Dear Nigel,
I've read Bernie Ecclestone quoted as saying that had Carlos Pace not died in an aeroplane accident in 1977, he "wouldn't have needed Niki Lauda" in the Brabham team. High praise indeed! Pace seems to be quite an overlooked figure now, but how good do you think he really was, and how great might he have become? And how should his surname be pronounced: "Pach-ay", "Pass-ay", "Pass" or some other way?
Martin Smith, Honiton, UK
Dear Martin,
Bernie was extremely fond of Carlos Pace - pronounced 'Parch-ay', by the way - which perhaps explains in part his remark that, had Pace lived, he wouldn't have needed Niki Lauda. Frankly, I think that's a touch fanciful: for all Carlos's many attributes, I would never have said he was the equal of Niki.
Pace was a delightful fellow, and a racing driver of considerable natural talent and courage - as evidenced by his performance in qualifying at the 'Ring in 1975, when he qualified his Brabham on the front row, less than a second and a half from Lauda's Ferrari. He won at Interlagos that same year, by six seconds, from Fittipaldi's Lotus.
Like Emerson, he was from Sao Paulo, and the celebrations were frantic. Sadly, Carlos was never to win another race, but it always pleased me that he had his day of days in front of his home crowd. Today, of course, the track at Interlagos is called the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace.
While Carlos was an extremely good F1 driver, with loads of flair, I think it fair to suggest he was less dedicated to racing than many of his contemporaries - his physical fitness, for example, frequently left something to be desired, and Grand Prix cars were much more 'physical' to drive in those days: there was no power steering, for example, and changing gear was still achieved by means of a clutch and a gear lever.
Partnered with Carlos Reutemann at Brabham in 1975 and '76, Pace was very often the quicker of the two, particularly during qualifying in the Alfa-powered cars in '76, but in part that stemmed from his willingness to drive the team's 'lightweight' qualifying car, which Reutemann wouldn't touch. Fundamentally, though, you'd have to say Reutemann was the better driver - indeed, when 'Lole' was really on it, he was as quick as anyone I have ever seen.
For 1977, Pace was joined in the Brabham-Alfa team (following Reutemann's departure to Ferrari) by Watson, but the partnership was still very much in its infancy when Carlos lost his life in a light aircraft accident in March. Although John didn't win a race that year, thanks primarily to the Brabham-Alfa's lousy reliability, he led a great many laps, and I'm sure the Pace-Watson partnership would have been a very strong one.
