Enzo of course had given this problem more thought than anyone in the world. He replied with utter blandness, "We have at the present time a driver and a half: engineer-tester-racing driver Mike Parkes, under contract ~ through 1967; and an unfortunately injured driver with whom we have a contract through 1966."
Enzo tossed this card into the game so casually and unexpectedly that the hundred or so journalists were stunned. Among other things, they had to sort out the Delphic prose. "Driver and a half." Did that refer to Parkes' ability? To his six-foot-four stature? No, it referred to Parkes, ready for action, and to Surtees, ready when? Or did it?
"It's the zodiacal year of Jupiter coming," an erudite someone muttered. "The year of giants."
No one was prepared for this mantle to be placed on Parkes' big, lean shoulders. Who the hell was he, anyway? Of course this lanky, taciturn foreigner had been working for Ferrari for three years, but that was a thorn in the peninsular mentalily that the hometeam press had done a heroic job of ignoring. Even his racing conquests were largely ignored so that little more was known about him other than that he was big, British and a tester at Maranello who also did some driving for the factory. The long, long session ended without any further meaningful comment on the Parkes bombshell.
Mike was not present at the conference or at the feast which followed. As usual, he was working. Then, when Stirling Moss flew in to do a spot coverage for BBC he found himself being interviewed by Mike, in Italian, for Italian TV.
"Do you think I can make it in Formula One, Stirling'?
" I've watched you from the beginning, Mike. Of course you'll make it."
A few hours later Mike and I relaxed in his bachelor apartment in downtown Modena. The modern teak furniture was tastefully arranged in the top-floor flat which he had chosen because of its very high ceilings. There were a well-stocked bookcase, a small bar, excellent sound system, a few trophies. The phone rang and he carried on a long conversation in Italian with a lady, speaking it in exactly the same languid way in which he speaks his native tongue. I met the lady later; she was English too.
Mike has the brightest of blue eyes, a ruddy complexion and dark brown hair with a very few sprinkles of gray. The man who Ferrari had just described as "l'unico pilota intero" -the only complete driver-sank into an armchair, draped his great legs in comfortable disarray and, with hypnotic serenity, began telling his story. It was difficult to identify this tranquil being with the demonically fast, aggressive and relentless driver who had held me spellbound many times. Fangio has the same feline gift of being either totally relaxed or totally alert.
Mike Parkes was born in Richmond, Surrey, near London on Dec. 24, 1931. His environment and heredity both favored the course he would choose in life. His maternal grandfather had been a distinguished mechanical engineer with many interesting and original creations to his credit. His father had helped to found the very successful Airwork Company and was a prominent figure in Britain's aircraft industry. When Mike graduated from Haileybury public school in 1949 his father, then and today the managing director of Alvis, let his son choose his own future.
For Mike the alternatives were to enter a university or to go directly into industry. The choice was easy for two reasons. First, he already was devoutly fond of the automobile in all its forms. Second, many British firms offer apprenticeship courses which provide background for careers in industry which no purely academic instilution can begin to match.
Mike began his 5-year apprenticeship with the Rootes Group in the winter of 1949. Rootes has its own technical college and there he received his theoretical training, which included mechanical engineering. Then there was the practical training program in which each apprentice is rotated through every departrnent in the company: sales, payroll, accounting, engineering, styling, product planning, testing, everything. The young person who completes such a course knows almost every aspect of his industry and is able to choose intelligently that aspect which he wants to pursue as a career. As a start Mike opted for the experimental departrnent.
He began as a junior member of the Hillman test section. He loved his work and his zeal and intelligence were rewarded with steady advancement. After two and a half years he was put in charge of the Sunbeam-Talbot test section, where he learned still more about all the details that must or should be anticipated during the development of a car. When he felt that he had absorbed this message fully he asked to be transferred to Rootes' engineering design department, where he could put his experience to work at a stage where it would be of much greater value.
In 1956 Mike initiated the design studies for a light car and this led to his being made responsible as project engineer for what carne to be the Hillman Imp. As the Suez crisis came and went and as market conditians changed the Imp grew and was re-engined and re-styled two or three times. Its period of gestation was a full six years, after which Mike finally had the satisfaction of seeing his babies coming down the production line in a brand new factory in Scotland. At which point he left Rootes and joined Ferrari.
Mike's mad enthusiasm for cars is unqualified; large, small, fast, slow, modern or vintage, they all fascinate him with their own distinctive charaeteristics and behavior. This, along with a congenital appetite for speed, challenge and competition, started him racing anything he couId get to drive. Finally, in 1952 and by pooling resources with fellow-apprentice John Munn, he became the owner of a 1930 ehain-drive Frazer-Nash.
"lf you have any feeling for mechanical things," Mike says, "1 think you automatieally have a nostalgic feeling about them. Like about a steam locomotive. It is something which is dying but, when you see it in action, is very much alive and fun of personality. But our motives in choosing vintage car racing were not sentimental ones; it was the only form of racing that we could afford at the time."
Mike drove the 'Nash in 10 to 15 races per year in '53, '54 and '55. Since most of the vintage car events were handicap races open to a wide assortment of machines, to be successful one had to be continually improving one's car and making it faster in order to stay a jump ahead of the handicappers. This was excellent experienee and, with Mike driving and tuning, the little team built up a very respectable competition record.
In 1956 the team took on another member. Rootes colleague Geoff Williamson. They invested in a Clubman's Lotus 11, with side-valve engine and rigid rear axle. They designed and built their own light-alloy cylinder head with overhead inlet valves for this engine and had a good season. The head was produced commercially by the WiIlment firm.
For the 1957 season they supercharged the 1172 cc Ford engine and converted to alcohol fuel. Competing against approximate equals Mike beat them on most oceasions or blew up while leading. To keep the engine cool it had been necessary to mount a radiator whieh was almost eight inches thick. One day at MalIory Park Mike had to lift while going into a comer and the now-nose-heavy Lotus understeered its way straight off the course and into total wreckage. Mike broke a rib or two, was otherwise unhurt, but was out of a ride and remained that way throughout the following year.
Back in 1936 David Fry and Dick Caesar built the famous Auto Union-inspired special which they called the Freikaiser-wagen. Fry's cousin, Joe Fry, was killed in this car and David lost his interest in racing for several years. Then, late in 1957, he conceived an idea for a light-alloy monocoque F2 car. He took the idea to Alec Issigonis, who sketched out its engineering details. Issigonis at that time worked with Mike's father at Alvis, knew Mike and his qualifications and recommended him to Fry. Thus, beeause of his combined engineering experience and experienee as a racing driver, Mike was invited to take part in the testing and development of the machine.
This car turned out to be a bit big and heavy for its 1500 ee Climax engine and scored no astonishing wins. But Mike drove it throughout the '58 and '59 seasons and it did have a very successful history of development and of bettering its position in F2 races.
Also in '59 Mike was called on to advise on the racing preparation of Sir Gawaine Baillie's Lotus 15, with the result that Baillie invited Mike to be his codriver in long-distance races in his Lotus Elite. They took part in the Nurburgring 1000km and the 24 hours of Le Mans and then Baillie decided that the car was not right for him. Mike drove it in a series of events in England with such success that Colin Chapman took notice of him and retained him as relief driver at Le Mans in 1960.
At the end of '59 Mike attended the annual Sunbeam Talbot Owners' Club dinner and found himself seated next to Tommy Sopwith. They had a world of interests in common and Sopwith explained what his Equipe Endeavour had planned for the coming season. He would race two Jaguar sedans and a Ferrari Berlinetta and hoped to get one of the then new E-type Jaguars. He needed a second driver to team with Jack Sears. This was the point at which Mike moved from Clubman status into the Big Time.
The first meeting of the season was at Snetterton. Driving a 3.8 Jaguar Mike won the saloon car race; Sears carne in second. They both practiced in the Ferrari and Mike, being fastest, was assigned the car for the GT race. He won.
The following weekend the action shifted to Goodwood. Mike won the saloon car race outright, against many of the acknowledged experts. Then he drove the Ferrari in the GT race, against such talent as Moss, Clark, Ireland, Salvadori. He won. He was a new boy to all this and "was really a little bit frightened about the whole thing."
Mike drove for Sopwith throughout '60 and '61 and had two realIy brilliant seasons. As a result of his '60 season's successes with the Berlinetta he was invited by the Ferrari factory to attend the Le Mans practice in April of '61. There he drove a Berlinetta so impressively that Ferrari offered him a ride in the race. He appeared, expecting to drive a Berlinetta, but to his delighted surprise was assigned to share a 3-liter front-engine Ferrari TR2 sports car with Willy Mairesse. They finished second, taking equal turns at the wheel.
Mike had witnessed the Le Mans race for the first time in 1956 and had told himself that someday, somehow, he was going to drive in that incredible events "Little did 1 know," he says, "that within five years my ambition would be more than fulfilled and that 1 would be quite near to winning the race outright."
Mike continued driving for Sopwith but began making periodic visits to the Ferrari factory "because 1 frankly liked to show rny face and to see what was going on and to pay rny respects to everyone."
This investment paid off in a Berlinetta for the Nurburgring in '62, in which Parkes/Mairesse finished second overall. Then, with Bandini, he drove a 4-liter Berlinetta at Le Mans; it was a hot year and the car was retired with overheating problems. Mike recalls, "I did have a first-lap excursion in the sand but that had nothing to do with the overheating. Nor was it entirely rny fault. 1 was cncouraged toward the sand by another driver within the Ferrari tearn . . . he doesn't drive with us any more."
At the end of '62 Mike paid another visit to Maranello. This time, to his absolute astonishment, he was asked if he would like to work there. Well, how would you like to have the keys to Paradise? That is not far from what this honor meant for Mike.
It was a difficult decision for him to make. He was profoundly grateful to the Rootes managernent for a wealth of reasons. One very important one was its tolerance of his racing activities over all these years. Even though all his racing was done on holidays there were inevitable losses of time, which his superiors had very sympathctically condoned. Then there was the Imp project, for which he was responsible to a ]arge degree. However, it had just come to fruition and his job on it was done. So, in January of 1963 lngegner Mike Parkes took up his complex duties at Maranello.
He is responsible for Ferrari's experimental department including test driving and for everything that comes off the production line. It is his responsibility to put a new model into the condition where it can be put into production and to maintain quality control. Mike finds time to drive in all Championship races for Prototypes. And he is involved also in their development programs. It's hard work but it is the work that he loves.
Mike spends at least thirty percent of his working time at the drawing board. A more or less equal amount of his time is spent on practical tests and experiments. For a man with his many skills, Mike often finds it much quicker and easier to establish solutions in practice and then to put them on paper. The factory work day is from 8:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M. and is inevitably filled with endless day-to-day, routine problems. But in any one day a significant part of his time is spent in conducting experiments and then going directly to the drafting room and correlating their results with the design in question. It is a highly creative job and after over three years and in spite of being the only foreigner in the far-from-small organization,
Mike's contentment seems to grow and grow. Racing feeds it too.
Among the highlights of '63 was a theoretical second at Le Mans; ..theoretical because team orders were not to overtake the customer who was lying second. In '64 Markes/Maglioli won the Sebring 12 hours; Parkes was first in the Spa GP; Parkes/Guichet were second in the Nurburgring 1000 kilometers; Parkes/Scarfiotti were third in the Reims 12 hours. In '65 Mike won the Monza 1000 km and with Surtees, was second in the Reims 12 hours.
Until last December, when Enzo assigned him Formula 1 status, Mike had had no direct involvement with the Ferrari Fl cars or programs. Mike is not entirely a stranger to open-wheel monoposts. He has done considerable Formula Junior driving and development work. He once drove a 1500 cc Cooper Fl at Mallory Park. He found it underpowered and was unimpressed. In '61 he drove Reg Parnell's Intercontinental Lotus 2.5 Silverstone and liked it very well. He is a driver who is happiest with immense horsepower at his command, which is one reason why he shines in Prototypes. At Monza last year he shattered the absolute track record in one. The new 3-liter formula spells, for him, his sort of GP car, the sort of car with which he has been most successful, the sort that puts personal ability to the most exacting test; the sort of car, in other words, that is fun for him to drive. He says of racing: "To me its a sport. I'm in the fortunate position that my living doesn't depend on motor racing, as I'm already following a career in the motor industry. So, I can drive and do drive because I enjoy it. Which puts one, 1 feel, in a frame of mind that is different and less dangerous than somebody who drives as a professional because he's hungry and he knows that the result of each race may determine whether he gets to drive in the next race or not. Not that I don't like money, but in my case it's a secondary factor. Sorne of the people in professional racing today would be racing bicycles if the money were there.
"My primary career is not being a racing driver. Much of my early racing was done because it furthered my curiosity and knowledge about motor cars. The challenge used to be quite clearly twofold. One aspect was not only to use my mechanical and engineering knowledge to make a car technically superior to somebody else's but, as a result of having the practical ability, to drive a car and assess it and decide where its weaknesses are and what should be done to improve it. The other aspect was taking two cars which are identical-which is the situation that I have today - when the challenge becomes one of exercising your own personal skill against that of your next door neighbor, which 1 think we all try to do in one way or another if we have any sort of ambition.
"When I race I give myself a great deal of personal satisfaction, but it is completely selfish, egotistical. Whereas developing, making a motor car, you are creating something which is not only useful but, if it's good enough, is going to give a great deal of pleasure to a large number of people. And that 1 regard as making a useful contribution in one's life."
THE FOREGOING was written at the turn of the year, when Surtees' ability even to walk again still was in doubt.
At the annual press conference someone had asked Enzo what would happen in the improbable event that Surtees would recover fully intime to start the season. The Commendatore had a ready answer, one which he had learned in the days when Nuvolari and Varzi both drove for him:
"Duegallie in un pollaio non el stanno," he quipped. "There isn't room for two roosters in one henyard."
That was the tipoff to anyone who had ears.
The improbable happened and Surtees, by superhuman effort, worked and willed himself back into prime condition well before the start of the season.
Thus, Mike Parkes was forgotten as far as Formula l was concerned-or at least publicly. Surtees drove in five races and won three, and then came the showdown at Le Mans, that resulted in Surtees' break with Ferrari. The showdown, which put Surtees in a position where he had to accept being downgraded in favor of a 3rd-string driver, or quit, was hardly pretty, but it was in character with Ferrari's treatment of other top drivers, Fangio and Phil Hill included. Ferrari is not fond of drivers whose own achievements seem to him to rob his own name of any of its luster. Surtees had done a lot for Ferrari: 57 races, 12 firsts, 12 seconds, 5 thirds, 1 fourth, 2 sevenths and 25 retirements. Enzo was ready for a new rooster in his henyard.
The systematic, consistent, grinding persecution of Surtees by his own employer began long before the Monaco GP of 1965. He rolled with the punches and rose above them. The punches got harder and lower until Spa, this year, when even his hard-working mechanics were forbidden to attend the presentation of the trophy that their car and driver had won. And right after that came Le Mans.
In Italy the sports-minded populace was and still is livid over the Surtees affair, particularly since John seemed to be fully capable of giving Ferrari and Italy another World Championship. At Maranello the party line, interestingly enough, was to heap all the blame on Dragoni. Not to get rid of him immediately and to hold onto Surtees, but to make Dragoni the scapegoat of the affair. His days with the firm are undoubtedly numbered and it will be interesting to see who will replace the Milanese cosmetics manufacturer as team manager and faithful hatchet-man, without pay.
There is only one cook in the Maranello henhouse and he is Enzo Ferrari. He and ONLY he makes decisions there, and that is final and absolute to a degree so bizarre as to be almost incredible. Evidently Dragoni also has outlived his use fulness and/or welcome and has become eligible for sacrifice.
This, too, is part of the mantle that has fallen on Parkes big shoulders. So, happy rnotoring, Mike. E buona fortuna,neh?
Author: ArchitectPage
