I was looking at the Autocourse F1 Annual of '93, there I noticed in the small CART section that Emerson Fittipaldi was 47 years old and Mario Andretti was 53. Both were still driving and successful. It seemed so strange to me when compared to today's F1. Only young drivers are able to compete today and elders are forced to quit. Maybe it can be explained by the difference between F1 and CART.

Question came to my mind that who were the oldest drivers in the history of F1? Were they also successful? Who were the latest oldsters in the history? anyone in '80s or '90s?

many thanks,

smarty

Not sure of the oldest F1 driver, but Fangio stands out as being successful late in life (relatively speaking), winning his fifth WDC at the age of 46.

CART has undergone a dramatic shift in participant demographics since 1993...I think that the international exposure it received when The Nige jumped ship from F1 attracted a larger audience as well as the attention of a new generation of drivers (and sponsors) who saw CART as an alternative, or a stepping stone, to F1.
As a result, CART became more competitive and less of an old road racers' retirement home. The Old Man of CART (since Bobby Rahal retired and Scott Pruett has moved over to NASCAR) is Michael Andretti, at the tender age of 37!

Here are the top ten oldest drivers to start a Grand Prix:

1) Louis Chiron 55 years 292 days 1955 Monaco GP
2) Philippe Etancelin 55 years 190 days 1952 French GP
3) Arthur Legat 54 years 232 days 1953 Belgian GP
4) Luigi Fagioli 53 years 21 days 1951 French GP
5) Adolf Brudes 52 years 292 days 1952 German GP
6) Hans Stuck 52 years 260 days 1953 Italian GP
7) Bill Aston 52 years 127 days 1952 German GP
8) Clemente Biondetti 51 years 319 days 1950 Italian GP
9) Marcel Balsa 51 years 206 days 1952 German GP
10) Louis Rosier 50 years 273 days 1956 German GP

Here are ten of the oldest drivers to win a Grand Prix:

1) Luigi Fagioli 53 years 21 days 1951 French GP
2) Guiseppe Farina 46 years 277 days 1953 German GP
3) Juan Manual Fangio 46 years 42 days 1957 German GP
4) Piero Taruffi 45 years 219 days 1952 Swiss GP
5) Jack Brabham 43 years 339 days 1970 South African GP
6) Nigel Mansell 41 years 96 days 1994 Australian GP
7) Maurice Trintigant 40 years 199 days 1958 Monaco GP
8) Graham Hill 40 years 91 days 1969 Monaco GP
9) Clay Regazzoni 39 years 312 days 1979 British GP
10) Carlos Reutemann 39 years 35 days 1981 Belgian GP



[This message has been edited by Joe Fan (edited 11-27-1999).]

Remember these refer to only CHAMPIONSHIP events....not to GP events outside the WDC.

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Well since I dont know, I will go ahead and ask. Which generation of Hans Stuck is racing in the ALMS? I see Joe Fan has Hans Stuck listed as the winner of an event in 53'. Are these two father and son?

Keith,

Correct about father & son:

Hans Stuck, Sr. started racing in 1924 and ran his last race in 1963. He won the 1934 German GP for Auto Union as well as the Swiss & Czech races. In 1935 he won the Italian GP. He died in 1978

Hans Stuck, Jr. won the Endurance Drivers' Championship in 1985 & 1986 and Le Mans in 1986 & 1987. He drove for March in 1974-1976 when they were generally a shamble. Then he did Brabham in 1977 after Carlos Pace was killed (light aircraft crash), Shadow 1978, and ATS in 1979. In my opinion he was just snake-bit. Wrong place at the wrong time.

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

Thanks Don, I have been following Hans jr for years and hadnt known anything of his father. This place rocks!

Wasn't Hans Stuck sr. also Auto Unions hill climb specialist - I remember reading he had a nickname like 'bergenmeister' or something like that!?

About this age thing still. Do you think the races become too physical and the drivers loose out in reaction time so that affects them or do you just think its a motivational problem? I think it is more a motivational problem when a guy like Hill suddenly looses everything. I´d think that you physically could be up there with the best well into your 40´s at least. Any comments?

Grano, I was thinking of the same question. I don't believe that racing is getting more physically demanding because race conditions (cars, tracks, safety regulations, etc.) were much difficult to adapt at older times. It's "at least" as same as the past. But motivation may be the key. As the drivers are able to make their wealth much earlier than the past, they also retire earlier, IMHO.

Its probably got a lot to due with the additional work load that modern drivers have to submit too - much more testing, travelling, sponsor obligations etc. In the past most drivers just turned up and drove.
Of course they also found time to driver other things - like in the support races for the GPs - but that may have been the only way to make a living.

Slightly off topic Paul Newman aged 80 raced in the 2005 24 hours at Daytona in a Crawford DP3 Q13 DNF with Sébastien Bourdais (F)/Cristiano da Matta (BR)/Paul Newman (USA)/Mike Brockman (USA)

http://www.racingsportscars.com/photo/2005...5-02-06-079.jpg

Notice the +1 next to the #79 in the picture of Paul Newman driving at in the Rolex 24 06 02 05


http://www.hershelmcgriff.com/wp-content/u...-car-August.jpg

Herschel McGriff, winner of the very first Carrera Panamerica in 1950, raced in a regional NASCAR series last year aged 81 coming in 13th ! And has plans to race one race this year :-)


John Fitch aged 92 recently got a credit in The Deadliest Crash (Documentary) as a stunt driver !

Drivers don't get old they bulk up tighter and drive even faster !