Roger Benoit about the good old days in Formula 1

Experienced paddock journalist Roger Benoit told several interesting stories in an interview with Blick…

Question: Roger, do you remember your assessment of the team leaders in 1998?
Roger Benoit: Certainly. I then gave my assessment to eleven team leaders. From last place and one point for McLaren’s Ron Dennis to ten points for Giancarlo Minardi.

This hit parade appeared shortly before the Argentine Grand Prix. In Buenos Aires, Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone instructed his right-hand man, Pasquale Lattunedddu, to make copies and post them everywhere. When I went to the toilet in the paddock, Ron Dennis looked at me very angrily. I think if he had a gun he would have shot me.

I realized this when I went to the toilet, where there was also a copy of my hit parade. But I also received positive feedback. In the press room, a man in a Minardi uniform came up to me and said his boss would like to speak to me. In the paddock, Giancarlo Minardi told me I could eat with their team for free for the rest of my life.

Question: We miss the good old days when the team leaders were real riders and not managers…
Roger Benoit: Talking about Buenos Aires and real racers. I think of Ken Tyrrell. At the Argentine Grand Prix, Ecclestone offered him $100 if he pushed Colin Chapman into the pool. Of course Tyrrell did just that.

Q: They say Tyrrell forbade drivers from having sex the night before the race…
Roger Benoit: Yes, Jackie Stewart told me about this once. But Tyrrell had other quirks.

If a driver came onto the track unshaven or wearing shorts, he was sent back to the hotel. I once dined at Anderstorp with Martin Brundle. At exactly 10pm Tyrrell came to us and told Brundle it was time for him to go to bed. He got up and went to bed.

Frank Williams was also a real racing driver. Bernie saved his team twelve times when it was on the brink of financial collapse.

Question: Speaking of Bernie Ecclestone, has he, as boss, pitted team leaders against each other?
Roger Benoit: Bernie has started many fires, which he then put out himself. He liked to say to the boss of Team One day Bernie even suggested something incredible.

Year after year, one of the teams complained to him about the regulations. At one point Bernie said: Then write the rules yourself. They were actually allowed to do that, but they did not become world champions that season. Welcome to Maranello…

Question: In the wild years of Formula 1, some team managers were not entirely decent…
Roger Benoit: There was such a person – Jean-Pierre van Rossem, head of Onyx. It looked like he came from the criminal world. He had one foot in the Belgian parliament and the other in prison. He always drove up in a Ferrari, and half-naked women got out with him.

There was another similar person whose name I forgot. When English journalists criticized him too much, he would invite them into his car and then drop them off in the middle of nowhere.

Question: There was a period when several Italian teams participated in the championship. Wasn’t it always clean there too?
Roger Benoit: No. There were teams, especially Italian ones, who officially received 10 million dollars from the sponsor and then gave a bribe of 5 million. It was a good deal for both parties.

Q: Speaking of legendary leaders, we can’t help but think of Eddie Jordan and Flavio Briatore…
Roger Benoit: Jordan was sneaky. He still cannot understand why his former colleague Peter Sauber once gave a third of his team to a woman.

Q: What about Flavio Briatore?
Roger Benoit: A real playboy, a kind of James Hunt among the team bosses. One day he invited me to his yacht in Monte Carlo. And suddenly I saw Naomi Campbell on it. That was incredible. But this isn’t my world. And it certainly cannot be compared to today.

Question: How is he today?
Roger Benoit: Team bosses used to have drive and passion. Nowadays it’s all about money. Every team is worth a billion. If the team boss today does not earn 150,000 euros a month, then he is doing something wrong. Formula 1 used to be a sport, now it’s just money, money, money.

Question: What would your hit parade of team leaders look like now?
Roger Benoit: The winner with nine points would be AlphaTauri’s Franz Tost. Too bad he won’t be with us in 2024. He was always open and honest. It is great that his former student Max Verstappen paid such warm tribute to his retirement from Formula 1 during the last Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.

Haas’ Günther Steiner would finish second with eight points. Unlike many others, he does not know how to speak beautifully, but he is truthful and modest. In third place with seven points is Andrea Stella from McLaren: always friendly and willing to provide information.

Williams’ James Vowles has six points: the former Mercedes head of strategy is doing excellently. Aston Martin’s Mike Krack also has six points. The former Hinvil man is always friendly, but team owner Stroll doesn’t always allow him to say what he thinks. Mercedes’ Toto Wolff also gets six points. He is very smart, is a clear leader, keeps everything under control, but is often too emotional.

Five points for Andreas Seidl of Alfa Romeo/Sauber. After leaving McLaren, things went well with that team, but he had a hard time in Hinwil.

Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur each receive five points. Horner is a tough guy. He is not willing to compromise, he has only one opinion: the opinion of his team. Ferrari’s Vasser has yet to prove he can take the reins at Maranello as Binotto’s successor.

In last place with two points is Alpine’s Bruno Famen: the front man of the traditionally troubled French team. A marginal figure and successor to the charismatic Otmar Szafnauer, who now provides VIP guests at many races for the FIA.

Q: Surprisingly, there are names on your list that many people don’t know…
Roger Benoit: That is the problem. These aren’t racers anymore. Many can be easily replaced. They have excellent speech. They are talkers. Previously, Mo Nunn and his Ensign team took to the track with only ten technicians. Today, many teams employ as many as 50 people in advertising and marketing departments alone. Hard to imagine!