Can one person create not just a business… but an industry and if so…how?
On the 19th of October 1958 the inaugural ‘FIA Formula One World Constructors Championship’ (F1) was won by an all British team in a Vanwall.
F1, directly and indirectly, currently employs (source.SMMT) over 40,000 skilled people in the UK, far more than any other country. In 1958 it was probably just a few 100.
Did this 1958 British victory mean so much that nearly 70 years later it can be argued that it was the founder of F1 in GB as we now know it. Can one person really be singled out as the lead creator of such an important industry to the GB economy?
I believe so.
Vanwall was created by Tony Vandervell of Vandervell Products. He married the ‘Van’ of his surname with the ‘wall’ of his thin wall bearing manufacturing business. ‘Vanwall’.
Just 9 years on from setting up Vanwall and the many twists and turns his team of three drivers won. They were led by the legendary Stirling Moss with Tony Brooks and Stuart Lewis-Evans in support. In 1958 they won six of the nine races they entered. Moss came second in the Drivers by just one point to Mike Hawthorn in a Ferrari.
That season the Constructors title was won by Vanwall and the first five drivers were all British. In one fell swoop GB went from ‘also-rans’ to winners. For Britain, starved of success at the highest level of motorsport, it was both huge and much needed fillip.
Tony Vandervell’s leadership was the key. Despite many setbacks he doggedly stuck to supporting his redoubtable team of engineers, encouraging non-stop innovations off the track and support for his drivers on it.
The 1958 success was marred by a driver fatality in the last race of the season. That and his own failing health from the pace he’d set himself for most of his nigh 60 years convinced him Vanwall’s race was run and won. Tony Vandervell withdrew factory support from his racing team … but team GB hasn’t looked back since.
There are few British leaders who can claim to have impacted an industry to such a degree. We’re talking here about names such as; Dyson, Roddick, Ecclestone,Coates and a few more. I’d add Tony Vandervell to that list. Next Monday I hope that all in British F1 raise a glass of cheer to his achievements. Others oft get the credit, but Ton y Vandervell was not just an F1 team winner but a real industry pioneer too.
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We all know what a winning mindset means, sometimes it creates more than just a business.
