US F1 to recall Dan Gurney’s Eagle Westlake Livery
Bob Varsha of SPEED TV fame, fueled the Team US F1 rumor mill this last week by making the claim that next year’s livery might very well play off the same blue and white livery as Dan Gurney’s Eagle Westlake T1G that won the 1967 Belgium Grand Prix. Gurney’s win at Spa is the only victory for an American in an American Grand Prix car in the modern era, a fact not lost on Ken Anderson and Peter Windsor.
Skip to 9:25 below to hear Bob’s comments from the Singapore Grand Prix round table on SPEED.
photo credit ©Curtis Johnson
Author: Jeff
4 Responses to “US F1 to recall Dan Gurney’s Eagle Westlake Livery”
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Not to take sides here, but Varsha is way off base. Nelson Piquet senior did tell Charlie Whiting about the crash being intentional at the 2008 Brazilian GP, and Whiting confirmed that he had heard the rumour but the FIA basically had its hands tied unless someone who was directly involved with the conspiracy came forward. Piquet admitted he held it in for fear of damaging his son's career, but when Renault let him go he pressured Nelson Jr. to go to the FIA with the facts. The theory of "Witness X" being Alonso is interesting, but saying it doesn't ring true is utter bollocks to be quite honest.
I agree. However, one of the biggest disappointments in this whole affair has been the behavior of the Piquet's – both Junior AND Senior.
Junior's career was in shambles when he followed the orders to purposely crash. I'm sorry, but somewhere along the way "Senior" should have instilled in his son some sense of sportsmanship; let alone respect for the danger he placed himself and others in for causing a shunt.
Senior should have been a better counselor for his son as soon after it occurred. In short, there's enough blame (and shame) to go around.
Nelson Piquet Sr. gave a lengthy interview to a sunday evening news programme in Brazil where he stated he only knew of the whole arrangement 4 days later, because he hadn't gone to Singapore and Nelson Jr. couldn't reach him because of the time difference. I'm not trying to defend his actions, but if you look at Piquet Jr's results last year you can see a marked improvement from the French GP onward, and he arrived in Singapore only a handful of points behind his world champion teammate. Even then, Briatore had his lawyers pressuring him to sign an option with the team that would prevent him from talking to any other teams without guarantee that his contract would be renewed, and (somewhat understandably) all the team's attention went to Alonso. This year he only had the same car as Alonso for one race, which turned out to be his last, yet the pressure was even higher because he had a performance clause in his contract. If anyone's behaviour is to be classified as shameful it's Briatore's – not only is he still claiming innocence despite massive evidence (and independent witnesses within the team, not linked to Piquet) of his guilt, he had to make up stories about Piquet's personal life and file lawsuits that he knew would be thrown right out of the courtroom. That doesn't completely justify what Piquet did, but it definitely brings some light into the situation within the team.
Very nice idea, that the USF1-Team want to use the same colours as Dan Gurneys Anglo American Racers in 1967! But Dan Gurneys cars were called Eagle-Weslake and not Westlake!! Without “t”!!