Derek Bell: from Ferrari F1 debut at Monza to five Le Mans wins

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1:15Ferrari and McLaren. Two Formula One teams founded by passionate racers. To drive for one of them is an honour. To drive for both is extraordinary. Derek Bell did just that. I mean, it was just absolutely phenomenal. The biggest surprise, and I never had confidence in myself. I never felt that I was able to do that. But you're right, I was in Formula 3 for two years and had my first Formula 2 race. And two races later, I'm signed up by Ferrari. I mean, I don't know how that happened. Derek was personally chosen by the great Enzo Ferrari. and he made his debut of all places at the team's home race.

1:57Beyond Formula One, he showed his talent behind the wheel of sports cars, winning the Le Mans 24 Hours five times. And he was seen on the big screen with Hollywood icon Steve McQueen. I didn't know he'd done so much racing. To me, he was just an actor, and he was a bloody good driver. I got on with him so well. I liked him a lot, but, you know, you drift apart after a couple of years. He wrote to me three weeks before he died, you know. I got a letter from him saying that he'd been ill and that sort of thing. I didn't think he was that ill. It was amazing, really.

2:35Here on F1 Beyond the Grid with me, Tom Clarkson, Derek takes me through a hugely successful and diverse racing career that spanned more than 40 years. Derek tells me what it was like racing for Ferrari, going out for dinner with Enzo, and even seeing the softer side of the often unemotional founder of the Scuderia. Derek also compares his time in Formula One to his stellar sports car career, his formidable partnership with fellow F1 driver Jackie Ix, and how it felt sharing a podium with his son Justin at Le Mans 30 years ago. And decades before F1 the movie, Derek reveals what it was like taking motorsport to the movies with Steve McQueen.

3:23Well, Derek, it is great to have you on the show. How are things? Hectic, actually. It's so strange. But, I mean, my life is very calm overall. You know, bloody marvellous, really. We've just been away on a Derek Bell tour with V-Management. We drove through Croatia, Slovenia, a little bit of Italy, a little bit of Austria. And here we are back. Well, that tour sounds amazing. but we're here to talk about your career. It was an extraordinary one that spanned Formula One, lots of sports car successes as well, including those five wins at Le Mans. What are you most proud of when you look back at everything you've achieved?

4:04I don't know that I ever think proud of anything at all. So far, I would say the most important thing was to have had an amazing career, race from Formula Ford to Formula One to sports cars to Can-Am to everything race with the greatest drivers in the world and actually not really ever have a major accident and I think you know which has allowed me to carry on although I did flip the car at Daytona and the banking when a tire blew in the night but it took off for a little while so that was I think overall you know just a wonderful career driving with so many great people in the greatest teams in the world.

4:44And wasn't I lucky? I mean, really for 40 years. You talk about the greatest teams in the world. Can we start by talking about Ferrari and how you got there? Because you won your first Formula 3 race in 1966. And two years later, you were making your Formula 1 debut at Monza in a Ferrari. Can you join the dots for us? well at the time it was extremely difficult to join the dots it was just so oh really oh right i'll go and do that then and i mean it was just absolutely phenomenal i mean the biggest surprise and i obviously i never had confidence in myself i never felt that i was able to do that i mean honestly now i look at it and i go actually i didn't have a bad career other people like your good self are picking it up and saying do you realize this and i didn't realize at the time i I mean, to me, I was really disappointed I didn't move on quicker.

5:38But you're right. I mean, I was in Formula 3 for two years and had my first Formula 2 race. And two races later, I'm signed up by Ferrari. I mean, I don't know how that happened. And I didn't think it was right that I should have got the drive. And then you go, yes, but you qualify eighth place next to Jackie Stewart on the third row of the grid in your first Grand Prix at Monza. And you go, yeah, I did. And now I reflect on it. I realized how amazingly fortunate I was. Can we talk about how you got there? Can you remember the first time you met Enzo Ferrari? Oh, very much so, yeah. I mean, who couldn't?

6:18Wasn't I lucky? You know, and sometimes I look at that, that I met him and went out with him. And he used to take me out to dinner. He'd turn up in a 2 plus 2 at the hotel. And they'd have phoned me and said, El Comando Torre is taking you out to dinner tonight. And he would turn up at 6.15. and he'd be sitting there in his, as we say, braces, English. And I'd get in the passenger seat and we'd tear off 40, 50 miles away for dinner. And on one occasion we walked in and he actually opened the door for me to go into the restaurant. Now that is amazing. He must have really liked you. It wasn't the, well, I think he did have a bit of extra emotion having an Englishman.

6:59I don't know why he just... Does that go back to Peter Collins and his relationship with him maybe? That's right. I mean, I remember I walked into my parents' house. I'd been to see my then wife in hospital. My mother stood there with the gin and tonic in her hand, and next to her was my wife's, at that time, mother. And she said, there's a note here from Ferrari saying, please come to Maranello and sign your contract. And she said, if you go off and sign for Ferrari, you'll never walk in this house again. It's pretty mean stuff. And my mother was the most generous, fabulous person but people were having such horrific accidents and i think my mother just you know bit the bullet and had a go at me it didn't have any effect mind you you're still signed the contract i might remind me yes i went outside my contract and she and ever after that she was okay with it never said another word i am interested in why enzo ferrari wanted you because at that time Ferrari had a sports car team it had Formula One team Formula Two team he kind of had the choice of any driver he wanted and you'd been plucked okay you were winning in Formula Three in 66 and two and two really why you I think he liked British drivers and I think he he saw something I mean I always wonder where they see you from you know and people have said but I think they look at you the season before and see how you're getting on.

8:28And I believe he watched me in Formula 3 when I finished third in 67 at Monaco, behind the works mattress. And Monaco, I suppose, is because that's where all the Formula 1 teams are the same weekend, and their spotters go and see how well you're getting on. That had to be something that put me in his favor, really. I was the most successful British driver in Europe that year. and it was a hell of a lot of good drivers but I was just one of them and I guess somehow the old man thought that you know I was ready for his team and I don't know that I was I felt that I I felt I went to Ferrari too soon I hadn't done enough in Formula 2 when I went there I mean they put me in my first race at Monza and I got pole and then we had a crash in the race and took three cars out why do you think you weren't ready what was different about Ferrari back then was it extra pressure I didn't feel any pressure at all because I went in there mid-season and I mean and obviously I went quite well I guess I didn't know I was going to get pole at Monza I didn't know that I was going to win in Austria I didn't know I was going to win at Zahnvoort in those first four races that was quite important to me to sort of have those victories in a Ferrari I never thought about it as wow aren't I good it was like god I wish I could win more you know and then of course came the chance to drive formula one i did the old park gold cup to start with and qualified i think next to jackie stewart might have been on a on a third rail or something like that and of course we had a problem with the gearbox which i had several times in very important races when i used to go across the box too fast and jam it between two gears and i did that at zahnvort i did that in olden park and it was what phil hill did several times they told me and we were just too smooth across the box do you know what i mean ah the days of you know shifting gear without just pressing a button that's right yeah um you mentioned phil hill he told me once that ferrari always believed that his cars won races and drivers lost them can you relate to that from your experience i never heard that one but i think he's right in many ways if if you had the best car on the grid and you didn't win it then you've done something you must have screwed up but the fact was he he really had the choice not talking about me but generally speaking of the great he always had great drivers didn't he but i think they tried to do too much they had formula 2 then they went and formula 1 and hill climbing and of course they were doing can-am and i personally when you look at the small operation although they could build engines it it didn't mean they could test i mean the testing program was minimal chris amon was i thought a great test driver but maybe i was wrong but i believe he was so chris would test it and we'd all go and drive it and that was that was the the path of the weekend i i didn't know i couldn't say that was awful chris because i didn't ever test it that came later on can you describe Maranello to us in the late 60s?

11:35Well it was it was Mecca wasn't it really? It still is in a way. It still is yeah. No but I mean you look at the size of it now but it was so small then I mean you drove down this road and pulled over and you know where are all the Ferraris on the left okay and that oh that's the restaurant on the right. Il Cavalino. Yeah and I remember parking on the grass I thought I didn't drive through the gates I was in an E-type. Because you were in the E-type you didn't want to drive through. No, I thought the old man will throw it out if I drive through with an E-Type. It's very early on, this is. And so I left it on the grass.

12:09And then they all came out for their sort of afternoon coffee break or they went to lunch or something. And suddenly the factory empties and they're all surrounding my little E-Type. We had the bonnet up and everything, you know, sort of checking it out. They couldn't believe it because the old man really believed that was a really great car. He had a lot of time for the E-Type. Tell me a little more about Enzo. Was he an intimidating character? You've already said that he was opening doors for you occasionally. But when he spoke, you listened. Is that right? Absolutely. And also, what language did you communicate?

12:44In French. Yeah, we spoke French together. And I wasn't very good and nor was he. But good enough to talk numbers. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I never dealt financials with him, you know. I mean, it was a gutsy that we spoke with. The numbers weren't very good when you think, I got$1 ,000 for a Grand Prix and$500 for Formula 2 race back in 68. Fast forward to 2025. It's a little more now, isn't it? We didn't get loaned a car or anything. I had a bloody Fiat 124 from Hertz. It was hilarious, really. So let's now fast forward to Monza 68. All right. You know him from Formula 2. You've got the call.

13:26I want you to do the Italian Grand Prix. Were you nervous? Describe what it was like during the build-up to that Grand Prix for you, your Grand Prix debut. I had a test drive at my... I got a picture on my phone, actually, of the test drive picture of me sitting in the Formula One car for the first time ever at the test track, as it was in those days. So was Fiorano around? No, I didn't know where that was. No, we were in the park. There was nothing, just grass and trees, and you drove around it, as we did in many places. And that was it, you know. And I remember sitting in the car, and it was raining, and we didn't have wet tires.

14:05We had intermediates, and they were sort of not very special because the Formula One cars were just coming back from the German Grand Prix. They hadn't got back. It was like Tuesday morning. So I was there testing, raining like hell, and Fagiri leans in as he does up the seatbelts. We'd never had seatbelts till then. He leans in the cockpit, and he says, Derek, if you crash the car, the last time you drive a red car, maybe a green car, but never a red car. And with that, he finished pulling up the belts, and I went off on the track. And I drove off, there was long grass everywhere. I'd been on the track before, obviously.

14:41It's only about a kilometer around. As I come through on my first lap, there was quite a fast left-hand corner of this little chicane. And as I sort of went into this fast corner, there is a two plus two. sitting on the outside of the corner, on the concrete, not actually on my bit of a road, 20 yards away, with the old man sitting in it, watching his new driver go around. And I thought, oh my God, how do I drive now? I mean, do I drive super quick and fall off? Or do I drive sort of steadily? And then he goes, oh, he's a bit slow. I really didn't know what to do. And then at the end of it all, of course, they call me in and Enzo drove off.

15:19Never heard any more about it. But it was a pretty terrifying moment. but I mean that's what it's about isn't it you know the boss has to go and see his new prodigy and then they said okay you'll drive at the Gold Cup at Alton Park first and that's when I had this problem with it jamming in gear I don't even know where I finished obviously I had to lose most of the lap Cadillac has entered Formula One deepening the racing pedigree behind every V series on the road discover a line up that delivers pure adrenaline in the form of modern luxury Experience the quickest Cadillac ever, the all-electric Lyric V, the peak performance of the CT5V Blackwing, the nimble agility of the Optic V and the legendary roar of the Escalade V.

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17:11You line up eight on the grid at Monza, your Grand Prix debut. you've got Jackie Stewart on one side, you've got Denny Holm on the other. What was the establishment like with you as the newcomer? And I sort of am reminded of this story that Michael Schumacher always used to go and welcome the new guys. Guys, I hope you have a good race. Remember me when you see my helmet type thing. What were they like with you? Nobody's ever asked me that before. A long time ago to remember back. I remember my mechanic was very enthusiastic lovely guy Morelli I think his name was Morelli and he was just charming and just making sure I was comfortable I mean the performance they went through to make the seat comfortable the leather was almost the right color for you everything was right when they put I mean you felt really important sitting in the race shop getting lined up to go to a race in the car and how they they tailored it for you they were wonderful I mean in that beautiful you know red tiled workshop which I guess they still have um it was very special you felt a very privileged person to be driving a Ferrari and did Enzo say anything after the race to you no not a word no basically when I walked when I actually I didn't live in Maranello or anything like that I came back to England my wife at that time had been very poorly in England.

18:35And I used to walk in, I'd get called into the office from wherever I was, you know, come on to tour, he wants to see you. So I'd go into the office. The first thing you say is, how was your wife today? Because she was in hospital in England. He said, how was your wife today? And I said, well, I haven't spoken to her yet. Well, it was obviously nine o 'clock where we were. But obviously in England, it was only eight. And I said, it's too early to worry the hospital. So he got his secretary always to phone up the hospital to check how my wife was. That's great insight into the softer side of Venzo Ferrari.

19:08It was the family side of nearly all Italians. They're like that. And after that first Grand Prix, which is another story, you know, seeing Chris fly over the bloody guardrail backwards right in front of me. I thought, well, that's it. I thought, well, at least, because remember, I'd stopped with the engine failing. And, I mean, Chris came through in third place behind the Hondas, of Ginther and Sertes and suddenly disappeared off the Lesmos backwards over the guardrail through the trees and that was it I went oh he's dead already I mean the beginning of the year Jimmy Clark he died in the first race that he had for me and here I was at Monza in my first bloody Formula One race and there is my teammate going backwards over into the woods and I thought well that's it and I honestly thought and he didn't appear for a while and I thought well at least I can tell my son that you know I had at that point a year old or something I can tell my some that I got to a Formula One and then I quit and I said because I'm gonna quit I can't be doing with it you know people dying like that and the next thing is Chris comes up dusting himself off like dust everywhere brushing it off and caught back across the road and it was just amazing and so that had a major effect on me and made me closer to Ferrari probably I mean it landed basically upside down and then he got out literally we saw it in the factory the next day there was a little dent in the monocot.

20:29That's all that existed from this crash. I mean, it was just amazing. But, you know, there was no great dramas about it or anything. I mean, it was just an accident. One of the things you said right at the start of this chat was that you raced at the top level for more than 40 years and you walked away. What were you like in 68? Because you've just made reference to it. Your first, if you like, international race, was the F2 race in which Jimmy Clark was killed at Hockenheim. I'd like to know the impact that had on you. That had a massive effect on me, whereas Chris Amon's accident didn't, because he didn't get hurt.

21:09So, you know, you strike it off. No, Jimmy's was terrible because he was my hero. I admired him and I'd just seen him race at Goodwood and places like that and other circuits. And he was just a unique, well, unique's not the right word, but a very special driver in my life as far as you know the impact he had on my racing and how he handled himself and the same with sterling really i mean i had the same feelings about him but and also they were british which i think made you feel closer and they were both very friendly to younger drivers but i hadn't met jimmy really till the night before the race he had to be honest but it had a lot of effect on me you know and i i don't know i just felt i had to really think seriously about it did I want to put my family through the stuff that I was seeing around me but I never thought I'd quit at that point because the car was very good.

22:03A couple more Formula One races I wanted to ask you about first of all Watkins Glen 68 your second one how much notice did the old man at Ferrari give you ahead of that was it always in your contract that you were going to do that one or do you get the nod the week before how does it work? No I just got the nod when Jackie he hurt his ankle or something in Canada. And they said, you know, Derek, you're driving up Watkins Glen. I never thought anything about it. So I'd never been to the Glen. I remember we learned it. We all got on golf carts. I went out with all the drivers, and we were racing golf carts sort of up and down the hills at Watkins Glen.

22:41And we all got a big, big bollocking for it. It was hilarious from the guys at the golf club. But nobody turned their cart over. But it was the first time I'd had camaraderie. because at first, you know, Monza was very different. And then suddenly there you are at the United States Grand Prix. But the important thing about that was they wouldn't let me do any laps. And they kept holding me back. They let me go out two laps and in, two laps and in, two laps and in. I was going, well, how pointless is this? Go out and try these new brake pads, two laps, three laps and in. Ix wasn't there because he'd had the accident at Canada.

23:18So it just left Chris and me. Chris obviously was in the points. It was the penultimate race of the World Championship, something like that. There's no way I was gonna feature. And all they did was make sure that I drove very well, didn't get in the way of anybody. And this certainly didn't hold any of the drivers up in the Ferrari team. So that's really what it was for. But they wanted, obviously they had the seat, so why not use it? It was so frustrating, because I'd do one lap, and they'd basically do the next lap, and they'd call me in, and I hadn't done a timed lap. she's driving me insane but they didn't want me I remember them saying we do not want you getting in the way of Amon who's at the front because he could win the world championship you know that's it so that's all I remember really with that race and in the race I did quite a reasonable job but I mean it wasn't that good that was your last Grand Prix for Ferrari yeah I did one more race but that was the last I did Silverstone Deadly Express Trophy okay non-championship in the rain yeah non-championship But now what about, if I say a four-wheel drive McLaren to you, the M9A, following year, you're at Silverstone.

24:30Now, there were actually other four-wheel drive cars in that race, all of them behind you. All, yeah. But what was it like to drive? Bloody awful. It was horrible. It was absolutely, it was hideous, really. Enzo pulled out of racing. Suddenly all the drivers are out on the loose. I mean, unbelievable. Just, that's it, lads. So, and of course, I was never on a retainer, so I wouldn't do any more racing, so I didn't get any more money. And that was it. Never spoke to the old man. I spoke to him a few years later, but never then. And that was it. So I went home to him, and I thought, well, that's great.

25:05And that's when I thought I was not really very good, because I was out in the cold. I had no drive for next year. And I'm going, well, what the hell do I do? You know, my time with dear old Tom Wheatcroft to really help my career. I hadn't come to anything at that point. I hadn't met Tom, because I met him on the Tasman series the first year I went. And I'm going, I'd have to call old Tom, because he said, anytime you want any help, lad, give me a call. I thought, I think I need his help now. But that was another story, obviously, where we went and how we made, actually, it all made good. To leave for our act, that was awful.

25:42And then, so 69 was a pretty lean year. I didn't have any drives that I'm aware of, which was thanks to Ferrari. So in a way, I was a bit disappointed, you might say. And that's when I started to lose confidence that I was really any good. But I felt, well, I might be nearly as quick as Chris. I was nearly as quick as Jackie Stewart, but I wasn't. You know, they were still quicker. Then you put into picture that, you know, they've been racing a lot longer and they've been racing at this level a lot longer, so they should be better. but and how fickle is this sport or was this sport back then in was one good result enough to get people ringing you asking you to race for them i think so yeah i mean it didn't happen for me but bruce mclaren did phone but it was only because he had wanted the new car run and i didn't know much about it at all i haven't even heard of four-wheel drive on that car i mean i knew of it because peter westbury had four-wheel drives but and i thought well you know what what's going to happen next and then out of the blue I get this call from Bruce and he said you know what you're doing next weekend he said I've tested the car at Goodwood and it just shows how stupid it was tested the car at Goodwood it runs okay would you like to run at the British Grand Prix I don't think many guys would have taken the opportunity I've got to be driving something I can really prove that I'm good but I just I was happy to drive anything so the first time you drove that car was in first practice at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix I guess on a Friday.

27:10What was it like? I guess traction was good, being four-wheel drive. Yes, traction was good, but it's very difficult unless you've driven another Formula One car around Silverstone, and I hadn't. If I'd got out of the two-wheel drive car and got in the four-wheel drive, I'm sure I'd have noticed a difference, but I just didn't in the car because I'd never driven anything like it in my life, and it wasn't very good. The principle we thought was that you could get into the corner quicker and I was inclined to agree. I felt that you could really get closer to the grass verge because you could go into the corner faster but the car weaved about and when you analyze it it was very obvious what the problem was.

27:53There were no electronics so as you brake for the corner let's say you were getting a 60-40 braking reaction like that as you come down hanger straight into the right-handed which only take a dab of the brakes but when you did that, the engine would then slow you down as you drop down a gear. That would have a different sort of braking force on the wheels. That would have all four slowing down at the rate of like that. But the brakes were trying to give you another percentage or whatever it was. You know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that nobody had done that yet. When we get electric, you know, we get cars with all the latest tech that we have now.

28:31Of course, they can dial it in and each one has to be mutually respectful of the other, you know, the four-wheel drive and the braking system. So you don't get that awful change. Was it hairy to drive? It just didn't really do what you wanted. I thought I could go in, get right out to the edge and turn in, but because of the way it slowed down, it wasn't stable. I mean, it just wasn't a stable car. And I remember coming in and I said, I need some wing on this. Can I have a wing? because Bruce, or whoever it was, had decided that they'd run their cars without any wings. And of course, because Silverstone was so damn fast, and I thought that was a bloody good idea.

29:13But of course, I had this sort of shovel thing on the back of the car in its first state. And I thought, you know, I need more than this on the car, because the car isn't stable going in. You kept thinking, I want the car to get firmer going into the corner, but they thought the all-wheel drive would do it, but it wouldn't, possibly because of what I just mentioned. but also aerodynamics were in their infancy at the time yeah weren't they so maybe they just didn't fully understand what aero could do for you no but Derek it must have been a really interesting time to have been in racing right you've got McLaren trying four-wheel drive as I said aerodynamics are in their infancy and going on leaps and bounds yeah the six-wheel Tyrell was to come along a few years later.

29:57Was it an exciting time? Did you feel the innovation all around you? Oh, yeah, very definitely. Right, last race I want to talk to you about was your most successful one in Formula One, the Watkins Glen 1970. You finish in the points driving for John Surtees, who was still racing at the time. That's right. He was the player manager. That's right, yeah. I think I mentioned Tom Wheatcroft just now. and Tom came into the picture because we met my old man who was on a they were on a booze cruise the whole time on the Tasman series seven weekends seven races absolutely fabulous and great fun people and lapping up the Europeans coming over to race in their countries and Tom was over there just because I'll come over I look at the cars and you know he wanted he loved racing cars and I'd never heard of him but he was there and my stepfather the colonel as we called him he was there and they both like their you know whiskey and whatever whiskey and waters at night and they were great characters both the same sort of size and loved racing and of course Tom became a close friend of my stepfather and my mine and of course when he came to the end of the year actually Tom said to me anytime you need any help lad give me a call well it wasn't long before I needed help because I didn't realize my racing career was going to disappear at the end of that year.

31:23Funnily enough, across there just now was Mike Earl. And Mike Earl was working with me with our Formula 2 team, Church Farm Racing. And if you remember, we ran the McLaren for Peter Gethin. You probably don't, but we ran it in Formula 5000. When I went to Ferrari, Peter came along and said to our team, because we were quite obviously showing a bit of promise as a little setup, would we run the McLaren Formula 5000 car? And I've got this wonderful painting of Peter at Goodwood in the Formula 5000 McLaren. They went over to America, and I know they won the race at not Sears Point, but something like that.

32:03Peter won the Can-Am race, or the 5000 race, in a McLaren. And that wouldn't have ever been my car. I think Peter just had an in with McLaren when I went to Ferrari. So we continued on, and he saw that was that and then of course the old man came on the Tasman series and met up with Tom and then afterwards we cultivated Tom into sort of helping us out and he wanted to do that, he loved it but the sad thing was that he had lost a certain interest in doing it I think he, because probably my stepfather wasn't so involved anymore so Tom helped me out all through that year and financed my racing So what year are we talking with 70 70 right i've been told that tom wecroft's uh love of the sport suffered massively when roger williamson died definitely at zanbrook definitely definitely yeah definitely but he he helped me so much well i mean he said i'll help you lad and i said what do you mean he said no you want the money you you know but the strangest thing was i mean you know tom's not around anymore but at the end of that year we he then sort of phoned me one day and he said hey lad you owe me some money you know and i said what do you mean you borrowed the money to go racing i said tom we never i nearly cried i said i'd never i never would have ever earned enough money to pay you back you said you wanted a sponsor and as far as i was concerned we never had a legal battle but it soured our relationship and i adored tom i mean he was one of those people You couldn't fail but like and love because of his passion.

33:38And he did help me. I mean, he helped me immensely. But unfortunately, you know, almost remember I'd been at a Ferrari before that. So my career was starting to take a bit of a downward trend, which wasn't very much fun. So how did the opportunity with Certies come about? At the end of that next year, when we were running the Brabham with Tom in discussion, he said, why don't we do the Tasman series? I'll buy the Brabham that Jackie Yix drove in the German Grand Prix Formula One car, BT26 I believe. And so Tom had bought that car and he stuck that V8 in the back of it. Now the problem is that V8 had been around the mill a few times, that had been used by Lotus, Chapman had used it and done the Tasman series and Formula One.

34:28So Tom had this engine and it It always ran, but it was never that special. But it was obviously an early one, and he wasn't prepared to update it or whatever it required. And so that's what we drove with, and that's really what I had in the back of the Sertes Tier 7 that day. He gave that engine to John Sertes to run in the United States Grand Prix. I was actually running all right. I was running in the race behind Rainer V. Cell, and I'd caught him up in the works Lotus, and then I went to go by, and then I felt this vibration in the engine. So I slowed down. I thought, God, Derek, you've got to finish a race in Formula One.