ARTICLE: What Matters? Who's Counting?

Steve Guglielmi September 2002

I recently watched Frost on Sunday, his guest was our very own Max Mosely. It's always made me feel good that an Englishman was at the helm of the FIA, you always got the feeling his predecessor was trying to shaft us, perhaps it was because he was French or something!

I don't really know, but I'm much more comfortable with Max (No offence intended Arnoux). David was probin as to how Max and his men were going to make F1 interesting again, it was all going OK until Max came out with "We wouldn't want the scenario of the worst driver in the best car, we mustn't let that happen!" I reached straight for my soap box, I was horrified, how bad could any Forumula 1 driver be? The name of the game at that level is winning, by whatever means you have (legally) available. It's a sport!

To me the thrill of Motorsport has always been challenging my own expectation of myself. If you can succeed through being part of a team, collectively sculpting what you have into something better, making something that's more than the sum of it's parts, that works for me.

Winning isn't the only reason I compete, it's doing your best and stretching to get there. With the right mindset we can all improve, it's having the right attitude and being able to learn from your mistakes that takes you forward.

I like Michael Schumacher, I think what he has achieved is truly awesome, he is without doubt special and at the top of his game, but I'm a true fan of Damon Hill. He was in the right place at the right time and he capitalised on it. He got his butt in the right car, don't forget he helped develop it for 2 years before he got to race it, he lifted his game in Japan, with the restarted race taking into account the aggregate time from the two parts, he drove his socks off and made it count. He deserved to win and be World Champion. I can really relate to Hill, during that season he looked fragile and human. I could imagine him hiding in a corner under the pressure, vulnerable and self-doubting, but pulling himself together and getting the job done.

If the "Sport" is centred around the best driver in the best car, what's the point of the rest of us turning up, Max?

What Matters?

It has always troubled me how much we have to conform in this life. We're all trying to live up to expectations whether they're ours or someone else's. It happens to me most when I'm a passenger in a car for the first time. If the owner thinks he can drive, I know I'm in for a life threatening experience! It has happened so often that I rarely let anyone else drive.

A big part of life is the feel good factor. We try to do the things that make us feel good. TVR is about the "feel good" factor. The cars look amazing, they sound glorious and they make the occupants feel good. It encapsulates the "spirit of driving". Just imagine what it's like to race one, with thirty other lunatics around you.

I've been racing TVR's since 1995. The most memorable moments for me have been leading for the first time in both races at Snetterton in 1995. It felt amazing to be in a race with no-one in front of you! I eventually finished third (I didn't win one until 1999).

Silverstone 1996, last race of the season, as I walked back from the podium, Gerry Marshall shouted at me "Well done Steve". He was on the top of the BRDC bar with pint in hand, I'd just finished third to Flux & Short, I was overwhelmed that my hero knew who I was!

My dad, again at Silverstone, September 2001. He had tears in his eyes after I'd won the night race, he insisted it was the wind.

In January 2002 the Autosport show at the NEC, I was working on the 76 lubricants stand for my friend Anders Hilderbrand. On the Saturday a man approached me with his son at his side, he introduced himself, he was a Motor Racing Marshall, one of the unsung heroes that motorsport at any level cannot exist without. We chatted about racing and how much he and his colleagues loved to watch the TVR Tuscans. He introduced his son of about eleven, we shook hands and I signed a race programme. As he was about to leave, he turned to his son and said "that's why he's a champion". Like they way, it's the simple things in life that matter.