Mike Thackwell

Nationality:	New Zealand	Races Entered:	5
Date of Birth:	30 March, 1961	DNQ/DNPQ:	3
Teams:	Arrows (1980) Tyrrell (1980, 84) RAM (1984)	Best Result:	DNF (29 laps) Canada, 1984

BIOGRAPHY

Before Formula One

Luigi Fagioli shared a Grand Prix victory when he was 53. Juan Mañuel Fangio won his fifth World Championship when he was 46. George Follmer made his F1 debut when he was 39, and Nigel Mansell won his world title at the same age. These days, the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, who was drafted into F1 from Formula Renault, represent the trend towards younger and younger drivers. But as yet no one has been younger when they started their first Grand Prix than Mike Thackwell, from Auckland in New Zealand. The term 'meteoric' has often been used to describe some drivers' rise to the top, but never was the term more applicable than to Thackwell. As an 18 year old in 1979, he competed in the Vandervell British F3 series in a works March 793 Toyota, and stunned the establishment. With 71 points, 5 wins at Brands Hatch, Silverstone, Snetterton, Oulton Park and Thruxton, plus one 2nd place and three 3rd places, he was 3rd in the championship behind Chico Serra and Andrea de Cesaris.

More to the point, he beat the likes of Stefan Johansson, Kenny Acheson, Mansell, Roberto Guerrero, Eddie Jordan, and even Alain Prost. Although another season in F3 wouldn't have done him any harm, Thackwell was a man on the move, and March took him into F2 for 1980, giving him a works 802 with a BMW engine. He retired in his first race at Thruxton, and also dropped out of the next two at Hockenheim and the Nurburgring, although he set the fastest lap of the race in both. Then came a string of points results, with 4ths at Vallelunga and Pau, 3rd at Silverstone, and 6th at Zolder. The end of his season trailed off a little though, Mike finishing 19th at Mugello and 9th at Enna, but retiring at Zandvoort and Misano. Still, 8th overall with 11 points in his first season of F2 was nothing to sneeze at, and in fact he had put in several brilliant drives without always getting the results they deserved. Nonetheless, before 1980 was out, Thackwell's ascension to the top of the motor racing ladder was complete.

Formula One, part I

Despite his age and limited experience, his F2 drives had been so impressive that the Ensign team had actually offered him an F1 drive during the 1980 season, but Mike turned the opportunity down. But when F1 came calling for a second time, he did not refuse. That year, the two drivers for the Arrows team were Riccardo Patrese and Jochen Mass. At round 10 in Austria, Mass suffered a huge practice crash that kept him out of the race, and clouds hung over his participation in the next round in Holland. Mass was entered to drive the Arrows A3 Cosworth at Zandvoort, but Thackwell agreed to be put on stand-by. Sure enough, when the German was not well enough to drive, Mike took the spot. Making one's Grand Prix debut at any time is daunting enough; in these circumstances it would have been particularly difficult. And although he was not quite fast enough to qualify, the New Zealander did enough to prove that he was without doubt a star in the making.

In fact, his efforts that weekend were quite amazing. There were 28 entries, but only 24 would start. Thackwell was 27th fastest, but only 2.78 seconds behind pole-sitter René Arnoux. Furthermore, he had only been half a second away from making the grid, and he had gone faster than the Fittipaldi of future World Champion Keke Rosberg. Indeed, Mike was just 1.32 seconds slower than team-mate Patrese who had driven the A3 all year, unlike Thackwell who had never sat in the car before. This was enough to capture the attention of one of F1's greatest talent scouts, Ken Tyrrell. The Kiwi was invited to do some testing for Ken's team, and at the season-ending races at Montreal and Watkins Glen, where Tyrrell decided to run a third 010 chassis alongside those of Jean-Pierre Jarier and Derek Daly, Mike would get another opportunity to become the youngest ever man to qualify for a Grand Prix. And in Canada, he duly achieved that feat.

Once again 24 of the 28 entries were allowed to start, and Thackwell was the 24th quickest. He was 3.708s behind Nelson Piquet's Brabham on pole, but only marginally slower than Arnoux's Renault and Gilles Villeneuve's Ferrari. Better still, one of the drivers he relegated into the DNQ ranks was none other than reigning World Champion Jody Scheckter in the other Ferrari! Scheckter was forced to sit out the race along with Marc Surer's ATS and the private Williamses of Rupert Keegan and Kevin Cogan. When the race started, though, Thackwell was caught up in a multi-car accident that also involved team-mate Daly, and the race was stopped. Tyrrell did not have enough spare machinery to allow either of them to take the restart. So in fact could Mike be counted to have started at all? That remains a matter for conjecture, but if he is considered to have started, then he was the youngest F1 driver ever to do so at the age of 19. Perhaps it is safer just to say that he is the youngest man ever to have qualified for a Grand Prix.

At any rate, he had another opportunity at the next event, the USA East Grand Prix. Here there were only 27 entrants, but Mike suffered a fractured brake disc in qualifying, damaging his rear suspension. As a result, the time he recorded was a massive 17.811 seconds off the fastest set by Bruno Giacomelli's Alfa Romeo, although in no way did he get a real shot at qualifying the car. Geoff Lees in a private Williams did not record a time, so Thackwell was 26th quickest, but only the top 25 were allowed to start. Undoubtedly Thackwell had the speed to cut it in Formula One. His three entries in 1980 had shown that. But maybe in terms of experience a little bit more time and success in lower categories would hold him in good stead. Tyrrell had only been running a third car for him, but for 1981 they would revert to a two-car entry with drivers such as Eddie Cheever and Michele Alboreto on their books. Mike was out of F1 for the time being, but he was probably happy to return to F2 to learn his craft some more.

Between Formula One

Sadly, 1981 turned out to be a severe disappointment. Having joined the works Ralt team to drive their RH6/81 powered by a Honda engine, and installed by many as the favourite for the F2 title, Thackwell duly won the opener at Silverstone from pole. He then came 3rd at Hockenheim, but a huge crash at Thruxton left him on crutches and derailed his season. A 6th at Pau, two 5ths at Mugello and Donington and a 3rd at Misano late in the season were scant consolation as Mike slipped to 6th overall with 22 points. At the start of 1982, Ralt boss Ron Tauranac still had his doubts over the New Zealander's fitness, and dropped him from the team. This was a terrible blow to a young man who, having already tasted F1, had gone back to F2 to win and to build up his confidence. With a limited budget, he landed a drive for the Horag Racing team in a March 822 BMW for the first round at Silverstone, in what was very much a race-by-race agreement, but retired.

The next race at Hockenheim saw Thackwell driving a Bertram Schäfer Racing Maurer MM82 BMW, but he retired there as well. For the rest of the season, he had seven more drives in the Horag car, including back-to-back 3rd places at Pau and in pouring rain at Spa, leaving him equal 10th with 8 points, an OK return for a year where he was literally scraping from race to race. At the end of the year, Horag also took him to the JAF Grand Prix at Suzuka, a round of the Japanese F2 championship, where he finished 7th. Tauranac accepted him back at Ralt for 1983, and for Mike this was the opportunity to make up for lost time. Driving the new Ralt RH6/83H Honda, Thackwell had a tremendously consistent season, taking three 3rds, five 2nds and a win at Jarama. But it was not enough, as team-mate Jonathan Palmer took more victories, including the last five races on the trot, scoring 68 points to Thackwell's 51. 3rd for Mike in the JAF Grand Prix did little to alleviate the pain of having missed out on the F2 title once again.

Here was a man who surely belonged in F1, but who had made something of a jump start in 1980 and whose talent was now being criminally wasted in F2. Remaining with Ralt, and with a new RH6/84, nothing was going to stop him in 1984, and despite having Roberto Moreno as his team-mate, Thackwell dominated the season. He won the first race at Silverstone and finished 2nd to Moreno by 0.53 of a second at the next event, setting the fastest lap of the race in both. Then, but for one pole position, he would have taken the trifecta of pole, fastest lap and race win in each of the next four races. Two more wins, three more poles and three more fastest laps in the last five events left Thackwell with 72 points to Moreno's 44, and seven wins out of 11 races, having led 408 of the 580 laps. As it was the last year of F2 before the category became F3000, Thackwell ended up with 9 F2 wins in total, third only in the all-time list behind Bruno Giacomelli with 11 and Jochen Rindt with 12.

Formula One, part II

In the middle of his season of dominance, two more fleeting F1 opportunities finally came his way again. For the Canadian GP, he was called on to replace his ex-team mate Palmer at the RAM team. With 26 of the 27 entries to start, when Patrick Tambay's Renault did not record a time, Mike was guaranteed his second (first?) Grand Prix start. He duly qualified the uncompetitive RAM 02 with its Hart turbo in 25th place, 8.288s behind Piquet's Brabham on pole. More to the point, he was faster than team-mate Philippe Alliot by 1.556 seconds. This time Thackwell got off the line cleanly, and there were to be no more pile-ups and restarts. He was up to 21st place on lap 30 when a broken turbo wastegate forced him out of the race. Palmer then took the seat back again, but for the German GP at Hockenheim, Tyrrell was knocking on Mike's door once more when Stefan Bellof was unavailable to drive.

Tyrrell had started the season with Bellof and Martin Brundle, but the Englishman had been injured at Dallas and was now replaced by Stefan Johansson, so in effect the team had two substitute drivers at Hockenheim. But sadly, the Tyrrells with their non-turbo Cosworth V8 in the 012 chassis were hopelessly uncompetitive along the straight blasts through the pine forests, and out of 27 entries, with 26 to start, they were 26th and 27th. Unfortunately, it was Johansson who was 26th. Stefan was 12.449s off Prost on pole, and even 2.664s behind Palmer in 25th place. But the key thing was that he had pipped Thackwell by 0.055s, so it was the Swede who started. Bellof returned thereafter, but Mike had reason to hope that a full-time F1 offer would come his way for 1985. Amazingly, none came. But at the start of 1986 he was asked to do some pre-season testing for RAM at Rio de Janeiro, possibly with a view to a full-time drive, but, in typical Thackwell luck, the team folded before the season began.

After Formula One

Towards the end of 1984, having accomplished all there was to accomplish in F2 and with his F1 career heading up nothing but dead ends, Thackwell had the opportunity to sample other racing categories. He drove in two sports car races, coming 21st at the Nurburgring in an Obermaier Racing Porsche 956 with Jürgen Lässig and David Sutherland, and finishing 5th at Fuji in a Kremer Racing Porsche 956 with Manfred Winkelhock. Then, across the Atlantic in America, after Rick Mears had tangled with Corrado Fabi in a CART race, injuring his legs, Thackwell was drafted in to replace him in the Pennzoil March 84C Cosworth for the last two races of the season. Effectively, Mike got to drive the car that had won the Indy 500 that year, and he acquitted himself well enough, qualifying 11th at both Laguna Seca and Las Vegas, but retiring from both races with a broken oil line and overheating respectively.

Without an F1 offer, Thackwell was now desperately hoping for a CART drive for 1985, but that did not materialise either. So, with great reluctance, he followed Ralt into the inaugural F3000 series in 1985. He was essentially competing in the same championship that he had dominated the previous year, and one could not blame him if at times he was giving less than his all. Still, in his works Ralt RT20 Cosworth, he showed flashes of his speed, taking five pole positions in twelve races. He took three wins at Silverstone, Spa and Enna, and also two fastest laps, but he also crashed out three times and was unlucky in other races. In the end, with 45 points he was beaten to 2nd in the championship by Christian Danner, and by now he was understandably getting fed up. Indeed, he had spent some of 1985 in sports cars anyway, having come 6th at Mugello in the Obermaier Porsche 956 with Lässig and Hervé Regout, and 9th at the Le Mans 24hrs in the Kremer Porsche 962C with Jarier.

1985 had also seen Thackwell drive four races for the TWR Jaguar team in their XJR-6. With Brundle he retired at Mosport after only 12 laps due to a wheel bearing failure, but the pair had come 5th at Spa. Then at Fuji, where Mike was scheduled to drive with John Nielsen, the European teams refused to race in the atrociously wet conditions, but Thackwell and Nielsen rounded off the season in fine style with 2nd place at the Shah Alam circuit in Malaysia. Once the aforementioned RAM F1 drive disappeared into thin air, Thackwell really didn't want to race F3000 again in 1986, and refused to commit himself to Ralt for a full season. He did drive the Ralt RT20 Honda in four races, starting and finishing 4th at Silverstone, taking victory from 2nd on the grid at Pau, coming 9th at Enna including the fastest lap after a brilliant charge from a dismal 19th on the grid, and crashing out at Jarama having started 3rd. In truth, his heart was not really in it, but these results left him 8th overall with 10.5 points.

But 1986 had also seen Thackwell join the works Kouros Racing Sauber team to drive their C8 Mercedes in several World Sportscar Championship events. At Silverstone, he came 8th with Nielsen and Henri Pescarolo, while at Le Mans the car he shared with Nielsen retired after only 61 laps with engine failure. However, he then teamed up with Pescarolo to win the Nurburgring round and come 6th at Spa, placing him 16th in the WSC with 29 points. Concentrating on his sports car racing with Sauber for 1987, it was to be a season of yet more disappointment in the new C9. Having retired at Silverstone, the car he shared with Johnny Dumfries and Chip Ganassi retired early at Le Mans. Mike then stepped into the other car of Pescarolo and Hideki Okada, only for that car to fail as well. After that, driving variously with Manuel Reuter, Pescarolo, Dumfries and Jean-Louis Schlesser, the best he could do with Sauber was 7th at Spa, where he set the fastest lap.

During the year he had also raced the C9 in three Supercup races, with his best being 3rd at the Nurburgring. But before 1987 was out, Thackwell had left Sauber, and salvaged his WSC season with 3rd place at Fuji in a Britten Lloyd Racing Porsche 962C-GTi with Mauro Baldi. This also counted towards the Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, in which earlier in the year he had also won at Suzuka with Okada in a From A Racing Porsche 962C. Overall, he was equal 29th in the WSC and 8th in the JSPC. 1987 had also seen Thackwell return to his homeland, winning the New Zealand International Championship for Formula Pacific cars in a Ralt RT4 Ford, but this seemed to be little more than a novelty. Come 1988, Mike had become disillusioned with both sports cars and open wheelers. He made a one-off return to F3000 in a works Ralt RT22 Judd at Pau, qualifying 10th and finishing 7th, but then walked away from motor racing for good.

Thackwell has had virtually no contact with motorsport ever since, except for the tenuous link that he is David Brabham's brother-in-law, his sister Lisa having married the Aussie ace. But for Mike himself, according to Richie Jenkins, he has spent the last dozen years or so in a variety of jobs in between sightseeing. He has been a special needs teacher in London, a helicopter pilot, a steeplejack, a miner, and is now believed to be running a pub in England. Reputedly, Mike now detests F1 and will have nothing to do with it. He probably felt as though motorsport had dealt him a very poor hand and, apart from his 1984 F2 season, it seemed as though he had been thwarted at every turn. In truth, he had probably risen up the racing ranks too quickly and too soon, and he had been subjected to the trials and tribulations of top flight motorsport before he was ready for it. His career was a sad waste of his obvious prodigious talent, but very little of that had been his own fault.

CAREER SUMMARY

Before Formula One
1979	• Vandervell British F3 championship, 3rd overall, 71 points, 5 wins in a works March 793 Toyota.
1980	• Formula 2, 8th overall, 11 points in a works March 802 BMW.
Formula One, part I
1980	• Arrows A3 Cosworth V8, 1 entry, 1 DNQ. • Tyrrell 010 Cosworth V8, 2 entries, 1 DNQ.
Between Formula One
1981	• Formula 2, 6th overall, 22 points, 1 win in a works Ralt RH6/81 Honda.
1982	• Formula 2, 9 starts, =10th overall, 8 points in a Horag March 822 BMW and a Bertram Schäfer Maurer MM82 BMW. • Japanese F2, 1 start in a Horag March 822 BMW.
1983	• Formula 2, 2nd overall, 51 points, 1 win in a works Ralt RH6/83H Honda. • Japanese F2, 1 start in a works Ralt RH6/83H Honda.
1984	• Formula 2, 1st overall, 72 points, 7 wins in a works Ralt RH6/84 Honda.
Formula One, part II
1984	• RAM 02 Hart turbo, 1 entry. • Tyrrell 012 Cosworth V8, 1 entry, 1 DNQ.
1986	• Tested for the RAM team.
After Formula One
1984	• World Endurance Championship, 2 starts in an Obermaier Porsche 956 and a Kremer Porsche 956 with various drivers. • CART PPG Indy Car World Series, 2 starts in a Pennzoil March 84C Cosworth.
1985	• International F3000, 2nd overall, 45 points, 3 wins in a works Ralt RT20 Cosworth. • World Endurance Championship, 6 starts in an Obermaier Porsche 956, Kremer Porsche 962C and TWR Jaguar XJR-6 with various drivers.
1986	• International F3000, 4 starts, 8th overall, 10.5 points, 1 win in a works Ralt RT20 Honda. • World Sportscar Championship, 4 starts, 16th overall, 29 points, 1 win in a Kouros Racing Sauber C8 Mercedes with various drivers.
1987	• World Sportscar Championship, 6 starts, =29th overall, 16 points in a Kouros Racing Sauber C9 Mercedes and a Britten Lloyd Porsche 962C-GTi with various drivers. • Japanese Sports Prototype Championship, 2 starts, 8th overall, 32 points, 1 win in a From A Racing Porsche 962C and a Britten Lloyd Porsche 962C-GTi with various drivers. • Supercup, 3 starts in a Kouros Racing Sauber C9 Mercedes. • New Zealand International Championship, 1st overall in a Ralt RT4 Ford.
1988	• International F3000, 1 start in a works Ralt RT22 Judd. • Retired from motor racing.

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