Formula 1 Racing

Brabham remembers Ratzenberger 30 years on

Brabham welcomed Ratzenberger's arrival at the start-up Simtek team run by the youthful aerodynamicist Wirth

What are your memories of Roland? When did you first come across him?

David Brabham: As we were coming up through the ranks, he was ahead of me – he was older than I was. Obviously, I knew of him because he was doing well wherever he was going, whether it was sportscars or single-seaters [including winning the 1986 Formula Ford Festival], touring cars.

I think everyone loved his story because he had nothing, he had no support from the family, they were dead against it. That didn’t deter him; he would sleep in his car because he couldn’t afford to stay somewhere. He put everything into his racing, and his dream was to get to Formula 1.

PLUS: How Ratzenberger beat the odds to realise his cruelly short-lived F1 dream

If you saw the way he went about his racing in the junior categories, you probably thought there was no way he’s getting to F1, but he did through hard work, dedication and sheer utter focus to get there. He didn’t care how he was going to get there, it was just he was going to get there, and that’s the bit that I think everyone loved about him.

How highly did you rate him behind the wheel?

DB: As a team-mate, you’ve got to remember the situation. We were Simtek, a brand-new team. Nick Wirth was 28, I was 28 as a driver and Nick was the designer, the team boss, the aerodynamicist, he did all of that at a young age. So, we were quite up against it in the world of Formula 1.

When I knew Roland was going to be my team-mate I was like [Brabham rubs his hands together], brilliant, because we needed someone with experience to really help the team. It was about getting the team from being green as hell to an established team. Everyone was chipping in and helping one another, and to have someone like Roland who was fast, was well-experienced, was hungry – they were all the ingredients we needed.

Brabham welcomed Ratzenberger’s arrival at the start-up Simtek team run by the youthful aerodynamicist Wirth

Photo by: Sutton Images

What was he like as a person?

DB: He was a nice guy, but there was an edge to him as well. He was a competitor – he wanted to do well. Outside of being a racing driver he was a great guy to be around. Super-fit – he was much fitter than I was, and he dragged me along a bit with the fitness, and I helped him on the driving aspect of a Formula 1 car and carbon brakes, so we helped each other quite a lot. Obviously [the crash] happened and it’s a shame we never got to see…

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