Quite apart from the unfavourable competitive situation of March Grand Prix in 1982, the year’s dizzying politics and the deaths of two fellow Formula 1 drivers made it a tough baptism for Raul Boesel. Driving the DFV-powered 821 chassis that used three different tyre suppliers during the season, the Brazilian never figured in the points. Starting 17th in Rio and finishing eighth at Zolder were the limited high points.
For Boesel, who clipped the stalled Ferrari of Didier Pironi at Montreal moments before Osella driver Riccardo Paletti fatally rammed it, there is no doubt that what was already “a difficult time” in his rookie season would have been more so without the laid-back Jochen Mass alongside him in the camp.
With any other experienced driver, Boesel anticipates that there would have been “a fight inside the team just to get the better parts” that would have made things “much harder”. But for Mass, a driver who had continued to compete in long-distance touring car and sportscar events alongside F1, the notion of a team-mate automatically being enemy number one never applied.
Boesel observes that the German “was very honest with exchanging information on the cars”, which made a huge impression. “I never forget that,” adds the driver who latterly became a stalwart of Indycar racing and finished runner-up five times in Dick Simon Racing Lolas between 1992-94.
A British Formula 3 graduate in 1982, Boesel admits to feeling star-struck when he arrived in a paddock that contained big beasts Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and Gilles Villeneuve. This is perhaps unsurprising given the speed of his ascent; he had been racing Formula Fords just two years beforehand, finishing runner-up in both the 1980 RAC and Townsend Thoresen championships, before placing third in British F3 aboard his Murray Taylor Ralt in 1981.
“When I arrived [in F1], I was very shy,” admits Boesel, who went on to win the World Sportscar Championship with Jaguar in 1987. “And Jochen, he opened his arms and was very good at teaching me a lot of things. He was very experienced, was very welcoming on his side on the team.”
Rookie Boesel had a baptism of fire in 1982, but welcome the generosity of team-mate Mass
Photo by: Motorsport Images
Mass was in a very different position in his career to Boesel; he had made his debut with Surtees back in 1973, and had won the red-flagged 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at Montjuic Park during a…
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