From the archives - Lorenzo Bandini

Another great photo from my brother's archives-see Bob below.This time of Ferrari F1 driver Lorenzo Bandini at the 1967 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch.Lorenzo finished second to Dan Gurney in the final of this three heat event.In those days there were non championship F1 races as well as the F1 world championship grand prix.But of course in those days Bernie wasn't running F1 and there was consideration for the fans and of course they did not have grand prix in places where people are not interested in F1 as they do today.

Sadly just weeks after this photo was taken Lorenzo had a horrific accident in the Monaco Grand Prix and died from his injuries three days later.His rescue from his burning Ferrari was seriously flawed and really he should not have died.Very sad but it was a different time.

Unlike the earlier Jim Clark photo my brother has not specified what film he used but as it has faded badly so I would guess that it was taken on Ektachrome and not Kodachrome.He used an Olympus Pen S half frame camera.I have tried to correct the fading/discolouration and I have managed to eliminate some of the strong magenta cast on the slide but I cannot improve the Ferrari red.I am always in a quandry as to whether I should try and correct these old slides or leave them as found.For this one I have just done some light restoration.

What a difference to today.There are no non championship F1 races now.Access to the F1 paddock area now is strictly limited to FOB- Friends of Bernie.The cars are not in the paddock they are closeted away in little pit boxes guarded by hordes of minders.The chances of a seventeen year old sticking a camera in front of a Ferrari driver today? Less than the chance of Middle East peace.

I recently read a story amongst the tributes to Jack Brabham that Jack turned up at the F1 Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal in 2010 and wanted to go into the Paddock Club but he was refused entry.Here was an old man who was arguably one of the great F1 drivers of all time, a three times F1 Champion who had built a very succesful F1 team himself with a car he had engineered himself and who had sold that team to Bernie Ecclestone-( Bernie the man who writes $100m cheques to fix inconvenient issues)- and yet who was refused entry to the paddock at a F1 race.If Jack had been an Arab prince or a Russian oligarch he would have been welcomed with open arms.What a total disgrace.What a grubby spectacle F1 has become.