F1 Spotlight - Mike Thackwell
In this edition, we look at a Formula 1 driver you may not have heard of.
Mike Thackwell was born on the 30th March 1961 into a motor racing family. His father, Ray had been a successful international speedway rider and racing driver. When Mike was six years old, his family emigrated from New Zealand to Perth in Western Australia, where his father became an importer of high performance racing and sports cars. It was here that he began racing.
He went to Christ Church Grammar School, in Claremont, a suburb of Perth between 1972 and 1976.
Mike Thackwell"Nobody Asked any questions back then."
From the age of nine, he competed in motocross events on motorcycles, supplied by his father, before switching to karts, winning the Western Australian championship at the age of fourteen. He also won the Hong Kong Kart Grand Prix in 1975 and 1976 and somehow during this period also passed his driving test when just fifteen.
A friend of Ray’s, who built Formula Ford race cars, put Mike in touch with the Scorpion Racing Drivers School, at Thruxton and Mike then moved to England.
In 1978, Thackwell began his European career, competing in the UK Dunlop Star of Tomorrow Formula Ford Championship. He drove a Van Diemen-Scholar RF78, entered by the Rushen Green team. Over a closely fought, eleven-round series, Mike won five races and made the podium on two other occasions. As a result, he finished third in the championship.
Mike then qualified his March 793-Toyota on the front row for his debut in the 1979 Vandervell British Formula 3 Championship. Across the nineteen-race Championship, he secured five wins and four other podiums, along with a pole position and a fastest lap on his way to third position in the championship. Ahead of him were Chico Serra and Andrea de Cesaris.
Also in 1979, he competed with the March 793 in two rounds of the FIA European Formula Three Championship. In the Gran Premio della Lotteria, held at Monza, he managed to both win and achieve the fastest lap. In a championship eventually won by Alain Prost, he finished in joint eighth.
Mike Thackwell“…Jonesy saw me winning races and he put his hand in his pocket, good on him. I did pay him back, eventually.”
The season had nearly not worked out quite so well - Robin Herd, of March Engineering, had offered Thackwell the drive for a fee and Ray, knowing he and his son didn’t have the money, “blagged it.” At the same time as the results started, there was still no money for March and they threatened to drop Thackwell. Luckily, for Mike, F1 driver Alan Jones heard of his situation and loaned him the money to pay March. Asked why Jones had acted as he did, Thackwell said; “It wasn’t just vanity. He’d been through it, he knew how hard it was and he’d seen how quickly I’d beaten more experienced drivers. It was after my win at Brands Hatch, and then the Monza Lottery (F3 Grand Prix, in June).”
The Thackwell/March 793 combination also managed pole position and fastest lap at Donington Park in the non-championship RAC FOCA Trophy race, though he finished ninth.
For 1980, Thackwell decided to follow Serra and de Cesaris into Formula Two. But first, Mike made a brief trip back to New Zealand to race in the Aurora AFX New Zealand International Formula Pacific series, also alongside de Cesaris.
He returned to Europe, again driving a March and as early as the second round at Hockenheim, he was on the pace and set the fastest lap, a feat he would repeat at the following round on the 14.272 mile Nürburgring Nordschleife. However it was at Zandvoort that he marked himself as a natural talent.
In 1980, having tested for both Ensign and Tyrrell, he was signed by Ken Tyrrell to be a test driver for the Tyrrell F1 team, alongside competing in Formula 2. Making his Formula One debut, although he spoke with an Australian accent, he competed, and liked to be known, as a New Zealander.
He was invited to the Dutch Grand Prix by Tyrrell as a spectator, both to learn about the track and the Tyrrell 010 when Arrows team boss Jackie Oliver approached him after the first unofficial practice session to ask if he'd like to drive the Arrows A3. Their regular team driver, Jochen Mass, had been injured at the previous race but the team had brought his car to Zandvoort. Tyrell gave Mike permission to drive for their competitor and, although the car was set up for Mass, Mike went on to set a decent time (faster than Keke Rosberg in the Fittipaldi,) though ultimately failed to qualify.
He made his official debut a few weeks later, when Tyrrell made the third car available for him at the Canadian Grand Prix. Some have said that, by taking part in this event, Thackwell was, at the age of nineteen years and one hundred and eighty-two days, the youngest driver to start a Formula One race. But others have disputed this claim it may have been accurate at the time. On the first lap of the race, Alan Jones and Nelson Piquet collided at the first turn and were subsequently hit by a number of other cars, including both other Tyrrells.
Thackwell negotiated his way through the carnage and returned to the start/finish line undamaged by which time, the race had been red flagged. As both of the other cars were too badly damaged, Thackwell was instructed by Ken Tyrrell to give up his car. Formula One regulations at the time allowed this and also stipulated that, when the race is stopped after less than two full laps, the original start is declared null and void and the race starts anew . As, technically, Thackwell did not make the second race start Ricardo Rodríguez remained classed as the youngest race starter until Jaime Alguersuari broke the record at the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix; a record that was subsequently broken by Max Verstappen in 2015.
Thackwell was back in the Tyrrell at the next round, the United States Grand Prix, though a fractured brake disc during qualifying meant he failed to qualify for the race at Watkins Glen.
In 1981, he made the unusual step of moving back to Formula Two. He was considered by many as favourite for the Championship and said to be one of stars of the future and when signed by Ralt-Honda, went on to win the International Trophy at Silverstone and secure third place at Hockenheim.
A testing accident at Thruxton, whilst driving the works Ralt-Honda, left him trapped in the car for forty-five minutes with a shattered heel and head injuries. Consequently, Thackwell missed the next three races. It was reported in Autosport that he hit a bank head on and stopped from 140 mph to 0 mph in less than two feet. Within weeks, although still on crutches, he completed the rest of the season and finished sixth in the Championship. The head injury he sustained at Thruxton would plague him for many years to come.
Several team owners were concerned that he had not fully recovered from the testing accident and he was unable to secure a works drive for the 1982 season. With the help of family and friends and by securing some small amounts of sponsorship, he was able to finance a drive for the season with the privately run Horag Racing and Bertram Schäfer Racing Teams, scoring top three results at Pau and Spa-Francorchamps.
He rejoined the works Ralt team for 1983, coming second in the F2 championship to Jonathan Palmer. He remained at Ralt the next year and dominated the championship, taking victory in seven out of eleven races on his way to the title, including another success in the International Trophy race at Silverstone. Not a bad comeback.
This dominance made him somewhat more attractive again and he was back in demand as an F1 driver.
He filled in for the RAM team at the Canadian Grand Prix, as a one-off replacement for Jonathan Palmer, where he qualified twenty-fifth, one place higher than teammate Philippe Alliot, faster by 1.556 seconds. Sadly, Mike retired after a broken turbo waste-gate on lap thirty.
He tested for Williams during the season and was asked by Tyrrell to race for them as Stefan Bellof was unavailable for the German Grand Prix. He missed out on qualifying by 0.055secs.
Thackwell finished the 1984 season in the American CART series, racing for Penske in their Pennzoil March 84C, after their main driver Rick Mears was injured. He competed for the team twice though failed to score points in either.
Unable to get a decent drive in F1 and CART, he turned his back on them and raced in the F2 replacement series, Formula 3000. He won the first round at Silverstone and won his third International Trophy race. He won twice more and finished the season in second place. During the same time he also raced four times for the TWR Jaguar team and partnered with John Nielsen, taking second place at the Shah Alam circuit at the end of the season.
In 1985, back driving a works Ralt, Thackwell was runner up in the successor to the European Formula Two Championship, the International Formula 3000 Championship.
Then in 1986, racing in F3000 he competed in Europe where he won the Pau Grand Prix. Then in Japan, he increasingly competed in sports cars, being especially impressive when leading the emerging Kouros Sauber-Mercedes team. He won at the Nürburgring in 1986 and it was rumoured that he was offered a senior job within the Mercedes-Benz motorsport division.
He drove in two World Endurance Championship races, coming twenty-first at the Nürburgring 1000km for Obermaier Racing in their Porsche 956 and finishing fifth in the 956 of Kremer Racing at the Fuji 1000km.
He concentrated on sports car racing with the Kouros Racing Team in their 1987 Sauber C9, but his only podium finish in the World Endurance series came after he left Kouros and joined Britten Lloyd Racing, partnering Mauro Baldi in their Porsche 962GTi.
He returned to New Zealand during the European winter of 1987, to race in Formula Pacific, winning the first three rounds of the MANZ Formula Pacific International Championship and going on to take the title.
He had a one-off F3000 drive in 1988 for the works Ralt outfit at Pau. However, he had become disillusioned with motorsport and hung up his helmet at the end of 1988.
Away from motorsport, he worked in a number of different roles, including; helicopter pilot in the North Sea for British International Helicopters, a gold miner in Australia and as a teacher in England. He has since kept a low profile and when the weather permits, he enjoys going surfing.
A driver with a lot of promise, Thackwell seems to have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time. There's no denying he had talent - who knows what he would have been capable of if he'd been given a proper chance in Formula 1.
What are your thoughts on Mike Thackwell? Let me know in the comments below.
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Comments (10)
Nice article! Just letting you know that the his head is cut out on the iPhone header.
Ah, that is potentially problematic. I'll see what I can do about it. Thanks for the heads up.
Another good installment in this series, interesting read
Thanks!
Good writing,well put together. Next time,Kenny Acheson
He could be an interesting driver to write about. Watch this space 👀
As always,mate. Btw,not a long F1 career,but a very curious one in sportscar
Great read!
Cheers!