Day 194

[from The Ballad of Conor Stewart]

GIRL POWER

It's been twenty-three years since Formula 1 last had a female driver. In this interview, AUTOSPORT's Ryan Nurse talks to the woman hoping to buck that trend.

In the sixty-five years since the Formula One World Championship began, only five women have ever taken part in a Grand Prix, and only two - Maria Teresa de Filippis and Lella Lombardi - have ever started one. Lombardi remains the only woman to have scored a championship point, at the tragic 1975 Spanish Grand Prix. All jokes about female drivers aside, women don't exactly have the greatest track record in F1, especially when compared to other motor racing disciplines.

The trend has been reversing recently. In the last few years, Susie Wolff, Simona de Silvestro, and the late Maria de Villota have all tested for various teams on the paddock. However, Giovanna Amati remains the last woman to have entered an F1 race, for Brabham in 1992, and she didn't exactly cover herself in glory. Now, one woman is aiming to rewrite the history books.

Step forward Brooke Stewart, daughter of 90s F1 racer Conor Stewart. The latest in a long line of second-generation drivers with F1 aspirations, Brooke is aiming to become not only the first female F1 driver in twenty-three years, but the most successful female F1 driver. With Lombardi having scored just half a point, it's arguably not the highest of bars.

"Maybe not," says Brooke with a chuckle, "but I think the biggest barrier really is just getting into F1. There are so few seats, and so many drivers competing for them, that it's hard just to get the chance. It's definitely easier to score points now than it was when Lella was racing, we've got points down to tenth now, but first I've got to actually get onto the grid."

To that end, Brooke and several other drivers are currently training at an elite racing school set up by her father Conor, at a private test track near his Perth home. Brooke and fellow pupil Sergio Cervantes are currently competing in the Formula Renault championship, but the 18-year-old has her sights set on following in her father's illustrious footsteps.

"It's always been F1 for me," she says, when asked if she would ever consider a different series such as DTM. "Of course, I'll race elsewhere if I can't get a seat, but F1 has always been the ultimate goal.

When asked why she feels there have been so few woman in Formula One, Brooke is reluctant to put it down to just sexism. "There's certainly a few guys out there who think, 'Oh, women can't drive', or 'I don't wanna be beaten by a girl', but it's definitely not as bad as it may have been when, say, Lombardi or Desiré Wilson [winner of a non-championship F1 race in 1980] were driving. I think maybe also, team owners will look at the track record of women in F1, which isn't that stellar, and think, 'Well, she's not gonna be much different, is she?'

As I talk to her, Brooke displays a wisdom beyond her years, and a boundless passion for racing. Despite having inherited the looks of her mother, supermodel Christina Bianchi, Brooke has chosen to walk her father's career path, one that's arguably even more hostile to women than the modelling world. However, Brooke believes that she can perhaps pave the way for a new generation of female racers.

"I think the biggest problem is that, you know, there aren't really any female racing icons to draw young girls into racing. There's Danica [Patrick, IndyCar driver] over in America, and that's it, really. It's similar to how there weren't many German drivers until [Michael] Schumacher came along in the 90s, or how there weren't as many Spanish drivers until [Fernando] Alonso came along. There needs to be a successful woman in the top level, saying, 'Look, women can do this as well,' and I think that's when we'll start seeing more women coming into the sport."

Does Brooke think she can be that female icon? "I sure hope so!" she says. "I don't wanna come into the sport and leave without making a mark, and I certainly don't want people thinking that I'm only getting this far because of my surname. If I do get into Formula One, I'd like to make a name for myself while I'm there."

Changing topics for a moment, I decide to ask Brooke about her classmates: Cervantes, Heimo Saarinen, and Stefan Dijkstra. Does she think any of them will ever reach F1? "I don't know," she says with a shrug. "They're all very good, but they're still learning, still refining their skills, just as I am. Maybe someday they will, maybe they never will. They have the potential, though, I think."

Brooke will have to go some way to emulate the success of her father, who won the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix for Tyrrell, and finished on the podium twenty-three times during his nine-year spell in F1. But in terms of becoming the most successful woman in the sport's history, as she aims to become, she's definitely in with a good chance.

Day 178

[from The Ballad of Conor Stewart]

"So, on to 1988, and my season at March. We'd had some fairly good results in pre-season testing, and I went into the first race knowing that I had a good car underneath me, and I was gonna get some solid results that season. If I'd had any doubts left about leaving Hildebrand, they were dispelled on the Saturday, when both cars failed to qualify!" Conor chuckled. "To be fair, I think they started that season with B-spec cars because the new ones weren't ready yet, but still, they were about nine seconds off pole position, which is diabolically slow. I knew Gary Brabham, he was their lead driver then, and I almost considered apologizing to him for having joined such a crap team." He chuckled again.

"Now, while he'd failed to qualify, I'd qualified… ninth, I think. I know I was alongside Ivan Capelli, in the other March. Either way, it was my best-ever qualifying by a long way. The race… that didn't quite go as well. My clutch gave out on the first lap, and that was the end of that. Ivan only lasted six laps before his engine gave out, so all things told, it wasn’t really the best of starts for us. I was still pretty enthusiastic though, as was Ivan. We both knew what this car's potential was.

"Sadly, things didn't really improve for the next few races. At San Marino I was a few places behind Ivan on the grid, and I finished ninth. I think Ivan had the same problem that race that I'd had in Brazil: his clutch gave out in the opening laps. After that, I retired from the next four races in a row, all of them with mechanical issues. I was running in the points in both Canada and Detroit until my car packed up, and by that point I was starting to get a little tired of it. I told the team, look, you gotta fix these reliability issues, this is a fast car with loads of potential, but it's even less reliable than the shitty Hildebrand I drove last year. Hell, it was less reliable than that year's Hildebrand, at least where the races were concerned.

"Now, I dunno what they did, I dunno how they fixed it, but after Detroit, I didn't retire again for the next nine races. Those nine races, as far as I'm concerned, were where my career really kicked off. I'd already been courting other teams, thinking that maybe March weren't going to be competitive as I thought they would be, but then the car's performance just shot right up, and in turn that caught the attention of the teams I'd been trying to court. In France we finished eighth and ninth, but at the British Grand Prix we qualified in fifth and sixth, and I finished fourth for my first points of the season, and my best-ever result. Two races later in Hungary, I finished fourth again, followed by a sixth-placed finish in Belgium.

"The best moment, however, came at Estoril. By then I'd already signed for Tyrrell for '89, and with turbos banned from '89 onwards, I expected them to be pretty competitive that year. Plus, I mean, you know, it's fucking Tyrrell, previously one of the most successful teams in F1. I was pretty damn excited about signing that contract, even more excited than I had been when I signed that first contract with Hildebrand. On top of that, our setup for Estoril was just absolutely sublime. It was pretty much the fastest car round the Parabolica, and at the other fast turns. It wasn't just me either, I talked to Ivan and he agreed that the car was set up absolutely perfectly. Something about our car just seemed to love that track.

"With all that positive energy and all that excitement, I promptly put the car third on the grid, with Ivan fourth. Suddenly there was this massive buzz around us, with people suggesting that we could even upset the McLarens in the race, and go on to take the win. I thought that was nonsense, to be honest with you: the McLarens had been one-and-a-half seconds ahead of us in qualifying, and of course we had atmo Judd engines, whereas they had the powerful Honda turbos. Not to mention that they were being driven by Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna, the two greatest drivers of their generation. I thought, yeah, the day I beat those McLarens is the day the world ends.

"Before the race, I had a chat with Ivan about our race prospects, and he seemed to think we were in with a chance of winning. After all, it would only take the two McLarens retiring for us to be first and second, and we'd be leading the race. It was a pretty big if, but the chance was there, and the last thing either of us wanted to do was fuck it all up by crashing into each other, so we agreed that whoever led into the first corner would keep that position for the rest of the race.  

"The first two starts were aborted due to people stalling, and by the third start I was thinking, come on, let's get away cleanly this time, I want my first podium already! Luckily the third start wasn't aborted, and just as I'd expected, the two McLarens pulled away pretty quickly. Ivan and I settled down for the long haul, not expecting to see them again, but then after a few laps I suddenly noticed that my gap to Senna in front had gone down by half a second. I thought, hang on, is that accurate? Has he made a mistake or something? Then the next lap it had gone down again, and I thought, hello, I'm catching him! Has he got a problem? Turns out he had, actually: his fuel gauge was on the fritz and he was slowing down to save fuel when he didn't need to. But all I knew at the time was that I was catching him, and I started pushing like hell to try and overtake him.

"By lap 20 or so, I'd caught up to him, and on lap 22 I out-braked him and drove right past, into second place. Capelli followed through shortly afterwards, and now we were second and third. My pit board quickly spelled out that I wasn't gonna catch Prost, he was long gone, but I didn't much care, because just being second was amazing enough for me. Sadly, it didn't quite last, as about twelve laps from the end I started having problems with the engine. I had to start nursing the car, dialling back the power to try and stop it from blowing up, and that meant letting Ivan through into second place, in spite of our promise. It wasn't easy, but I managed to hold off Thierry Boutsen behind me and bring the car home in third, for my first-ever podium.

"I really hope you guys get to stand on an F1 podium someday, because it's a tremendous feeling. The roar of the crowd below you, seeing your flag fluttering above you… well, not that last one anymore, because they've replaced the actual flags with fucking digital displays, I mean, really? That's just dumb. But yeah, it feels great being up on that podium, and that feeling never goes away no matter how many times you're up there. The champagne's pretty damn good, too. Me and Ivan went at it like kids in a water fight, showering each other and Alain- fuck, I coulda worded that better," he added, as Sergio and Stefan smirked. "Uhh… you guys know what I mean."

"Yeah, we know what you mean," said Sergio, trying to hold back a chuckle.

"Fucking… well yeah, anyway, that was my first podium, and the first of many," said Conor, trying to steer the proceedings back on track. "I went on to score points once more that season - fifth in Suzuka - though I was rather overshadowed there by Ivan briefly taking the lead. That was the first time an atmo car had led a race for five years, so even if it was only for a few hundred yards, it was still a pretty big deal. I was also impressed with my old mate Satoru Nakajima, who went into that race having just found out his mother had died, and went on to qualify sixth in the Lotus. We all admired him for that result, it was a pretty stellar performance from him.

"I went into the last race in Adelaide thinking I could get a pretty big result, and I had the crowd behind me all the way, but sadly I got caught up in an accident and crashed out. In the end I finished ninth in the championship, ahead of people like Nigel Mansell and Riccardo Patrese, and I'd sealed my reputation as one of the sport's brightest new talents. Now I was looking forward to '89, and what I hoped would be an even better season. And of course, it was, in quite a number of ways."

[dedicated to Jules Bianchi 1989-2015. RIP]

Day 161

[from The Ballad of Conor Stewart]

"So the last race of the '87 season was Adelaide, my home race. By that point, I'd already figured, well, Hildebrand weren't going anywhere, they didn't look like they were gonna improve for next season, I should start looking for another drive. At that point I couldn't help being a little concerned, 'coz I mean, there's always the chance that I switch teams and the team I switch to ends up being just as terrible as Hildebrand had been. I mean, look at Alonso this season, he could be winning races with Ferrari but instead he's fucking nowhere.

"But worse than that, of course, there was the chance that I wouldn't get another drive, and that would be it, my F1 career over. I couldn't handle that. Now that I'd gotten onto this crazy ride, I didn't wanna get off. None of us did. So I cast my net as wide as possible, chatting to all sorts of teams. I talked to Tyrrell, who'd already beaten us to the Colin Chapman Trophy for non-turbo cars. I talked to Brabham, obviously, but they ended up skipping '88 so that was a waste of time. I talked to March, I talked to Zakspeed, I talked to Dallara, who'd be joining in '88… in the end, it was March who signed me.

"But as well as just talking to everyone I could, I also decided that in that final race at Adelaide, I was gonna drive the damn nuts off that car, and show everyone on the paddock just what I was capable of. I'd done well so far that season, but I still had no points, whereas Allen Berg still had his from Hockenheim. People had started to take notice of me, even in that uncompetitive Hildebrand, but I needed just that one really solid performance, to really sell myself as a top-quality driver. I figured, Adelaide's a circuit with a lot of retirements every year, and I knew it pretty well, so I stood a pretty good chance.

"Now, I can't say I was the least popular driver on the grid - I don't think anybody these days would know who Philippe Streiff was if he hadn't paralyzed himself in '89 - but I certainly didn't have the support that drivers like Prost, Senna, Piquet, and Mansell had. At least, not until Adelaide. Suddenly, you're the only local driver on the grid, and the eyes of an entire nation of sports fans are focused squarely on you. Hopes weren't exactly high, considering who I was driving for and everything, but you still gotta cheer on the local boy, haven't you?"

The four young drivers all nodded in affirmation. Though only Brooke and Sergio had home Grands Prix - Sergio for the first time in his lifetime - all four had home favourites to cheer on. Stefan had Max Verstappen - who was the same age as he was - Sergio had his namesake Sergio Perez, Brooke had Daniel Ricciardo, and Heimo, of course, had ex-World Champion Kimi Raikkonen to cheer on, not to mention potential future champion Valtteri Bottas.

"So yeah, when I turned up at Adelaide prior to the race, the atmosphere was unlike any other race I'd ever been to at that point," Conor continued. "Everywhere I went, there were people cheering me on, or asking for my autograph, or wishing me good luck for the race. The grandstands were full of Australian flags, as well as the usual British, French, and Brazilian ones, and I had about three different TV networks lining me up for interviews. Compared to what I'd experienced before, it was quite the trip. It was also even more of a motivator for me: I thought, all these people have come here just to watch me drive this piece of crap, I can't let them down.

"I ended up 17th in qualifying that weekend, which put me ahead of all the other non-turbo cars, and a few of the turbos as well. I think that was my best qualifying that year as well, so that was probably enough to raise a few eyebrows. During the race I ended up as high as 4th at one point, ahead of Jonathan Palmer, but then towards the end my transmission started to go a bit funny and I had to settle for 5th in the end. Still my first-ever points though, and at my home race as well. I think that one performance was the point where people really started to sit up and think, hang on a minute, this bloke can actually drive!" Conor chuckled.

"But yeah, that was my first season in F1 over and done with. Hildebrand finished… was it ninth in the championship that year? I think it was ninth. I think Tyrrell were in eighth, and we were behind them, so… yeah, probably ninth. As for myself, I was 18th in the drivers' championship, with just those two points. After how Adelaide went, I was pretty confident that somebody would sign me for '88, and sure enough, March came round and said, yeah, we'll give you the drive. Funnily enough, I think they'd finished below us in the championship that year, so it didn't seem like the smartest of moves at the time, but I could sense that Hildebrand were going to struggle in '88, and March were going to go places. So I figured it'd be a good move.

"As it happened, I was right. You see, March had just hired a new designer for that year. You might have heard of him: he's called Adrian Newey." The youngsters' ears pricked up at the mention of a very familiar face. "Yep. The very same Adrian Newey who designed the all-conquering Williamses of the early 90's, and the Red Bulls of the last few years. '88 was his first season as an F1 designer, and I have to admit, the March 881 wasn't his best design; it was too cramped, and the nose was too narrow, your legs weren't very comfortable. It was still undeniably fast, though. Compared to the old Hildebrand, that thing was a fucking revelation. I thought to myself, this is it, this is the season I finally make my mark on this sport. And sure enough, it was." 

Day 85

[from The Ballad of Conor Stewart]

"So previously, the Monaco Grand Prix had had less places on the starting grid than every other race, because of how tight and twisty it was. Prior to '87, only 20 cars were able to qualify. Starting in '87, however, you had a full grid of 26 cars there. Only 28 showed up, and one of 'em got disqualified after crashing into Alboreto at Beau Rivage, so we were pretty much guaranteed a place on the starting grid. Pretty lucky, really, because if we'd started in '86, or they hadn't had that rule change, then we probably wouldn't have made it. Sure enough, we both qualified, me in twenty-first and Allen in twenty-fourth. He retired, but I came through in eleventh, ahead of the Ligiers, which was pretty good.

"I'll skip forward a bit now. Detroit was technically our home race, being an American team, but we both retired from that: my gearbox went, and Allen slammed into the barriers. Hildebrand wasn't too impressed, but there wasn't much we could've done about it. At France I retired again - my engine went that time - but Allen came through in seventh, behind Palmer, for our best-ever result up to that point. Now that might sound impressive, but I think only eight cars finished that race, so it really wasn't." Conor chuckled. "But hey, we were getting onto the grid for each race, we were fighting with the Tyrrells to be the best of the naturally-aspirated cars, so for our first season in F1, we weren't really doing all that badly. You look at the other naturally-aspirated teams that season - AGS, March, Larrousse - we were grinding their faces into the dirt each and every weekend.

"At Silverstone I finished eighth - again, out of only nine, but that time it meant I was the fastest of all the naturally-aspirated cars. Even if only two of them actually finished, but still, a prize is a prize. Now, for that season only, the FIA had side competitions for the naturally-aspirated runners: the Jim Clark Trophy for drivers, and the Colin Chapman Trophy for constructors. So as I was the fastest naturally-aspirated driver that day, I basically got a trophy for finishing second-from-last, which was amusing to say the least. It's probably still in my cabinet somewhere, actually.

 "Next race was Germany, at Hockenheim. Gotta say, I hate what they've done with the place. I loved the old Hockenheim, all those long, sweeping straights… alright, maybe it wasn't the safest place in the world, but it was a great circuit to race on. Blasting down a kilometre-long straight at 200 miles an hour, with another car right beside you…  you just don't get that anymore. It's sad that you guys will never get to drive that circuit, it was fantastic.

"Anyway, enough gushing about Hockenheim… Germany '87 was where we scored our first point. Not me, sadly… I was one of, like, fifteen people whose engines blew up during the race. Made it to about the halfway point, and suddenly there's flames coming out the back and I'm like, shit! Pull up! Pull up! Pulled over, got out, and that was my race run. Was I upset that Allen went on to finish sixth and get our first points? A little. But at the same time, I thought, well, if he can do it, so can I. I'll just have to wait for that opportunity.

"That was the halfway point of the season, and by that point I'd gotten a feel for the car. I knew how to get the most out of it. At the next race, in Hungary, I qualified fifteenth, my best grid position to date. That was when people started to take notice of me. Our car wasn't as good as the Tyrrell, but there I was, right alongside them on the grid. Then at the next race in Austria, I qualified highest out of all the non-turbo cars, while Allen failed to qualify at all. As for the race… well, that was pretty damn crazy.

"At the first start, three different people crashed, though I managed to avoid that particular carnage. Second time round, I wasn't that lucky. Someone got away slowly at the front, the whole grid condensed, and then a couple of people ploughed into each other and that just sparked a chain-reaction. Before I can really do anything, I'm sandwiched between Alex Caffi and Christian Danner, my front wheels have come off, and I'm sliding into the gravel trap with the rest of them. Now, this was back in the days when they still had spare cars - they don't anymore, so if a big first-lap pile-up like that happens again, you're looking at a race with only fourteen cars at the restart, which is just silly, in my opinion.

"Anyway, by the time the race truly got underway, it should already have finished. When it finally was over, without any more drama on my end, I was eleventh, and won another nice trophy for being the fastest of the non-turbos. By that point, I was happy with where I was. I was battling to be second in the overall Jim Clark Trophy - there was no way I was gonna beat Palmer, his lead was too big by that point - and I was getting some good results.

"After the race, I actually had a chat with Ayrton Senna - I knew him through his team-mate Satoru Nakajima, who like I've said before, was a great bloke. Now, at that time, Senna was starting to think that his future prospects at Lotus weren't all that good; he'd won two races that season, but those turned out to be the last races Lotus ever won, and by that point Williams were dominating. So we got into a discussion about it, and he was like, well, every driver wants to win races, and win championships, so if moving teams will help me do that, then I'll do it. I was like, yeah, you're lucky in that regard, you've got a reputation already. You could walk into any team you wanted, whereas if I left Hildebrand, finding a better drive next year would be hell. He said, well, you can hardly get a worse drive, can you?" Conor chuckled as he remembered. "I actually could've done, to be fair, but only barely.

"Anyway, after that, he said something that stuck with me for a while afterwards. He said, from what I've seen of you in practice, you're a pretty good driver. If you were in the Lotus, you'd be scoring a decent amount of points. Now, I wasn't too sure, but he was like, trust me, you're good. With the right car, you'd be right up there. And that stuck with me. I realized I'd become complacent: I was like, yeah, I'm at the back of the grid, and that's fine with me, but it wasn't, really. Senna was right, all racing drivers want to win, they want to be in a position where they can win. And not just class victories, which was what I'd been getting so far with the Jim Clark Trophy: actual, overall victories. Getting to stand on that top step and drink the champagne. I wanted that. I wasn't gonna get it at Hildebrand, but if I drove my nuts off, like Senna had done when he drove for Toleman, I'd build up that reputation and be able to get a drive at a team that could give me that opportunity. I already felt comfortable in the car, I knew what I was capable of, so I decided to just go for it."

Day 60

[from The Ballad of Conor Stewart]

"Okay, so, where was I?"

"You were about to tell us about your first season," said Saarinen.

"Ah, yes, that's right," said Conor. "Okay, so… Brazil '87 would've been my first F1 race. You can imagine I was a bit nervous going into it. I'd done all the testing, I'd done the practice mileage, but now I was actually going to race the thing. As luck would have it, there were only, I think, 25 entrants that day, so at least I didn't have to worry about making the grid - there was no 107% rule in those days, of course, so all you had to do was actually set a quali lap and you were on the grid, no questions asked. Mind you, with the gulf between the turbos and non-turbos, a 107% rule wouldn't exactly have been fair.

"Now, Allen, of course, had a bit more F1 experience than I did, and he'd driven the circuit before, whereas I hadn't, so he gave me a few pointers on the best lines to take. I took in the tips, did my best during the practice sessions, went out for qualifying, and ended up 20th, with Allen 22nd. Can't remember how many non-turbos there were on the grid that day… five, maybe six? ….but we were slap-bang in the middle of 'em. From our point of view, that was the important thing: we weren't racing the turbos, except for the slower ones like Zakspeed and Osella. We were racing the other non-turbos.

"So I lined up on the starting grid, for my first-ever F1 race. I remember I was alongside Martin Brundle, in his Zakspeed, and as the flag dropped - it was a flag in those days, not five lights - when the flag dropped, I actually got a better start than him, and managed to get past him for a bit until his turbo kicked in and he went straight back past me. Funnily enough, though, he retired on lap 15 when his turbo gave out. Allen retired as well… I, uhh, I think his engine blew up. I don't remember exactly, but there was a lot of smoke coming out of his car when I drove past it, so it was either an engine problem or some kinda oil leak.

"I actually finished the race. Now, I've probably said that the cars in those days were difficult to drive, but actually, the Hildebrand wasn't all that difficult once I'd gotten the hang of it. Yeah, it was slow, but that made it all the more easy to handle. It was a good beginner's car, I think. I think if I'd leapt in at the deep end, with a turbo team like Brabham, I probably would've struggled more in that first season than I did with Hildebrand in the end. So while it wasn't a great first season in terms of results, it was excellent in terms of allowing me to find my feet in F1. So if you guys can only get offered a race seat at, say, Marussia or Caterham, don't just assume it's below you and turn it down. Any experience is good experience, and many of the sport's greats started out at the bottom like I did. Fernando Alonso, for example. He started out at Minardi, and look how he turned out.

"Anyway, uhh… I finished 12th out of 13 finishers at that first race in Brazil. Nearly finished 11th, but Streiff in his Tyrrell leapfrogged me at the final round of stops. I wasn't sure how to feel about the result, really. On the one hand, I'd at least finished, and I hadn't really been expecting to do that well in the first place. On the other hand, no matter how you look at it, I was second from last. I wasn't looking forward to my prospects for the season. I chatted to a couple of the other guys about it and they basically all said, well, you've only just started. Get some experience under your belt, get some good results, and if you prove yourself, then it'll all fall into place in the end. So I figured, alright then, might as well tough it out. Got nothing to gain from giving up after only one race.

"Things stayed like that for a while. By Imola, there were now enough entrants that some people weren't going to qualify. Nelson Piquet crashed during practice, had to sit out the race, and that took the pressure off a little, and in the end both me and Allen qualified. I finished 11th out of 14, helped by a couple of cars running out of fuel but still getting classified, and Berg retired again. At Belgium it was my turn to retire, after my gearbox gave out, and Allen finished 10th out of 11. Then came the big one: my first Monaco Grand Prix.

"I'd never been to Monaco before, never raced that circuit, but of all the races on the calendar that year, that was the one I was looking forward to the most. That, and my home race at Adelaide. When we got there, I must've spent hours just wandering around, taking it all in. It was weird, though, 'coz I mean, a couple of the guys actually lived there, like a lot of 'em do now, they knew the people and the places and everything. They'd be stopping their neighbours on the street and having a chat with them. The famous guys, like Senna, Berger, Prost, they were constantly getting stopped and asked for photos and autographs and shit. I didn't get stopped once. Nobody knew who the hell I was!" Conor chuckled, grinning fondly. "I dunno if I preferred it like that, or the constant autograph requests I got after I moved to Ferrari. They both had their perks, if I'm honest, but they were both pretty annoying. At that time, I wanted to be known like the others. By '95, I was walking down the street wishing nobody knew who I was still!" He chuckled again. "Yeah, good times, though.

"Hildebrand managed to book rooms for me and Allen at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort. Oh, man, it was the best fucking hotel I'd ever slept in. I felt like a king. It was at that point - standing on the balcony of my room, looking out at the Monte Carlo sunset - it was then that I thought, I can't give this up. What does it matter if I'm finishing second-from-last every race, and struggling to even get on the grid? This is the greatest ride I've ever been on, and I'm being paid to take it. I'll be damned if I'm getting off."

Day 11

[from The Ballad of Conor Stewart]

"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."