Marko Hanželic
Walter Wolff, a Canadian businessman who is also of Slovene descent by his mother, had his own Formula 1 team in the late XNUMXs, which he also personally financed. The team Walter wolf racing was very close to also winning the title in his first Formula 1 season.
Wolf was born in Maribor and not, as many mistakenly think, in Graz. His childhood was anything but easy, as he was the son of a German citizen and a Slovenian mother, which made him they were not entitled to food stamps and therefore depends primarily on the help of friends. He is already a child Wolf strengthened its business vein with sales scrap iron, and in 1958, with fifty dollars in his pocket, he emigrated to Canada, where he first enriched himself with equipment for drilling wells for oil extraction and later also with oil itself.
He always was stuck in speed and adrenaline adventures, not least for some time he was even a world record holder in deep diving, as a member of the Canadian skiing teams however, he also took part in the Olympic Games in Innsbruck, where he did not compete. In the XNUMXs, at the height of his financial strength, he decided to enter Formula 1.
"I've always loved fast cars," he told me in an interview years ago Wolff"I first wanted to get a Lamborghini into Formula 1. I had known Gianpaolo Dallara before, who was the technical director at Lamborghini at the time, and it was he who convinced me to enter F1. ”
"In the end, it didn't work out with Lamborghini because they didn't want to race in F1, so I turned to Frank Williams and bought the team from him and renamed it Walter Wolf Racing," Wolf remembers. Z Williams they finished Hesketh 's 308Cs race car and renamed it the Wolf-Williams FW05s, but the 1976 season was a big disappointment, so Wolf fired Williams and took matters into his own hands.
“I created my own Walter Wolf Engineering company and we set up a racing team,” adds the born Maribor: “Dallara has been a great help to me in this and has worked with Harvey Postlethwait, Patrick Head and Adrian Newey to develop this successful race car. We made history - we won the first race we competed in. And as a private team, without sponsors. ”
“When I contacted Peter Warr, Harvey Postlethwaite and others, they told me they would come to me on the condition that I hire one of the four drivers they had on the list,” he says Wolf. He managed to bring it into the team Jody Scheckter, and were on the list alongside the South African Niki Lauda, Ronnie Peterson in Mario Andretti.
“I first turned to Niki Lauda, but he already had a contract with Ferrari, and besides, he didn’t believe we would put together a car with which to win. Then I went to Jody, offered him a pretty lucrative contract and he was in favor, ” remembers the beginnings Wolf: "Remember - if you want to win, you have to have people on the team who have already succeeded. As head of the team, Peter Warr has already won the Lotus with Colin Chapman and won titles with Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi. ”
Compared to Ferrari was Walter wolf racing small, compact and much more homogeneous environment: “I had 80 employees and our headquarters were in Reading, UK. After all, it was a Canadian team that also represented its Canadian origins with a flag on a race car. ”
Wolf is proud of his pioneering role in Formula 1, as he was the first private individual to succeed with his own money alone win the Monaco Grand Prix: “In the 1977 season, we won three races, namely our first race in Argentina, then Monaco and, in addition, Canada. We finished fourth in the constructors' championship, despite competing with only one car, and Jody Scheckter took second place in the overall race. Nobody in front of us has succeeded in that and I don't believe anyone else will. "
Gilles Villeneuve could be a serial world champion if…
At about the same time, the team was at help Dallare prepared a prototype with a label WD1. Chris Ammon and a then relatively unknown Canadian young man Gilles Villeneuve they performed with him in the series Can-Am. "I wanted Gilles to drive my car," he said. he remembers Wolf: “I had a contract with him, but I got a call from Enzo Ferrari, who really wanted him on his team. I called Gaston Parent, who was Villeneuve's manager, and Gilles went to Ferrari. ”
“The biggest sticker on our race car was the Canadian flag and I really wanted Gilles to drive it. He was a really exceptional talent, but too whirlwind, which ultimately cost him his life as well. If I drove a little more with my head and less with my heart, I would have at least three titles in the window and I would be alive, ” he adds Wolf: “He was at least so, if not more talented than Senna, but at the same time he was also extremely emotional and drove really aggressively. Just remember the famous duel with Rene Arnoux in Dijon. He thought he was untouchable, that he was immortal. ”
James Hunt was my big mistake
When the end of 1978 Jody scheckter went to Ferrari, is Wolf behind the wheel of a race car Wolf WR7 planted James Hunt, who won the Formula 1 title in 1976. "It was a big mistake," admits Walter Wolff: “We were a Democratic team and Peter Warr and Harvey Postlethwaite were still working with Hunt on Hesketh, so they wanted to bring him into the team. After all, he was a former champion. ”
Hunt left the team after GP Monacoand his replacement was Keke rosberg: “But neither of them was close to what Gilles was capable of. Gilles Villeneuve was just one. ”
Wolf continues: "James Hunt was of the opinion that it was his fault that Ronnie Peterson had died in Monza the year before. He was no longer the James Hunt we knew before. He was a very good driver, but after Peterson's accident he was nervous about the dog and therefore very unpredictable. "
At the end of 1979 it was Walter Wolff withdrew from Formula 1, the team Walter wolf racing but he bought Fittipaldi Automotive, thus also ending Wolf’s (initially very successful) trip to the queen of motorsport.
