Formula One, My Day and Today

My drive with the Tyrrell F1 team came due to the close relationship my mentor, Dr. Frank Faulkner, had with Ken Tyrrell himself. Indeed, because of that close relationship, I spent five months living with Ken and his wife Norah at their home in the quaint English village of East Horsely. I was invited to test, along with a number of other driver candidates for the available 1983 seat at a private test session at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. I remember the day well, it was freezing cold and I was the last of the drivers to drive. By that time it was almost dark. Once I completed my laps I was told I was the fastest of all the drivers, which was very pleasing. Ken told me he would need me for a further test at Rio, home of the Brazilian Grand Prix. I went to Rio and seemed to wait around for something like eight days, just waiting for a chance to drive the car. At last my chance arrived, unfortunately, I was told that I could start the test on some `B` specification tires followed by a quick blast on some used qualifying tires. My teammate for that year, and the lead driver, was Michele Alboreto. Michele had been out on the qualifying tires from new and set some times. At the conclusion of my stint, I was only fractions of a second off of Michele’s time. Ken was very pleased, not only with the close times, but with my consistency lap after lap. So, it was all that which confirmed me as part of the Tyrrell F1 team for the 1983 season. Just typical of the way Ken Tyrrell worked.