3rd of May - Nelson Piquet wins at Imola the first Gran Premio di San Marino in 1981at the wheel of a Brabham BT49C with a normally aspirated Ford Cosworth DFV engine. Forcing defeat upon the mighty turbo-powered Ferraris and Renaults, the Brazilian scored Brabham's 25th win as Formula 1 constructor on the way to his first title in the Formula 1 Drivers World Championship.

3/5/1924, Alan Henry Robert Kenneth Tyrrell is born

An imposing figure, two metres of height and of corresponding weight, Robert Kenneth Tyrrell once had been a woodcutter and also a timber merchant. As a racing driver he had got only average talent, his excellent ability was being a manager. And among the team principals of Formula One he was absolutely the most solid. Click HERE to access a Ken Tyrrell bio published earlier on within this blog.

Born: 3rd of May 1924
Died: 25th of August 2001, aged 77.

3/5/1949, Johan Gerard Haijje is born in Amsterdam.

A Dutch privateer who entered seven Grands Prix under the name Boy Hayje. He only managed to qualify for three GPs, the 1976 Dutch GP in a privately entered Penske PC3 and at the 1977 South African and Belgian GP in a March 761. He took his sponsorship with him into Formula 2 in 1978 with Fred Opert but again had no success. He stepped down to the European Renault 5 Turbo Championship doing rather well there.

5/12/1917, Kenneth Henry Downing dies.

Ken Downing, always a privateer, was best placed British driver on the grid for the 1951 British GP with Connaught A-type 2-litre Formula 2 car. Only the three factory Ferraris of Farina, Ascari and Taruffi and Manzon’s Gordini were in front of him. A goofy backmarker cost him a better result than ninth in the race. He retired from the Dutch GP, his only other appearance GP. But his allegiance to the Connaught marque continued for most of his career, both in sports cars and single seaters.

Born: 5th of December 1917 in Chesterton, UK
Died: 3rd of May 2004 in South Africa aged 87.

29th of April - Discussion are ongoing whether Rubens Barichello has or still has to match Riccardo Patrese's record of 256 Grands Prix starts. However, back in 1984 the Italian might have been unsuspecting that his career might stretch that long. Here Patrese is shown at the Belgium GP in Zolder where he celebrated his 100th participation in a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Theodor Helfrich is born in Frankfurt, Germany.

Theo Helfrich contested the 1952 and 53 German Grands Prix in a Veritas-BMW, then the 1954 race in a similarly powered Klenk Meteor special. This motor trader from Mannheim also shared the second place Mercedes-Benz 300SL at Le Mans in 1952 with Helmut Niedermayr.

Born: 13th of May 1913 in Frankfurt, Germany;
Died: 29th of April 1978 in Ludwigshafen, Germany, aged 64.

Robert Ramsay Campbell Walker dies.

Rob Walker used to race himself before stepping back to enter Tony Rolt to be his driver. A heir to the Johnnie Walker whisky dynasty, he bought an 1927 Delage racer that Rolt drove in the then newly formed Formula 1 even during 1950 and after it was fitted with an ERA engine in both 1951 and 1952. In 1953 Walker ran a Connaught for Rolt and the combination enjoyed some success and on occasion Stirling Moss drove the cars. It was a similar story in 1954 with Rolt doing most of the races but Peter Collins being the rising star and in 1955 when Peter Walker raced on occasion.

In 1956 Walker fielded Reg Parnell in a Connaught and Tony Brooks in Formula 2 in a Cooper while in 1957 the Cooper took over and Brooks was joined by Jack Brabham. The team made its big break through in 1958 when Walker convinced Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant to drive a pair of Coopers. Moss won the Argentine GP and Trintignant won at Monaco. That winter Walker was present when Mike Hawthorn crashed and was killed in an accident on the Guildford by-pass. The withdrawal of Vanwall gave Walker the chance to sign Moss fulltime for 1959 and there was a victory in Portugal. In 1960 Walker switched to Lotus in F1 and Moss won a famous victory at Monaco and another in the United States after Moss had recovered from breaking his legs in an accident at Spa. In F2 Walker ran a Porsche for Moss although there was an attempt to build a Walker Special. This Alfa Francis-designed device was not a success.

The 1961 season saw wins at Monaco and the Nurburgring, while the team also did development work with the four-wheel-drive Ferguson F1 car, which had been built by Rolt. Moss had his accident at Goodwood that Spring (driving for the British Racing Partnership) and so Trintignant took over with Walker's F1 team. At the end of the year the team rented a car to RicardoRodriguez in Mexico and he crashed and was killed. Six weeks later Gary Hocking drove one of Walker's cars in South Africa and also crashed and died. In 1963 Walker bought Cooper chassis and ran Jo Bonnier and in 1964 the team switched to Brabham chassis. That year Jochen Rindt made his F1 debut in a Walker Brabham. For the 1965 season Bonnier was joined by Jo Siffert and Siffert took over in 1966. The Walker-Siffert combination remained together until the end of 1969 when Siffert joined BRM.

Having switched chassis on a regular basis, in 1970 Walker decided to use Lotus chassis and took on Graham Hill to drive. At the end of the year he agreed a three-year deal with Brooke Bond Oxo but Hill moved to Brabham and so Walker did a deal to work with John Surtees. Thus began a relationship with Mike Hailwood. When the Brooke Bond deal ended at the end of 1973 Walker went with Hailwood to a secondary McLaren team, sponsored by Yardley. Hailwood retired at the end of 1974 and Walker, by then 57 years of age, decided to concentrate on journalism with the US magazine Road & Track. The last private car Rob Walker brought to the grid, was a Hesketh Ford 308 for Australian Alan Jones (together with Harry Stiller) for a few Grand Prix at the beginning of the 1975 season. Then the dark blue Scottish racing colours disappeared. Rob Walker died on 29th April 2002 in the age of 84 caused by a pneumonia.

Born: 14th of August 1917 in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, UK;
Died: 29th of April 2002 in Nunney, Somerset, UK, aged 84.

Martin Whitmarsh is born in the UK.

Martin Whitmarsh graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1980, first joined British Aerospace and went to work as a structural analysis engineer at the BAe facility in Hamble-le-Rice, near Southampton. He was promoted to a coordination role in research and development of advanced composite structures and spent some time at the BAe facility in Weybridge before returning to Hamble-le-Rice where he was put in charge of the production of Harrier and Hawk airframes. It was then decided that the factory should become an independent operation and Aerostructures Hamble Ltd. was established, as a BAe subsidiary. Whitmarsh was made manufacturing director. Soon afterwards, however, he left BAe and joined McLaren International as operations director and he held that position until September 1997 when he was appointed managing-director, a move which allowed team boss Ron Dennis to spend more time developing the TAG McLaren Group. Today Whitmarsh ist the CEO of the McLaren Fromula 1 team and COO of the TAG McLaren Group.