F1 Rejects Interview with

David Kennedy

A pioneer for motor racing in Ireland, and the man responsible for introducing Eddie Jordan to the thrills of the sport, David Kennedy has had a long and successful career. His brief sojourn in F1, however, unkindly left him (statistically speaking) as the man with the most ever DNQs without qualifying for a race, in F1 history.

A British FFord Champion and winner in Aurora F1, Kennedy's outings for Shadow were overshadowed by his achievements elsewhere. He became Madza's top sportcar pilot during the 1980s, and masterminded Mazda's history-making 1991 Le Mans victory. Now an F1 commentator, he also manages Ralph Firman, who made his F1 debut for Jordan in 2003.

F1 Rejects' Enoch Law and Jamie McGregor were lucky enough to interview David in the paddock of the 2003 Australian GP. We extend our thanks to him for so graciously taking time out of his busy schedule, and for his detailed and humourous responses!! For full details of Kennedy' F1 adventure, and information on his career, please see our David Kennedy biography.

How did you first get interested in motorsport?
Well, we're not really quite sure of that. My mother used to drive the pram down to the local supermarket. We used to get down to the supermarket very late, and all the food was gone. So I think the importance of speed was brought to my attention from a very early age!

I'm not really sure how it all began, quite honestly. I know how I developed it, but as to where the kernel was sown, I really don't know. Because there was no motorsport in the family whatsoever, and in Ireland at that time there wasn't really even an established race circuit. To talk about going motor racing would be the equivalent of saying "I'm going to go for a holiday on the moon".

It wasn't something like if you'd grown up in Scotland and been a fan of Jim Clark, or Graham Hill or whoever else - there were no Irish heroes. There wasn't any Irish motor racing pedigree. I found my own way, and in fact we very much set a route for other drivers to follow on, and they came in their droves, once the template was laid down. So, in a way, we were very much trailblazers.

Tell us something about this pathway. You jumped very quickly from Formula Ford 1600 in 1977 to Aurora F1 in 1979.
I began in 1972, and won the Irish Formula Ford Championship, and I then went to work in the mines in Australia with a chap called Derek Daly, we worked there and I raised the money to pay off my previous debts, and went to the U.K. At that time, I met Eddie Jordan, who was working as a bank teller, and I got him involved in motorsport as well.

What happened then was I won two British Formula Ford championships, and that was huge stuff, and I was second in the European championship. Then I did Formula 3 for two years against Prost and Piquet, and wondered why I didn't win the championships! Little did I know I was racing against guys who would win seven World Championships. But I was able to beat them, and put them away - so I am pleased with that, in retrospect.

Then I got the funds together to race in the British Formula 1 series, and this then took me to Australia where I raced in the F1/F5000 series, which I won as well, out here in Surfers Paradise. I finished second in the British F1 series - therefore I was the best young, European driver around. I got my way then into Formula One - unfortunately I didn't realise I was coming into a team which was on its way out. And that was what would interest you: Shadow!

From your experiences in Aurora, do you think there could be value today in alternative F1 championships?
Well, certainly from a driver's perspective it'd be fantastic because the step between Formula 1 and everything else is massive.

When I did it, I went Formula 3, Aurora, then Formula 1. But the biggest step you ever made was going from FFord to F3, not from F3 to F1. Now I had the great fortune to test two or three years ago the winning Formula 1 car from Monza 1999 which Heinz-Harald Frentzen drove. So therefore I have raced in the 1980s and then went to 2000, a twenty year gap!

Now after I raced in Formula 1, I raced with Mazda for seven years as their number one works driver. The difference was they had 800 horsepower, but there was no comparison to the 800 horsepower in Formula 1, because of the torque figures and the power-to-weight ratio. With the F1 cars, it was like being put in a cannon and fired out! It's unbelievable.

With anything else, when you put your foot on the throttle, the power is at the end of the throttle, not at the beginning - that's what so unique about F1 cars. When you touch the throttle, you have instant horsepower. There's no gradual increase - it's an explosion! You're standing on a landmine, and arsen'all you're shot out into space.

What are some of your memories of your time with Shadow in F1? Particularly at Long Beach (where you were very close to qualifying) and Monaco (where you had an awful time).
At Monaco, the car separated from the engine - so I was driving two cars, not one! That was a dreadful occasion, and hugely disappointing. I was very close at Long Beach, very close, I was right on the edge. Only one tenth of a second from qualifying.

You see the cars used to flex unbelievably, the skirts would stick up, the steering would jam - it was a horrendous experience. Quite apart from the fact that I had several mechanical failures - these were simply lethal cars to drive. I must say, I was incredibly lucky to come out of the whole thing mentally intact, let alone physically intact.

So when people say, you know, "your career failed in motorsport", for me it didn't. I had 20 years as a professional racing driver, and albeit I didn't make it in Formula 1, I had a career which took me across the globe, racing in Japan, America, Daytona, I mean, you name it! It was unfortunate what happened in Formula 1, but it was a platform to put me into other areas, and I have no regrets whatsoever.

But you did get into the Spanish Grand Prix, which then lost its World Championship status.
That's right. At the time it was a current Grand Prix, so I don't give a damn! The fact is that I walked out with my legs still attached to my arse, and there were many of my contemporaries that didn't.

How did the opportunity to race sportscars for Mazda come about?
Basically because of my Formula 1 background. Once you have a Formula 1 pedigree, whatever kind of pedigree that is, it is highly prestigious. Plus there was the fact that I had competed the year before in a private, semi-works Ford operation. So Mazda had seen that I had F1 experience, Le Mans experience, and they said would you like to join the operation?

So I joined as their number two driver, a year later I was their number one driver, and I co-ordinated their Le Mans victory - which is probably the best thing on my CV. I organised the drivers, the designer, the whole team and I lent my experience to make that a successful operation. And to this day, a Japanese team still hasn't won Le Mans other than that event.

One memorable race was at Fuji in 1985, where lots of car withdrew, yours included, because it was raining quite heavily. Were the conditions really that atrocious?
What happened was that the cars that were competing in the FIA Championship had put together a delegation to say that if it continued to rain in this fashion that they would pull out, while the Japanese competitors would stay competing.

Now the Japanese competitors had Japanese tyres, and they were aware of monsoon-type rain conditions, but the Europeans hadn't got monsoon tyres, so it was lethal. There were many accidents, and it was a very mature decision for the competitors to take to say we won't compete any further.

And then in 1986, you got a chance to drive with Allan Grice in a Commodore! How did that come about, and how did you feel about driving a Holden?
You did your research to pull that one out! I didn't even tell my mother about things like that! Well, I had already completed some touring car races for BMW, and therefore I had a bit of experience in touring cars - and they're quite a different beast altogether from sportscars or single seaters - and I wanted to broaden my experience, and I thought I'd like to have a go and run the Holden car, and I must say I enjoyed it.

But I was never really attracted to anything less than thoroughbred racing cars. The sportscars I was driving were thoroughbred racing cars: single seater cars, full carbon fibre cars with honeycomb bodywork, and they handled beautifully. But saloon cars was like wrestling with marshmallow on an ice rink! You just don't get the same feeling, you know?

Just going back to Le Mans 1991, you said you chose the driver line-up. What attracted you to Bertrand Gachot and Volker Weidler?
It was an interesting combination actually, because what I was looking for was not a brand new driver, I wanted someone with a little bit of experience and Volker, whom I knew from Formula Nippon was one of the fastest runners out there. In fact Volker turned out to be the quickest driver we had in the whole team - quicker than everyone else, Stefan Johannson, myself, the lot. Johnny I knew from karting and I knew he was a great wet weather driver. The only query I had was the marriage between Johnny and Bertrand. Because when they raced in the junior formulae, whenever they met each other usually one was parked on top of each other. So that was a bit of a risk.

Bertrand's an intelligent guy, as is Johnny, and I though with a little bit of coaching and a little bit of advice from a supposedly 'older' driver I might be able to just bring them together. And the first year there was a lot of difficulties, but we ironed those out and got a really tight team for the next year. We needed that first year for people to understand what they were going to do and what their agenda was.

They drove that 1991 race in the most exemplary manner that you can possibly imagine. Mind you, we had the benefit of a very clever political strategy as well. We had sandbagged for the better part of a year to get a benefit for our weight. You see the rotary engine has very poor torque, a good top end, but you're constantly losing in all the slower corners.

So we needed a benefit somewhere along the line. We still didn't match Merc with their turbo engine, so we didn't feel we did anything untoward at all, in fact the bias was still way toward the turbos - it was grossly unfair! But we used what political nous we had to pull that one. We got a lighter weight and we were comparable with the Jaguars.

In the end, did you prefer single seaters of sportscars?
I suppose for purity's sake I prefer single seaters. But I'll tell you what was tremendous value as a driver: when you'd completed a 6 hour race, and you had driven three hours, there was a sense of fulfilment that was just absolutely superb. You knew, in Formula 1 or Formula 3 or in a single seater race, if you made a minor mistake, it was all over. And that was it, you couldn't get back there again.

But in a 6 hour race, by stealth, by strategy and by speed, you could actually put on a good show and you could still win the race. You could move through pitstops, there was a chance of a safety car - so from that there was great personal satisfaction. But for the mad, harebrained tearaway, Formula 1 is quite something else.

After Malaysia 1999, Sepang-gate, you were quote by Autosport as saying that Ferrari's tactics had "taken a professional foul to a new level". In view of that, what did you think of Ferrari's antics last year, Austria-gate and so on?
Oh no, I never said that! That's a misquote! Because I have totally agreed with Ferrari's tactics. I was the only journalist that came out and said what they've done was absolutely fair, completely honest. What I'd hate to see is some form of subterfuge - where an engine is re-arranged by some telemetry to diminish the driver's performance out there.

What we saw with Ferrari was, we knew who the quickest driver was. We don't need to see either moving over to let the other go by to know what's going on. But if it was done in some behind the scenes way, it would have been dishonest. What we saw was honest racing there. It was absolutely within their rights, and what the feck are the public complaining about - because that's the rules and regulations! So that's my point - and I'll stand up and punch anyone who says otherwise!

What were the best and worst moments of your career?
I can't give you her name, because she might be reading this! And the worst moment's the same as well!

Best moment... was winning the British Formula Ford Championship. I had a slipstream dice at Silverstone, and I controlled it to hang onto the back - and it takes such discipline when you want to run at the front, and I had to wait behind six drivers till the last lap to tow each guy and be able to pull that off. That was a great personal moment, and it won me the Championship.

Another was the old Oulton Park Gold Cup which was an hour race, which was six drivers exchanging the lead for forever, that was a beautiful moment, I really enjoyed that. There was also a great race which I won in Australia in Surfer's Paradise, which had a nice little twist in the tale - I was dicing with my teammate, and I couldn't get by him. It was Geoff Lees, and he was the number one driver in the team, because it was his sponsor, and eventually we tangled, and he went off.

So when I went past the pits, I saw the team throw down their tools, walk away in disgust because I had tangled with a teammate - I had just lost the team $10,000! You see, I was going to win the money for 1st, but we'd lost the money for 2nd place. And I had another 25 laps to think what to do, and I could see the sponsor having a row with the team manager, I could see the mechanics were really upset.

So what I did in 25 laps was to work out a strategy to change the complexion completely. So when I came onto the last lap I slowed, and drove the car from left to right and drove as if to come into the pits - just before the chequered flag a hundred yards down the road. Well, the boys stopped what they were doing, the ran to get some fuel, everyone completely thought they'd now lost the race. But I had loads of fuel! I just went out of the pitlane and took the chequered flag. The were so delighted I won, that they forgot to kick my arse! That night the team manager, who had drained the fuel out of the car said "Kennedy, you're the greatest fecking bollocks on the face of the earth!"

How did you get into the media, and your current commentary position?
Mainly given the fact that I've a great line of bullshit, and a little bit of blather... they wanted someone to be the 'ex-squirt'. And you know what that means: 'ex' equals nothing, and 'squirt' is a drip under pressure! So they thought it would be appropriate to ask me to be the expert. I'm not the expert commentator, but I'm the sidekick, the Martin Brundle or the Alan Jones type.

Finally, about Ralph Firman, whom you manage. Is he the next ... Eddie Irvine?
Well, if he is I'll be very disappointed!

What are your expectations of him for this year?
My expectations are that he survives the year, that he learns his trade, that he gets it home safe and sound and puts some points in the bag for Jordan. From there we can build on that. He's got a deep keel, he doesn't get blown off the rails.

Unlike the other teams out there, except probably Minardi, he has completed next to no mileage. You talk about the other guys doing 7,000 to 10,000 kilometres; Ralph's done half a dozen. So it really is a tough call for him, because it was a very late decision.

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