Paul Tracy: Once there were dreams of Formula One

Paul Tracy will hold a news conference in Long Beach tomorrow afternoon (Saturday) in which he will announce details of his races this season with pal Jimmy Vasser’s KV Racing team in the IZOD IndyCar Series.

If all goes as expected, and as was the case last year, Tracy will be supported at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen by the U.S. Geiko Insurance company and by the Ontario and Alberta Honda dealers’ associations for the Honda-sponsored Canadian races in Toronto and Edmonton.

It will be good to see Tracy back in harness. I know he’s been doing some work for a television show/series that will be seen on the Speed Channel in the coming months, but he hasn’t been driving racing cars in anger, which is what Paul Tracy is all about, and although it’s undoubtedly harder on him than it is for his fans, it’s tough not seeing him out there.

Once upon a time, the sky was the limit for this guy. He was on Roger Penske’s A-List in the CART series and being touted – by some – as a potential world driving champion.

Return with us now, to those thrilling days of yesteryear – in this case, the Oct. 6, 1994, issue of Britain’s Autosport magazine – and there, on the cover, is a big picture of Michael Schumacher and a smaller picture of a really young-looking Paul Tracy.

(I’ll tell you how young he looked: his hair was long and brown and his glasses were big and round.)

There was a slash headline across the top of the photo – it said EXCLUSIVE! – and the words underneath the picture said: “Listen in on Paul Tracy’s F1 debut.”

Tracy had gone to Estoral for the Portuguese Grand Prix as the guest of Flavio Briatore and the Benetton F1 team, who were looking for a driver to replace Schumacher, who was expected to move on following the 1995 season.

The fact that Autosport devoted four pages of pictures and text to what was essentially a diary of Tracy’s time in a Benetton F1 car showed he really was a young driver on the way up. The story was a transcript of the conversation between the driver and Benetton tech director Ross Brawn (who also, in the pictures, looks about 12).

Autosport also devoted a good part of its “Pit & Paddock” news section to a setup of the Tracy story inside. The headline? “Promising Tracy rules out F1 in ‘94” – mainly, as he explained in the piece, because he was under contract to Penske.

I will not type into this blog the “listening in” article. It might have been interesting at the time but it’s of no relevance now.

But the setup piece. Now, that’s interesting. Reported Autosport:

“On new rubber at the end of his second day in the car, Tracy lapped in 1m21.24s. . . His time was 0.76s faster than the qualifying mark set by Jos Verstappen in the Portuguese GP. . . . Tracy’s time would have put him fourth on the grid in Portugal.

“Although Tracy greatly enjoyed the experience, the smart money says he will stay in Indycars next year, probably moving to Newman-Haas, and then switch to F1 for 1996. . .”

Said Brawn: “Paul did a very professional job. Considering he was new to the car, the circuit and F1, his time was very creditable. I saw nothing to say he couldn’t hold his own in F1. He may not be as quick as Michael (Schumacher) but he’s at the upper end of the scale and has a lot of potential.

“I have given Flavio (Briatore) my report.”

Well, Autosport was right about one thing. Tracy did drive for Newsman-Haas in ’95 but returned to the Penske Indycar stable in ’96 and there was no more talk of F1.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[allenparkpete]

Alright finally, Norris, we get to the”F” word and given the court ruling in the past week, it’s a great segue to mention that word…..Flavio.

I remember very well when Paul tested for Benetton. I recall that Paul asked Emerson Fittipaldi if he should take that test and Emerson told him he’d be crazy not to. I also recall that Paul said Briatore strong armed him prior to the test into signing a long term deal and the term “J_esus Christmas” came up….they made Penske look slow in terms of negotiations.

Why didn’t Tracy cut it with Benetton? Easy. Not to destroy CART and poach drivers(Ecclestone playing the checks and balances) and also, he didn’t look the part of an F1 driver. Paul looked like a dumpy egghead from east Scarborough, not the robust hair-challenged Las Vegas Wildman he is now.

One can feel Ecclestone and much as Zio Flavio at work here in as much as the Captain doing a benchmark on his driver.

I have no doubt Herr Schumacher weighed in on whether to take Paul or not as well. Mikey did not want competition. After all Paul, beat Schumacher in karts when they were much younger. Why let lightning strike twice.
Another aspect was that Paul was wild in the Andrea de Cesaris mode (although a far, far better talent than that moron..and I got to see AdC crack up 3 cars firs-thand at one race). Repairing chassis (plural) for Paul would be expensive as well.
It was the same deal for Al Jr. when he tested with Williams. Of course he would have done well in F1 and so few recall that Al gave Jacques V. a driving lesson in the latter half of Jacques’ title winning season before he defected to F1. Mark Blundell commented that Al Jr. was one driver that would’ve done very well in F1.

CART was a threat to F1 in the 90’s and the F1 crowd noticeably did take drivers with a Euro background (Zanardi, Villeneuve….and Andretti) over any North American. One exception was Dario Franchitti. Norris, if ever given the chance, ask him about his test with Jaguar and how he thought it was sabotaged.

I would also ask that you do a blog in the future about Flavio and Pat Symonds and the court ruling this past week on their F1 future. I for one find F1 far, far better without Flavio around. He represents everything wrong with F1. Bring it on.

[Bill Taylor]

It'll be great to see Tracy behind the wheel again. He's seldom less than entertaining. But a "potential world driving champion," even back in the 90s? Let's get real! Maybe in demolition derbies! He may have been impressive in F1 testing but I don't think he could ever have cut it in that league, whereas he and Indy cars (or call them what you will) were made for each other.

To me, Ross Brawn's words -- "“a very professional job. . .Considering he was new to the car, the circuit and F1, his time was very creditable. I saw nothing to say he couldn’t hold his own in F1" -- is damning with faint praise. Between the lines, I read "Don't call us, we'll call you."

Michael Andretti couldn't hold his own in F1 and he was a better driver than Tracy. Tracy may have beaten Schumacher in kart-racing but in F1 he'd have been sick breathing Schumacher's exhaust fumes. That's if he'd ever gotten close enough.

[Gerry Markham]

To keep tests like this in perspective, I'm sure it was not coincidence that Paul was testing F1 around the time he was negotiating his future contracts in IndyCar. Not to mention Paul and this other guy in the same breath, but remember Ayrton Senna testing an IndyCar around the same time he was trying to arm-twist more money out of Ron Dennis ... nothing more was heard about Senna and IndyCars after that either.