
Brooke nodded. "Yup."
"Alright," said Conor, "let's go get
changed."
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