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[McLaren Fan]

From F1 Live:

Over the last three decades, Julian Jakobi's presence in Formula One circles as a manager and business advisor saw him involved with the careers of some of the sport's most illustrious drivers, including Alain Prost, Michael Schumacher, Jacques Villeneuve, Jacky Stewart, and of course, Ayrton Senna.

Jakobi had a close relationship with Senna, who provided him with many stories to tell. Following the triple World Champion's death during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, Jakobi participated in the set-up and management of the Ayrton Senna Foundation, conducted merchandising activities for drivers and teams, and eventually played a part in the start-up of the BAR operation before diversifying into several other markets.

In an exclusive interview with ESPN-Racing-Live.com, Jakobi shares his thoughts on Senna's character, discusses his balancing act of advising both Senna and Prost during the rivalry years, and recounts how the great Brazilian's approach to racing made him unique.

Jakobi's first meeting with Senna was in Portugal, when they gathered for a late evening dinner in 1985 to talk business.

"It was the Thursday before the Portuguese Grand Prix and we met in this restaurant at nine o'clock at night, which I thought was quite late considering he was driving the next morning. And we were still in the restaurant at half past one in the morning," Jakobi begins.

"I remember then how intense he was, how long-winded he was, but how he wanted to know every detail of every possible scenario that could happen. What was the plan and the strategy going forward. He was a highly intelligent man and I remember specifically then as being… I never met somebody before who would still be sitting in a restaurant at half past one in the morning talking business when he had to be in the car the next morning. But that was the way he was. And he was tremendously concentrated on detail."

Jakobi was also impressed by the way Senna took his physical preparation very seriously, always striving to be in top form to race.

"He raised the bar in terms of fitness for all the drivers," he insists. "He would train during the winter back in Brazil in the heat, the tropical heat in Brazilian summers. He would always run in Portugal in his house or in Monaco at midday. He would never run early in the morning or late in the evening, he would always run in the heat of the day because that was the time of races."

Jakobi is certain that Senna was by far the fittest driver on the grid, at a time where most drivers did not push their exercise routines to such a point: "I don't think they regarded him as a freak, but he was just different from them because he had a different view. He was there to win."

Then came a time when the advisor took on the job of managing both Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. In fact, Senna came under Jakobi's guidance following a good word from Prost.

"They must've had some type of conversation and I got a call from Senna saying could we discuss him being a client based on Alain's recommendations," Jakobi mentions. "So at that time, they obviously got along pretty well."

In 1988, Senna joined reigning World Champion Prost at McLaren Honda, and the beginnings o f a historic and eventually bitter duel were laid.

"They were never the best of friends, but they weren't really enemies until such time as they both realized that there could only be one winner," Jakobi explains. "And the McLaren car with the Honda engine was so superior that they were battling each other for the championship and there could only be one winner. They were both driven to succeed. They both wanted to win and would do anything to do so. So, there was always going to be a fight because neither wanted to be second."

Senna took the title in 1988, but with the rivalry continuing into 1989, it was Prost's turn to re-take the laurels. At the Japanese GP at Suzuka, he turned into the sister McLaren to prevent being overtaken, but Senna not only recovered from the collision but went on to win the race – only to be disqualified for cutting a chicane as he returned to the track after the incident. The title went to Prost and Senna was infuriated.

Jakobi was caught between both drivers: "I had phone calls at some unearthly hour of the morning from both of them actually because there were issues about what to do with the FIA and the team and, you know... They were both upset for different reasons. But it was inevitable."

At that point the hostility between the World Champions was blatantly obvious, yet Jakobi maintains that it seemed worse than it was.

"I don't think the animosity was quite as great as the people made out," he says. "They were both very professional. I always told them that I would never discuss their affairs with the other and vice versa. So it was… they came to me for advice and they relied on it.
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In addition, Jakobi's role as their advisor also practically guaranteed equal footing from Ron Dennis while they were McLaren teammates: "From a business standpoint, they both did very well at it because there was an advantage and they were both smart enough to realize that Ron Dennis couldn't play one against the other if I was managing them both. So they knew that they got the best deal from Ron. Because he couldn't mess around with the contracts. So I think they were smart enough to realize that, and I made sure that I am strictly at arm's length. I didn't get involved in the fight or the technical discussions or anything else within the team."

The following year Prost had moved to Ferrari but the rivalry remained and again the Japanese Grand Prix would be the scene of controversy during its 1990 edition. Senna was outraged that his pole position was situated on the dirty side of the track, and his attempts to have the grid corrected accordingly were refused. At the first corner, Senna refused to let Prost take the advantage and they collided again – this time with Senna taking the crown.

"I don't think anybody expected that to happen on the first corner. But, I mean, I do know there was a debate which was quite so heated on Saturday about the fact that Senna was in pole, but was on the wrong side of the grid and, therefore, felt that Alain had an advantage, which he shouldn't have had because Ayrton had beaten him to pole. And he tried to get the FIA to change the grid setup," Jakobi relates.

"I think he was pretty vexed by that anyway. I think he was more vexed by that than he was by anything else and was determined that, you know, if he couldn't get away cleanly into the lead, that Alain shouldn't lead. I guess that's what happened. It was more of an accident than the previous year, which was a coming together. This was a bit more serious."

Senna believed in equal opportunities in all aspects of Formula One, be it on track or within a team.

"The only thing he ever worried about was making sure that he had the best equipment. He was always looking to see where he should go if he couldn't compete on an equal footing. When he fancied his chances with anybody and in an equal situation. And in fairness, I mean he always insisted in all the contract negotiations that we did together that he had equal status with the other driver," Jakobi says.

"Once you got into a top team like McLaren or Williams he always felt that he should have only equal status," he continues. "And in fact the wording that went into contracts was the wording that he worked and I worked out at the time which was that he would not have less than equal status to the other driver at all times. Not that he would have more than equal, but not less than. He was happy with that. Because he fancied his chances with anybody on an equal basis, but he was really, really determined to make sure that he had equal status in terms of the number of tests he did. With the technical side, the engineers, and everything. And on that basis he felt he could win."

In 1991 the raging competitiveness between Senna and Prost toned down a bit as the Ferrari lost its edge and Senna claimed his third world title with McLaren. But the Brazilian felt that his team was taking a downturn and therefore did everything he could to work out a switch to the Renault-powered Wiliams team - even offering to drive for free.

"We were in Spa at the Belgian Grand Prix and Ayrton had two contracts on Sunday morning in his motorhome, ready to sign: one with McLaren to stay for the '92 season and one to go to Williams to replace Mansell," Jakobi details. "And he was determined and knew he should have gone to Williams, but he had a phone call overnight from the President of Honda persuading him to stay and basically twisting his arm not to leave and he succumbed to that, and he stayed which in my opinion was the only mistake he ever made. Because he would have been a Williams driver in '92, he would have won the championship in '92, but he picked the wrong horse."

"The contract, the financial terms were exactly the same, A or B; and he said, 'I should have gone to Williams. My mistake.' And he was persuaded by Honda to stay, and then Honda pulled out at the end of '92. And of course he was left, he couldn't get into Williams in '93 because Prost was there. So, he was stuck with McLaren and thought about taking a year off, and then decided to come back and drive on a race-by-race basis, and then ended up with Williams in '94."

"But if you think about it had he gone there in '92, he would have gone there and won more championships."

Daniel BASTIEN
© CAPSIS International

[McLaren Fan]

From F1 Live:

In an exclusive interview with ESPN Racing-Live.com, Ayrton Senna's manager and business advisor Julian Jakobi shares his memories of the great Brazilian, who died as a triple World Champion 15 years ago.

During the first part of the discussion Jakobi spoke of the intense rivalry which came to exist at McLaren between Senna and fellow champion Alain Prost, whom he also represented. Prost moved to Ferrari in 1990 while Senna continued four more seasons with McLaren before signing a deal with the Williams team, which by that time had the best car on the grid.

Senna had high hopes as the 1994 championship began, but failed to score points on the first two rounds. Then came the fateful San Marino Grand Prix week-end at Imola for the third race of the season, where Senna had decided that his championship bid was finally about to start.

On Friday, Rubens Barrichello suffered a serious accident which sent him to hospital; on Saturday Roland Ratzenberger died in a crash during qualifying. Shaken, the drivers met to discuss safety matters on Sunday morning, with Senna promising an active role; and then they prepared to race.

"I know that he was very upset by what happened," Jakobi says. "He went to see Frank (Williams) after dinner on Saturday night in Frank's room and Frank asked him 'Are you sure you want to race?' If he was not feeling comfortable..."

"And he came up to my room and on his way back from Frank's room, and he spoke to Frank and said everything is fine. That was it. That was the last I saw him on Saturday night. And I didn't really notice anything particularly odd."

The San Marino Grand Prix was re-started following an accident at launch, and Senna rapidly set good laps. Coming into the Tamburello corner, his car left the track and crashed into the wall at over 200kph. He sustained at least three major head injuries.

"I remember the accident because I was in the motorhome," Jakobi recalls. "And you never quite think, you know, you never think it's going to happen to a driver and it's going to be fatal. But it obviously looked pretty serious. And, you know, he was airlifted to the hospital from the track. I mean nobody pronounced him dead at the scene because they don't to avoid all sorts of slaughter charges and everything else. I mean that's kind of like a convention in Formula 1 that if there is a fatal accident, it seems that you aren't pronounced dead until you get to the hospital, when you're away from the track. I can't prove that, but I mean, nobody said that he was dead at the track and he was airlifted to the hospital."

"I went by car with a Brazilian journalist who knew the way because he had been there on Friday when Barrichello was shifted off there. So, we ended up at the hospital and saw the surgeon who said he was on a life support machine, which was the first we knew that it was fatal."

The news came as a shock around the globe as Formula One tragically and suddenly lost one of its greatest. The terrible Imola week-end of 1994 contrasted with the relatively few major accidents that had occurred in F1 over the previous decade.

However, racing is a dangerous sport and will always be so.

"All drivers know the risks," Jakobi acknowledges. "It's a dangerous passion, actually. Yeah, because they're all passionate about racing. They do it because they all love racing. They're also very good at it, but they never think it's going to happen to them. Because if you do think it's going to happen to you, it would take out the edge off of your, you know, the margin. The difference between drivers is so small, it's just who's got that little bit extra. And if you have any doubt, you wouldn't have that extra."

Having been in such close and friendly contact with Ayrton Senna over the years, Julian Jakobi felt great sadness at the champion's death.

"For me, personally, it was… was a huge loss for me because he was not only a client, he was also a good friend and he was a person I like enormously. I liked him for his intelligence and his sense of humor, which I know Gerhard's spoken to you about. And I just thought he was just a great… he was one of the most intelligent people I've met in business in the last 30 years. And as a human being, he was a wonderful human being. Very kind, very caring person."

Senna was an intense racer who never gave an inch but his heart was in the right place, Jakobi remembers.

"Ruthless to pursue his own goals, but also very caring on the other side. He gave huge amounts to charity, but people never knew about it," he shares. "And I remember him ringing me up one night, very late at night…because he had seen some television documentary about the war in, I don't know if it was in Bosnia or Serbia, one of the Balkans at the time; and the children who had been maimed by the bombings and everything else. So he just rang me up and he said, 'I've taken down this number. I want you to transfer some money, but make sure it's anonymous. Just give the money.' And he did that several times."

"Then I found out, sort of quite a few years later from his cousin, that he would do the same with him from Brazil, but he never told me. And he never told his cousin that he'd done it in Europe. So he gave huge amounts to charity, but never wanted it to be public. It was all anonymous."

Senna's funeral brought together a whole nation in mourning its national pride.
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Jakobi flew to Brazil to attend and was awed by what he saw: "Well, I mean I never experienced anything like it. You know, two million people or whatever it was on the streets. It was phenomenal."

"There was a sort of a loss, but there was also a silence, you know. It was just extraordinary to see so many people silent," he continues. "I think he was the embodiment of a nation. The spirit of a nation because Brazil was at the time, you've got to go back what… 15 years. He was the single greatest sportsman Brazil had ever had other then Pelé. And yet what he represented was effectively trying to make Brazil compete with the industrialized nations on equal footing."

"So, for Brazil at the time… going back 15 years, he was the spirit of Brazil because he was Brazil taking on the rest of the world at their own game. And if you look now, how Brazil's become a manufacturer of cars and manufacturer of planes, you know Embrea planes, you see all over the place. Well, they weren't there 15 years ago. It was fledgling industries being built up. So what he was… he was what… he was Brazil, really, at the time. To the outside world, once Pelé retired from soccer, Senna was Brazil."

When asked why Senna's legacy still seems so strong today, Jakobi puts it down to talent of course, but adds another dimension: the human factor.

"Whether it was because he was Latin, whether it was because he was single or he was good-looking, I don't know what it was. But he had something that others didn't have."

And Jakobi adds another important part to the Senna mix – life experience.

"You mustn't forget also that he was in his 30's when he died and you know today's champions are getting younger and younger," he points out. "Whether it's in swimming or in gymnastics or motor racing. I don't believe that an athlete or sportsman at 21 can have the same charisma of someone who is 31. Because they've lived ten more years. And he lived life. So he had something to say for himself."

"I think his legacy was probably the most competitive, most naturally talented driver than probably anyone since Jim Clark," Jakobi adds.

Senna's former advisor mentions that there is one part of the Brazilian's peculiar character which he misses more than anything else: "Late night phone calls."

"We always used to say we had summertime, wintertime, and Senna time. it was always late. He never got up until midday. You could never call him before lunch time. He'd get up, if he wasn't racing or testing, he'd get up around midday, half past 12. Go for a run and then have a brunch at two. He wouldn't eat until ten at night. Go to bed at two. He had his own metabolism. It was extraordinary. It was useless first thing in the morning."

"And he would call you at one o'clock in the morning because he had no idea," Jakobi continues. "And he would say, 'I've just been speaking to my father in Brazil,' because it was nine o'clock in the evening there, one o'clock in Europe. 'And we've been discussing this. What do you think of this?' And, you know, you'd be kind of half asleep and everything else and he expected you to awake because he couldn't work out that nobody would be on the same time as he was. It was always known as Senna time."

What would have happened if Ayrton Senna had continued racing, winning additional championships, and then retired from Formula One?

"He wouldn't be owning a team, that's for sure," Jakobi states. "I think he would have retired. He wanted to retire. He didn't want to go into politics because he felt that politics was too corrupt and he could do more with the money he made privately, which is really what his sister has done with the foundation."

Behind the competitiveness and rivalry that marked his career, there was respect for Senna's accomplishments, with many drivers wishing to reach his level of instinct.

"I think he was regarded in awe by them because his talent was always... he was always one of the gifted drivers that there has ever been. A natural talent. And he had a level of intensity about him of wanting to be the World Champion. He was in this business to win," Jakobi affirms.

"I think that he got a tremendous satisfaction from winning when he was in this, in Formula 1 to win. He felt it was his destiny. He felt, you know, he felt he had the ability."

Daniel BASTIEN
© CAPSIS International

[bud]

[7UpJordan]

Those are excellent reads.

[Blue Haze]

Thanks for the posts very interesting.