Ah, the ‘what might’ve beens’ that litter every motorsport age. My favourites? If Stirling Moss hadn’t called time after his Goodwood crash on Easter Monday 1962, just how different might Formula 1 have looked through the 1960s?
And what about Jim Clark? Killed in 1968, he didn’t even get to sample slick tyres, never mind the game-changer of true downforce. Decades later, if only Ayrton Senna had lived beyond 1994. We only caught a glimpse of the early salvos in a brewing rivalry with Michael Schumacher before the great Brazilian was cruelly ripped away from us at Imola. There are scores of examples.
But now Autocar – in all too typical fashion – has pushed the daydreaming to a new level, to tee up the ultimate Formula 1 fantasy.
When push comes to shove, and with mix-and-match choices from across all eras, what would be your ultimate F1 dream team?
Entirely and unapologetically subjective, you’ll have your own favourites. But, crikey – choices, choices. Okay, let’s dive in.
Team captain: Ross Brawn
Like Colin Chapman – who very nearly got my vote – Brawn is an engineer and designer with the charisma, authority and weight of experience to lead up front.
He learned from another one of the best, Patrick Head at Williams, and designed promising Arrows grand prix cars and an epochal F1-in-sports-car-clothing in the Jaguar XJR-14, before being pulled into Benetton in 1991 by Tom Walkinshaw’s new alliance with Flavio Briatore.
Once Schumacher had been poached from under the nose of Eddie Jordan, Brawn was the key to unlocking the team’s dormant potential to win world championships then he repeated the feat, year after year, with Schumacher and Rory Byrne at Ferrari.
After a break to go fishing, it was at Honda-then under his own steam as the remarkable Brawn GP caught the zeitgeist with Jenson Button in 2009 – where his leadership qualities really began to blaze.