JUAN Fangio was sponsored by Juan Peron for the whole of his spectacular career. For younger readers, Juan was the husband of blonde actress Eva, who Andy Webber (no relation to Mark) and Tim Rice, made the star of the musicalEvita. Juan Fangio (every male is called Juan in Argentina) was voted the No 3 greatest F1 wheelperson of all time by an Autosport panel of 217 drivers.
A few dodgy rulers like Juan and his mates Mr A. Hitler and Mr B. Mussolini used car racing as a propaganda tool. In his book Juan Fangio — Motor Racing’s Grand Master, Karl Ludvigsen points out that Peron wanted to make Argentina self-sufficient as a car producer, no longer relying on the American plutocrats for Fords and Chevrolets. Hmm. That must be what happened to the Australian car industry.
Anyway, this year is the 80th anniversary of Fangio’s first race in an American plutocrat’s Ford Model A and it’s the four-month anniversary of Daniel Ricciardo’s first F1 win at the Canadian Grand Prix. Dan has the potential to be the next Fangio. He is very talented, intelligent and has a feel for the mechanicals. But as in the rest of life, in motor sport talent is not enough. You need money as well. Luckily, he has his father — Joe the founder of Ricciardo Earthmoving, one of Perth’s largest providers of site works to project, residential and commercial builders. It cost Joe and other sponsors around $150,000 to race in Formula BMW. When Daniel moved up into Formula Renault, the family supported his living expenses overseas, but Red Bull paid the racing expenses — and that has been the case through British Formula 3 and into F1.
Most F1 teams need you to bring your own money or sponsorship. Even the high-profile teams use a combination of a paid driver and a pay-to-drive driver. So while Mercedes, one of Mr Hitler’s favourite car companies during the last big one, pays Lou Hamilton around 25 big ones, the drivers with names you struggle to remember are not earning a brass red bull.
But all is not lost.
Click here to keep reading: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/motorsport/get-a-dirtyrich-dad-if-you-want-to-race/story-fncei7d9-1227056295596
