Drivers

The F-1 world is full of "what if" stories. What if Mark Donohue had made it to Europe in the late 60's? I reckon he was good enough to be world champion. Yet, he decided to remain in the USA, driving in Can Am, Trans Am, Formula Indy, Formula 5000, NASCAR, and Sports Cars, when he decided to retire in 1973, after sweeping the Can Am title with a monster Porsche. He had unfinished business in Formula 1, though. His only outing was in the Canadian Grand Prix of 1971, when he drove a Penske entered McLaren to third place in his GP debut, essentially doing better than the works team all year. He became the quintessential Penske driver.

So when Roger Penske decided to build his own F-1 challenger, he was able to coax Donohue out of retirement. Things were not that easy this time out, and F-1 had evolved quite a lot in the four years he had been away. There were more good teams around, younger chargers, and Penske had no experience as a F-1 constructor. Frrustrated with the Penske chassis performance, by midseason Roger decided to buy a March 751, for comparison purposes. The March was very fast that season in the hands of Vittorio Brambilla, and perhaps Penske/Donohue thought they would extract as much speed from the car as the Monza Gorilla. well, they didn't.

In Austria, Donohue had an accident in qualifying, that did not seem quite troublesome. He was conscious when he got out of the car, but unfortunately, Mark Donohue was another F-1 victim of the 70's. Penske soldiered on for another year, with John Watson, who, with a vengeance, won the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix.

One sad story.